Fraud Warning

Hey gang! Hope you all had great weekends. Mine was awesome, thanks in part to a heavy dose of cool and wet weather. (Don't get a lot of that here in South Texas...)

Thanks to everyone who made the author interviewees feel welcome last week! Had a lot of fun chatting with the two ladies, and hope some of that energy came through in the interviews. If you missed them, we had one rock & roller and one that was solid stone. 

Bury the Hatchet Blogfest & Giveaway UPDATE

Also, thanks to everyone participating in the Bury the Hatchet blogfest. I've read some really funny entries so far. (Who doesn't hate bathroom hand dryers?) The blogfest runs through the 19th of October, so there's still plenty of time to enter (and enter the giveaway). To make the blogfest easier to join, I've created a regular, link signup. (Think the Rafflecopter thing was a tad confusing for the actual blogfest.) You'll see the signup above, be sure to check the original post (link above this post, and the button to the right) for the details on participation.

New Adult Lit Twitter Chat Update (#NALitChat)

As many of you know, I host a weekly Twitter discussion on New Adult literature. We've been at it for a couple of months now, and I'm proud to say it is still going strong. If you've ever been curious about what comes after YA (for readers and writers), I think this chat is an entertaining 'must' for your week. It happens every Thursday night, 9 PM EST on the Twitters. Just search for, and use in your Tweets, #NALitChat --

This week will be a perfect jumping in point, as we're going to open it up to Q & A. There are lots of fabulous NA authors taking part every week (specifically, the chat is moderated by the ladies of the NA Alley Blog), and they're the perfect resource for getting your New Adult knowledge on. 

You can keep up with the chat goings-ons (as well as find transcripts of previous chats) over at the NA Lit Chat Blog. 

Weekly Good News!

Author Chantele Sedgwick is doing a massive blog tour to celebrate the release of her YA novel Not Your Average Fairy Tale. I believe she's giving away a Kindle--and myriad other awesome prizes--as part of the tour. Be sure to check her blog for the details and a list of stops.

Here's a little about NYAFT (via Amazon product description):

"Ash Summerland has it all–good looks, popularity, and the best grades at The Academy of Magical Beings. Ready to complete his last assignment in order to graduate, Ash is confident he will get the apprenticeship he wants. 

When he opens the letter from the Council, he is shocked to discover he has been assigned to apprentice Lady Shenelle, Keeper of Happy Endings. A.K.A. the head fairy godmother. Ash is forced to grant three wishes to a troubled human girl named Kendall, and ultimately give her a "happy ever after".

But Kendall turns out to be more than he bargained for. Still grieving over her father's death, Kendall doesn't want anything to do with him. And worst of all, she doesn't believe in happy endings."

You can snag a copy HERE. 

Want me to share your good news? (I'd sincerely love to!) Shoot me an eMail with the details at jezzell19 AT gmail DOT com and I'll try to get it into an upcoming post.

Fraud Warning

Photo courtesy of Lynn Kelley WANA Commons

A few weeks ago, I was reading a blog post from an author I keep up with, and she wrote about feeling like a fraud. It's a common feeling, one I believe almost every writer goes through. But also one very few talk about. So I decided to give it a go ...

The author/blogger who inspired this post certainly isn't a fraud. She is a former editor, she has an agent, she's been through the revision spin-cycle--in short, she's a veteran in the 'aspiring author' war. In our circle, she has accomplished a lot.

But our circle is a little ... different.

Our circle is full of fidgety, computer-blind book nerds. Our circle builds entire careers on things that never actually happen. Our circle believes in nebulous terms like 'muse' and 'process'. Our circle sees the complexity in seemingly simple assertions. Example: 

"That story was cute, and read very quickly," says our non-writer friend of her most recent read. 

To which we reply, "It probably took the author three years, an ulcer, loss of friendship, and financial ruin for you to be able to read it one sitting. But being labeled 'cute' is all the encouragement they'll need to write another fifteen stories." 

Did I mention our circle is full of masochists?

Ultimately, it's pretty easy to understand why a writer might feel less than 'real'. We dither away hours, days, and weeks on things we'll likely chuck out at some point. We look for signs of success like gypsy fortunetellers mucking through tea leaves for answers, often dismissing rational conclusions for a glimpse out our potential. 

"The agent hand wrote 'keep trying' on the form rejection! I'm getting so close now!"

Everyone around us seems to be doing what we're doing, but they're all better at it. We scrap two years for 100 blog followers, but that other guy with the genius blogfest idea has 300 in his first 6 months. We tweet 50 times an hour to 10 followers, Mike Tyson tweets 10 times a year to 50 million followers.

And the funny thing is, it doesn't really end after you publish something. If anything, I feel even less adequate now, and even more fraudulent. Everyone is better at marketing. My friends who once encouraged me are now scrutinizing me. My granny said she read my story, but hasn't taken my phone calls in two weeks. Basically, it feels like I'm far better at pissing people off than drawing them in. Which isn't really the goal when you publish something...

At least I can offer a 'link' to something I've written now when people ask about what I write, but most days I'd rather talk about sports, music, movies, and other people's books. In the end, I still feel like I'm pretending to be a writer. Just making it up as I go.

Then I write. That's when I realize what's real and what isn't. Real is feeling in control of my words. Real is pushing myself to be better with each paragraph. Real is working at a story, often for months, until I think it'll entertain a stranger as much as it entertains me. Real is being willing to throw it all away if it doesn't. Real is the passion I feel in expression. Real is being brave enough to share what I write.

So, as I've said before on this blog, keep writing. For a writer, I truly believe it's the only way to combat the feelings of being less than what we appear, and the key to actually being more.

~EJW~