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..

Hello again, it's been awhile...

Wow, what a long while it has been.  I guess life can get away from us all, but rather than go into any rather personal details, I'll just continue on with the rather superfluous.

To start matters out on a high note, I did finally win at Camp NaNoWriMo.  Evidence below.

And I did finally create a website.  (legibler.wix.com/legibler).  Having a few hiccups with it, but I'm optimistic it'll be up and running before November.  

My list of things that I've accomplished is so small these days.  I've formatted eight books now, only have two done and ready.  Have nearly ten more to go.  Have November coming up, and a new story that is desperate to be let out into the world sooner rather than later.  I just have to hold onto my sanity a little longer and get through the weekend and everything that needs to be done before I let that particular demon out.

But a full time job, while lovely and dependable, doesn't leave much time for more than one other interest.  So, it's been something of a blessing in disguise to be plagued the last few months with back problems.  Books, therefore, have won out for the first time in my life over horses.  This might be why I finally was able to finish a Camp NaNoWriMo.  I've started several, but only November has been able to hold my attention all the way.  I have to believe I am not alone in this.

So, no one ever did respond to my previous attempts at engaging an audience.  However, I just want the great wide world to know that if anyone every identifies any of the songs I've littered throughout my very random blogs, I will hold to my bargain and send them a free book.  Keep that in mind, complete and total strangers.  

In the meantime, I hope that those who can write do. Those who can ride, do it for yourself, but do me a favor and don't tell me about it.  While I have come to terms with my current limitations, best not mention it.  I might be reduced to tears.  I think I feel a sniffle coming on...

I'll come up with something productive to say here at some point.  I'm really thinking that once I figure out how to make money publishing, I'll have to share a tip or two.  Of course, that is entirely dependent on actually making more than four dollars a month...

May we all just keep rambling on

Live and Let Die

In this ever changing world in which we live in (is that a line from a James Bond film?  I think it is...Live and Let Die), keeping up with the Jones' is near impossible.  I do not have full time internet access in my life.  Every morning may be spent at Starbucks, but that is a close as it gets.  The surface I have just been beginning to scratch when it comes to successful social marketing puts me on the short end of the stick.  

There are several key points that I have quickly come to notice.  1.) A lot of money can be poured into this life dream, but without a guarantee of any payback.  (Note: I do not have a lot of money.  I have a lot of horses) 2.) Social marketing is really an all day affair (See Note about having horses).  3.)There are far more people out there doing something similar to me.  It's downright awe inspiring and a touch depressing.  

And so here we are, well, here I am.  The odds are currently against me, but if there is one thing to learn from trying to attain the unattainable, it is that if you love what you're doing, then you're going to keep doing it.  I have joined no less than three chat groups, NaNoWriMo is just around the corner, and I'm trying to land a full time job.  If I can still squeeze in time to do the two things I love most in this world, then that will be what I determine success by.

In this ever changing world in which we live in, makes you give it a try, say live and let die. (Pretty sure that's not exact, it's paraphrasing.  What are the rules for citations on paraphrasing?  I write fiction, citations aren't really my forte.)

And finally, one last shameless plug for anyone who has made it this far in my blog.

 http://www.amazon.com/Caitiff-Academy-L-E-Gibler-ebook/dp/B00O2EQ8P6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1412446036&sr=8-2&keywords=l.e.+gibler

Update Volume 2

The great wide world of self publishing is a massive Catch 22.  On the one hand, a desire to be published can drive an author to send their fledgling creation out into the world.  On the other, any chance of success in this cut throat world is entirely dependent on a plan, and money, preferably lots of it.  I will freely admit to being one such conundrum.  In a fierce desire to have some sense of accomplishment, I have entered the fray of self publishing.  Two books are out there, for the world to see.  And please stay with me on the following (shameless) plug:

The Other Side of the Looking Glass
( http://www.amazon.com/Other-Looking-Glass-World-Walkers/dp/1499573510/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412114907&sr=8-1&keywords=l.e.+gibler )

Caitiff Academy: The Tigress
( http://www.amazon.com/Caitiff-Academy-Tigress-L-E-Gibler/dp/1502544431/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1412114907&sr=8-3&keywords=l.e.+gibler )
(Both available on Amazon)

So, back to the point at hand.  For those who crack, give up on big contracts just to feel a sense of accomplishment, the real world is out there waiting to remind us of our own smallness.  There is a certain feeling that comes with being an author, a feeling of being a part of another world. And that can be a powerful feeling.  Then, when the glow wears off, you begin to realize just what a small fish in a big pond you are.  However, I do feel a sense of accomplishment.  Without the availability of my own money, I will stay just that, a small fish, but at the same time, all seven copies are seven more than it was a year ago.  So, success, and yet still so much further to go.

Another funny point about self publishing: how many others just like you there are out in the world.  Funnier still, how they all seem to find you on Twitter.  So tip of my hat to all of those struggling just like me.  May we keep on keeping on.