It's Never Too Early...but it can be too late

With the advent of fall, the creative juices for most of us NaNoWriMos start to flow a little more freely.  We're all aware of that fateful day in November when we will see what we're made of - if we can truly manage 50,000 words in a single month of madness.  Since I first started participating, I have loved every moment of the struggle, and the reward of simply winning.  

With this in mind, I dove head first this year into a greater level of responsibility by applying to be my local municipal liaison (which I have yet to spell successfully on a first attempt).  It is an opportunity I am so excited to partake in that I get a little bubbly just thinking about it.  This year will mark the fourth and final book in a series (though I have already decided on add ons for coming years about other characters and the "what if" years after high school).  It will be a year of truly wonderful beginnings and less than wonderful endings.

However, this will also be a bittersweet year.  The inspiration behind my character who is set to star in November just passed away unexpectedly.  Wendy was truly the most remarkable, loving, caring, unselfish being on the face of the planet, and I cherished my friendship with her.  She was everything that people should aspire to be.  She was my friend when I was still a neurotic girl, barely more than a teenager, and she remained my friend for over a decade.  She helped push me into publishing, she always encouraged me to write, and she read everything I ever sent her.  The greatest tragedy is not that I never told her what she meant to me - I did but I could have done more - no, the greatest tragedy is that stories she had wanted to know the end to will never be read by her.  She will never know how Nora and Ivan survive their teenage years, she will never know how Scarlett finds out about her father.  Most importantly, though, she will never know all that Mary Usher has to offer.  Mary Usher was based on Wendy, and the hidden strengths of such a sweet, loving woman were set to come out in this young girl.  

There is no question in my mind that Pandora will be dedicated to my wonderful friend.  I just wish that there had been time to tell her what would happen, how it would end, so that she would never have had to wonder while I struggled with the time to put to paper all the complexities mirrored in her fascinating soul.  

For those who believe that the dead watch over us, I hope you're correct.  I hope that for a few, brief moments, Wendy might be able to see that without her in my life, I could never have even had the ability to even try and live this dream.  

Emotions are the fuel that fans a writer's flames.  We live and breathe love, hate, and everything in between.  But sorrow and tragedy are harder still to articulate, especially when we are still mired in the midst of them.  I can only hope that in six week's time, when the world of writers comes together to frantically put together their stories, that I can do justice to my friend, and tell mine.

-L.E. 

Queries, the horror, the horror

Well, let's just start this off by saying query letters will be the making or breaking of me. I'm fairly certain I am not alone in this belief. 

Having said that, and having also gone on record as saying that I publish for my own purposes, not to make money, I think I might need to clarify why, if self publishing is what I do, queries should even matter.

Anyone who has ever written a story and believes it to be worth publishing knows the agony that follows. First there is the challenge of sifting through the mountains of rather erroneous information on the web for anyone willing to accept un-published authors. Honestly, publishing industry, how is anyone supposed to start if you won't even let us submit without an agent, most of whom are unwilling to accept unpublished authors? Does this seem like a Catch-22/ Kobayashi Maru situation to anyone besides me? 

I digress. 

Why, then, the renewed interest in that horrid exercise of query letters? I blame NaNoWriMo. Yes, November is that wonderfully awful month where writers churn out tens of thousands of words and I was no exception. I managed to "wins", and wrapped up another just as the month began. But then comes the "Now What" phase.  It just so happens that this year, the "Now What" is Pitchapalooza, where we silly writers have to cram down our pride and joy into a measly 250 words and, really, hope for the best. 

About a decade ago, I worked long and hard to get my book, First Bite, out into the publishing world. I was rejected by several agents and most simply never responded.  I'm not sure which is worse, but it left a bitter taste in my psyche that made me never want to go that route again. I opted instead to publish my own works, because, really, that was all I really wanted. I've been relatively content with CreateSpace and I'm trying out Pronoun (eBooks only). I do promise to post updates as I get the hang of it all. 
And here we are, circling back to the point at hand. Ten years ago, there were dozens of sites about how to write the "perfect pitch". Now, there are dozens of sites about paying money to be told how to write the perfect pitch. No offense, but I highly doubt shelling out hundreds of dollars is going to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. Regardless, for those who, like me, have tried in vain to find a site that just helps us WRITE the pitch, might I suggest the following?http://thewritepractice.com/dreaded-query/ (This link is not done with any sort of benefit in mind, or endorsement, or whatever leagal paraphrasing should be here. This is just me, a struggling writer, directing fellow struggling writers to a site that actually gave some information about the query itself, not about how to pay to be told to write a query.)

And so concludes my foray into the world of writing queries. It's brutal work for an author. It truly terrifies me to have to condense my entire written work into such a tiny word constraint. I feel as if my characters and I will slowly suffocate, but there you have it. When Pitchapalooza goes live, I'll share my pitch here, and maybe some kind souls will vote for me, give feedback, or just say hello. I'm not picky.

Good luck to all struggling artists out there. Know that tonight especially, I feel your pain.

L.E. Gibler

Nothing Ventured...

One of these days, I am going to sit down and write a long blog about how much I hate statistics class, but this is not that day.

(The mistake being the fault in taking statistics to begin with)

No, this day is all about trying new things.  Those new things today refer to the self publishing platform Pronoun.  

In previous self publishing endeavors, I have gone through CreateSpace.  Anyone who has wanted to see their words in print has probably at least considered this particular avenue, but having reached a point where the old is growing stale, I decided to branch out.

For those of you who were successful with NaNoWriMo this year, Pronoun was one of the offers.  I decided, what the hell, and signed up.  Now, it has, admittedly, taken me two months to finish, but then, well, that's life.  

Still, with a new platform, I decided to try a new everything.  Rather than the young adult fiction I have been working with on CreateSpace, I decided to throw into the world one of my more unique endeavors.  Death's End (link to come) is about Persephone, a reaper who collects souls for Death.  And I fell away from all the previous constraints about where a plot should start and end, and I'm sure I'll someday be reviewed mercilessly for my endeavor, but it felt so right for this story.  And what better story to share on this new platform than one that is a bit of a non sequitur?

So far, I have nothing but positive things to say about Pronoun.  They very helpfully had guidance for formatting, the process itself was painless, and I love the final product as it stands.  Going forward, who knows, but then:

I've decided to add on a quick note to this particular post.  While it will take me a week to have further updates on how well Pronoun works for me, and realistically even more time than that, I just want to say, again, to anyone out there who is interested, that if all you truly want is to hold your written work in your hands, then I can offer no greater option than Createspace.  I had some issues with cover and formatting when I worked with Lulu when I first started out.  They are set up almost identically, but I tried to shift my Lulu work from hardcover to soft and the images never made the cross.  So, if anyone out there is like me and just wants to hold their "precious", then I suggest going cheap.  Worst case scenario, you can always start from scratch later (which I hope to start in on later in the year as well - updates to follow).  For what it's worth, there is my two cents on the weekend.  Now, off to "creatively write" my research paper.  Ah, school.

*** Spelling corrections courtesy of my mother (who has finally read my blog)

Writing for the Sake of the Writer

Last weekend, I made a point of just writing.  I carved out a part of my Sunday and dedicated it to simply letting a few of my characters breathe.  Unfortunately, as Sherlock would say:

And so for the next three days, I had to battle through my own characters desperate for life and the constant responsibility that most of us are faced with.  Once, long ago, I suffocated a character.  He still hasn't forgiven me, and when I find myself in such a desperate place, I can feel him back there, tantalizingly close, but never to be fully realized.  If ever a character haunted me, it would be him.

However, having learned my lesson, I know better this weekend.  I won't be trying to let a few characters out with an exam on Monday and another on Thursday.  But it isn't like the soul of a writer can stay so repressed.  Something has to give, and rather than have it be my sanity, I found a way to feel at one with a touch of myself again.  And so we come to the point of this week's title.

When I first branched out in self publishing, it was because I had won my first NaNoWriMo, and it seemed such a waste of the opportunity to continue to let my stories sit in my bookshelf as binders and 8.5"x11" editions.  So I took the plunge.  There was never any real great drive to self publish and somehow, miraculously, become wealthy through it.  All that mattered was that I had shifted from being simply a writer into being an author, and that was enough for me.

I won't lie.  I still dream about being a well paid author, but I have to just hope that day will come when I can give a little more time to the endeavor.  For now, and just for me, I will continue to write as the stories come and the time allows.  But for the sake of my sanity, I found an outlet that should last me until the exams are over.  I've been writing and completing full stories for nearly a decade.  One memorable year, I wrote four novels.  I have a pletheora and for now, with not thought to any profit in the future, I will turn a few stories into books.  The only purpose is for me, and me alone.  And that, fellow writers and readers, is what should be our driving force.  If we cannot love what we write, why write at all?

Growing Up is Underrated

When I was a kid, I was hardly one to wish I was older.  I never dreamed of taking on the world at an age older than I was.  Life as it was seemed just enough.  Of course, the simplicity of childhood is like a dream that we spend most of our lives remembering fondly once responsibility has decided to take hold of us.  For me, the first step along that dreaded path was when I was nine.  The next, when I turned fourteen.  While it might be common practice to share everything on the internet, there are still parts of my life that I feel are private.  As such, the events that led me down a somber, responsible path will remain known to me and a select few people.  However, having spent more than enough time depressing my readers, I'll move on to the whole point of my latest ramblings.

For those of us who have shouldered responsibility for most of our lives, there is a time when one might start to feel like that is all we have.  I know for me, the years between turning fourteen and halfway to eighteen felt like the world had fallen upon my shoulders.  I lost almost all traces of the child I was.  I still read books, I have never not read books, but the spark within me that had once led at the young age of six to writing stories, was dimmed to the point of absence.  The only pleasure in writing to be found was in the assignments that were given out by my English teachers, mainly Mr. Canode.  Every once in awhile a story would pop in and consume me, but they were mere wisps of what could be, and they were easily enough satisfied.

The winter of my seventeenth year, I had an epiphany.  I cannot affix on the moment or the catalyst, but I realized in short succession that I had been burying myself for far too long.  I had to break free, to be able to embrace just what it was I could do.  That was the beginning of what would become this passion that now consumes me on a rather regular basis.  

However, the years of repression were not without their effects.  I started many stories that had been building in my mind, but until I was twenty, never finished.  Then, through sheer perseverance, an idea finally came to fruition in its entirety.  It was a ghost of what I had originally imagined, but it was complete, and that was the most important part.  When something like NaNoWriMo stresses to let your inner editor lie quiet while you just get that rough draft done, there is a very good reason for this.  After that, I finally found what had been missing, and I could embrace the wild side of me to let out story after story.  

This might sound dull, perhaps a little trite, but the single most important factor I have found to continue to write has been a new found love of childish things.  I buy My Little Pony toys (preferably those that still look like ponies), Disney Princess pencils, and I never miss an animated film with a happy ending.  But that was exactly what had been missing for so long, my inner child.  By embracing her proudly, I can now write the stories that fill my head, and I can smile about it all again.  After all, it's hard to take life too seriously when you're playing with your ponies.

For all those who have felt a need to break free from the day to day grind of life, try watching something quaint, colorful, and, most importantly, with a happy ending.  You might just find what you've been missing, too.  And always remember:

Until next time...

L.E. Gibler

Warm Fuzzies

In the realm of writers everywhere, we all know the feeling when a story just isn't going according to plan.  Some might call it writer's block.  I call it limbo. 

Now it is completely and totally reasonable to dislike and even fear writer's block. It's a crimp on stories begging to be written.  It sometimes feels like an itch you can't scratch.  But there is one silver lining to having it, and that is getting over it.  There is truly nothing more buoyant in my writing then when I had to gut out a tough section only to feel the story course through my veins and out through my fingertips once more.

There is no real, fail-safe cure for writer's block.  Most people who are writers, or read about writers, or just read, will tell those struggling to just write.  Write everyday.  As I've said in previous posts, I am a fan of letting things come to you.  If I am not feeling what I'm writing, it doesn't matter how many times I try and write to finish a thought, a sentence, an entire story.  If I'm not on the same page as my characters, I am wasting all our time on forcing issues.  Here are a few suggestions I have for anyone facing this problem that just feels like they've been banging their head against a brick wall for weeks.

1.  Write.  This may sound a bit hypocritical, but I am all for the idea that there is no ONE right answer.  There are many.  There can be wrong answers, but how we perceive the world will vary how we perceive an answer.  So, in the spirit of keeping an open mind, try to write.  It clearly works for a great many people.

2. Don't write.  Give up, put it in the bag, and tell your grandchildren that you once had a great idea for a novel.  This is, clearly, a terrible idea.  I don't recommend trying it.

3. Take a break.  But at the same time, keep your story close.  When I'm faced with an impasse, I like to jot down where I am in the story, where I think I'm going, and then I carry around a journal with me for however long it takes to get points a & b to meet.  Sometimes, I won't lie, this will take years.  Other times, it happens when I'm trying to go to sleep at night.  However, the point here is that it happens.

With NaNoWriMo half way over, it can be a time of severe writer's block followed by a touch of panic.  For this unique situation, I offer one more opportunity for those of us who are fiercely competitive.  We may be introverts, but that doesn't mean we still don't want to win at just about anything.  So try a NaNo word sprint.  And even if it crap, and you don't use it, set the goal that you're going to write more words than someone.  Doesn't matter who.  After all, this is a friendly competition.  Save all the rest of that pent up desire to crush opponents for the holidays shopping.  Spoiler: it's upon us now.

GOOD LUCK to everyone participating in NaNoWriMo this year.  I'm such a masochist that I'm working to finish story number two.  

Until next time...

A Mind of Their Own

So I know that last time I did promise a tale of why Smart Cars are not meant for off-roading.  Trust me, I haven't forgotten, but in the theme of my title, I feel compelled to share a few observations about writing.  To help summarize what I'll be covering in personal experience, fellow writers, please enjoy the following:

One of my favorite authors of all time, Elizabeth Peters, remarked on how a character she had meant for one book became a 20+ book series.  Love her or hate her, there was no denying that Amelia Peabody had a mind of her own.  Anyone who has ever put characters to paper knows just how opinionated they can become.  My own experience with such a character was in a novella I was working on.  I managed to get so far as the 3/4 mark and then I hit a wall.  I am not a typical sufferer of writer's block, but on that particular story, I just could not get the story going again.  Then, the very opinionated, very proper mother-in-law shared with me that if I would stop trying to make her the wicked witch in the story, I could finish it.  Low and behold (is that how you spell that?) the story was finished in less than a day after Matilda and I came to terms.  And to this day, when I think of Elizabeth Peter's comments about Amelia, I am reminded of Matilda.

Anyway, fast forward to NaNoWriMo 2015.  I have dedicated an entire series to be written only during November, and I'll admit to some trepidation this year as my main characters were twin boys, not exactly a subject I have a ton of expertise in.  However, they were the characters I had created, and they were where the story was headed.  I couldn't avoid that.  

This has been one of the trickier stories I've written in awhile, though, for while the tale centers on the twins, I had not realized how very different they were until I started.  And, having completed the first five chapters, it occurred to me that while the flippant twin, Patrick, and I got along just fine, I hadn't taken the time to truly get to know Peter.  I struggled for a few days trying to figure out how to get all the pieces to line up, but then the idea occurred to me that they were two different characters and it was time I treated them as such.  And so, yesterday, I wrote what was easy.  I wrote the chapters that were Patrick's, and Pat's alone.  Today, I dedicated my time and energy to getting to know Peter better.  The problem is that Pete's a bit shy, and harder to get out of his shell, but deep down, he's as much a part of me as his brother.  Maybe the true talent here will be in showing the world through this story my own insecurities.  Maybe that's what Pete has been trying to tell me all along, but I've been too afraid to notice. 

My advice to all writers out there, based on my own experience, is to give your characters that chance to tell you what you've been missing.  I can promise you you won't regret it. And those that take the most time to get to know are often the ones most worth knowing because they will change the story in ways you never saw coming.  And please, I would love to hear from fellow writers and/or NaNoWriMo participants.  Writers are not necessarily the most gregarious of people, but sometimes it can be wonderful to connect with another soul who understands and doesn't just think I'm crazy.

Next time, I promise, tales of Smart Cars.

P.S. I just realized that all of yesterday, when I was working on the separate chapters of my outgoing twin, I was super competitive about NaNoWriMo word sprints...oddly enough, when I separated the story completely to focus on my introvert, I haven't competed in one...I promise I'm not crazy, I'm just a writer.

In the Spirit of Giving

I am typically not one who embraces Christmas before Thanksgiving.  I've worked in the retail industry for most of my life, and if there is one thing that retail can ruin, it's the holiday season.  However, the true spirit of the holidays, the spirit of giving, has been something that inspires me year round.

Today is Double Up Donation Day with NaNoWriMo.  They have created incentives and prizes, and there's an entire online community getting into the spirit of giving.  And I have to imagine that while a few are like me, and happily take the prizes, we are still there for the real reason.  We are there to help others and to keep this wonderful tradition going strong.



To keep with the spirit, I decided to just treat today as a Donation Day.  In that spirit, I donated to the World Wildlife Foundation for no other reason than that it was a good thing to do.  I'm also a fan of matching donations, and so I will henceforth dedicate the proceeds from my NaNoWriMo winning book Caitiff Academy: The Tigress to the process that helped create it.  

When the holidays get closer, I know I'll be one to drop dollars into the Salvation Army bins, buy a toy or two for children, and otherwise do what I can.  I am not so financially lush that I can give enormous amounts, but I know that if we could all just give a little, a few lives can be made that much easier.  Whether that is a struggling student or an endangered species, here's hoping that we can all remember the spirit of giving, no matter what time of year it is.


In the spirit of the randomness that started this blog, tomorrow I will recap why Smart Cars are not meant to go off-roading.  

Until then:

Keep on, keeping on...
L.E. Gibler

Just Like Tea

Every writer has an opinion on how to write, and many who never put pen to paper to create stories have a few things to say as well.  The most common theme shared again and again is that you must write all the time, even if you don't feel like it.  Well, I'm here today to share my own opinion, which is to let your ideas percolate.

Very few people in this world are ever blessed with the opportunity to let their passion for the written word dictate their life.  Most of us have a plethora of ideas swirling around, but we must find time around the mundane world, to steal a phrase from the Society for Creative Anachronism.  For those of us who write when we can, the ideas don't stop coming just because we work.  They come to us at work, on the drive home, or even just before we fall asleep.  If we wrote every time an idea came to us we'd possibly lose our jobs, drive off the road, never sleep, or all of the above.  Now, I hate any sort of didactic statement.  If writing a little bit every day works for you, write a little bit every day!  I just want to put out the idea that sometimes writing can be like making a cup of tea.

For those participating in NaNoWriMo, you might have noticed that there is a badge if you manage to write for five days in a row.  I'm a highly competitive person.  Just last night, when I found someone in my region was beating me on the word count - something I was no accustomed to - I set about to go from roughly 3000 words to 10,000.  I came up with a rush of 7000 words last night, but that sort of explosion would not have been possible if I hadn't let the ideas of the day before seep.  Again, the competitive spirit means that I did put a few words into my story Monday night, but even I knew I was cheating a bit.  They were necessary words, and a scrap of conversation that would lead to a chapter, but I wasn't writing to create, I was writing to simply write.  However, I knew well enough that the trick was to let those few words set for a day.  Sure enough, as I was falling asleep that night, it came to me - how I needed to move the story forward.  For once, I was able to have a light bulb moment and go back to sleep.  But if i had continued to force the story from where it was, I would never have known just where I needed to go.  

So my one small conclusion is for those of you out there who find that writing everyday sometimes just feels a little bit wrong. That's okay too!  If the story feels forced, it will be forced.  Instead, think about it for a night.  Feel around like looking for a sore tooth.  What is wrong and what is right in a story will come to you, but it cannot always be forced.  For what it is worth, I support you fully if you decide not to write today.  But don't let your ideas die or wander off.  Keep them close, and they will become the perfect cup of tea.

Until next time...

It's That Time of Year!

Some people get excited about Christmas.  Others really wait and plan for that summer vacation. Personally, I am a fan of Halloween.  I mean, how many holidays encourage you to let your inner child out?  This year, my friend and book promoter/editor/inspiration-when-I'm-not-feeling-the-whole-book-thing, Jackie, and I decided that we had to celebrate the holiday by releasing my vampire-themed book First Bite (also with werewolves, elves, werecats, and more).  That was an adventure all on its own.  While I was pushing to finish the book's corrections and get the formatting down, Jackie was busy making sure her oldest boy was dressed appropriately to be what else but a vampire?  I promised her a shout out for her ingenious cape, and here it is:

However, in recent years, I've found even more reason to be excited by Halloween.  It is the last day of normalcy before the chaos that is NaNoWriMo.  My first endeavor with NaNoWriMo lead me to the fascinating world of Caitiff Academy.  I had always enjoyed a good super hero movie, but I had found myself wondering about the other side of the coin.  After all, a villain is only defined by her choices, and in the mind of a villain, she might be the hero and the hero the villain.  This idea spawned a universe where children of different backgrounds explored just what it meant to do what was right.  I fell in love with Annie Poe, the heart of the series, even as other characters came to life around her. 

This year, I was so busy from the end of July through October that all of my characters were bottled up inside of me.  It hurts to be a writer and have no outlet.  It also hurts to be a rider and be trapped by physical issues to turn a passion into a hobby.  But to have both held from me for three months led to waves of deep, unpleasant introspection with no real way out.  I wouldn't call it full depression, I don't want to take away from those who truly suffer, but I would have moods come upon me where there was nothing but darkness around me.  I was once surrounded by such thoughts all the time in my youth and massively unhappy all the time.  I was a certified pessimist, but somewhere in my seventeenth year, I found a freedom.  I broke free from a lifetime of self imposed expectations and began to take the first steps to becoming the person I was meant to be.  Slowly, I learned to let out my characters - to let them breathe and have lives and adventures all their own.  It took several years of trial and error to be able to let them out when I was able.  Being the quintessential struggling artist does tend to mean one must have a job to pay for life, but my characters didn't always work around my own timetable.  Finally, I reached a compromise to be where I am today.  

When I finally  had the freedom to write in the evenings, I unleashed a story that had been waiting to be told for nearly five years.  My first in the series, The Other Side of the Looking Glass, had been set aside for other characters like Annie and her friends, or the universe of Scarlett in First Bite.  But Nora finally prevailed, and I had a time crunch to complete her second story in two weeks - just in time for today, November 1st, the beginning of NaNoWriMo.  I am so happy to report SUCCESS!!!  As of today, Through a Rabbit Hole is complete in a rough draft.  

Now I can let the accomplishments sink in as I feel my Caitiff characters come back to me.  This year will be a busy one, and I don't just mean juggling's life's expectations with a book in a month.  No, this year is the year of Caitiff Academy: Gemini.  It's time to let the twins out, and it'll be hard to hold them in check for the forty hour work week.  I just hope that the life lessons that have led to this moment mean I'm up to the challenge.

GOOD LUCK to all fellow NaNoWriMo participants.  You can do it!!!!!!!

So Life Goes...

I'm relatively positive that I am not alone in wanting to shoot a computer, throw it out a ten story building, run over it with a car, or all of the above.  I've often thought of taking annoying computers and putting a "Free to Good Home" sign on them, but there is far too much sensitive data floating around in the world to risk it.  However, late last night, I was more than happy to have let someone have my old woolly mammoth.  

(My ancient laptop, which has been with me since I graduated high school, was so obsolete that no one else would touch it.  I adopted it fully, called it a dinosaur, and used it to write stories - with Microsoft Word 2001 - and watch movies.  Then, sadly, it's charger died and I was left without my dinosaur.  Enter the woolly mammoth, again, a device no one wanted, but my needs are relatively minor when it comes to computers.  I need Microsoft Office, and that's about it.  The ability to listen to music is a bonus, but I am not so picky as to need the internet.)

Jackie (my good friend and constant motivator for all things book related) and I had decided that my first book about vampires HAD to be ready for release on Halloween.  Somehow, around a full time job, a part time job teaching therapeutic horseback riding and an even more part time job just teaching horseback lessons, owning an entire herd myself and trying to cram for NaNoWriMo, I had to push to get in an entire book worth of edits by October 29th.  I'd paced myself early in the day, managed five chapters before work, and was well over half way through my latest book when the woolly mammoth decided to fail me.  It not only failed to save changes, it lost the file completely.  An entire book was lost to the unknown void that is my old computer.  I won't lie, I was in tears.  I wanted to break something, tear out wires, and baseball bats were sounding appealing.  But, for once, I didn't want to give up.  I had set a deadline, and I was going to make that deadline.

Fast forward four hours and three computers later, and I had done what I needed to do.  At one in the morning, slightly woozy from a lack of sleep and the remnants of the 48 hour flu, I could safely say I'd accomplished what I set out to do.  I went to sleep, resting on my laurels.

At eight this morning, I received word that the formatting was approved, and I was in the clear.  All I had left to do was proof the bare necessities before clicking that fateful button that would allow me to share my hard work with the world.  I suppose I should be happy that I thought to check one last time, for there, right smack dab on the cover, was a change I had missed.  Bear in mind, I was noticing this after I got home from work, through a sleep deprivation induced headache.  Now, I'm left wondering if I'm too late.  If all that crazy scrambling with one lone goal was for naught.  And the worst part is, I now have five hours to think about it.  To think, wonder, hope and fear.  

I suppose the moral of this story might be to get a new computer.  It's a nice moral, but not what I had in mind.  Someday, as Jackie pointed out, I will look back and laugh at what I have to deal with, but for now, it is what it is.  I choose, instead, to see this as a lesson in perseverance.  If I had given up the first time a computer crashed on me, I would never have finished my senior research paper.  I would never have finished my first published novel, The Other Side of the Looking Glass, and I'd be left with an unfinished book and absolutely no chance of a Halloween release for First Bite.  I guess, then, I've given it everything I have.  For now, I'll just continue to wait.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll find a little bit of luck at the end of it all.

For what it's worth, I can hope that by knowing of my difficulties, others might find some solace in similarity.  With NaNoWriMo quite literally only a day and a half away, perseverance is one of the greatest qualities anyone can have.

Keep rambling on...

L.E. Gibler


P.S. A link to First Bite will appear if the writing world is kind tonight..

Another November Gone

November is the National Novel Writing Month.  For those who have tried, failed, or succeeded to spin out 50,000 words in a month, you understand what an undertaking it is.  For those who haven't, you probably think the rest of us are a wee bit mad.

Last year was my first attempt at NaNoWriMo.  I've been writing since I was in the first grade, and I had finished close to 12 stories at the beginning of November last year, but I tended to keep what I did a secret.  I know I am not alone in my introverted ways as a writer.  My writing is personal, a piece of me, and it took the wonder of NaNo and the continued support of my friends to finally embrace this side of me.  But not just that.  It wasn't just about embracing, it was about sharing.  I had never shared what it was I did.  There is no doubt in my mind that without the community of NaNo, the opportunities that came with winning, and the feeling of accomplishment I would still be what I was.  Now I can say I am a published author.  Self published, but still, near strangers have read my work and that is something I could not have said before.

Now I might be an oddity in the fact that while I do not willing share what I do with others, I know what I do isn't half bad.  I have confidence in my writing.  Is there room for improvement? Of course, there always is.  Anyone who stops learning has stopped living.  But I do know that I have a talent that extends past simply putting words on paper.  And so I wait patiently, still writing, always writing, for an opportunity to finally shine.  That waiting game is what has prompted me to try furthering my self published works.  I said before that I would try and document these struggles.  And I tried, but life intervened.  

Now, it occurred to me rather belatedly, that what I should write about is not necessarily how to self publish.  There are plenty out there who have done this and done it far better than I can.  What I've decided to share is the process of becoming a writer.  If that means self publishing or floating ideas or taking a break and day dreaming, then that is what it means to me.  And I hope I can help others who struggle like I did in the shadows find the force that helps you to break through.  We all know the stories are in us.  We can talk to our characters, feel what they feel, but it is truly another experience to share those thoughts with others.  That is what all the fuss is about.  So good luck to all of you out there who are trying to find it within them.  Just remember we write for the sake of writing.  Making a penny on the side is just a bonus.

Having said as much, I have two books out in the world and I've decided to try different avenues for each.  I will be sharing what I find with the world for what good it does.

Ramble on...
L.E. Gibler

Update Volume 3

Oh my goodness there is SOOO much information out there about self-publishing, writing in general, forums, the like.  I know for a fact I have only scratched the surface with a single fingernail, if that, and I'm feeling just a little bit overwhelmed!

Today's great adventure, after a more mundane job interview to pay for the increasingly expensive passions/hobbies in my life, was to set up profiles.  Profiles for what, you might ask.  Well, there is this blog, that I feel I'm not quite fully covered on, my Createspace website (which I managed to update, but still don't have a picture for), Amazon in general (yeah, got lost on that), and Writers Carnival.  In a rare turn of events, I am going to shamelessly plug something that has almost nohting to do with me.  If you are a new writer, or you just like to put a few creative thoughts out there from time to time, join Writers Carnival.  I've never come across a more fun and supportive group of people.  I really expected the writing community to be all about htemselves, but so far that has not been the case.  The only small problem for me is that the writi8ng that goes on is all short, and in case you missed it, I'm far too verbose to manage something short.  High school papers were hell for me.  For my senior research paper, I fudged the page count by changing my font to 10.5 instead of 11 to make it under the 14 page limit.  Yeah, that's me.  If I can take an hour to say something someone else could say in five minutes, I probably will.

The other, not really about me plug for the day is NaNoWriMo.  I've been getting more and more updates, and I am so freaking excited!!!  I loved the crazy experience of writing a book in a month so much last year, that I wrote two.  And with the running of a 16+horse barn that finally closed to setting up my on the side teaching business (please don't tell the authorites), I haven't had any time to just write.  Hence the push on publishing.  Here's my tip of the day:  If you can't write, publish.  Anyway, I have an idea I'm having to hold on tight to that I am really hoping will just be unleashed come November 1st.  Oh, those thirty days.  On the bright side, those thirty days are in my favorite month.  

Who loves Halloween?  Pictures to follow, and they will be more horse related.  I just got Maleficent horns, maybe one of my mares will submit to having her picture taken with them...

Updates Volume 1

And so another day, another check list that will no doubt prove too long to accomplish in a mere twenty four hours.  

On the bright side, I have been struggling mightily with Lulu.com and the formatting of my cover, complete with the perfect image for my second book, Caitiff Academy: The Tigress.  (Shameless plug?  Maybe)  I switched over to Createspace, and viola.  In a simple morning at Starbucks, the groundwork is already laid, and I'm well on my way to where I want to be.  

I like to consider myself a realist.  I am not looking to publish the next great American novel, or to snag a massive contract, but I absolutely love the feeling of accomplishment that comes with knowing that something I created is out there for the world to see.  Would it hurt my feelings if a lot of people appreciated my work and bought in bulk? Absolutely not, I'm a realist not an idiot.  And no, this time, that was not a plug, just an observation.  I'm not publishing to make money, I'm doing it to feel like I've done something.  And you know what?  It's working.

Now, with November on the horizon, I am positively giddy at the opportunity to continue my new NaNoWriMo tradition and write book #2 in the series in a meager 30 days.  Last year I wrote book one in eight, so I think I should be fine.

As always, feedback is welcome.  Surely there are more people out there in the world with experiences to be shared. Until then, keep rambling on.