Always Something

Since the last post, got a little (very little) writing done. Picked up a flu like head and chest infection from one of the generous folks at work who do not have the common sense to stay home when sick.
Just about caught up on a backload of reading, but still have a few books I should have read by now. Now that I'm healthy again, maybe I can back on track.

           Well, here I go again. After many years of procrastinating on both my writing and this blog, I'm starting fresh. I usually link this to my really old blog on Blogspot and will continue to do so. I cleaned up the old and outdated stuff from here but will be leaving it on the other site.
I could write a book on procrastination when it comes to writing. I'm referring to the novel I've wanted to write for close to thirty years. I've managed to do a little freelance work and published two ebooks under a pen name, but my goal is to get my first novel published. It has always been a part time endevour since I work full time in costing and estimating for a company that builds offshore oilfield equipment. That precious time not working has been taken up by everything imaginable. I've come to the conclusion that if I don't rearrange my priorities, I will never publish a book. That is where I'm at. My plan is to have something written and properly edited by the end of 2015. Would love to hear from anyone in the same boat who is working full time and trying to write.

A Year Later

Hard to believe it's been a year since publishing anything here. Although I am still working on several projects, procrastination has had it's way quite a bit in that time. Getting more focused and determined to get something complete, and have a goal of doing just that before 2013 ends.

The times have changed dramatically from when I first had a thought about writing and publishing back in the 1980's. I remember spending forever writing what was to become my first finished novel, and then forever again to revise and re-revise over the course of a year to get it to the point where I felt it presentable enough to send out into the world of publishing.

Since I did not keep a record back then, I can only guess that I remember sending it to at least 3 dozen agents, and perhaps a handful of smaller publishers. I did not expect a quick answer. I knew that it could be weeks and even several month's before I'd hear anything yay or nay. I waited the appropriate amount of time before sending any follow ups. In the end, I received one hand written reply from an agent who told me my story was good, but it just wasn't what she was looking for. Besides a handful of form rejections, there was a whole lot of nothing. All that work which I'd hoped would be a benefit to myself of course, but also to a publisher with whom I would work with, was more or less ignored.

This is why I find it hard to feel sorry when I hear about the "big houses" losing profits, and having to chase down successful Indie authors for book deals. I'm sure Amanda Hocking and others have good reason to accept offers from the very people that looked down on them and would not even reply to queries two years ago, but.......

I am still planning to get a professional edit done, and self publish my book when complete. I know if I can manage to promote enough and get the word out, it will be a big success. What would I do if a large publisher approached me after I've sold a large number of books and wanted to represent me? I might want to ignore them so they know how it feels. In reality, I guess it depends on how much money I've made, and whether I'd want to share the profits of my work in exchange for the bigger 'reach' that a big publisher could offer, and if I could put the 1980's out of mind once and for all.

Wow, been away from here too long dealing with writers block, work, work, and more work. Got to figure out how to eliminate the work aspect entirely! Anyway, work is eliminated this week due to the fact that I am on vacation. This will be a stay at home type of vacation which is what I seriously need to get the business of writing fired up again. Who knows, maybe one of those lotto tickets I bought will bring the change to our lives that we dream of. A move out of the city. A nice piece of land, and a nice home out in the Texas Hill Country where unlimited writing time, and maybe some vegetable gardening will be the order of the day!

Mother's Day 2012

First off, a very happy Mother's Day! Once again, another weekend has flew by. Unfortunately, not a lot of writing progress this weekend. If things continue like this, I may have to revise my hoped for date of completion from mid to late summer, to fall. That particular date is when I would have the book complete and edited to the best of my ability and ready to have professionally edited.

Seriously need to get re-focused on the task at hand!

Well, good old writers block has hit me this weekend - which is my prime writing time since I work a regular job Monday--Friday. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Since I have not been here glued to the laptop, at least I was able to get some overdue chores done around here today.