Of late I have been fighting with motivation to post articles to my blog.

Mostly it’s due to the fact that most of my mental ability is drained by work. So, understandably, I nap on the 30-minute train ride home.

The past week I have succeeded reading articles in The Writer, or By Darkness Hid (by Jill Williamson, Marcher Lord Press). A couple days I was even able to write a couple hundred words in my 2009 NaNovel WIP, Silver and Iron.

It will be an exercise in practicing diligence and discipline, and that is definitely something I am willing to practice. Writing would be lost without diligence, and my life would not be the same without writing.

This past week I have also been fighting with the PDF proof review process at CreateSpace. I don’t remember it being this much of a horror last year, and that has me wondering if it is due to the fact they have merged with BookSurge.

Why would that make a difference?

BookSurge was a P-O-D publisher that charged money for each individual publishing plan. Now that they have merged with CreateSpace, they have begun marketing their different publishing plans.

Don’t get me wrong! All of those additional options are fantastic, but I am a very hands-on type of person who has the necessary tools at her disposal to create the covers and insides herself. I don’t need help. So it is understandably aggravating when the dpi is at the recommended level (300) and yet they tell me it isn’t… o.O

Just a frustration that has been costing me a lot of time babying the document when I can see by the specs that it is just fine!

*ahem*back on task

SO, in order to try and keep busy with some aspect of my ‘writing career’, I perform marketing of To Save a Soul on goodreads.com and authonomy.com in hopes that it will boost awareness and get more manuscripts sold.

Thanks to Tommie Lyn for the nudges she gives me to different websites here and there that help with that process. She has been instrumental, especially with getting me the names and links of those people who are willing to review my manuscript for free. It’s nice to be able to see the reviews on a website, or the quotes on the back cover of my book. I hope all you writers out there experience that same thrill at least one point in your life before you give up on the pursuit of being a novelist… or you die.

Morbid, I know. My apologies. I’m tired and a bit punchy.

The reading and interaction with other writers is priceless – I cannot stress that enough. Not only does it allow me the opportunity of viewing other styles, but it influences my own voice. The encouragement I feel, the gumption to press onward, the determination to try yet another draft or turn of page… I wouldn’t have them without the interactions with others.

I probably wouldn’t be in print, and on Kindle, now if it wasn’t for the firm and loving words of my husband and my friends at CW. After all, I can’t hold my manuscripts close forever. Like children, they must be set free so that they – and I – can grow.

Support a writer: Read Books!

To Save a Soul proof required alterations to the cover. Can’t settle for anything less than perfect. So, I resubmitted the cover and the inside and now await their approval. Then I will need to order yet another proof and wait for it to arrive before I can approve it and send it to the presses!

Another lesson for patience. -_-

• I redesigned the cover for my dramatic romance, Of Damsels and Dragons.
• I submitted an application to goodreads to be recognized as the author of To Save a Soul
• I found the website: WeReviewYourBooks.com from the Self-Published Authors forum thread at Amazon.com
• Apparently I registered for the 2010 Writer’s Renewal Conference without even knowing it! So now I’m trying to find out if it was my husband that did it, and if he paid for it as well.
• Got approved as the author on Goodreads for To Save a Soul, and was approved as a member of their Author Program
• Entering To Save a Soul in a giveaway program through goodreads starting April 1st

What is still on my list to do today?

• workout
• work on Silver and Iron
• work on something writing related

Blogging is a great way to receive instant gratification for the writing craft.

The past few weeks I have been experiencing the rising conviction of needing to spice up the life of my blog. All the other writer blogs (and articles about blogging) I have read of late may be to blame.

Not a bad thing.

Yesterday I made the decision that it is/was a good conviction. One that I should act upon, especially if I am dedicated to fanning the fire of my writing passion after a 3-year cold spell.

My challenge now is deciding how to find the purpose for my blog. What do I have to say that is unique to anyone else? What do I offer as a writer, and as a Christian woman, that has not been said multiple times before? What can I relay about my escapades with writing, and the writing craft in general, that will help others who venture down this same path?

The other conviction came while I watched TBN (trinity broadcasting network) and their round-table discussion about the prophetic voice. It wasn’t the first time the conviction had smacked me upside the back of the head, either.

What conviction? you ask?

That of needing to dedicate more [serious] time with the Lord, be it reading the Bible, prayer, prayer journaling, or reading a devotional. Something must be done if I am to re-ignite my passion for Him as well.

In fact, it is the passion for Christ which allows me to be so passionate about writing and living the life He has blessed me with.

SO – my first step is to find a new focus for my blog. To hone it, if you will, and dedicate myself to a scheduled update. No more willy-nilly frittering.

Writing is fun. It is enlightening [at times]. But it is still hard work.

Long live the glutton for [writing] punishment!

My friend K.Jay sent the last images I had commissioned of her! I can hardly wait until I get home and integrate the color busts into my book trailer for Silver and Iron. The b/w sketches will be integrated into the 2nd edition printing of book 1, To Save a Soul. Hopefully I will be able to persuade her to sketch more for the internals of Silver and Iron. Especially one of Mun facing off with a werewolf! Wouldn’t that be exciting?

It’s my goal to be done with the revision of To Save a Soul by May 1. I also need to be done with the story and the 1st revision of Silver and Iron by June in order to receive my free proof copy from CreateSpace. >.< Busy, busy!