Writing + Life

Hello my lovelies! How have you been?

I’ve been doing lots of fun stuff!

As you know, I started my author Facebook Page, which you can check out here or search for Wynelda Ann Deaver. It’s fun! But it’s also kind of weird. We are running a contest, if you Like the page, Like the contest Post, Share and leave a comment, you’ll be entered to win a $25 Gift Card (Barnes and Nobles, Amazon, Starbucks, ETC). That is being run here , but you need to like the page anyways! We’ll give away the card at 100 Likes.

Oh hey. I keep saying WE a lot up there, don’t I? Yes, they lovely and talented Leyla is helping me. In addition to having a sharp mind and being an evil thinker like I, she is also my niece. It’s so totally great being able to bounce ideas off of someone who A) knows where I’m going and B) also knows when to reel me in.

Last week, I was also introduced to Nicole Blackwell. She has a great magazine coming up, called City Express, all about highlighting the positive in the area. I’m writing a couple of essays for it, the first one is done and over there. It’s not currently for pay but it does fall into my Greater Good folder.

What’s a Greater Good Folder? It’s things that I write because I believe in the cause. Because I believe enough in the cause to donate my time and or talents. That doesn’t happen often, and believe me I’d really prefer to be paid. But I’m getting something more than just a published clip out of it too.

Broken my lovely paranormal urban fantasy that I LOVE SO MUCH got a rejection last week too. But they also gave me lots of direction on where to go, and I think my lovely writing buddy **waves at Rie** might just help me out. The story isn’t broken, hehe, just bent.

And now finally! We’re running a Facebook Launch Party for Avast, Ye Airships! I’ve never done one before, and I kind of ***ahem*** threw Rie under the bus on this one (sheesh! And she’s such a good friend! I need to be much nicer!) yet again. Of course, I am helping out! Really! I am! You can ask her! It runs on February 28th, from 7pm Eastern to 11pm! You need to drop by, it’ll be loads of fun!

So a little bit of bad, but a whole lot of good going on. Trying to keep the bright, sparkly day’s going. And be a good mom.

I’ll have more soon, my lovelies!

Guest Post: Jeffrey Cook on Building a Story

Welcome another Pirate, Mateys! I love hearing how other writers get their ideas, don’t you? You can catch him at his website, www.authorjeffreycook.com or his Facebook Page  or on twitter at @jeffreycook74.

When approaching new projects, in whatever genre, I tend to start with the characters, and then build the world around them. When writing the Dawn of Steam series, my first venture into Steampunk, I hadn’t specifically intended to write a Steampunk series. Instead, I woke up one morning from a waking dream with two of the characters almost fully fleshed out. I wrote down the ideas before I lost them, and then started to research a world where both of them would fit. 

    A few friends introduced me to the Steampunk genre. The Victorian Age wasn’t quite right for my characters, but had a lot of the right elements. I researched further back in time as my story took shape, its timeline mostly following history, but including a few points where specific events happened that allowed for an Earth that was moving towards a Steampunk reality. Because of the two characters who showed up first, the story became “Emergent Steampunk” — at least one potential story explaining where reality may have shifted to make a lot of common Steampunk tropes “true.” From that focus came the title of the overall series.

   Katherine Perkins and I followed a similar process for some short stories. When we were presented with an anthology looking for stories, looking to reach a wider Steampunk audience in general, we worked together on two characters, Luca and Emily. They fit into a more standard Victorian Steampunk reality. Most of their stories involve a real world event and occasionally real historical figures of the 1880’s and 1890’s. Our Avast submission, “Maiden Voyage,” ended up a little different for lack of real-world airships — but it’s still first and foremost about the characters and how they ended up shaped by and shaping the technology and social mores of their time.

Guest Post: Amy Braun and Juggling the Writing Life

Hello, My Lovelies! I want to introduce you to one of my fellow pirates, the lovely Amy Braun!  She’s on twitter @amybraunauthor or you can find her blog here. Avast, Ye Airships! will be out on February 26, and you can find lots more information on it here.

Thank you for having me guest post, Wynelda! You asked me to offer my thoughts about juggling writing and life, which I thankfully know how to manage.

The Internet is the best tool for writing advice. You can find tips on how to create a story, draw inspiration, technical and publishing techniques, any and everything you might need. But there’s one piece of advice that I always see, and hold higher than all the others.

Write as much as you can.

Now, I’m not married and have no children, but I do have a full time job that takes up my entire day. So with every second of spare time I have, I write. It’s become a habit, something I’ve integrated into my life so completely that not writing will actually make me uncomfortable. When I have my breaks or have run out of things to do at work, I type on my phone (not the handiest tool, but it’s less conspicuous than my laptop). It doesn’t matter if I don’t use what I end up writing. The idea is to do it. Make it part of your routine, and you’ll see that you can’t stop thinking about it. You want to complete your tasks quick and efficiently to get back to your words.

I also started setting goals for myself. My weekend falls on Mondays and Tuesdays, which I use to get massive amounts of work done. On a good day, I can edit through an entire story or write around 10,000 words.

The best advice I can give is to simply make writing part of your life. Not as a job, but as something you can use to unwind and release your creativity. I find that no matter how stressful my day is, if I start writing, I feel better. The words come out and if I get writers block, I move onto something else. I never, ever, ever stop writing. These days, it’s not so much a habit as it is an integral part of my life. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Guest Post: The Creative You

Please give a warm welcome to fellow pirate Steven Southard . You can catch him over at his blog, here, where he has been kind enough to interview several of his fellow authors (including me! )

Thanks, Wynelda, for this opportunity. In one of your blog posts [April 21, 2014], you explained why you write, and I liked the part where you said you write because you “have to. A compulsion, a spilling forth of part of your soul…” I’d like to extend that further.

My theory is that everyone, everybody (yes, I’m looking at you, Reader!) has a similar, soul-born compulsion. Not necessarily the compulsion to grab a keyboard and pound out a novel, but an inner drive to create something.

For some of you, it’s a story; we humans love stories. For others it’s an abstract thought, an idea.   Whichever it is, you then turn to the problem of expression, of conveying that inner notion to others. Some turn to sculpture or painting. Others turn to music or dance. A few turn to writing. There are many creative outlets and each of you finds one to try.

Your first attempts are earnest, fueled by that soul-spark, but also a bit tentative and maybe even playful.

Then the problem starts. You get partway done, or maybe all finished, and you gaze at what you’ve made. You hate it. The real-life creation is nothing like you imagined. It’s crap. You know others would hate it too.

Moment of Truth time. What are you going to do now? Will you conclude, as with a thousand other failures in your life, you gave it a try, but you’re obviously no good at this?

Or will your inner fire find a voice that pushes through your feelings of inadequacy and disappointment? That voice might say, “I’m still here, deep inside. I’m not going anywhere, so you’re going to have to deal with me. Either put in more practice at what you’re doing, or find some other creative outlet, ‘cause I’m here to stay, and I’m going to shout even louder from now on.”

What will you do in your moment of truth? The world is out here hoping you’ll listen to your soul.

Hello Darkness, my old friend

I have in the past suffered from what I call situational depression. In the past, it has reared it’s ugly head when I was unemployed. All the classic signs of depression– excessive tiredness, not wanting to do anything. Every day, being overwhelmed with the feeling of hopelessness. The stoppage of writing.

Something has been bothering me for a while.

The symptoms were there.

I chose not to see them.

Because I’m working. It can’t be the same situational depression if I’m working, can it? Well…. apparently, yes, it can. So I sat down with my dad on Saturday morning and had a long heart to heart with him about what’s going on. He didn’t offer advice— by this point I knew what was going on.

I started making the changes that I need to make to feel better. One of them was admitting and recognizing what the problem is. It’s not something that will go away over night, but it is something I can work on. I have to work through the feelings of inadequacy to do that… But hey.

I can do that.

One of the nice upswings of this edition of my old friend D. is that I am still writing. I am still getting up and moving. I go to work every day, make it through the day. Even though I get home and collapse, I still get back up and do dinner and homework with the prince. I’ve also been working on other projects that help push it away bit by bit.

This time is different. I am going to break this cycle.

I am more than this.

If i keep telling myself that, and taking the steps I need to…. Maybe I’ll be able to step back out into the light. Nope, I take it back. I’ll be able to step back into the light more quickly.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back at the writing posts with a guest post from my fellow pirate, Steven! He was nice enough to do an author interview of moi, which you can find here.

Talk to you soon, my lovelies! Be kind to one another

Avast! Ye Airships!

Coming February 26, 2015  the anthology that I love love love! Avast, Ye Airships!, Edited by Rie Sheridan Rose.

I love even more that I actually did make it in!

Why the vote of no confidence in myself?

Steampunk is a genre that I came to a few years ago. Rie, actually, is the one who suggested Gail Carringer to me, and it was love at first read. But it’s not especially in my wheelhouse, writing wise. I’ve never attempted anything other than traditional fantasy or paranormal/urban fantasy. And on the last, I just finished the first complete manuscript.

So. We have a sub-genre that I love, but am wholly intimidated by. How does a poor writer deal with that?

Wellll………….

One of the things I have been really wanting to do was a tribute to The Secret Garden by Frances Hogson Burnett. Not a straight retelling, but more of a nod to a story that meant so much to me growing up. Since receiving my first copy (coughcough) years ago, I have never been without it. It speaks to me.

I know you’re going to love it!

And that cover! Swoon!

I will try to get my fellow pirates to come over and play with us, too!

Say it with me now… “Ahoy, ye mateys!”

Argh! I couldn’t resist *big grin*

Talk to you soon, my lovelies!

Meanderings

This weekend has been a bookish weekend. Elizabeth Haydon returned to her Symphony Series after 8 years, and I missed it! Thankfully, only had 2 books to catch up on :) And yes, I’m on the second one.

Other than that, it’s been writerly bookish stuff. Writing a short bio for the anthology I’ll be in next month (much more on that soon, promise!) as well as doing my edits. I hate edits. The Boy says “Editing makes Mommy mean!” All I can say is… Out of the mouth of babes…. I don’t know why this happens every time. It’s not like I hate what’s being said, or that I’m offended. All of the edits make the story much better.

But editing makes Mommy mean. I’m going to have to work on that.Also need to start thinking of my next project. I have one  that is kind of a serial/ series but need to find out what’s going on with part 1 first. And of course, my poor Goblin Queen. Need to do something with her soon.

Met with my lovely and talented assistant for my Author Facebook Page. We will be having contests there pretty soon, so go take a look. Hit Like. You know you want to!  The first contest will be a $10 Starbucks Card, to be done at 50 Likes on the FB page. It should be up and running on Monday.

Why a Starbucks card? Well… In Clickety Clackety, the first short story in The Golden Apple and Other Stories, coffee plays a part in it. Specifically Irish Creme Coffee, but Starbucks doesn’t carry that hehehehe.  So you are free to get your favorite beverage of choice :)

I’ll be over on the MMP Blog tomorrow, too. Come by for a visit! You can also check out all the other fabulous authors we have there.

I’ll do a cover reveal over here tomorrow. The anthology is going to be great!