Writer's Block...Second Hand

I have writer's block so bad that today I am posting a link to someone else's blog...wait for it...about writer's block.  Thanks Elizabeth Kaeton for letting me know I'm not alone.

Silence

Before the storm it was: getting ready for winter, cleaning off the porch, manning the tack sale, doing the books.  During the storm it was: scared of the roar, when will the power go, will the roof stay intact.  After the storm it was: silence.

It is beautiful to me that when the power is off there is total silence.  No fridge cutting out or hot water heater blurbling from the garage, or upstairs neighbor's washing machine or radon fans.  Just silence.  Though we only had 4 days of silence it was enough to make me understand why writers of Jane Austen's era could write so much easily.  Granted I didn't have my keyboard with which to peck away furiously but I did have the good old yellow lined paper. 

I wrote for days on end.  I sat in front of the living room window where I had moved my dining room table and I was disappointed when daylight turned to night.

But then, when the darkness fell, I put on my reflective bands and walked in the silence.  And finally, when it was still early and I wanted to stay awake, I gathered with friends by (battery powered) candle light and we laughed and huddled and were happy to be dry and alive.

Now is the aftermath.  I want to encourage you to contribute where you can.  Whatever charity takes your fancy.  Or, if you live nearby, volunteer.  After the silence there comes the time to work.

Wonderful Book Promotion

One of my fellow authors is also raising money for Riding With HEART, a place close to MY heart.  Please support her as she gives all her profits on her launch date to this wonderful place.

Yeah, really

Format Wars

(for Lora and Lexa – a plea for compassion)

I’m in the midst of reformatting my first book.  You learn as you go along in self publishing and in learning you go back and revisit some (not all) things.  I got to thinking (as I was reading someone else’s book on Kindle that was badly formatted) about the two format wars that I have had with my two editors and I wondered why I had them.

Both of these ladies are professionals. As such they wanted my final product to look as if it came from one of the top houses, well formatted (both text and cover) with elegant fonts and proper pagination.  The wars I had were not really over the looks of the books (both looked really good when they got finished with them) but over the software and font availability they offered me.

You see, I’m also a cheap, self published author.  I can’t afford the In Design program or the purchase of a $199 font when other, acceptable alternatives are available.  It isn’t so much the finished product that was the problem, it was the fact that in order to change anything I wanted in the book I would have to go to someone that had those programs on their computer to get things changed. 

This thought makes me shiver.  One of the reasons that I am a self published author is because I like to do things my way, and, where appropriate, I would like the freedom to change things, correct errors that both the editor and I miss and then republish the book on my schedule.  This is one of my primary failures, I revisit things.  But it is the advantage of self publishing that I CAN do that.

So, sorry Lora and Lexa, I will always ask for my document back in word format and I will always ask for a font that doesn’t cost more than a buck fifty.   It’s a prerequisite of working with independent authors.