So You Want the Truth? Can You Handle It?

Streamline...
Write more...
Get more out there...
Market more... 
Market smarter...
Indie's saturated, go back to traditional...
No, join an author group...
Author groups don't market enough...
Author groups shouldn't market...
What should author groups do?

...Hang on... where is everybody???

It's a new year, reader-friends! 

I bet all you guys are making plans, setting reading goals, maybe exercising more, possibly making resolutions...

Behind this little indie-writer's scenes, a lot of talk is going on about how publishing is changing (again!), author support groups, what we should be doing heading into the new year.

Personally, I've also been looking at what's coming next, what's working and what isn't. Many of you have asked about Mosaic, and Yes! That is up next on the agenda!

Once we get un-snowed-in and the little ladies back in school. Snow Day #2 starts tomorrow~

In other news, would you LOOK at this blog? What a mess. *smh*

That's another thing everybody's talking about--Author Websites and Branding. (They've actually been talking about that one a while... I'm still talking.)

When I started this blog in Feb. 2010, it looked almost exactly how it looks now. Okay, my photos have changed.

I started out looking like this:

2009-2011

Then I looked like this:

LTM avatar

Now you see me as I am up there. (I actually look like all of these pictures... Just depends on if my hair's straight.)

I was also very much a traditionalist. I was querying agents, working, and waiting... waiting... waiting... write while you wait... quietly go insane...

Until I started this blog.

And lo and behold, this amazing tribe of writer-friends formed!

We would send each other little "awards"--which were actually networking-style greeting cards. You'd get one and then you'd pass it along and tag each other and tag the person who sent it to you... and the tribe grew.

It was how we met new friends before Facebook took over.

All those little awards still line this blog as you can see... (that's what you did when you got one--put them in the sidebar.)

Then some of us started getting deals. I can't remember who hit it big first. Maybe it was Sarah Fine, maybe it was Elana Johnson, maybe it was Lydia Kang...

Somebody can remind me.

The awards started moving to separate pages under tabs on the different blogs. The different blogs started looking more professional. The ones who'd gotten those big deals started getting too busy to blog... They had to write, y'all!

Totally understandable.

Then the revolution started. Jolene went indie... Susan went indie... Elle went indie... RaShelle blew up the indie scene with Blood & Snow...

I started editing for hire and when I did, I really saw how many of our friends had left the traditional game--AND how successful they were on their own.

Some days I still feel like a Major Dummy for waiting so long to join them, but I'm catching up. The only thing I haven't done is changed this blog.

It's hard because when I come here, I'm reminded of all those days we bonded over how hard this business is. How much those rejection letters hurt. How close we were to giving up. How we didn't think we could keep going any more. How we weren't even sure if we even had what it took to be a published author any more. How we wondered why we even started doing this to begin with...

This page has so much history.

I have an "official" web page that's pretty professional-looking---leightmoore.com.

Go there if you want to see me all spit and polished and looking like a Real Author.

But if you want the True Story, if you want to see behind the curtain, the journey, well, you've come to the right place.

Maybe one day I'll sit down and clean this blog up a bit. Make it look like a True Author Website...

*shrugs* I don't know.

Maybe instead, I'll pull down one of those awards and try circulating it again. See if anybody's still out there. If anybody else misses those old days.

Have a great week, reader-friends! Stay warm! I'll be heading back into the cave soon~ 

Historic Times and Personal Media

So the last seven days, right? First we have the worst tornadoes in recorded history sweep through my state, followed by a Royal Wedding, followed by the killing of the (arguably) worst terrorist leader in U.S. history.

If that weren't enough, I finally found my sea legs and got my writing mojo back. And I ventured more actively into the world of Twitter.

All these historic events got me to thinking... What next? Locusts?

Source

Seriously, it got me to thinking about two things in particular. First the international events. I was impressed by the solemnity of the Royal Wedding. It seems the era of Paris Hilton-style heirs and heiresses has ended and a restrained elegance has returned.

I'm all for that. I mean, you all know I love a party, but can we keep our panties on? Or at least while the cameras are out? (And while we're entering or exiting the vehicle or climbing stairs...)

Have I officially become Grandma? Do you agree or disagree? Are these Royal Fuddy-Duddies too young to be acting so old?

Next is the killing of Osama bin Laden. I had friends who figuratively threw a parade over his death. My response was more sedate and solemn, sadness remembering the evil this one person wrought on the lives of so many.

But on the third hand, I have friends who've confided in me they don't believe it really happened. Or, they believe it happened a long time ago and for whatever reason, it's just now being announced. Very Wag the Dog.

Interesting.

I love listening to conspiracy theories, although I rarely believe them. I do agree it seemed out of the blue, and following all the garbage about Obama's birth certificate, you'd think our President would want to bombard us with proof of death.

But we are not barbarians. We do not videotape the slaying of our enemies or place severed heads on pikes. C'mon, people. I think we're going to have to go with our military on this one and take their word for it.

Do you agree or disagree? Am I the naieve one here?

As for Twitter, I'm learning to be loose and float randomness into the ether. My first few weeks, I decided the whole system was weird. I'm more of a relational social-media user, and Twitter seemed very isolating to me.

I never knew when friends were there, I tweeted at folks never to hear back from them, I tweeted and wondered why.

I was about to throw in the towel when suddenly it opened up for me, and I started finding people.

I was online at the same time as friends. I downloaded an app to my phone that plays a little tune whenever I get an @ message. I might disable that one soon...

There's been some discussion about types of social media and what's going out or staying or dying. I think it depends on your personality and your goal.

For quick networking with others doing what I do, it seems Twitter is good. For really getting to know people who do what I do (Writers), sharing and supporting, blogger seems ideal. And then for keeping up with family and friends, Facebook has been great.

What do you guys think?

That's it for me. I'm just over 7K words in the new MS, and it's very exciting. I wish I could do nothing but write (#amwriting), but I can't. I'll be around.

Have a great weekend, reader-friends! Til Monday~ <3

P.S.
BIG HUGS to you all for the outpouring of encouragement and support on Monday. It really got me out of my funk, and demonstrated my point up there about blogging. What would I do without you, my long-distance, international support group? Love you guys~

Deja vu & a Review - I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You

Last week Richard and I watched the first 13 three episodes of Knott's Landing. It was goofy and funny but also interesting in a social historian kind of way. (I have never denied being a nerd.)

I missed KL the first time around. The '70s occurred before I reached double-digits in age, but I do remember bits and pieces vaguely. (That's probably how most adults remember it...)

While watching, I commented to JRM how crazy it is that the late-2000s so closely mirror the late-1970s. Check it out:

• Gas was at an all-time high, and Carter was encouraging everyone to carpool.
• Inflation was out of control and a lot of people were out of work.
• Consumers were trading big cars for the smaller, compact cars coming out of Japan. (Toyota, Honda)
• There was a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1969... (which led to the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970) Read about it here.
• Tylenol recalled all their capsules after some maniac put cyanide in eight bottles (That has also become a PR case study of how NOT to respond to a crisis. Seems the BP CEO took note.)

And have you seen the way teenage boys are wearing their hair these days? I'm just saying. The Twilight Zone music should be playing right about now.

An (inadvertant) recurring theme in my blog has become the cyclical nature of social events. I'm not sure how it started, but I'll go with it. If you notice anything, please leave a comment/shoot me a msg (at any time)!

I'm an observer at heart, but it takes me a while to formulate conclusions that satisfy me. So I don't know what all these repeating events mean. But I'd love to hear what you guys think.

I read somewhere that America's undergoing a series of mini-terrorist attacks. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, however, (sometimes) their wild theories are fun to consider. Kind of like reading a suspense novel... what's that bumper sticker? "You're not paranoid if they're really after you"?

In book news, I finished I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You, by Ally Carter.

I liked it! It took me a while to get into it, but only because Carter tends to write like I did pre-journalism school--she uses a lot of words at times when she doesn't really need to.

But the story's lots of fun, and I really liked the parent dynamic she set up leading into the next book. Have to admit, I had major plot-envy the whole time I was reading.

When we were elementary age, Dara and I played secret-agents nonstop after church on Sundays--she was 99, I was 86. Seriously! We'd climb on the walls in the parking lot, and once we lost our SS activities when the car we'd put them on drove off with them.

LTM to JRM: Why didn't I think of writing a teenage spy academy story???

It's a super book, though. I very much recommend it. It's very clean, Moms, and it's part of a series, so bonus!

Starting Robin Palmer's Cindy Ella next. I love her books, and it's her debut novel. So more on that soon.
 
In the meantime, prayers for the fish and the families. No oil's made landfall in south Baldwin yet...