Dirty Laundry Not Welcome

I have to preface this post with the assurance that I'm one of the lucky ones. I have been VERY blessed with amazing co-workers at SHP. I seriously have some of the best editors ever. And all my brother and sister authors at SHP have been soooo friendly, soooo supportive, and instant friends.

I had to preface with that in case you guys start thinking this post is full of *winks* and *hint, hints* about my professional life with my publishing company. It's not even close.

But it is full of cautions because, sadly, I've come across some blog posts and facebook updates over the years with professionals airing their dirty laundry about people they work with.

And I mean work with closely. Not the distant cousin of a blogger you emailed once a few months ago. Or something along those lines.

I'm talking about editors complaining about their authors (even if no names are given) in public, on a post. Or authors complaining about their editors not emailing them back immediately in public, on a post.

Here's the shocking reality you need to come to terms with if you haven't started working with a publishing company yet (and of course there are exceptions. Like I said, I'm one of the lucky ones and I've met a few authors who really have wonderful relationships with their editors, too): It's a job and like any other job out there, it's not all sunshine and rainbows.

And honestly, be reasonable, too. Being upset because your editor hasn't replied to your email five minutes after you sent it? They work hard and have long hours, many of those being taken up with replying to the hundreds of other emails they get. You are a priority, but you're not a five minute priority.

Now ignoring the unreasonable expectations, let's say you have legitimate reasons to be concerned. Talk to the person you have an issue with. In private. Don't let everybody else see your dirty laundry because the result may be a lack of respect for you, not the person you were complaining about.

During my training in the Army, one of my Drill Sergeants gave some of the best advice I'd ever gotten. We'd had a problem with a few of the soldiers not getting along and, of course, they aired their dirty laundry for everyone to see. Well, in the military (and especially during training), EVERYONE gets in trouble when issues like these arise. She pulled us aside and said, "Look, do you honestly thing all us Drill Sergeants get along?" Honestly, we did. They acted like best friends when they were around us. "No, we don't. But we don't bring that stuff out in front of you."

Wow. I'd already respected the heck out of them before, but now I had a new appreciation for everything they did.

And that's just it. No one will want to work with an organization that can't get its stuff together. No editor will ever want to work with you if you have a habit of complaining about the people you work with.

Now, I'm not saying go out there and start smoozing up to everyone you work with and hope to work with in the future. Be real. People can tell when you're fake, too. But show respect for your coworkers. They're people with feelings and they usually feel like working at a better professional relationship with you if you're not complaining in public all the time.

That's my tip for the day. :) And I realize that I'm saying this to people who know all this already, but hey, it needs to be said as much as possible.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

It's Okay to Ignore Those Critiques. No, Really.

I'm going to say something really unpopular.

Are you ready for it?

There are some critiques you can tell to go kiss your butt. And online fly-by-night critique forums are 98% useless.

Now, don't go out there and start telling a bunch of people who were just trying to help you out that they're wrong and you're right and Emily White told you so.

But DO feel free to fantasize in your own mind that you're telling a certain critique to go walk the plank and imagine all those words swirling around like yummy little alphabet cereal.

Because guess what...

Unless you're getting a critique from a trusted alpha or beta, the person (who is most likely the sweetest, most selfless person ever) doesn't know enough about you or your writing style to give you worthwhile advice.

Now, I'm not talking about grammar mistakes or glaring problems that are easy to pick out.

What I am talking about is the nitpicky stuff. The stuff that a person picked out because it's a critique forum and they want to be helpful, so they really go searching for something, ANYTHING. The stuff that essentially means, "Well...I wouldn't have written it this way."

This is why the fly-by-night critique forums full of people who are there for a week and you probably won't ever meet online again are 98% useless. The 2% of helpfulness comes from the fact you get a chance to meet people who could potentially become your trusted alphas or betas.

And believe me when I tell you that I am absolutely, 100% guilty of giving really bad critiques in forums like these. Like everybody else, I was just trying to be helpful.

But as the years have gone by, I've realized something. You really can't give good advice unless you've read several pages and gotten a good handle on the writer's personal style. The only help you're going to give is helping that writer come up with a cookie cutter version of a novel.

And though there are very wonderful, important rules to crafting a novel, the amount of variety writers can come up with is far more vast than cookie cutter advice can come up with. There are rules to painting, too, but you can tell one artist's work from another. We should be able to do the same with novels.

I joined one of those forums about a year back (the kind that's there for a week as part of something bigger) and a writerly friend of mine joined as well. At the end of the week, and after getting a lot of different forms of advice, my friend wrote a very sad blog post about how he/she thought that he/she should just give up on the story.

The story is brilliant, readers. Brilliant.

And those are the critiques that should be ignored. Instead of seeing how brilliant the story was, all everyone saw was how it was different and not how "they" would do it.

Critique is good and open, accepting minds are great, but get your critiques from people who know you and have read more than the first page of your work.

But don't be rude to these fly-by-night critiquers. They really are trying to be helpful. Take to heart what is useful, but silently (so silently you're the only one who knows it) ignore what is not.

I Dreamed a Dream

I went to see Les Miserables yesterday. My aunt had come up from Alabama to visit and several of us ladies (my sisters, my mom, my aunt, and myself) decided to plan a girl's night out. Luckily, we found out just in time that the old fashioned theater in our town built in 1929 (balcony, murals, chandeliers, etc.) would be showing Les Mis. 

I'd decided to dress up a little because, well, I'm a stay-at-home mom with two kids and if I ever get a chance to dress up, I'm doing it! I wore a dress! Argyle tights! It was wonderful. And I showed up alone, which for some reason triggered one of those moments that makes me feel really grown up and fashionable. I don't know why certain moments do this, but I love them! Getting my first newspaper on the front porch did this as well. 

I know, I'm a goober. :P And really, you'd think for someone who's just a couple weeks away from turning 30, I'd have come to solid terms with my "grown-up-ness."

Anyway...(yes, I know I get lost on tangents! :P )...

The acting was, of course, phenomenal. I think we all knew that when the trailer came out, though. But I'd never really known the story of Les Miserables. I got the gist of it, but I'd never read the book and the one movie I'd seen quite a few years ago had never really held my interest enough for me to pay attention.

I'm going to read the book now because wow. Just wow.

There are certain things in the world that are so wonderful and so beautiful and captivate the soul. Les Miserables is one of those. It captured the heart of first love, misery, grace, mercy, God's love, and even humor.

It had meaning. It's worth something beyond just a form of entertainment.

I don't know what people dream, but I know what I dream. I dream of writing something that captivates the soul the way Les Mis and other works have captivated mine. I want to write something that has meaning and heart beyond just a form of entertainment.

I don't know if I ever will. I don't know if it's in my ability to portray the innermost stirrings of the soul, but I hope that I can some day.

Forget money, forget large adoring audiences. I think most of us writers get that that's not the end goal. I think that if I can get one person to say, "Wow, Emily White really gets me," then my dream will have been reached.

What do you dream? And have you seen Les Miserables yet? What did you think?

Goodbye, 2012. Hello, 2013--A year in review

Much to the dismay of many, we are still here despite the Mayans' grave warnings (or maybe not so grave). So I thought I might do something a little different this December. I've never done a year in review, but this was a particularly spectacular year, so why not? :)

You may or may not remember that my debut novel came out this year through Spencer Hill Press. I think like most of you out there, this was a major dream of mine since the day I learned you could bind pieces of paper together and put words on them. To find out I wasn't a freak because I had hidden conversations with characters I'd created?? Pretty amazing.

Which is another milestone I'd like to recognize...

You guys. I've gained a lot of followers over the year and I know most of you are book bloggers and aspiring authors. You have no idea the amount of warm and fuzzies I get knowing you guys are out there experiencing the same frustrations and wonders that I am. I love knowing I can go to you, that I can speak my mind, and that you get it.

I kind of feel like this...

And because of all your support, I worked up the courage to publish my very own book! 

Two books in one year. I never dreamed something like this would ever happen to me. So thank you, Mayans, for not really predicting the end of the world. ;)

And all of that is great, but the best thing to happen to me this year was the wonder of Doctor Who. I'd heard plenty about him (especially on Vive le Nerd), but I never really had the desire to take the plunge until a few months ago.

I know. Trust me, I know.

Holy freakin' cow! I'm kind of obsessed now, really. To the point where I'm naming everything Weeping Angel or Tardis. O.O

Just ask vic caswell. She laughs and all, but I think she's getting a little annoyed. :P

So that was my year--books and Doctor Who. A pretty great year, if I do say so myself!

But now I have to look towards 2013 and as great as 2012 was, there were some things that left me feeling a little...off.

My entire blogging career consisted of me striving for publication and once that happened, I felt a little lost. You might have noticed I haven't been blogging that much since July. Well, it's because I didn't really know what to do anymore. I didn't know who I was, really.

And last night, I had a bit of an epiphany (which is ironic). I wrote a post a month or so ago about how I thought it wasn't entirely appropriate to bring up politics or beliefs on a professional platform.

I was wrong. And I'm sorry.

You see, I realized I've been showing a veneer of myself to the world. And I've been growing more and more uncomfortable because of that. There was a time when I was new to the whole online thing where things went badly. I went to the wrong places, putting myself out there and people told me to f'ing kill myself.

So I've been a little timid. But I don't think I need to be timid around you guys. And I now realize that it's important to portray ourselves exactly as we are in this industry.

2013 will see a more realistic me. It's a lot like the me you already know, but deeper. 

It's going to be another great year and I can't wait to share it with all of you!!!

What kind of writer are you?

This is a post I've been thinking about for a long time. Like, for almost a year. I've been avoiding it, though, because I tend to avoid talking about the big stuff. Mainly it's because I start writing and then I think, "Hey! Who do you think you are? No one cares what you think!"

Well, that may be true, but I'm going to write it anyway.

I think we focus a lot on what kind of writers we are or what we should be, but lately I've been thinking about what I'm not.

I'm not a romance writer. Period.

I like romance. I like reading it and I like having elements of romance in my works, but I don't write what a lot of people expect romance to be nowadays.

For example, if a reader picks up one of my books hoping to have tingly groin sensations, it's not going to happen and he/she is going to be disappointed. (sorry for that visual)

I like relationships. Real relationships. Between fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, friends, boyfriends and girlfriends. They're not always pretty or perfect because life isn't.

I'm not long-winded and I don't beat a reader over the head with revelations. In fact, one of my absolute favorite things to do is read books that have subtle clues I have to figure out to get to the end. And I love writing that. I love injecting little hints that readers have to be careful enough to find. One of my VERY favorite things is reading a book a second time and seeing all those hints pop out at me that I might have missed the first time. I guess because I love it so much, I want to write that way to give my readers that kind of excitement.

I'm not always serious, but I'm not always funny, either. And I don't always write to entertain. I know that's probably my big mistake. I should write good mainstream fiction, but that's not me. Or at least, it's not always me. Sometimes I like writing pure entertainment (To love or Die is a perfect example), but other times I want to write something that has meaning. Something that conveys emotion, that thrusts a reader into the shoes of my protagonist so deeply that they feel his/her every frustration or joy. Do I accomplish it? I really don't know. I hope I do. And I hope I get better at it as time goes on.

Will I be a successful writer? I guess time will tell. But for now, I'm going to be the kind of writer who stays true to herself. I won't be what I'm not just because it might be more popular.

I applaud those writers who write what is popular and I am so happy for them that what they write has seen such success. I hope they're success continues and I'll always be in the background cheering them on.

And like them, I'll always write what I love and continue to hope that someone else loves it, too.

To Love or Die in a Steamy-Reamy World Release Day and a Word about Connecticut.

I mentioned last Friday my short story collection would be releasing today (five days earlier than expected!). And today is the day! And I'll share all the lovely links at the bottom of this post.

But first, I want to talk about something else for a moment. I'd made my announcement on Friday long before I heard anything about the devastating tragedy that happened in Connecticut. And I kind of feel like a jerk for being happy about something when we should all be in mourning.

But more than that, I've literally been weeping deep down into my soul since I heard that awful news. And I need to address it because I feel like I'm going to burst.

Every time I look at my kids, I cry for the poor mothers who lost their's. And I cry for the policemen and medical workers who had to find those broken little bodies. It makes me physically sick to think of it all.

And that's just it. We weep as a nation because we've all been pierced by this wound. And it's usually our first inclination to blame something other than the sicko who's responsible. We need to find an answer and a solution. But there is no solution we can come up with. This was evil. Pure evil. And we can come up with a million and one new laws to safeguard ourselves from something like this again, but evil always finds a way. Evil doesn't care about laws. It wants to hurt as much and as deeply as possible.

The only thing we can do right now is mourn and comfort those who mourn with us. Those parents, policemen, medical workers, heck, that whole town, need us to be there for them in any way possible.

I'm mourning today and I needed to share that with you. For all of you who are mourning as well, please know that I am here for you just as I'm sure you're here for me.

Thank you for listening to me.

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Now because I'd already promised to share the news about the release of my newest book, I want to give the links to you.

10 Tales of Steampunk Silliness and Spookery.

In the cozy seaside village of Steamville, New Hampshire, an unfaithful zombie, out of control werebots, succubi in corsets, and more wreak havoc in this short story collection.


Now available at Amazon

and

Barnes & Noble for only $.99!

Please help me spread the word today! It's a great gift for all your friends!

Big News about My Latest Book

Happy Friday, everyone.

I've got some pretty great news to share. My newest book, To Love or Die in a Steamy-Reamy World has a new cover:

AND

It's ready before schedule! Which means I'll be publishing it on Monday the 17th instead of waiting until the 22nd. I'll be posting the links here, on FB, and twitter, so be sure to check it out.

If you love steampunk (or know someone who does--Christmas is a-comin'!), pirates, zombies, ghosts, and random AC/DC references, I think you'll really love this. It will be available for your Nook or Kindle and only $.99!

Please spread the news today or Monday to all your steampunk-loving friends!