Many thanks to Craig and Roland of The Hidden Gems Author Podcast for featuring me in their 89th episode! I discuss with them the challenges I’ve had to face as an author due to my Asperger syndrome.
You can also listen to the episode on Podbean! If you’re an author with a writing-related subject you want to discuss, be sure to check them out!
And many thanks also to Sally Cronin for featuring an excerpt from Mystical Greenwood on her blog! Maybe that’ll entice you buy it! If you’re an author looking for more promotional opportunities, be sure to check out Sally’s site!
Plus, I have more great news! A few weeks ago, after so much time, I finally completed a draft for the next book in the One with Nature series! Not only that, but Fae Corps is also aiming to publish it next August!
If you’re planning to attend the Maryland Writers’ Conference, I hope to see you there. I am also giving a presentation on manuscript and book formatting later this month. You can attend in person or via Zoom. You can promote it on Facebook too!
Greetings, everyone. This month I’ve got some recent appearances as well as some upcoming ones to share.
First, here’s a sermon I gave at Nichols-Bethel United Methodist Church in which I discuss my journey, personally and in writing, with social media, as I have mentioned gradually in past posts, as well as with physical clutter, with references to The Social Dilemma and The Minimalists. Even if you aren’t Christian or religious, I hope you’ll be inspired to consider placing more value on the people in your lives than in your physical possessions and digital presence. If you have trouble with the volume, there is closed captioning.
Be sure to check out Minimalism, and, if you have Netflix, The Social Dilemma and Less Is Now.
I am scheduled to appear on a new episode of the Hidden Gems Author Podcast. Stay tuned. I will be sure to share a link.
Also, I will also be giving a presentation at the Annapolis chapter of the Maryland Writers’ Association next month on manuscript formatting. You can promote it on Facebook too. You can attend either in person or via Zoom. Hope to see you there!
Even before I had published my first novel, I was told by at least one friend at a Maryland Writers’ Association meeting that I should have a website first. Some followers of my Facebook page, which came first, wondered whether I had one. Now it’s approaching eight years of being up on the web. So how did I build it? If you are an aspiring writer looking to build your online presence, perhaps you’re wondering where to start? Well, I’m no architect, but I’ll help you lay a few solid foundations.
Here are some steps you can follow:
Look at what other writers have done.
See what you can do differently.
Do what’s best for you and don’t be afraid to experiment.
Be open to change.
It’s a good idea to do research. See what other writers have done. If you know any writers, ask them about their experiences, especially with their platforms. A few I knew through my connections had used WordPress and said good things about it, and at the time, it felt like a good platform to use. But there are others out there. So I looked at other sites to get a feel of what my own could include.
I should mention also that sometimes blog and website are used interchangeably, though there is a difference (like with memoir vs. autobiography). Websites, when you first visit them, place more emphasis on the pages, while a blog is all about the posts that come. That’s not to say a website can’t have a blog incorporated in it, but how you wish to market and share information helps you classify what your site/blog is.
Even though you should research other writers, don’t copy what they do exactly. Every writer’s site needs to be their own, in terms of content, display, and layout. I knew from the start that I had my own ideas even with what I had observed, and so I tried to merge them together. And it gradually evolved over time. I set myself a blog post a month because it worked and still works for me. I learned new things, and when WordPress made changes, such as moving from classic to block editor, I learned to evolve with them.
Websites and blogs are always changing (sort of like the Winchester Mystery House). What works one day may not work later on. That is not to say there should be some consistently and familiarity so people can return knowing what to expect. But mine has gone through several changes, including a change of domain name as well as two facelifts—I changed the theme twice, first after I wanted a theme that wasn’t like one site I’d observed in my research, and second (back in June) after learning the previous one had been retired and others that I follow had bugs with classic themes as opposed to hybrid ones. I even changed my color scheme so to ensure the site was readable. And in experimenting with different widgets, I chose to discontinue those labeled as “legacy” widgets when I discovered they sometimes disappeared in private browser mode or on a different browser.
Two final thoughts on building a website:
Aim for clarity and readability so visitors can easily understand what they find and navigate through it. This can be done with menu arrangement and color schemes.
Get feedback. You don’t always have to accept others’ thoughts on improving your site, but it never hurts to listen if they genuinely want to help improve it. That’s why I created my Happy Customers page.
Writing Update: My essay “Rivers Flowing with History” is featured in the new issue of the MWA‘s Pen in Hand. Don’t forget to sign up for their annual conference!
Last week, on Independence Day, I appeared on the podcast The Chapter Goddess Chat, hosted by author and editor Madilynn Dale. If you didn’t get to watch it, here it is:
You can also listen to it on Spotify and read an interview I did with Madilynn on her blog. I had a wonderful time, and if you are a writer looking for a podcast to appear on, I highly recommend you check out this one!
And yes, like I said on the podcast, I’m no longer on Twitter and Tumblr, and I’ve chosen not to feature links to my LinkedIn profile on this site anymore.
Change happens all the time. As someone who suffers from Asperger syndrome, I can tell you that change to routines and patterns, stepping outside of my comfort zone, has never been easy. Change, especially when it occurs outside of my control, sends my mind spiraling, and I feel trepidation.
But change can lead to benefits. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been making efforts to cut back on social media time, but I’m also seeking to change my online habits, too. During the COVID shutdown I spent more time online, especially Twitter. I did get the word out about my work more and made some new connections, but now the hashtags I followed haven’t helped with book sales. The same’s been happening with tweets asking for book recommendations. These habits and the time spent on them and other sites feel more like a hindrance. To counter them, I’ve tried walking more, and for that, I’m glad.
With most sites, I’ve gotten down to generally 1-2 logins per day. Nevertheless, that is also something that could change in the future. Sometimes, I’ve found myself going up again if I need to do something specific, like website maintenance. I’ve felt if I can limit myself with those moments, I’m fine.
Nevertheless, the temptation is still there, and it can eat time. Plus, I’m aware these efforts could turn into new patterns that could become just as constrictive and worrisome. I need to curb the scrolling, searching, and that addictive, time-eating cycle that can result, but simultaneously, I also shouldn’t try to control everything, because anxiety always comes from not being perfect. It’s been said that with reviews, quantity over quality. With online time and content, it’s the opposite. Now I need to put it into practice.
Likewise, I’ve tried getting back into the writing routine I’ve mentioned before. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, and other times I do not get the word count I’d like, but I need to remind myself that progress is progress, no matter how small. I need to see the fun in writing again, as author Nour Zikra put it. This year, I hope to be more positive about my writing, my online/social media time, my habits, and, most of all, myself.
I realized through prayer that I need to think more positively. Then, at the beginning of Advent, when I was feeling low and anxious again, after an earnest prayer to God, I opened my copy of the Bible without any specific section in mind. It opened to Psalm 77, and as I read it, I knew my prayer had been answered. Even if you’re not Christian or religious, I hope you too will remember all the good that’s been in your life when distressed. If I need to make changes to meet new circumstances, I will have to do so.
P.S. Enjoy these videos of my readings from last year’s open mics!
It’s almost here! Yes, I’m talking about the new edition of Mystical Greenwood from Fae Corps! Don’t forget! There is a launch party on August 26th on Facebook in the Fae Corps Inc Party Room group.
You can still pre-order eBooks! The paperback through Barnes & Noble can be pre-ordered now, too! It seems that B&N and Amazon issue separate ISBNs now (paperback via Amazon should be ready around the release day).
It’s hard to believe that it’s happening. This book has been on quite a journey, and with this new edition I took the opportunity to make many grammatical corrections.
In fact, I learned this month that in a contest I submitted the original edition to in Top Shelf Magazine, which I’d forgotten about, the book was an honorable mention. It was a nice little surprise, and it can only make me wonder what’s in store for the new edition!
Over the past several weeks, I’ve been trying to reestablish a morning writing routine, as I’d mentioned previously. I have found that two things have contributed to making it successful:
Sitting at a table as opposed to on the couch. When it comes to writing rather than editing, posture matters, it seems.
Not logging onto the internet until after I’m done.
Basically, the writing time (as of now) lasts as long as my two morning cups of coffee with Coffee Mate French Vanilla cream, so I guess I now have a writing beverage. But more than anything else, the discipline of doing it, even when barely a few words barely make it out (which has happened a few times), is what is making it work. Here’s hoping it continues and gets more productive. Maybe it’ll progress to a weekly word count, like I had to do in a novella class taught by Professor Jerry Gabriel back at St. Mary’s College. We’ll see.
For those who haven’t seen last month’s post, my fantasy novel Mystical Greenwood is having a new edition coming out next month courtesy of Fae Corps, with whom I have been in four anthologies (you can find these on my poetry and short stories pages).
Looking back on when it was first published and the road towards getting the new one ready, some of it was familiar territory, while in other cases, things have changed when it comes to technology, which has been more helpful in proofreading and correcting grammatical errors, which is definitely not an opportunity to pass up when releasing a new edition.
But through all of it, I am reminded perhaps more so than before that I need to be patient (one of those four P’s of getting published) and trust that everything will be okay.
I’m very grateful to Fae Corps for taking my book on, and they have done a fantastic job with promotional images:
And don’t forget that you can preorder eBook editions! Print copies will be available on or around the release date.
And there is going to be a launch party on August 26th on Facebook in the Fae Corps Inc Party Room group. I hope to see you there!
In the meantime, I hope to continue to try to find a better balance between writing and marketing, which I’ve started on by trying to cut back on social media promotion that I got heavily into during the COVID pandemic and focus a little more on quality rather than quantity.
I also want to try to reestablish a writing routine again, perhaps at a different time of day so that I can make headway on the sequel. Fingers crossed.
P.S. I’ll be giving my Importance of Names presentation once more, at the Cumberland Chapter of the Maryland Writers’ Association on the 20th at 7:00 PM EST via Zoom. If you haven’t seen it yet and still want to, register online! It’s on Facebook, too! It will also be a hybrid meeting for those who want to be at the chapter in person (my Events page has the address). Though I will be on Zoom, I hope to see you all there either way!
The Maryland Writers’ Association hosts a writers’ conference every year, except, of course, last year’s conference was cancelled due to the COVID shutdown. Normally held in March, they were able to host this one this past weekend. The main takeaway for me was being able to see a number of friends I hadn’t seen in so long, including authors A. L. Kaplan, Meg Eden, and Michele Chynoweth, and be in a familiar setting in person again, not unlike how it was when my critique group started to meet in person again a few months ago in our familiar haunt (no pun intended).
There were a number of interesting presentations from authors, including Jane Friedman, Mary Tilghman, Andrea Johnson, Edward McSweegan, Susan Moger, and Harrison Demchick, and I learned more about Balticon. I met a number of new people, and I was able to sell a few books! But there were some hard lessons I had to re-learn. When it comes to attending events such as this, pre-planning is vital. This was something I didn’t fully take into account that morning. I didn’t manage my time and drive well, and I made it there just in time to hear the first talk. What’s more, even though I signed up for both days, I didn’t realize until too late (shortly before the conference) that I had doubled-booked Sunday and couldn’t attend the second day. Still, I had a good time for the day I was there.
We’ll see what happens next year. I know now to remember to plan better in a number of ways. I guess I just had to get back into the rhythm of things. Maybe next time, if I can think of a new writing-related presentation, I can give it then. It is time to think up some new topics for presentation.
Speaking of presentations, I’ll discussing the importance of names for the third time next month on the 13th at 2pm Eastern Time. I hope to see you there! See my events page for the registration link.
Andrew McDowell 