William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois (1868-1963) sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, editor, and author. Image from AAIHS.
“A little less complaint and whining, and a little more dogged work and manly striving, would do us more credit than a thousand civil rights bills.”
“The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.”
“To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.”
Akinwande Oluwole “Wole” Babatunde Soyinka, (Nigerian writer, poet, and playwright) Image from NAIJ.com
Toni Morrison
(African-American novelist and professor)
Image from Pinterest
Image from NNDB.com
Becoming a published author in 2016 was a big deal for me. Not just in the fact I had a real book ‘out there’ in the literary world, but after writing for over thirty years, I wrote something I allowed someone else to read. Except for school papers and a few years of penning FanFic, that just didn’t happen.
Since the earth didn’t tilt on its axis, nor did I internally combust, I decided to go all in and take it to the next level for 2017.
In addition to four planned book releases, three online reads, and a still-untitled novel for Wattpad, I joined the Writing Cooperative…AND committed to the 52-Week Writing Challenge!
Yes, I am slightly off-center.
I’ve chosen character sketches, plots, and BLURBS as my one year project. I may or may not use them in future WIPs, but it’s good practice and the Literary Gods cringe with displeasure at some of the blurbs found on books.
Sorry. It had to be said. Many have poured unlimited amounts of blood, sweat, and tears into their writings…and seven and a half minutes into the blurbs. Purchasing books based on covers seems to be a ‘thing’ lately, but the blurb is EVERYTHING. Having an amazing book cover that grabs readers’ attention is pointless if the book synopsis leaves them mentally writing their shopping list.
Do NOT send the town villagers after me with their torches and pitchforks…I’m just sayin’.
You can find my first writing challenge submission here. Read it, recommend it, or leave me a comment. Do you love it? Hate it? Think I should instead consider a profession in long haul trucking, or perhaps, fish husbandry? Tell me. I won’t break…promise.
Have a great week, and remember, it’s Girl Scout cookie season! Don’t even try to fight it – just have your money ready!
I sent out my very first newsletter Tuesday! YAAY, me!
Yes, I was apprehensive about the HTML, links, and art posting correctly. I wondered if I was babbling (kind of like now), and if I was including all the pertinent information readers who chose to subscribe to my newsletter needed (and wanted) to know.
Yet, I wasn’t 100% sure I should even be sending out a newsletter.
Stop shaking your head at me. I know the value of a well-established mailing list of engaged readers/subscribers.
I understand total dependence on social networks for exposure, and engaging readers is foolhardy.
I know the readers who subscribe (and READ) an author’s newsletter/mailings are the strongest link in an author’s platform.
Still doesn’t mean I wanted to send out a newsletter.
Let’s face, we all get entirely too much email, and not all our email gets our attention. Newsletters/random mailings can be on the low end (or bottom) of the totem pole. A good morning for me is when I open my email and there’s LESS than a hundred emails waiting for me. And that’s just from one email address. No, I do not read them ALL, and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in that.
And still, I put together a newsletter. I knew I owed it to those readers who downloaded “In The Best Interest of the Child”. The feedback on the book has been amazing, and readers needed to know WHEN book two, “In The Best Interest of the Child: Mother and Daughter” would be available, as well as print versions for both books. Readers also needed to know how to enter Felicia Denise’s Twelve Days of Christmas on Twitter and Instagram. And last, but not least, readers needed to know something about me.
So, I built, tested and sent a newsletter…after saying a silent apology for adding one more piece of email to the fray.
When I opened my newsletter email this morning, it was loaded. Of course, my first thought was, “Oh great! You screwed it up and they all bounced!”
But that wasn’t the case at all.
I’d forgotten I’d asked subscribers to reply with their birth dates for my monthly birthday celebrations. But they didn’t just send their birth dates. Many of those who have responded so far, introduced themselves, told me their names AND ages and about their families, and asked questions about my book AND me.
And…I was wearing the same big, goofy grin as I read their emails that I’m wearing now.
Now I’m on a mission to provide my subscribers with a newsletter that is informative, detailed, fun, worthy of their time…and only once a month.
Feel free to come along for the ride – Newsletter signup!
I can do this!
I literally began thinking about NaNoWriMo 2016 during last year’s event, and chose the WIP I decided against for NaNoWriMo2015. I began the pantser’s version of plotting and planning right after Camp NaNoWriMo in July. Work with me here.
Outline? Check!
Synopsis? Check!
Tagline? Check!
Logline? Check!
Scene list? Oh, yeah…twenty-two scenes ready to go!
I veered just slightly off course Monday morning (October 31st) when I was pulled into service to babysit for my two-year-old grandnephew, Jordan, who was too ill to attend day care, but not too ill to wear me, the mister AND Max, the dog out! My “baby” will be twenty-five next month, so it’s been quite a while since I toddler-wrangled. I stuck to my writing schedule, with a few changes, but accomplished little else. After a few flash fevers and several hundred Kleenex, Jordan was pronounced well enough to return to day care and left Friday morning.
The one and only Jordan!
Peace and order restored, right? Time to kick in the afterburners and up the word count, right?
Whatever.
I’m deep into scene eleven this morning, when I noticed heroine/protagonist, Quinn Landon, sitting over in the corner…arms folded and shaking her head. I knew that wasn’t a good thing. Our exchange went something like this.
Felicia: What’s wrong, Quinn?
Quinn: It’s not right.
Felicia: What’s not right?
Quinn: That scene…and the three scenes before it.
Felicia: Do NOT start with me. YOU gave me these scenes!
Quinn: I was confused. You know how upset I was with my family.
Felicia: You were not that upset. You were jumping up and down and talking a mile a minute!
Quinn: It’s not right.
Felicia: What do you expect me to do – rewrite these scenes?
Quinn: You must.
Felicia: Not going to happen.
Quinn: It’s not right.
Felicia: Quinn, I am halfway through the scenes I prepared listening to you and your dysfunctional family. If that doesn’t get me to 50K, I will have more writing to do. I’m not re-writing anything at this point.
Quinn: It’s not right.
Felicia: Stop saying that.
Quinn: What if I stop talking altogether? What then?
Felicia: This becomes a paranormal story and you speak from the grave. George R.R. Martin has made killing off lead characters an art form.
Quinn: No! Don’t do that. I don’t want to miss out on Mason! *Swoons*
Felicia: See? Three scenes back you wanted Fletcher!
Quinn: Don’t reprimand me. I’m a woman in crisis.
Felicia: *Massive eye-roll*
Quinn: Can’t we at least discuss this?
Felicia: *Sighs* You know none of this is written in stone. You changed your name, profession, and reason for divorcing Oscar before I even wrote a word. Just keep track, and we’ll discuss it in January during the first edit, okay?
Quinn: YAY! Okay. I can do that!
Felicia: Good. Now let me get back to upping this word count.
Quinn: Um…can we discuss my name too?
Felicia: Goodbye, Quinn!
Who knows what this read will end up looking like? I sure don’t!
Stay tuned!
Wow! What a month I’m having!
I go from diligently working on finally getting my first novel published, to balancing three WIPs!
Why didn’t someone tell me this is WORK? I don’t want to work, I just want to write. Oh, well. That being said, I’m definitely deep into it. In The Best Interest of the Child went live on September 30th – but who knew it would have a BOOK TWO? I surely didn’t! SURPRISE! With a word count of nearly 150K, I had to back off and streamline book one…and it still came out at three hundred pages! But book one has NO cliffhanger – I loathe those! Book two will be another leg in Olivia Chandler’s journey (and it had better end in book two – who knows with my characters).
Since the second book is mostly written, I was shooting for a release date of somewhere between December 1 and the 15th. However, my editor is currently handling a family emergency, so I may move the release date to January. Yes, I know I could get another editor, but she did a great job with the first book and knows the story line – why tamper with a working formula?
What will be releasing soon is the print version of book one! I’m a big fan of print books and still buy them frequently. Okay, too frequently. But other print lovers have sounded off loud and clear. It’s a go for December!
My NaNoWriMo project is shaping up quite nicely. The working title is “For Worse” (as in ‘for better or for worse’) and tells the story of Quinn Landon, who finally files for divorce from her lying, cheating husband, and believes she’s on a new path to a new life. Only, she isn’t. More about ‘For Worse’ as we get into NaNoWriMo country.
This is the cover…and please do not fall out and have a fit! It’s just a placeholder for NaNoWriMo. I would not subject the planet to my limited, amateurish art skills. Maybe one day.
A peaceful mind can make a wonderful quote.
Bez pośpiechu, prosto z serca — po prostu Antonina pisze.
bliskość, która ma znaczenie
Showcasing swoon-worthy African Romance reads
Inheritance. Narcissism. Turf. Welcome to the family.
If music be the food of love, play on✨
daily foods
The Truth for Kyle
𝑁𝑜 𝑆𝑢𝑔𝑎𝑟
Because everyone has a story. Let's talk about it.
stories, poems and more
The Power of Story
I am more than breath & bones. I am nectar in waiting.
Life is just down the road lesser traveled....
"I saw the Angel in the marble, and carved until I set him free"
Felicia Denise, Author 