Secret ailments from revision deadlines

When you are in the midst of revisions and deadlines (whether it be agent imposed, editor imposed, NaNoWriMo imposed) , you tend to put your life on hold.

You roll up your sleeves and dive in.

Determined. Excited, Hopeful.

Then you get in the middle of it.

And you curse, sigh, cry, and force yourself to sit and fight through it. Doubt sets in.

No one talks about the ailments of writing under speedy deadlines. It is a problem swept under the rug of the writing community. The embarrassing things we hide and don't talk about it out of embarrassment or fear of quarantine.

I'm here to bust the door open on these ailments and create a support group - in sympathy of all the writers who have to turn around deadlines in record time.

Here is a List of Common Writer Ailments (resource: WriterMD). Read it! It could save your life!

PB-ASS (also know as Pancake Bottom) - This is a very common problem that no one talks about. It a very "tush"e subject

• Causes - sitting in the same chair for way too long, genetics, no support
  
• Symptoms - sore buttocks, butt falling asleep, cramps, widening measurements, and saggy pants.
• Cures - butt squeezes, squats, donut hole pillows, or butt implants
  

The Claw - This is a problem for many writers.

• Causes - lack of typewriter training
• Symptoms - your hands look like they could be doubles in the Thriller video, kids think you are trying to scare them when they come around the corner, carpel tunnel syndrome
• Cures - Typewriter lessons, prayer, stress ball exercises
  

MSd (Also know as Major Sleep deprivation) - This one is hard to notice if you have a problem with kids waking in middle of night, late night prank calls, friends on the west coast, and snoring husbands.

• Symptoms - grumpiness, burning eyes, deliriousness (is that a word)
• Causes - no showers (yes you heard me right) staying up late, writing for 18 hrs straight, overactive mind, too much work - not enough time
• Cure (rare) - hubbies who allow you to sleep in!

SACR (also know as Sugar & Caffeine Rush) - ok so we can get this a lot.

• Symptoms - the shakes (which makes it hard to write), stomach aches, vegetable deprivation, dehydration, quicker movements
• Causes - chocolate, candy corn, sweet tea, coffee with hazelnut cream (the non sugar free kind)
• Cures - detox, pace your office, pace outside
  

SFSs (SlipperFeet/Sweatpants Syndrome) - also known as MommyWear

• Symptoms - 3 new pairs of sweats, lazy feet
• Causes - shoes with soft fur inside
• Cures - not available at this time. Incurable.

The WHAAAAs (Uncontrollable bouts of tears)

• Symptoms - crying at commercials, crying at kids, crying b/c you forget to make lunch
• Causes - see all the ailments listed above
• Cures - hugs, encouragement, colored pictures slipped under the door, turning in your work on time

Should you experience the above ailments,

• Don't call your agent! (or editor)
  
• Do call your writer friends (Thanks Katie&Kimberly!)
• Don't yell at your family
• Do call your mom
• Don't give up
  
• Do step outside and breathe
• Do ask for help
• Do pat yourself on the back

If you have not experienced any of these ailments, please call for help!

Denial and avoidance can be fatal!

If you have come across any other ailments, please let us know in the comments.

You could save a life!

At the center of a busy life

As a mom, sometimes, I forget to stop and breathe.

Because there are so many thing to do as a mom.

doing the laundry, changing sheets, folding laundry, putting away laundry, stacking laundry in baskets and leaving in the bedroom until *someone* else puts it away.

unloading dishes, rinsing dishes (yeah right), reloading dishes, wishing I'd bought paper dishes, buying paper plates, feeling bad about environment and go back to dishes.

reorganizing kids closets, cleaning out old toys, reorganizing new toys, returning toys back where they belong, yelling at kids to return toys where they belong, threatening kids to return toys where they belong.

buying dog food, feeding dog, taking dog to vet after he eats a pound of chocolate, letting elderly dog outside in the middle of the night to pee - twice!

taking care of hubby, making hubby take care of me, managing an extended family, managing a British family (oi!:), getting together with family before family has withdrawals.

giving baths, forcing baths, taking a shower, skipping a shower, wishing for a shower, refusing to shower.

shifting kids from one place to another, carpooling, playdates, afternoon activities, planning family activities, allocating equal Mommy Time.

get an idea, write a book, rewrite a book, tear up a book, envying someone else's book, curse my book, love my book, cry over my book, get a rejection, get an agent, rewrite book, and rewrite book again.

preparing for school, packing lunches, giving money for lunches, forgetting lunches, forgetting homework, doing homework.

cleaning out old sizes of kids clothes, buying new kids clothes, attending kids school activities, volunteering at school activities.

planning menus (yeah right!), cooking...OK FINE!...microwaving, wishing I was organized enough to crockpot, grocery shopping, wine shopping, chocolate shopping, interim shopping, drug shopping (Oops, I mean drug store shopping!)

taking care of house stuff, bringing in the mail, sending out mail, recycling junk mail, taking out the trash, recycling, bagging recycling, paying bills, filing bills, hiding bills, forgetting bills, ignoring bills.

scheduling cleaners, calling yard people, calling car people, begging babysitters, begging mother to come down.

staying on top of holidays, moving shelf on an elf, filling advent calendars, buying presents, returning presents.

awarding stars for good behavior, awarding red stickers for bad behavior, keeping track of stickers on behavior, ignoring tantrums, having tantrums, yelling at tantrums,

going by the bank to take in a check, wishing I had a check to take in, spending money, balancing checkbook, wishing I hadn't spent money, wondering where money went.

going to the bathroom with bystanders, cleaning the bathroom accidents of bystanders, teaching kids to wipe, teaching kids to flush, stocking diapers, smelling diapers, running out of diapers.

scheduling dr appt, handling impromptu dr appt, tending to the sick, feeling sick, stroking hurt feeling, hurting happy feelings, attending to boo boos.

yelling at kids to ask for peace and quiet, wishing for peace and quiet, hiding in closets for a moment of peace and quiet (everyone does this right?)

With all that - there is little time to breath.

There are so many things to do as a wife

There are so many things to do as a daughter, sister and friend.

There are so many things to do as a writer, a critiquer, a blogger, a tweeter, a facebooker, a myspacer, and a goodreader.

There are so many things to do to change the world.

Then, there are those moments - that in reality probably come to us in every second of every day - but I miss them because I'm so busy I forgot to stop, grab it, and press it to my heart. I forget to hold it in my hand before kissing it back to the wind.

Sometimes I don't relish in the moments of joy that fly by me at the speed of light. I guess I don't open my eyes in time to see the drops of happiness wrapped in a picked leaf, a drawn picture, or a hug.

Sometimes I happen to get lucky and accidentally sit still in the small moment that I realize is perfect. Before, I mistakenly push it aside as the world blows another obligation or problem my way.

Sometimes I get tiny but memorable reminders, in the shape of a flower, or a note in crayon, a book, or a sappy song.

When the universe nudges me quietly, suddenly giving me the sense, the urge, the need, the ability...

To stop...

To breathe...

To love...

To laugh...

To live...

To just be...

And remember to cherish and be grateful for the things at the very center of my busy life.

Marvelous Marketer: Maggie Stiefvater (Bestselling author, Shiver)

Hi Maggie! *waves*

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to stop by. Tell me a little about yourself. About your book, how you got started, and your journey to publication.

*Maggie strives to make a long story short* Let’s see, as of the time of this interview, I have three YA novels on the shelf, of which the most famous is probably SHIVER, currently on the NYT bestseller list, I’m a full-time author, and I write YA contemporary fantasy pretty exclusively.

SHIVER is the first of a trilogy about werewolves -- well, shapeshifters more properly, I suppose. And LAMENT and BALLAD are companion books about homicidal faeries and kissing. With all my novels I strive for 90% realism and 10% fantasy. I want them to feel very grounded.

My first novel, LAMENT, was a slush-pile baby, pulled out of the muck by Andrew Karre at Flux. He asked me to revise it, I made a feeble attempt, and it ended up going nowhere. A year later, I submitted my next manuscript to him, and he said, “How about that first one?” He asked me again to revise, and this time, I knew what I was doing -- well, I had a better idea, anyway -- and he bought it after I revised three chapters. I still remember what he said on the phone when he made the offer. He told me that I was going to be big in the literary world, that all I needed was to get my foot in the door. And he said, “Here’s the door.”


You are a big blogger, did that have anything to do with your success. Or how do you utilize your blog in a marketing way? (Include website/blog? When did you start it and who manages it?

First of all, the down and dirty links: my website, designed in part by Xuni (I did the header and much of the color scheme). And my blog, (also mirrored on Blogger).

The short answer is yes, blogging had a lot to do with my success. But the long answer is yes and no. Yes, I would’ve sold SHIVER without my blog. No, I wouldn’t have sold it for as much. Both of the publishers who made it to the final round of the auction for SHIVER cited my web presence in their offers.

The fact of the matter is there’s a lot of YA out there now, and even if a good book will get read eventually, a kick-ass blog will help your good book to get read faster. If you add all of my blogging and social networking folks altogether, it’s literally thousands of people that my publisher probably wouldn’t reach through other means -- or, even if they could, that my publisher can speak to on a different level because of my blog. The first step is getting people to know your name. Once they know your name, you market your book to them in a different way.

Here’s the thing about my blog, though. You have to blog because you love to blog. You have to blog about something interesting, and what you did over the weekend isn’t interesting unless you know how to spin it. A blog where you dutifully post every other day about your wordcount and how your characters are speaking to you is not going to win you thousands of readers, because there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of blogs out there, and anyway, even the best of those will only appeal to writers rather than just plain readers.

Also, don’t just blog about your book and where to buy it. Who will subscribe to a year long advertisement for you? so whoo hoo SHIVER’s been on the bestseller list for 17 weeks, sold rights in 30 countries, and been given x honor and shortlisted for y award. NO ONE CARES. That may be putting it a bit too strongly, but there’s no point in me posting “I SOLD THE CROATIAN RIGHTS!” and the next week saying “I SOLD THE LITHUANIAN RIGHTS!” My mom and husband are excited about these things. Readers will think you’re gloating if they bother to care at all. Not great content.

I have a handful of blogs in my blog reader that I read all the time. They’re all either: a) intensely informative on the industry, b) extremely hilarious, c) extremely snarky about the industry, d) involve strange photographs of animals doing strange things to tourists, or e) all of these things. I analyze why I read these blogs all the time. When I’m writing a blog post, I try to think, is this something that will actually entertain, or am I just posting dutifully?

A last comment: I reply to just about every comment left on my blog. I know a lot of people don’t, and it is a huge burden of time for me, but it makes a big difference to readers. I’ve seen authors who stopped replying to commentors, and guess what -- they stopped getting comments. Who wants to shout into the void?


How do you use social networking to get the word out about your book?

Indirectly, for the most part. Again, you can tell that direct selling of myself makes me break out in a rash. It’s far better to be a visible part of a community than always crowing about yourself. So I’m on Facebook and Twitter (I’m on Goodreads, too, but mostly to just post my favorites books rather than engaging in book clubs on there). I had a Myspace account but found it to be clunky, slow, and ultimately a giant vacuum of my time with no visible results.

Anyway, my policy for these guys is the same as my blog: I answer every comment. I change my status updates fairly regularly, and I often use these places to let readers know where I’ll be for a signing, because I have a lot of local fans/ friends/ readers. I also, however, post a lot about my love of Spock and how many nostrils human beings breathe out of at any given time.


Did you think about marketing before your book was published? Did you
start prior to getting an agent or selling your book? If so, when and what
did you do?

Well, I was a full-time portrait artist before I got published, and my online blog basically helped me pay my rent by getting the word out there about my art: http://greywarenart.blogspot.com. So I already knew about the power of blogging and the power of being a useful and friendly member of the blogging community. I also had mostly learned the lesson that your blog is a cocktail party: no religion, politics, or sex.


How do you work with your different houses on marketing? Do you plan your events together?

Generally only the conferences get planned together. Everything else is relatively independent. It was more of an issue in October, because I had just had SHIVER (Scholastic) come out, and BALLAD (Flux) came out right on its heels. So there was more juggling.


In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every author should and must do to promote their book?

Hum. There is no “must” in promoting, because it has to do with your personality. But I would say a) blog. b) reply to your comments. c) buy cases of your own books to giveaway to important folks you meet and for contests and influential bloggers.

What creative things have you done to promote a book?

My favorite contest had readers post a snippet of the book and the book cover on their blogs to enter -- in a week, hundreds of blog posts with my book cover in them went up, and even if no one hit “buy on Amazon” right after seeing it, half the battle was already won, because next time they went into stores and recognized the cover, they’re far, far, far more likely to pick it up.

I also bring my harp with me to signings for the faerie books, because they have a lot of Irish music in them. That way I can play and not look bored.

And finally, I think all the time from the point of view of the book reader. What would I want to hear about a book before it comes out? Where would I be looking for it? What would make me click buy or tell my friends about it?

Thanks for joining us today!

Thanks, Shelli!

Blog awards and Friday Roundup

Blog Awards!

I'm embarrassed to say I am waaaaaayyyyy behind on thanking those who have given me awards. So here goes....

Rules for all awards: Put the logo on your blog/post. Link to blogs that deserve the awards. Let nominees know that they have been nominated by commenting on their blog. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

Thanks to Jeanine for the "Heartfelt" award - The Heartfelt Award is all about a blog that give you a warm fuzzy feeling when you visit them.

• I am awarding this to Mrs J, LILA and Kimberly Derting because they all speak from the heart and do not hold back. I love that about these gals!
  

Thanks to Dawn for the "Best Blog" award.

• I am awarding this to to Kiersten Writes because she cracks me up. I never leave there without laughing out loud. I wish she could be my friend just so I can laugh all the time.

Thank to Mary Ann for the "You're the Sweetest - The Icing on the Cake award." (and the Lovely Blog award).

• I am awarding this to Katie and SF at Plot This because they are just so dang southern sweet!

Thanks to Lynnette and Jennifer for the "Helpful Blogger" award. This one makes me especially happy because that is the whole reason I started this blog! In addition to rules above, share one thing that no one knows about you & quote a sentence from your favorite book.

• I am awarding this to Elana (for her Query advice) and Casey McCormick (for her awesome agent spotlights)

Thanks to Al for the "Over the Top" Award - Give to other bloggers and fill out these questions: Copy and paste this quiz and change the answers, ONE word only. (yeah right!)

• This award goes to all my Blog Followers because all of you are awesome and over the top to me. So if you are a reader (and obviously you are if you are reading this) - you get an award so answer these question on your blog and give an award away on your blog.
  

• My answers
  1. Where is your cell phone? who knows. I just wait for it to ring
  2. Your hair? naturally curly
  3. Your mother? best friend
  4. Your father? tough
  5. Your favorite food? cheese dip
  6. Your dream last night? about my book being subbed to publishers
  7. Your favorite drink? dirty martini
  8. Your dream/goal? bestseller
  9. What room are you in? living room watching tv
  10. Your hobby? writing and yoga
  11. Your fear? losing my kids
  12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy
  13. Where were you last night? Home
  14. Something that you aren't? hypocrit
  15. Muffins? cranberry orange
  16. Wish list item? kindle or thin mac
  17. Where did you grow up? georgia
  18. Last thing you did? Blog (sad i know!)
  19. What are you wearing? jeans
  20. Your TV? love it!
  21. Your pets? old
  22. Friends? mean alot to me
  23. Your life? perfect
  24. Your mood? happy
  25. Missing someone? my best friend in Denver
  26. Vehicle? jeep Commander
  27. Something you're not wearing? shoes
  28. Your favorite store? bookstore
  29. Your favorite color? Blue
  30. When was the last time you laughed? about 5 min ago.
  31. Last time you cried? about 6 min ago
  32. Your best friend? hubby
  33. One place that I go to over and over? bed
  34. One person who emails me regularly? katie
  35. Favorite place to eat? beach
  

Friday's Marketing Round Up

I am behind on these due to the holiday so I included last week's too.

• ARCs what you need to know - three publishers share their thoughts on Arc manners

• Does a platform really help unpublished authors? - platform is all of the ways we're attempting to build our readership. Nowadays, writers are encouraged to begin their platform even before they're published. Does it help?

• How to market your book with a video? Quite simply, whatever video you make should be germane and specific to your book.

• How to plan a blog tour - blog tours are low cost and get the word out (buzz) about you and your book, and that’s never a bad thing. Here's how to get the word out.

• The author platform - How to blog for your platform

• How to plan a successful book launch - The nuts and bolts behind planning a book launch. A successful book launch doesn’t just happen all by itself. It takes a significant amount of planning, organization, and coordination