Category: Lessons Learned About Writing

I’ve been thinking Thursday: Nothing Special

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

My last book is up on Netgalley right now to garner some reviews. I know I said I was done writing but I had this whole plan in place before I made that decision. I had purchased various portions of the plan while they were on sale. So I could either go with it, despite being “done” or I could waste all the money.

Of course, I went with the plan.

It’s been up for a month and I got my first report from IBPA. 110 downloads. Not bad. 9 reviews.

Like an idiot I went to read all my reviews after that.

“Nothing too exciting here, pretty predictable, the dialogue was ok, but didn’t sparkle.”

sigh.

I think this one sticks with me because that’s about how I see myself….nothing special.

It makes sense to me that my writing would also be nothing special.

All those vague ideas about maybe finishing this series, nicely back in their box, thank you very much.

I’ve been thinking Thursday: Making a movie

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

This is one of those random plinko machine brain hopped on someone else’s train of thought and went for it. It was a guest post on a blog I follow about who would play your characters if they made a movie of your book.

Ostrich Mentality is the only book people talk about being made into a movie. So I gave it some thought. (Er, when I say people above, I don’t mean people in Hollywood, just to be clear. LOL)

Galatea: bad-ass assassin starting to question the orders she’s chosen to accept.

Image result for inbar lavi

 

Inbar Lavi

You’re asking who?

She’s done some stuff. I’ve seen her on SOA and The Last Ship. She looks so girl next door sweet. And yet flawlessly plays trouble.

 

 

 

Talon: British SAS on loan to Mi6. Sexy in that devil may care way some men have. Good at what he does. Inventive in his means.

Image result for charlie hunna,

 

Charlie Hunnam

I know, I know. He only has one role. Lucky for me that one role could easily be adapted to play Talon.

And really all the hot Brit actors that I would love to cast as Talon, are getting a bit long in the tooth for the role. cough cough, Daniel Craig.

 

 

Ash: American with a long history of doing the dirtiest work imaginable for his country.

See the source image

 

Gerard Butler

I really wanted to say Jeremy Renner for this role but realistically he’s the wrong body type.

 

 

 

Stan: Obnoxious, know it all, pain in the ass idiot with an over inflated sense of self

 

Barrett Foa

He’s almost perfect, except he’s too pretty.

Stan is less. LOL

 

 

 

 

Hollywood, are you out there listening? I would be super realistic in my demands. LOL.

What’s Next? #AuthorLifeMonth

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 7 Comments

If you’re still reading me after four plus years, you probably think I’m pretty funny. You’d be right, I am.

I’m also quite a good line editor.

And it is entirely possible I am a talented writer. Though I refuse to make a call on that one.

What I am not, is emotionally secure enough to survive the daily small rejections that come with writing for an audience.

I know that as an indie writer, little rejection is a way of life; it needs to roll off my back like a duck with water.

It doesn’t though.

Badly doesn’t.

It soaks in.

Permeates everything.

I’ve been miserable for a good 18 months now, a bad 18 months now?

Terribly depressed.

Yes, down to the question would the world be better without me?

I chose therapy, you can stop dialing the cops for a welfare check.

But 8 months of therapy later what I have come to realize is this:

Writing no longer makes me happy.

It is a heavy weight that makes me sad even on my best days.

I cannot handle the rejection that comes with the job.

I’d rather be happy than be publishing.

You may have noticed on the cover for The Body in the Pool, my name in the pool. There was a little symbolism there. That was my last planned book.

I’ll still be here, reviewing books and doing what I can for other indie authors, spotlight interviews and good news. I hope you will be too. I may and I stress MAY come back to writing, when it no longer feels a burden and but a happy choice.

Cheers!

#AuthorLifeMonth

Research

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

And a choir sings because research is my jam. I cannot go anywhere without researching something. Just got back from Hawaii, where did I go on vaca? The US Army at Hawaii historical museum. LOL

What did I read while on vacation?

Lies My Teacher Told Me and Lincoln and the Abolitionists.

What souvenir did I buy myself? LOL. A Documentary on Pearl Harbor.

I actually have webpages for each of my books that list the research I did for them.

I know so many people who say I over research. Readers don’t care. They’re probably right…

It’s almost a compulsion for me. All I know is if I sit down to write a scene in which my heroine pulls a gun, it HAS to be the gun she would legit pull in the real world. Otherwise, I can’t write the scene.

I think the craziest I’ve ever been is when I wanted to have a baptismal party for a baby in a house in London in an expensive area. I spent hours pulling blue prints, til I found a house with the design that suited me, so I could specify the address. That’s it. An address. But I guarantee if you pull the prints for the address I give, you’ll see it’s laid out as I describe in the chapter. LOL.

 

#AuthorLifeMonth

Fave Writing Spot

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

I have an ideal for this…don’t we all.

2016-05-10 10.57.45.jpg

 

 

 

The reality is much more prosaic. I write anywhere I can. Most of my first two books were written in the family room at co-op while my child took classes, in the noisy gym while my child took parkour or karate, and on Wednesday night write ins.

 

#AuthorLifeMonth

It’s Alive

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 5 Comments

and dead all at the same time. LOL

The Body in the Pool, Book One of the Dismember Killer Series is live on Amazon.

What’s it about you ask? Haven’t you been reading my blog for the last year? Geez, ok….

Seattle has seen its fair share of serial killers over the years. Now a new demographic needs to watch their backs…successful white males are losing their lives in shockingly public venues.

Detective Spencer Thomas and his task force are 12 murders deep and no closer to finding the Dismember Killer than they were when the first body appeared. The killer is taunting them without leaving any useful evidence.

With a pregnant wife on bed rest, brass that strips his resources, and the FBI breathing down his neck…the last thing Spence needs is a dead body at an exclusive boarding school, floating in their pool no less…

#AuthorLifeMonth – My Publishing Team.

Greatest Writing Strength

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

I give great dialogue and I have an excellent bead on human psychology.

I give credit for these things to reading, excessively, many genres, much non fiction. My entire life.

Minoring in film didn’t hurt my dialogue skills.

I majored in history in case you were wondering. That’s more on the psychology side. LOL.

#AuthorLifeMonth

Goals Accomplished

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

I suppose when I started writing all I wanted was to finish I book. √

Then I wanted to have other people read it and say it didn’t suck. √

Then I wanted to it grow a grass roots following.

(crickets)

Then I heard from a number of people that I needed more books.

Write a second book, finish it, have it not suck. √√√

Get more readers than the first book. √

Grass roots?

(Crickets)

Write the first book in a series. √

Write the second book in a series.

Write the third book in the series.

Publish them within a month of each other to capitalize on Amazons algorithms.

(crickets)

You could say I’m falling down on the job because I am no longer doing what I can.

Along the way I learned way more than I ever wanted about marketing. Is that an accomplishment? Maybe, but it was never a goal. LOL

#AuthorLifeMonth

My Biggest Fan

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

Laughing, seriously? There is no safe way to answer this without pissing someone off. I’ll make my apologies now.

I could say my hubs, but realistically he is my biggest fan in life. And the one most likely to tell me I’ve bitten off more than I chew, yet again. And that’s a good partnership, plain and simple.

I could list various friends, but what makes one more fan-ish that another. They love my books because they love me. They love the crud I crochet because they love me.

Family? ROFL. Don’t kid yourself, most of them have not read a word I’ve written. Although props to my cuz, Lance, who works his social media like a fiend every time I am up for an award and need votes or release a new book. That is some serious love.

So I think I’ll talk instead about a mom at co-op. I would not have said we were friends. We were acquaintances. I taught/teach her children. Her children like me. She heard I wrote and got my books. She read them. She then sought me out as a human because she liked my books. That’s a good definition of a fan, if you ask me.

#AuthorLifeMonth