One Writer's Journey into Publishing Cheat Sheet . . .

My Uncharted Journey into Publishing My First Book has been quite exceptional, to say the least.  Little did I know the hard work and wonder that lay ahead when I started this blog on April 9th . . .

In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.        - John Steinbeck

Summer is waning like a melting ice cream cone dripping on the sidewalk.  We in California know scorching days still lay ahead as Fall brings golden school busses filled with chattering children back on the road.  And once again, it's time for serious adults to venture back to school, tackling classes to further their education, or quench their utmost passions.  I know I am!  Too bad there's so few days in the week . . . there are half-a-dozen more classes I'd love to take.  Guess that's what I get for being a Gemini . . .

My journey becomes more challenging . . .

This fall I continue my Write From The Start class on WRITING / PUBLISHING at Santa Barbara Community College each Thursday morning.  I long to be back with my peers and stimulating new writers.  On Thursday evenings, I start a Public Speaking class offered at a nearby church, where I hope to get over any shyness that may stand in my way.  And one weekend a month for 3 months, I'll be attending a Counseling Class at my church. Once I complete this 30-hour requirement, I'll be a certified NANC Counselor with skills needed to talk with readers and others who have shared my experience, or something similar.

Nothing like being visible, publishing one's work, and speaking openly about one's life, to disabuse the world of the illusion of one's perfection and purity.            - Joyce Maynard

This week I've chosen to take a break from my normal blog . . . look back over my shoulder and share my journey with new comers . . . there are so many of you!  I'm thrilled!  Your interest is humbling, yet gives my work meaning.  May I say, "Thank you so much!"

If you joined in the middle of my journey, you probably haven't had time to go back to the beginning where it all started and why.  I wanted to make it easier for you to find specific areas of interest.  Therefore, I've provided, shall I say, a cheat-sheet of each blog and it's content.  No need to hunt for it.   

Once my book, Diary of a Vet's Wife, subtitled Loving and living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is published and things settle down, I plan to turn this blog into my second book . . . aimed at those of you on their own journey.  Maybe it will help eliminate some bumps along the way . . .

Below is a list of my blogs for those who might be looking for a specific topic: 

     1.  In The Beginning                                                            April 9
          How my book came to be . . .
     2.  This Closet Writer . . . Goes Public                             April 16
           My first writing class - posting my blog
     3.  I Never Planned to be a Writer!                                   April 23
          Blogging - my writing class - my free-lance editor
     4.  Publicize Your Book . . .                                                  May 1
          Publicizing - blogging - writing class - book query
     5.  Write Your Heart Out . . .                                                 May 7
          Blogging - why I wrote my book - book proposal excerpt
     6. Q is for Query Letter . . .                                                 May 15
          Posted my original query letter
     7.  B is for Book Proposal . . . Part One                             May 21
          Elements of a book proposal - my proposal table of contents
     8.  B is for Book Proposal . . . Part Two                            June 12
          More elements of a book proposal
     9.  What Next? . . . Time for an Agent                               June 19
          Some basic agent information
    10.  Marketing in an Electronic World . . .                         June 26
           First steps to marketing my book
    11.  Will Self-Publishing be My Only Option?                      July 3
           Posted excerpt from Chapter One of my book
    12.  A Platform . . . Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone   July 11
           Start to develop a platform for my book
    13.  The Marketing Medusa . . .                                           July 28
           JK Rowling's success - more marketing
    14.  2011 Agents . . . What Do They Really Want?           August 7
           Identify agent's most asked for requirements
    15.  What is a Synopsis and Why? . . . Part One             August 27
           Details to begin synopsis process

What stage are you at on your writing journey?

Lesson Learned . . . or my two cents

There is a voyeuristic appeal to readers of memoirs.  Since many memoirs are traumatic in nature, the reader will feel that someone had had it worse than they could imagine.  The reader can read about surviving poverty, drug addition, a lost love, or a father who sexually abused his young daughter.  As publishers say, "Agony sells."  Reading a memoir is like stepping into another person's life.                                                         - Cork Millner, Write From The Start

This Closet Writer . . . Goes Public

Being a closet writer, I'm secure behind closed doors.  So I dreaded my first blog wafting through cyberspace for the entire world to read.  The gaping white comment box felt like a black hole waiting to swallow me. 

April 9, 2011

It was now or never!  I called my sister in Ohio to celebrate the launch.  But the instant I hit PUBLISH POST I saw trouble with a capital T.  The templet switched to dark gray concealing my words like a curtain.  And my birds were now magenta!  Not my favorite color.  My sister searched in vain, but the blog was missing . . . this wasn't the way I imagined it.  Lost in cyberspace!  Would I have to write it again?  Eventually, the wandering blog landed in many shades of pink, but then the stubborn thing refused to take comments.  I tinkered with buttons until my eyes burned.  The big question now . . . would my corrections hold? 

My Journey into Publishing . . .

The summer of 2008, I met an intriguing woman who entered her name and number into my cell phone, stating we should stay in touch.  But we never did . . .

Fifteen months later, now in my final rewrite, I still had no clue what to do next.  The woman came to mind, she was a writer.  Of what, I didn't know.  So I called.  Catching her on the fly, I briefly explained my conundrum, at which time she invited me to attend a writing/publishing class she took in Santa Barbara every Thursday.  95.5 miles one way!!  You've got to be joking.

 A coincidence?

Write from the Start was my answer to prayer.  Cork Millner authored this book, subtitled, A Proven Program for Writing and Selling Nonfiction - Even if You've Never Been Published Before, . . . and taught this class for two decades, mentoring now successful authors including Robin Norwood, Women Who Love Too Much, and Spenser Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese?, to name a few . . . plus he wrote twenty other books himself.

"Creative Nonfiction began in the 1970's," the teacher began.  Little did I know the impact this man would have on my life.  That first day, I learned my intrinsic writing style was creative nonfiction.  In lieu of our first assignment, I handed in Chapter One of my memoir, and was shocked when he asked me to read the following week.  Terror struck!  Read in front of a class of 46?

Cork Millner, a total stranger, liked my work! 

Under his guidance, I immersed myself in this new world like Alice in Wonderland, anxious for Thursdays.  My 95.5 mile drive along Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Barbara became my mini-vacation.  I was mesmerized by the oceans many faces and staggering mountains, inhaling the tangy salt air.  It recharged my soul.  After class I often stopped along the shore to feed the seagulls.  What better way to spend a Thursday?

And the intriguing woman?  Pauline is now one of my closest friends.  We've had the same mentor, we speak the same language.

Lessons I've learned . . .  my two cents.

Every writer should to be part of a group . . . physically.  Share your work by reading it aloud.  Be open to critique.  Listen to other writers read.  There are so many amazing and unique voices out there.  Feel the energy of creative minds all in the same room . . . it's electric.  Creative energy and bonding you can attain no other way. 

Purchase a small, hand-held tape recorder, or something comparable.  Read each word you've written into the recorder.  Play it back.  Listen to the way your reader will hear your words in their heads.  Listen to the flow . . . listen for words you trip over . . . listen for words that are too big or uncommon, words that break the continuity of the flow.  Listen . . . listen . . . listen.  Then rewrite until your writing flows like imported honey . . .

In The Beginning . . .

Where do I begin?  I met the love of my life, we were married, a thousand other things happened, and then he took his own life.  And he was a Vietnam Vet.

My husband fought a war on foreign soil and came back in one piece.  On the outside that is.  I fought the demons that followed him home because of that war, for the next fifteen years.  Like Charles Dickens said, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."  I knew them both well.  So I wrote a book.  A book to help deal with the grief, confusion, anger, memories, and my broken heart, and to reach out to the endless others who are on the same journey.  There are still wars, men and women are still fighting, and wives and husbands are still desperate to make sense of it all.  I know I am.

And now I'm writing a blog because I wrote a book.  And my book wants to be published.  Even though I don't know how, I will figure it out.  There's so much to learn.  Where do I start?  Agents, editors, publishers, marketing . . . fear.

I feel like I'm about to climb a mountain after dark with only a flashlight and a sky filled with stars.