I’m happy to announce to you all that a short story of mine is appearing in an upcoming Christmas anthology by Mystic Publishers, Inc. this year!
The story is called “The Red House,” and has its origins in my high school years of writing. Like pretty much all of my writing attempts from back then, I’d thought it lost, until one day when I discovered a printed copy of it along with some other pieces (including what would become “Crossing the Estuary” in the Fae Corps anthology Fae Dreams).
For this month, here’s a double feature! Many thanks to Sally Cronin for promoting my published work, and to Robbie Cheadle for allowing me to discuss how poetry has impacted my life. Check out both!
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!
When a writer’s work is published, it not only goes out into the spotlight, but so does the writer. People who read books are pretty much guaranteed to be interested in learning more about the people who wrote the words, to find out more about the mind behind the stories they become devoted fans of. But the spotlight can be a double-edged sword.
Writers need to use public appearances and speaking in order to help spread the word about their work and build a network with other writers. It’s part of the marketing process. The nice thing about these events and conferences is that a writer can plan ahead to prepare for these events.
On the other hand, sometimes the spotlight can bring about negative feelings. The simple fact is not all people crave or seek the spotlight, especially introverted people like me. It’s especially negative when one hasn’t had the time to prepare, and it feels that everyone’s converging on them. That’s why I haven’t liked it when people unexpectedly start singing on my birthday.
There have certainly been a number of famous writers who haven’t craved the spotlight, such as Harper Lee and Emily Brontë. With the latter, it was her sister Charlotte who got herself, Emily, and Anne on their publishing ventures; had Emily been left to herself, she may not have published anything in her lifetime. J. D. Salinger went so far as to become a recluse and gradually cease publishing (though in his case, it may have also been due to unresolved PTSD from his service in World War II as well as fans of his magnum opus).
And, of course, the spotlight can have negative effects in another way. If people start scrutinizing your life, it can lead to mental trauma and even scandal. Throughout the news there have been numerous headlines about rough patches and downward spirals that many celebrities have gotten into, with gossip about what they are doing, especially in their personal lives. I definitely don’t want that.
It’s good to get away from the spotlight and the Internet sometimes. That’s why I’m taking my efforts to balance scales further by cutting back more on the number of logins per social media site per day, with reassessments of my social media activity.
When publishing, especially these days, it’s no longer possible to avoid the spotlight, but privacy is still something worth guarding. Therefore, it’s a good idea to prepare for public events such as reading, and it may be possible to satisfy the public’s curiosity without giving away too much, regulating what can be shared and what isn’t. They don’t need to know everything. One’s privacy is one’s own and no others.
To my fellow Americans, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Be thankful for home, family, and privacy.
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.
Many thanks to Fae Corps for publishing a second edition of Mystical Greenwood! For those who didn’t see last month’s post, the original publisher had to shut down as a result of COVID. Release date is set for August 26th! They did an excellent job on the new cover art!
The Kindle version is available for preorder!
So are the Nook and other eBook editions via Books2Read!
And you can mark the Kindle edition to-read on Goodreads (or switch over if you’d intended to read the original Kindle and hadn’t bought it)!
Print copies, unfortunately, will have to wait until the release date.
I know there are many of you will be asking when Book II will be available. I’m afraid I still don’t have a definitive answer, as I’ve had a lot going on in my life, and I haven’t been able to get those creative juices going. But I am not giving up. I will let you know when I have updates on it. Believe me, I want to get it done.
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!
Once again, it’s that time of year to reflect on the past and look toward the future. For me, I still feel like I’m in a state of limbo. I’ve talked about moving on to the next step, and posted about resolutions and updates, but I’m still not at the regular writing output that I want. I didn’t have the creative output that some other writers I know had had when everything was shut down. True, as I’ve said before, I spent more time online, and that didn’t do me good. Ever since Mystical Greenwood came out, everyone’s been asking when the sequel is coming out. Believe me when I say I don’t like having to keep telling them I don’t know.
So, I do have some goals/dreams for where to go next in my writing. The main objective, of course, is to be more consistent when it comes to writing. I’ve heard many writers talk about how they have a daily writing routine. Well, a few months after I first sought to balance the scales, I set about reducing the number of daily logins per social site, especially with the Big Five, from three to two, of which I’ve been successful and happy to do. So far, I haven’t been able to set about a daily routine as I’d like (aiming for the morning), but I know I must persevere. I’m going to try and see if I can do writing first thing when I turn on the computer in the morning.
Another thing I’m going to have to remind myself again is that first drafts/early words don’t have to be perfect. They just need to be done. After all, Mystical Greenwood wasn’t as it was when its first draft was completed. It’ll take time to get into the habit of working on writing every day, but I need to remember to believe in myself and my writing.
I also need to be more mindful of when on my sites of what I’m doing. As a result of the situation that had occurred with last month’s post, I duplicated it and deleted the original, so now in my stats I’ve got an “(unknown or deleted)”. A little annoying in its way, but still, I guess it’ll be a reminder that I need to be careful.
Another thing I would like to do in future is go on a writer’s retreat, once the COVID threat diminishes. It’d be nice to go somewhere unfamiliar and spend time on writing. I’ll need to save money and eventually set aside time for that. Like so many things when it comes to the world of writers, sometimes opportunities present themselves they’re not expected or being searched for.
And it would be nice to come up with a new writing presentation. I’ve done my importance of names one 3–4 times now, and I even expanded it to include pen names—for writers and for real people in memoir. It is time for something different.
Andrew McDowell 