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Feb 21
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 Yesterday an amazing and kind man left this earth.
Benjamin Somerlot was only 28 years old.
He bravely fought a rare and painful form of bone cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma for the past two years. The last few months of this life were spent in excruciating pain, but he never complained. He was always more concerned about his wife and his family, all who cared for him selflessly during that time.
Benjamin is survived by his equally courageous wife, Catherine, the talented artist who designed the beautiful cover for Avalon Revisited.
She does not want gifts or flowers, but please send her words of loving support @catarionna or via email.
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Feb 14
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Twelve years ago today Ethan proposed to me.
He stood in the tiny kitchen in our little cabin in the woods of Northern California and asked me to be his wife. He presented me with this teeny tiny emerald ring. All nervous, he was so adorable.
I, of course, said yes.
Sometimes I look back at my life and I see how many awful decisions I’ve made, both in matters of business and matters of the heart, but marrying Ethan was not one of them.
In fact, marrying Ethan is likely the single best decision of my life.
Twelve years later we are still in love. Still adore each other. Still take care of each other. We’re closer than we’ve ever been, and our lives keep getting better. Mostly, because we have each other.
Throughout the pain and disappointments life often hands us, we have each other.
Perhaps it’s not in my cards to be a great author. To be a bestselling novelist. To be an extraordinary teacher or an inspiration to others. Perhaps I won’t ever do something that will make the world a better place.
Perhaps none of these things are in my future because I already got my great life’s wish: Love.
True unwavering love.
And I’d rather have that than any of the rest.
To my world, my heart, my breath, my soul, my other self, my everything:
Ethan Rose, you are my miracle. I love you.
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Feb 09
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Writers write what they know. Even if your story is set in a fictional, futuristic dystopian society, the characters’ behaviors and traits reflect what the writer knows. What the writer has experienced or witnessed.
This past Christmas, my mother gifted me with a tea towel that reads “Careful, You’ll End Up In My Novel,” and I loved it. Likely my favorite gift because it is so true. My agent, Louise Fury of the L. Perkins Agency, gave this advice to writers:
1) Be nice. Be gracious. Keep your cool and try not to get involved in the cattiness of online bickering.
2) You cannot write in a vacuum, so get out into the world and work, meet people and interact with other writers.
3) Sometimes the best writing can originate from an overheard conversation. But you have to experience the world in order to write about it. I believe that you have to live in order to write. You have to live. Period!” Read the rest of this entry »
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Feb 05
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“I’m A Writer.”
Guest essay by Maxwell Cynn to appear in the Author Essay section my forthcoming book on publishing & marketing realities for the aspiring author.
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“I’m a writer.”
A lot of people say that. But I don’t write to make a living, I live to write. It’s like eating, sleeping, or sex. Being a writer is more akin to being a sculptor than an accountant. It’s something that comes from within, unbidden, uncontrolled. Though it is possible to learn the technical aspects of writing, there must be a spark that transforms writing into literary art. But none of that really matters toward being published, and being published is the aspiration of most writers.
Publishing is a business. Publishing revolves around packaging, marketing, and selling books. That’s a hard lesson for many writers to learn. Like many aspiring authors I naively believed that the words are what sells books. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case. Some of the best writing sits unwanted in slush piles, or is published in short runs by small presses, while mediocre scribble hits the best seller lists. Read the rest of this entry »
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Feb 02
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You’ve just gotten your first speculative fiction work published, and now you need to get it out there to potential readers. Whether you are self-published, published by an independent press, or published in New York, marketing your book is up to you. Since you are a writer of speculative fiction (SciFi/Fantasy, or SFF), you have an excellent option to get your book directly into the hands of your niche market: SFF Conventions.
Fantasy conventions occur nearly every weekend somewhere in the USA, so it all depends how far you want to travel and how much you want to spend marketing your book. Over the past two and a half years, I’ve participated in many SFF Conventions (Cons), art shows, Celtic Festivals, and Renaissance Faires to promote my fantasy novels and my Steampunk romance novel. Read the rest of this entry »
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Jan 25
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In the writing business, we often get conflicting advice from our readers, other writers, and industry professionals like agents and editors. Agents advise us to write what’s in our hearts, but they can only sell what the editors want. The editors want more of what is already selling, limiting their risk in this fast-changing business. I’ve overheard readers in bookstores scoff at yet another new vampire novel. Other writers have told me that vampires are overdone; prophecies, tired. Yet this is exactly the opposite of the advice from New York. Vampires sell, so they want more vampires. Steampunk is popular, so they want more Steampunk.
They are the ones writing the checks. Read the rest of this entry »
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Jan 18
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This year I’m working on a book of Publishing and Marketing Realities for aspiring authors. It will be an extension of my Publishing 101 blog series.
As I’m a huge believer in cross-promotion, I will be looking for a handful of short (300-1000) word essays on published authors’, agents’, and publishers’ experiences in this changing industry. I will be taking this book to workshops and speaking engagements across the country to writer groups and conferences to teach aspiring authors about the options and realities of publishing and marketing.
Your essay will be printed in the book along with your book information, book cover, and websites/social network links. It will be seen by thousands of writers/readers.
I’m also looking for short tweet-like (140 character) DOs and DON’Ts for Twitter, which will also be published in the book along with your twitter name in a section of “WHO TO FOLLOW.”
Please comment below if you are interested in contributing. Leave your website, email, and twitter name. Alternatively, you can email me directly.
Please share with your networks. Thank you!
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Jan 11
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Years ago, more than I’d like to admit, back in my twenties I read something in a self-help book that really gave me a loud wake-up call.
It was this (and I paraphrase):
Take a look at the man you are with. Would this man be good enough for your mother? Your sister? Your daughter? No? Then why is he good enough for you?
A tweet by my dear friend Olivia sparked this memory yesterday. She tweeted: “Be the kind of man you’d want your daughter to marry.”
I retweeted it.
We all struggle with difficult decisions, and we’d like to think we are doing what is right, that we are making good decisions. Only through serious introspection and work can we know if we truly are. Unfortunately, so many of us are just trying to get through the next day and find ways to pay the bills that we spend too little time on self-reflection. Others of us spend way too much time analyzing what we’ve done or what little thing we could’ve done differently.
But if we can find a healthy balance, we can become the man or woman our children (or our dogs) think we are.
It’s well worth the effort.
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Jan 01
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May it bring you love, light, laughter, and success.
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