Something New...

And what else would be new?  Over the course of this blog, I have written about horses, start up enterprises, writing, and even Smart Cars.  So, one might ask, what possible reason could I have to swtich strides yet again?

I've decided to stay pretty near to just writing on this blog from here on out.  I'll make detours (see the blog on off roading Smart Cars - literally a detour).  And with that in mind, the following posts will be geared from a writer's standpoint. 

I am a writer who has grown up on Microsoft Office, specifically Word.  I feel vaguely apprehensive when I have to work in different programs.  Word is what I know and what I'm comfortable.  Being a strong Microsoft person, I have had little interaction with anything Apple since I was in high school.  (For the great unknowing public, that was 12 years ago - I have officially hit 30).  Being back in school (nearly done with my AA - now exploring a Masters program after my BA...so basically two years down, three to go if I'm lucky), I found myself in a small conundrum.  I have a family computer, but I don't have a great deal of time to use it other than late at night and a laptop that doesn't always want to turn on.  I suppose this makes me sound a little bit shallow.  Here I have a computer and a laptop, but I'm embarrassed by how slow it moves.  Other people less fortunate than me don't have laptops, and rely on public computers.  I get that.  I do; I really, really do.  For me, however, it is an inconvenience that I had put on my radar to remedy.  My goal was to have a laptop that I could use once I started my Junior year at WSU.  

Playing on the fact that there are many without computers, I'm sure most of the world is well aware that they are not cheap.  A well functioning laptop that can last is even less so.  My parents looked for me right around my momentous birthday, but nothing worked out.  It had been pushed by my family to become a graduation present (graduation with my AA, not my BA).  Then something truly remarkable happened.

The general manager at my job quite literally came up to me this week and asked, point blank, "Do you want a laptop?"  He then handed me his MacBook Pro.  I was a little too startled to fully grasp what had happened, and then he showed me the battery that had completely imploded.  He told me it was still perfectly good to work with as long as it was plugged in, and that was an end to that.  I did, somewhat hesitantly, ask him a little later if this was to be for work only or if it was just mine.  The answer, well, let's just say this has been a week of miracles.

And so, let me pause to say a huge thank you to my manager, Tim.  This is amazing, and words don't really do justice.  I have a MacBook that looks to carry me through college.  Truly, three days later and I'm still a little bit speechless.

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, though, but as I mentioned, my experience with Apple products is severely limited.  Like any true child with a new toy, I powered on the laptop at work just to see if it functioned.  (A reasonable thing to do, right?)  It did, but I had not idea how to move around in it.  My coworker had to explain that the enlarge and minimize my screen, I needed to look on the LEFT side of the screen, not the right.  When I took my prize home, I spent my evening learning the bare essentials, like where the mute button was.

Now, to end all my rambling, I have given an overview of where I am going.  I am going to write, in the simplest form possible, how to survive a transition from Microsoft/Android based systems to Apple.  And I will dial it down to as short an answer as I am capable in the hopes that if anyone out there has a similar problem, they can check out a blog or two and find out that to right click your mouse, you have to put two fingers on the mouse pad.  Honestly, who thinks of this stuff?  

Anyway, I'm off to skim MacBook for Dummies and wrap my head around this wonderful, baffling addition to my life.  Stay tuned.

L.E.

(Just because no post is complete without a picture)

What If? (two of the most terrifying words imaginable)

Such a small word.  So simple in its appearance.  And yet so very, very daunting.

 What if I were to give up everything to pursue a passion?  
What if I were to tell a certain man how I feel? 
What if the world we create is simply a fantasy?

There are hundreds of writing prompts out there to jog the imagination down the marvelous paths and tunnels and waterfalls of the written world.  What exists with far less frequency are prompts to write nonfiction.  There is now a delightful phrase: creative nonfiction.  But for the life of me, I still struggle to grasp what it means.

For the longest time, I kept my passion for the written word to myself and my very, very closest friends and family.  Now, however, I am being asked to do something more.  I am being asked to share with others what I do, what I have, a time or two, been paid to do, and what, at times, I can be quite good at.

I am a writer.

Unfortunately, the caveat that comes with that bold statement is that I am a fiction writer.  As an only child, I was creating stories in my head long before I ever put them to paper, but for all that, now I must figure out how to turn a grand passion into a tool to be used at work.  Rarely have I felt so ill adept to the task at hand.  Now I must learn a new task, a new trade, and one I have very little experience in.  Now I must learn to write what is fact, with only the faint flourish of an artist's touch to help me along.

If I must first walk before I can run, then the problem becomes: how on earth do I learn to walk?  I am a writer, but my preferred medium is fantasy, with the occasional historical piece.  How on earth am I supposed to take that and turn it into something completely different?  I look at the task before me and feel that I am being tasked to turn straw into gold.

For anyone else out there who has faced a similar road, please share any insights.  I feel that I'm walking this road alone for a time, and while I am anticipating new opportunities to stretch my own limits, it does not mean I won't long for my comfort zone.  In the meantime, what insights I find, I will happily share, in the hopes that maybe someone might do the same for me.

Having expressed enough to feel a small burden relived, I shall now go back to homework, with the barest hint of contemplation for the daunting road ahead.

Rambling, but with a new direction now...
L.E.

Life 1: Writing 0

Writing is so much more than simply putting pen to paper or typing up a document.  It comes from our hearts and our souls.  But sometimes life steps in and we simply cannot express what we hold within.

I have found from a personal stand point that when I am stressed, I can't write.  Well, I can, but even when I'm with my characters, all I can dwell on is what could go wrong around me.  This is for those situations where there is no right answer.  When I'm stressed about issues that there is a set ending, I can still write.  In fact, my characters offer me shelter from the world around, but not this time.


Being a full time employee, a full time student, a writer (which, for those of you who write know it never really shuts off), and a part time riding instructor doesn't leave much time to do anything other than pack in a full schedule.  This week, with a statistics exam, I knew my ability to write was going to be limited, and I had a mental countdown for when it would all be over and I could write again.  That countdown was over Thursday night, but here it is Saturday morning and the only things I've written is this blog and a handful of necessary emails.  

By now, the creativity in my brain should be fit to burst.  The story that sits just behind my every conscious thought should be ready to come flying out, but I have the sinking feeling that if the starting gates were to open now, I'd be left standing.

And so we circle back to stress, that horrible thing that never really leaves us.  Stress about work, stress about money, stress about the current state of the economy or the potential presidential candidates.  Stress is everywhere.  This week's edition, though, is one instance that I cannot rationalize a way around, and I know full well that I cannot solve it in a way to make everyone happy.  That, to me, is the very worst.

One of my many commitments is to a therapeutic riding organization, where every spring and fall I work with kids with disabilities to introduce the wonder of horses to them.  This year, with the aforementioned schedule, I cannot carry through on all of my commitments and the stability of maintaining my job has to have precedence over everything else.  If, say, Monday morning I received a wonderful book offer, I might be able to have more flexibility, but let's be honest... And so I'm stuck here, knowing that what I have decided is the best for me, and, by extension, the least painful solution for everyone involved.  At the same time, however, no one can be happy.  And until there is some resolution, my stories will stay trapped within, waiting for this storm to finish.  Only then can we all come back to play.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I feel that this week's blog needs to start with that thought, because it has been a defining one for me this week.  

When comparing my two great passions in life, horses and writing, I once foolishly thought that horses would win every single time.  My thinking went something like: I don't have to write my stories to know how they end.  Right...

Now in the past, I have been a firm advocate for writing your own way.  Don't write my way (why would you?  It's a recipe for insanity), don't write the exact way Stephen King or J.K. Rowling write.  Write the way that you feel most comfortable.  If that is laboring over the proper placement of the furniture in a room for weeks before moving on with the dialogue, do that.  If it is writing all the dialogue and then belatedly recalling that there should have been furniture, do that.  Do what makes you feel free.  There is simply no other way to write.  We writers are both at liberty with our passion and controlled by it.  

This week, it became "life and death" imperative that I be able to write.  I felt a little like the Shining in my brain, and Thursday, on my way to my cellular biology exam, I was hit with blazing insight on just where my current story needed to go.  Talk about terrible timing.  However, I completed class, hurried home, and wrote until nearly midnight.  That was therapeutic.  Unfortunately, it left me a little too depleted the next day, and as the day wound down at work, I was increasingly out of sorts.  I knew my cure, and that was to write, but as soon as I finished more requirements (i.e. stats homework), I was left with nothing.  NOTHING.  This rarely happens to me.  Usually when it does, I'm okay with walking away for a day or so and letting my characters catch a breather as well.  This time, though, I couldn't.  I NEEDED them to speak to me, to soothe me, to make me whole again.  

Finally, after stepping away for half an hour, I realized that what I needed to do was step even further back.  Sometimes I write very sequentially, Chapter 1 is directly followed by Chapter 2, etc.  Other times, the plot twists and bits of dialogue come from all over the place.  This would be one of those times.  After finally taking the time to gather my thoughts, I decided that a session of story-boarding was in order.  I did manage to glimpse a tiny snippet of conversation between my characters before they left me for the evening, so the night was not a complete waste for writing in general, but, more importantly, after writing down all the twists and points I am hoping to accomplish with this story, I felt a weight lifted from my shoulders.  I might not have been able to charge on ahead at full speed last night, but I was able to plan where to go from here.  It might have seemed like I was going backwards, but the path ahead is so much more clear because of it.

My advice then is simple: never assume one way is the right way to write.  Play around with your own ideas until they work for YOU, not for famous authors or your friend who likes to blog.  After all, we are not here to write for their amusement but for our own sanity.

I hope that in my rambling way, I can empathize with my fellow writers out there who similarly share the agonies of a full time life and the passion for writing.  It's not a fun road to lead, but we wouldn't have it any other way.  As always, feel free to share your own thoughts on the matter.  We writers are also solitary creatures, yet secretly desperate to know we are not alone. 

Queries Again? (I must be a masochist)

Alright then, I've realized that in my absolute need to write about how incredibly expensive even writing a query has become, I left out a few important details.  Before I delve into said details, let me point out one small, rather pertinent fact:

I have never been accepted for publication by any major agents and/or publishing houses.  

As much as it may pain me to admit, that fact is true.  I have had a few queries garner a second look, but then nothing.  NOTHING.  Sad emptiness that makes me want to curl up in a small ball and feel absolutely worthless.  I am here today to try and make certain that anyone who stumbles upon this blog realizes that we are not worthless, not even a little bit.

Having said that, I now want to offer a tiny ray of hope in the query process as well.  After the first round of mindless "seminars" that you can pay to attend and receive pointers, there are still the tried and true basics of querying.  I'll be sharing the main points, and if I ever (fingers crossed) have a query accepted and then the manuscript accepted (a key caveat), I will share every painstaking detail for those who are interested.

Here are the bare bones (as far as I can tell).  My theory is that every little bit helps.

1. Start with a hook (the ideas for hooks are wide ranging, but a similar theme does seem to be something that strikes the reader's imagination and also give a tiny trace of the character to come - there were dozens of options, but other sites said "you must introduce the character here" - that seems to me to be code for do both)  

2. Introduce the dreaded synopsis (It is brutal, beyond words, to take a 50,000+ word piece of our souls and condense it to usually 250 words, but we have to at least try.  My best advice is to write everything you want to say, and would say if someone would but listen, then go back and rewrite the whole bloody thing, taking out superlative adjectives and any overabundance of plot points.  Stick to the basics, but make it interesting - I did read that it was important to show true plot, not just emotional baggage, and I liked that point - a lot) 

3. The less that is said, the better (this is particularly true in light of the word constraint, but also about yourself.  If you haven't been a well published or over-educated person in a minute field that over qualifies you - sorry, personal baggage decided to drop by - then don't point out that you have little to no experience - instead, give what audience the book might appeal to instead) 

4. Revise, revise, revise (Those 250 words - or 500, you might get lucky - will come a lot sooner than you think.  When in doubt, edit it until you are crying from the emotional toil.  Chances are that if you're like me, you'll have finally cut back on the superfluous words by that point) 

 5. And finally, edit (This might seem a bit obvious, but I am sure I'm not the only one out there who has sent an email and then realized - too late!- that the type font was different at the top or that a name was spelled wrong. Unfortunately, we can never get back what we've sent, so make absolutely certain it is as good as it can get - CAREFUL! though, don't overthink it, that will no doubt nix any chance of you ever sending it.  I personally would rather send something and have a small typo than never send it.  After all, if you never ask, the answer is always no)

And so we conclude my thoughts on the dreaded query.  I truly hope some day soon I'll be coming back to this page and editing it to give my personal experience in acceptance not rejection, but until then:

Down a Rabbit Hole Part 1

Oh my.  If I were being less than politically correct, there would probably be a few inappropriate adjectives as well.  Why, one might ask?  Well, let me share today's newest journey down the Rabbit Hole.  (I foresee this being an ongoing theme in the weeks and months to come, so it will be serialized.)

So, to begin:  I have mentioned that I am working with the new website Pronoun for an online only platform for my book, Death's End.  I went to that site today to update a few things, and down one hole I went.

Who knew that newsletters were a thing? I certainly didn't.  But having emerged on the other side, no doubt now in Wonderland, I have officially signed up for an account to now write newsletters to send to my readers (who I'm still trying to figure out who, what, where, when, even why they are).  Anyway, in case anyone is interested, here is a link. https://tinyletter.com/legibler.  For those wondering about newsletter's as I was, may I recommend the following website: https://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/the-how-and-why-of-author-newsletters/.  As for the rest of us, shall we see how far this rabbit hole goes?

After I emerged from that particular hole (and I'm not entirely certain I actually have), I went down another: my personal website and Facebook page.  I don't know about the majority of the population, but I am not a fan of Facebook.  I don't like sharing my "relationship status", and the amount of oversharing is truly staggering. That being said, I am well aware that there is a benefit to it form a business standpoint.  Having updated that as well as my author page courtesy of Wix.com, well...

Somewhere in the middle of my day, I stumbled upon Medium.  This does, for all intents and purposes, appear to be a website just for writing and reading.  On the surface, it sounds like a lovely idea.  (But let me not forget the very best such site, Writers Carnival).  As I do need to wrap up in order to complete my weekend without stressing over upcoming exams, I did not take the time to start down yet another rabbit hole and create from scratch works.  Instead, I thought it best to share a friend of the feline variety. (Secret Agent Cat Volume 1)

Now, having updated my personal website, my author's Facebook page, created a new account on Medium and a newsletter on TinyLetter, what is left?  Well, I think that would be for me to return to the mundane world and finish up my homework. Anything more, and there's no telling where this Alice might end up.

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