What do ghosts read? An Open Book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

Stolen from an X (Twitter) post: Which genre do you think ghosts prefer: mystery, thriller, horror, fairytale, or magical realism? 
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What a fun question! 

The answer might depend on your beliefs/philosophy about ghosts themselves and what exactly they are. After all, fiction gives us quite a range of ghosts. 

• Some of them are basically the same person they were they were alive, just transparent and unchanging now. In some stories, they don't even know they are dead. 
• Some of them are more like an echo of who they once were, trapped in a small moment, reliving it over and over. I'm not sure they can even interact with the world. 
• Some of them are malevolent--poltergeists, vengeful spirits, and the like. 

I'm thinking that the only types of ghosts who read are that first type: the ones that are still who they always were, just dead now. And for those guys, I bet they read whatever they liked when they were alive. Though it is fun to imagine that, once freed from the limits of the mortal coil, like a need for sleep or to earn money, a ghost could just wander the library reading anything and everything. 

Heck! Maybe this is my chance to actually read everything in my TBR!

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Ghost Story Time! An IWSG bloghop post

    

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the October 2 posting of the IWSG are Nancy Gideon, Jennifer Lane, Jacqui Murray, and Natalie Aguirre!

October 2 question - Ghost stories fit right in during this month. What's your favorite classic ghostly tale? Tell us about it and why it sends chills up your spine.

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I adore ghost stories. I could probably list a top 10 and still have dozens of favorites left to list. But the one that lives in my heart is Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp. 

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I first read this one when I was pretty young, an older child or younger teenager, so that's part of it--books that you read at that age imprint on your soul differently because you don't have wider experience and so many things get to the first one of their kind in your life. 

I've read it many times since, and it still delights me every time. 

It's got everything: an atmospheric old house, mysterious family history, an evil child, and even romance. Honestly, this book explains a lot about me. To this day, I am suspicious of gazing balls in gardens. This is probably why one of my upcoming projects is a Gothic romance, too. 

How about you? Do you love to read spooky stories? Tell me about them and add to my spooky season TBR! 

Seeing my Stories Through, an Open Book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

How did you decide that you finally wanted to write your stories?
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I've always written--poetry and journals as a child; poetry, journals, essays, and stories as a young woman. But I was really haphazard about finishing things and seeking publication. I always let something else take precedence. I poured my creative energy into teaching, raising my kids, and building a life. And I wondered why I was feeling burnt out. 

For me, the moment of decision came when I was 42. Anyone who has read Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy knows that 42 is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, so I took that as my cue from the universe to get off my duff and take my writing life seriously. Stop playing at writing and do it for real. 

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"Doing it for real" for me meant committing to a daily writing habit and forcing myself to stay focused on a single project and bring to completion before allowing myself to chase the shiny new idea that flitted across my brain when the going got tough. It takes discipline to move from playing at writing to bringing your vision into a form where it can be shared with others. Discipline and bravery. 

I say it takes bravery because sharing your creative endeavors with the world is a highly vulnerable act. You'll meet with a mixture of responses. You may find love and support, you may find vitriol, or you may find indifference. Most of us find a little of all three.

So, that was what did it for me: I turned 42 and decided it was now or never. I chose now. 

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Words I Love, an Open Book blog hop post

  

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

What's your favorite word in the English language? Any other language?
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I love words. 

That's probably no surprise given that I'm a writer, but I'm a real word nerd who loves collecting unusual words and am thrilled when I run across a word "in the wild" that I've never seen before. I was that kid who actually liked the etymology assignments. I did a series of blog posts about evocative words back in 2014 for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. 

My first writerly love was poetry, in part because of the words. 

I am, however, bad at choosing favorites. You'll get a different answer from me every time you ask me that question, I'm sure. 

I love collective nouns for animals. There's so much whimsy in them: 

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But here lately, I've been intrigued by old vocabulary. Phrases that have fallen by the wayside over the centuries. I follow several different word-nerd social media accounts just for the delight of exposure to these words.  Things like: 

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And: 

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I also used to teach Spanish, and I learned to love place names like Tegucigalpa and Guadalajara for the way they feel when you speak them aloud. My favorite Spanish word is my favorite because of mouth feel. The meaning is rather mundane: We were speaking. 

Trabajábamos

(click here to hear it pronounced)

So, there are today's answers. Ask again another day and I'll have a new favorite. I'm fickle that way :-)

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The good bits of publicity, an Open Book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

Many of us are frustrated by publicity. It's our least favorite part of writing. But what's your favorite part of publicity?
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Talking about my imaginary friends can be a delight, so I enjoy in-person events more than any other kind of publicity-seeking. Over the years, I have gained a lot of comfort with vending at a table and having one on one conversations with readers, and I really enjoy it when the pace is good (neither overwhelming nor lonely). 

I've got two of these events upcoming: 

Bookmarks Festival and Splatterflix Movie Festival, my next two vending venue

I also enjoy being on panels with other writers at conventions, bookstores, library events, or the like. That's half networking/socializing with other writers and half engaging with readers. It's a great opportunity to get to know other writers and build community AND, especially when the other panelists are generous with their support, a way for us to help one another reach new audiences. Someone might attend because they know one of the other writers, but stick around to hear about my work, too, just because we were paired on the panel. 

I'll be a part of one of these through Horror Writers Associations in November: 

Here lately, I've been enjoying doing panels and interview for channels on YouTube or podcasts, too. It's nice that geography doesn't have to be a limiter for a taste of some of that camaraderie. 

So far as online publicity, I enjoy blogging or writing articles about some aspect of my writing life (like this blog hop, for example!). I get a kick out of choosing pull quotes and making little images to highlight them. 

The Menopausal Superheroes, as drawn by Charles C. Dowd

For me, this doesn't feel as yucky as "buy my book" types of online marketing. It's more about trying to be clever or cute and highlighting what's cool about my story and the people in it. 

I have the best time, when I look at publicity opportunities as time to engage with other artists and the public and let go the pressure to sell a lot of books. When I feel too much pressure to sell well, the interactions get tense and weird and I don't enjoy myself (and probably neither do my potential buyers). 

What about y'all? When you have to promote something, how do you like to go about it? Or when you're receiving the promotion, what's the least annoying/most engaging? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

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Grammar school, an IWSG blog post

    

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.  The awesome co-hosts for the September 4 posting of the IWSG are Beth Camp, Jean Davis, Yvonne Ventresca, and PJ Colando!

September 4 question - Since it's back to school time, let's talk English class. What's a writing rule you learned in school that messed you up as a writer?

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Overall, I've been able to separate lessons meant to apply to academic essay writing from my fiction writing life. I have a tendency to use "good grammar" even in more casual writing, but that's not all bad. 

I do remember being told I couldn't start sentences with conjunctions. And that's something I do all the time now. 

I was also advised to write in full sentences and eschew fragments. Don't really do that either. 

Joking aside, I really don't spend a lot of time angst-ing over grammar. I make up words. I mix up phrases. Perfect correctness isn't necessarily right when the writing is art--fiction, poetry, plays. What matters is taking the reader with you on the journey and using words to elicit the effect you're after. 

Words are fun and stringing them together in unique ways? Even better!

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(BTW, FYI writer friends: I'm scheduling this post ahead of time because I won't be available on IWSG day--I'll still pop by and visit all your blogs as soon as I can! Thanks so much for stopping by mine)

 

What We're Famous For, an open book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

What is your area of the world known for (in your opinion)?
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I live in Hillsborough, North Carolina, United States. Chance are high that, unless you're relatively local, you've never heard of it. It's a nice little town. Roughly 10,000 people including a mixture of "townies" (people who live downtown), housing development/neighborhood folks (like me), and more rural or agrarian settings. 

Hillsborough's main claim to fame is the Revolutionary War/Colonial era in American History. Lots of state politics included meetings or people in Hillsborough, and even some national. There's also a Scottish connection that got Hillsborough mentioned in the famous Outlander book series by Diana Gabaldon and the television adaptation. 

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These days, Hillsborough has a reputation as a great place for writers and artists. We've got a pretty robust literary community for such a small place. There must be something in the water. 

In fact, I joke that you can't throw a stone without hitting a writer in Hillsborough. Some of the ones you might have heard of are: Lee Smith, Jill McCorkle, Allan Gurganus, Michael Malone, Annie Dillard, Hal Crowther, Frances Mayes, and David Payne. 

Of course, there are also less famous working writers around here too, like me! Some of my writing friends from Hillsborough include James Maxey, Adrienne Moore, Jane Buehler, and Barbara Claypole White. (They're all fabulous, by the way, and you should read their books!)

I've lived here seventeen years, so I don't count as local yet (by Southern United States standards, I think it takes three generations before you count as local), but I've come to love my adopted hometown. We have truly lovely parks, a good range of businesses, and lots of social opportunities that stay small enough for an introvert like me to actually enjoy them. 

Let me know if you want to come visit! I'd love to show it off!

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IWSG: The end of an era

   

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.  The awesome co-hosts for the August 7 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Kim Lajevardi, Diedre Knight, C. Lee McKenzie, and Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen!

August 7 question - Do you use AI in your writing and if so how? Do you use it for your posts? Incorporate it into your stories? Use it for research? Audio?

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I'm tired of talking about AI right now. If you want to see what I've already said about it, you can find it here, here, and here. The short version: there are ethical issues to sort out and I'm not interested for the most part right now, but may be open to it at another time. 

So, instead, let me share my big writing news: 

I FINISHED MY SERIES!

The Menopausal Superhero Series has been a ten year journey in the creation of five novels, two novellas, and a collection of shorts (and an omnibus edition!)

The series, where it's stood since 2021

It's been a roller coaster!

• from the contract signing 

• to the end of my first publisher relationship 

• and into my new partnership with Falstaff Books 

• and the rebrand there. 

• There was that time I had a book launch party with no books. 

• And that time I had to do a complete revise and resubmit because I tried to rush and the book wasn't ready. 

• Then there was getting back in after a two-year hiatus while the publishing drama worked itself out. 

• Finally there was writing the series ender, a whole new level of writing challenge, especially for a pantser like me. 

But here I am, ten years later and I've turned in the final book and can expect publication in summer 2025! I can't wait for y'all to see it. I'm feeling good about my ending. 

Pumpkin is proud of me, too.

So, what am I doing now? Celebrating! 

And nerd that I am, I'm celebrating by writing something entirely new, my first foray into romance. Watch this space for more :-)

The Role of Feedback in a Writing Life, an Open Book Blog Hop post

  

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

At which stage of the writing process do you seek feedback and from whom?
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Feedback is a tricky beast. Good feedback can be invaluable. It can help you figure out problems with your work, let you know what is and isn't working and how much of what was in your brain is actually there on the page. 

But feedback can also be useless or actively harmful. I've definitely been in critique situations with toxic people or people who were so conflict adverse that "feedback" was just blowing sunshine. Mutual admiration is lovely when it's sincere, but kind of useless for improving your craft. 

So that's why that second bit ("from whom") matters. 

My own process varies. Sometimes I tunnel away and work on something for a long time before I let anyone know what I'm doing. Sometimes I want to hash out ideas with a sounding board friend before I put fingers to keyboard at all. Sometimes I feel stuck partway through and I want someone to read what I've got and help me figure out why it's not working. 

But no matter where I am in the process and what kind of feedback I want, I have a trusted set of folks I turn to for that. Here they are: 

There's my Sweetman. 

1. My husband. He's great for the "sounding board" bit of things--helping me flesh out a vague idea or troubleshoot the problems with an idea I'm already working on. He's supportive and never tries to take over or fall into "you should" sorts of directions. But I know he really wants me to succeed, and more importantly, to be happy with my creations. 

(sometimes my kids, my mom, and my sister help me with this part, too, but it's mostly him)

Most of "Works in Progress" on a retreat

2. My long-standing critique group. I've been working with a group of fellow writers for about 16 years now. The exact membership of the group has shifted over time, as people moved, retired, or just left the group and new members have come in, but Works in Progress has nourished my work for all these years.

They helped me establish regular writing habits and start finishing things. They've helped me figure out why something wasn't working. They've helped me polish up my work and make it shine brighter. What I love about them is that they come to critique with a heart to help. We all want to see one another succeed. 

3.  I call my other writing group the Dulce Writing Group because that's the name of the café where we meet when we meet in person. I've only been working with Michael, Emily, and Sarah a few months, but it's already made a tremendous difference in my writing life. I fully credit the three of them with helping me figure out how to end my Menopausal Superhero series, a task that had been kicking my butt these past three years. (Coming your way in 2025!)

We came together because we share a publisher and we're all at a similar stage of career and development of our craft. Since all of us are striving to build a career, we have a lot to offer one another in terms of inside information on publishers and area events as well as the writing itself. 

4. Professional editing. Most of my writing is published through small presses, so generally an editor is assigned to me. Over the years, and different publishers, I've received a range of editing feedback, but I've learned something to improve my work each and every time. 

Of course, this comes late in the process, after you've already made your book the best you can on your own. Fresh eyes on the finished work are invaluable for finding any gaps or confusing sections of your work. And if those eyes belong to a seasoned professional who understands genre expectations as well as grammar and conventions, well, sign me up!

5. Reviews. Lastly, I look to the reviews that readers post about my books. (BTW: If you've read my work, please leave a review!) This is tricky because no one's book is for everyone and the hate can be strongly worded and hard to take sometimes. 

One could argue that feedback is too late at this point--the cow's already out of the barn! But, there is value in reading for trends and seeing what you can learn that will make your next book better. So, I do read my reviews, but I choose my timing carefully and run all that feedback through a hard core mental sifter to separate the useful tidbits from the rest. 

However you're seeking feedback, I recommend talking first--setting mutual expectations to what "feedback" will entail in this case. Learning can be uncomfortable, but if it's painful, you might need a different teacher. You'll need a mixture of humility and chutzpah to make it as a writer and finding the right feedback can keep you balanced. 

Check out the rest of the hop to see what my colleagues have to say about the role of feedback in their work. 

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Tools of the Trade, an IWSG post

    

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.  The awesome co-hosts for the July 3 posting of the IWSG are JS Pailly, Rebecca Douglass, Pat Garcia, Louise-Fundy Blue, and Natalie Aguirre!

July 3 question - What are your favorite writing processing (e.g. Word, Scrivener, yWriter, Dabble), writing apps, software, and tools? Why do you recommend them? And which one is your all time favorite that you cannot live without and use daily or at least whenever you write?

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Scrivener was a game-changer for me for novel-writing (and other long-form works, like nonfiction, essay collections, or short story collections). 

A great visual of why I love Scrivener

When I was writing my first novel, back in 2009 or so, I was using Microsoft Word and it was frustrating AF for me. One giant document, with no way to jump around within it quickly and easily to get to the piece I wanted? 

(My understanding is that Word has upped its game since then, but too late, I've moved on. I now only use Word for processing edits from my publisher). 

I'm not 100% sure in my memory of how I found Scrivener. Maybe by doing National Novel Writing Month? But it won me instantly with the corkboard. Suddenly I could keep the whole thing in view in a way that really worked for me. 

See, I'm a writer who writes in layers. 

My drafts begin kind of thin and bare-bones, and as I work, I come back around in loops and add depth, descriptions, breadcrumbs, interiority, setting, as it comes to me. So that means I don't necessary start on page one and finish on page three hundred, but I might write a scene that I know isn't coming for a while to give myself sort of a goal post to aim at, then go back and fill in what happens to get us there. Or I might have an inspiration in chapter 17 and go back and pull that thread through the whole book before I move forward. It's probably not an efficient process, but it is working for me.  

chapter organizational view

I've never been all that great at holding the whole thing in my head at once, balancing the big picture, small focus thing. But Scrivener makes it easy for me to off-load parts of that. I can color code my folders, use symbols to indicate different organizational elements, pick up entire chapters and drag them to a different part of the book with ease. I've never lost something to a messy cut-and-paste or glitched out the document and screwed up the formatting like often happened to me Word. 

The novel I'm finishing now (series ender for the Menopausal Superheroes--still settling on a title), for example, is organized by day, with chapters that all take place on the same day grouped together. 

Within each day, there are chapters with different points of view. Patricia, the Lizard woman of Springfield, gets a green book symbol, Leonel "Fuerte", the strongman, gets a yellow book. Jessica "Flygirl" gets a cloud, Sally Ann gets a light bulb, Mary gets a magnifying glass. This lets me see at a glance when I've left a character out too long and need to consider what they're up to during this section. 

corkboard view

When I look at this in "corkboard" I get the same symbols, my chapter title, and a bit of the text for the page. If I choose, I can write more of a summary of that chapter to show here and I have done that sometimes, using the "scene cards" technique I read about in the DIY-MFA book by Gabriela Pereira, which asks you to record 4 pieces of information for each chapter/scene:

• a title for the scene
• the major players
• the action
• the purpose (structurally)

It's a kind of outlining or at least record-keeping that works for me, even though I'm a pantser and am sometimes writing this down AFTER I wrote the scene, and has been really helpful in revisions. 

I don't use half of what Scrivener can do, but it has still revolutionized the whole process for me and alleviated a lot of stress and worry. 

So, thanks for coming to my TED-talk :-) In all seriousness, I am quite a fan-girl of Scrivener, but you should always remember how individual this process is and find the tool that works best for you and your process. No matter what we're talking about, your mileage my vary. 

So, how do you organized your creative life and projects? I'd LOVE to hear it about in the comments. And don't forget to check out the rest of the blog hop and see what else is out there to try!

Celebration time, an open book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

Do you have a special way of celebrating when you finish writing a book? Or other achievements in your journey? How do you reward yourself?
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When I finish writing the first draft of a novel, I'm so elated that I almost don't need any other celebration. I feel like I could float away from the joy of completing the book. I imagine it feels similar to what athletes experience when they get to the top of a mountain or the end of a race.  

I do, however, tell my inner support circle right away--my husband, my kids, my sister, my mother, my critique partners. Those are the folks who have been in the struggle with me for the months or years that it took to bring a project to fruition and they'll rejoice with me. 

In fact, I just got there once again at the end of June, on my writer's retreat to the mountains of North Carolina. How perfect to run into the main room, arms in the air, and take a victory lap, with my critique partners right there to whoop and holler with me. I should always try to finish a book while on writer's retreat!

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Of course, finishing *writing* a novel isn't really the end of that journey. There's still editing, revisions, and the actual publishing process. 

The BEST moment is when I hold the paper copy of my work in my hands for the first time. I keep a spinner rack in my office that has paper copies of all my novels and short stories in anthologies on it and it's a major boost to me just to look over and see how many books are there. 

For my first novel in this series, which was also my debut novel, Going Through the Change,  I had a book launch party at a local bookstores. Cookies and punch, copies of the book for sale, a Phil Donahue-style interview with me by a writing friend, reading from the book. My whole family came out and so did everyone local enough to me and it was one of the best nights of my life. 

Me, my daughter, and my dad, looking happy and related at my book launch party in 2015.

In fact, I think I'm going to do it again for this book. After all, it's the series ender, coming out ten years after the first book. Finishing the entire five book series (and accompanying novellas and shorts) feels like something to really celebrate. 

4 novels, 2 novellas, some shorts, and a collection of all the shorts.
One more novel coming soon!

In fact, I'm working on setting up a book tour for it, hoping to partner with some of my writer friends across the country and hit a string of bookstores, libraries, and other venues. 

(Hit me up, writer friends, if you might be interested in partnering with me on events in 2025, especially if our work has any obvious connections: feminism, aging, menopause, superheroes, female friendship, etc.)

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Under appreciated novels, an open book blog hop post

  

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

What's your favorite under appreciated novel? 

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Oh my, that's a tough one. I mean, when I LOVE a book, it's strange to me to realize that other people haven't even heard of it, but that's often how it goes. There are SO MANY books, and even among friends who read as much as I do and more, we only have some crossover. 

Under appreciated is also hard to gauge. It's not like I'm checking their Rotten Tomatoes rating or something, right? 

Still, a novel did come to mind when I read the question: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. 

It's not as obscure as other novels I could have chosen, but anytime I bring up Shirley Jackson, people say, "Oh yeah. She wrote The Lottery, right?" or maybe, "Is that the Haunting of Hill House lady?" Both of those are true, and both of those works are also genius (though I think Castle is better). It's this one that wanders the backrooms of my mind, and pops out to jump scare me from time to time. 

Like a lot of Shirley Jackson, there's not anything supernatural going on. Her horror is only rarely about ghost or monsters. Mostly, it's in what people do to one another. Some call her more specific genre "domestic horror" and I think that fits well. Other than Hill House, her stories mostly take place in mundane settings:  small towns, gardens, post offices, grocery stores, homes. 

What I love about Castle is Merricat, the main character and somewhat unreliable narrator. She's intense and scary in that way that very young people can be, and as the fuller history is revealed her complicated relationship with her sister Constance becomes fascinating. 

So, that's my pick for today. How about you? Do you have a favorite novel that no one else seems to love the same way you do? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. 

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What should IWSG do next?

    

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the June 5 posting of the IWSG are Liza at Middle Passages, Shannon Lawrence, Melissa Maygrove, and Olga Godim!

June 5 question - In this constantly evolving industry, what kind of offering/service do you think the IWSG should consider offering to members?

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Once a month affirmations and celebration and engagement through the blog hop is quite a gift already, honestly. The time our monthly volunteer moderators put into helping ensure that everyone sees engagement and that the tone is positive and kind is not to be discounted!

The anthologies have also been great for encouraging writers to finish things and given quite a few among our number some publication credits. 

I know there are also other things that happen that I haven't found the time to participate in very deeply, like book clubs and social conversation opportunities in the Facebook group. There really is already a lot going on this group, and the more you invest yourself and your time, the more you can get out of it. 

Since I can't spare volunteer hours at this stage of my life to make anything happen (I'm already spread too thin), I feel odd making suggestions, but since y'all asked, here are a few things to consider:  

• In-person gatherings, regionally, like networking socials or write-in meetings
• Zoom versions of the same
• Classes and webinars members can take to learn about writing craft and the publishing business more formally
• Group readings at conventions
• Development of a directory of members, which can be used to connect with other writers who live near you or write in similar genres 
• Development of a podcast or program where writing topics can be discussed in a panel format

Clearly, all of these take time and energy though, and I know how difficult it can be to keep a writing life going alongside the "ordinary" demands of day jobs, families, households, and caregiving, so I truly appreciate the work that already happens in this organization.  

Even though I'm now stuffing a full time writing life into part-time hours and time is at a premium, I'll keep finding time for First Wednesdays because the camaraderie has meant so much over the years. Thanks, IWSG! 

Bad writing advice, an Open Book blog hop post

   

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

What's the worst piece of writing advice you've ever received? 

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I can't honestly think of one single piece of advice that stands out as "the worst." Most of what has been sent my way has been well-intentioned. 

But anything that is entirely prescriptive and acts like there's one right way to write? Yeah, that's when I stop listening. 

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I LOVE to talk writing and publishing with other writers and learn about the tools and techniques they use. I've tried a lot of things because I read about them in blog posts, or heard about them in writing groups. 

Some have worked for me (like keeping a daily writing chain). 

Others have not (like outlining). 

What's really important though is the acknowledgement that creative process is highly personal and individual. There's no single right way to do it; no silver bullet that will guarantee fame, fortune, and success; no magic words that will suddenly make it easy. Anyone who tells you there is? 

Well, keep an eye on your wallet!

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Reading for enjoyment, as a writer, an open book blog hop post

  

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

How do you turn off your internal editor when you are reading for enjoyment?

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It can be difficult, once you "know how the sausage is made" to gloss over errors, inconsistencies, and less-than-stellar stylistic choices in someone else's work like you might have done when you were "just a reader." This is especially difficult in sloppy work, where you start to wonder if the author tried anything at all, like spell check or Grammarly? 

Honestly, I've always been a fairly judgey reader in that regard: I expect good writing in published books. It has gotten worse since I started doing it myself, though. 

I get super annoyed by poor craftsmanship, because author life is hard enough without people half-assing self-publishing and making it that much harder for everyone to get readers to give indie-published work a fair shake. Readers who have been burned by poor quality work with minimal editing are less likely to reach for indie work in the future, so it hurts us all. 

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But, I can usually achieve a state of immersion and become "just a reader" again, and if I can't…well, I don't have to finish every book I start. 

I do a lot of my reading these days as audiobooks, so that helps a little. I can't see the words on the page and a good narrator can smooth out rough patches. Sometimes a good narrator can take a merely good book and make it great, or take a mediocre book and make it good.  So, that's part of it, for sure. 

Sometimes, it's an act of will, reminding myself I'm not providing a critique or a beta read, but just reading. If the story is working, it'll pull me in and my inner critic will quiet down and let me enjoy. 

If I can't achieve that feeling of immersion, then I usually set the book aside and figure it's not for me, or at least not for me right now. Sometimes the reason I can't immerse into a story has nothing to do with quality, but about my own state of mind and stage of life, or even just that I've read too much of the same sort of thing in a row. 

How about you? If you write, do you find it harder to lose yourself in reading now? What pulls you out of that feeling of immersion? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

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DNF: did not finish, an open book blog hop post

  

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

What determines whether or not you finish a book you're reading? Do you review books you didn't finish?

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The short answer to this one is "the first few pages." 

For most of my reading, if a book doesn't have my interest by thirty or so pages in, I figure it's not a book for me, and I just let it go. That said, it doesn't happen to me very often because I know me pretty well by this point, and I seldom pick up a book that isn't for me. 

Most of the reads I don't finish weren't just personal picks, but something I was reading for a class, or for a book club, or because someone gifted it to me. Sometimes those are worth finishing, even if I don't enjoy them, for the social bit: talking about books with other people is one of my great joys in life, probably right under writing book and reading books!

One book I've made multiple attempts at and never finished is Ulysses by James Joyce. That book might be my personal reading nemesis. I've made it through plenty of dense classic novels in my time, but this one I couldn't handle. 

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Generally, I don't review books I didn't finish. That doesn't seem fair. Maybe whatever was frustrating or annoying me in that opening made sense later and, had I continued, I would have come to appreciate what the author was doing. 

How about you? Do you finish what you started in your reading life? 

Selling your books in person, an open book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

Do you attend book selling events? What is your best tip to sell books at one? 

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I do indeed, several times a year, attend events where I sell my books. In fact, I attended one just this past weekend, Ravencon in Richmond, Virgina, and had a lovely time! I've got Galaxycon upcoming in July, and Bookmarks Book Festival on my calendar for September, too. 

Display is key at these things, in my observation. It's one of those cases where investing in a few eye-catching items can make a lot of difference. In my case, I've invested in a table runner, a standing banner, printed bookmarks, and a couple of different types of bookracks for table display. 

Me with my table runner and upright book rack at Concarolinas in 2021

All of these help a reader make a good guess from across the room whether or not my books would be of interest to them. 

Of course, I didn't buy these all at once, but a piece at a time, with different events in mind. In fact, I had another banner before this one that became outdated when my Menopausal Superhero books got a rebrand in 2019. I expect that, in the future, I may want other banners as my catalogue expands. So, I balance that when I'm deciding how much I'm willing to spend on these display items. 

My standing banner behind my Galaxycon table in 2023, with my new spinner rack.

The logo and imprint name "Dangerous When Bored" on my table runner will often elicit a smile from someone walking past my table at an event, and that might make them slow down and look at my covers. The "half hero/half horror" with book covers gives a reader a hint even at a distance what my most common genres are. 

Once a potential reader stops by my table, I introduce myself, asking a question or making a comment when possible to try and get a conversation started. (It took me some time to build comfort with this bit, BTW, since I'm a hardcore introvert). I'm convinced more than one person has bought a book from me because I complimented their clothing or understood the reference on their tee-shirt. 

I try to gage if a reader is drawn in by any particular cover and offer a little more information about that particular book. Saying nothing at all can be bad, because you seem disinterested and the reader might need you to start the conversation, but saying too much can be overwhelming, too. I've got a very short, pithy pitch for each book at the ready and only go into more depth if that seems wanted. 

If they seem like they're going to walk away without buying, I thank them for their time and try to get them to take a bookmark, so they can check out my work online at their leisure. I often see a spike in online sales in the days following an in-person event, too. Some folks want to support you, but have burned through their budget, or have limited luggage space to consider. 

So, there you go. My best advice is to make as easy as possible for the potential reader to ascertain what kinds of books you're selling through well chosen display items and swag. 

How about you fellow Open Book bloggers? What works for you? For readers stopping by my blog today, what kinds of things will get you to buy a book from someone at in-person events? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

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