Daily Tao ☯ 5.26.17

So guess who forgot to blog last night?

I remembered at 10:30, whilst watching the Penguins v. Senators game, and decided you know what? It’s okay. I figured y’all wouldn’t mind. 

But I should have done it early, before we went to dinner for my MIL birthday, so shame on me. I didn’t get as much work done yesterday as I wanted either, for various reasons, mostly to be blamed on fellow scribe Sarah J. Maas, whose utterly brilliant and captivating A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN has me between the Scylla and Charybdis of work and reading. 

I haven’t enjoyed a book so much in months. All I want to do is gobble it up. So when my normal reading during breakfast and lunch accidentally stretch into my writing time, and I’m up well past midnight reading, I have to simply bow in Sarah’s direction, and recognize that refilling my well is sometimes as important as expending its contents. 

In addition to writing, learning that it’s called a “cast” of falcons (dangling editorial carrot, there) I did do something else awesome yesterday — picked the audio narrators for LIE TO ME. My God, the talent on this book — you’re going to love it!

And today I took a lunch break and did a long, fun, intricate, and exciting interview with Hank Garner from THE AUTHOR STORIES podcast. We covered everything from my humble beginnings writing weird short stories of astronauts left behind on Mars (yes, I went there first) to a very extemporaneous discussion of creativity and inspiration to my favorite topic, the need for strong female leads in fiction. He made me so comfortable that I was actually doing voices. Which is a thing. My friends can tell you I slip into characters all the time, but I sometimes do it unknowingly, and only when I’m utterly relaxed. So… impressions by J.T., coming next Friday on Hank’s awesome podcast. I’ll put up links.

And then, the afternoon calmed, and I managed 1500 words. That's better.

Have a wonderful long weekend! Be safe, be smart, and have fun.

Daily Tao ☯ 5.23.17

A stellar start to the book today, 2300 words. I could have kept going, but there were a ton of distractions, too. My fault, I forgot to turn on Freedom and ended up dealing with an issue that should have waited until after work hours. My goal is to average 2000 per day 5 days a week, and I’m feeling confident enough in the story that I think this is very doable.

I am back in my zone, only taking appointments and calls on Mondays and Fridays, which allows for deep work Tuesday through Thursday. It worked for the last book so well I’m excited to try it again. If it continues to work, it means I can almost double my usual weekly output, which makes my brain (and my publishing partners) very happy, because there are so many stories begging to get out. 

Last night was historic in Nashville. My beloved Predators won the Western Conference title, and will be playing in the Stanley Cup for the very first time. And I will be there, in my nineteen-year-old practice sweater, cheering them on. The Preds came to town the same year I did, and I’ve always been a fan. My parents took me to Colorado Rockies and Washington Capitals games growing up, and darling husband continued in their stead, so this is a lifelong quest, for me to see my team make it to the big dance.  

And at the same time, my heart is breaking for the families in Manchester, England. It’s a terrible thing, and I was so torn last night, filled with great pride and great sorrow. It feels like the world should stop turning when these horrible events happen, but it doesn’t. All I can do is offer a prayer, and make sure the godless people who commit these atrocities are forever stopped in my novels. You wonder why I write crime fiction? So I can stop the bastards in their tracks. 

And on that rather vicious note, sweet dreams!

Daily Tao ☯ 5.22.17

It's so nice to be home! Darling Husband and I had a lovely afternoon yesterday, the kitties were super excited to see me, there was even a block party (not for me, but fun to catch up with everyone.) Today I got up, poured my tea (oh, the joy of having the tea already made when you arise) and settled in to work. I haven't been alone for a few weeks, and as cool and fun and everything has been, the travel and interacting for days on end has gotten to this introvert. 

Nothing fixes me up like a nice day puttering around cleaning, doing laundry, and listening to podcasts, then writing! After a fun call with CC, in which we refined a bunch of the ideas I worked on last week, I am cleared to start writing this book. Which is good, because I'm antsy to create.

Speaking of creating, I received a cool email this morning from Chapter 16, Tennessee's premier online literary magazine, which you really should be reading, because they review all the best books. Here's a link! Chapter 16 came into existence when all of the local newspapers dropped their book coverage (boo-hiss!). Sponsored by Humanities Tennessee, and run by the indefatigable Margaret Renkl, it's a veritable treasure trove of book info. Today, she did a roundup of the upcoming workshops and conferences that are great for writers of all stripes, and I asked for permission to share. Get thee writing, people! 

Editor's Note

It's summertime and the living might be easy somewhere else, but here in Tennessee summer is the time when writers flock to conferences and workshops to hone their craft. Here's a list of upcoming opportunities across the state, the location where each is held, and the dates of the event. Please keep in mind that registration deadlines for many of these workshops are right around the corner, so take a moment now to click anything that looks interesting.

Sundress Academy for the Arts summer writing retreats (Knoxville, dates vary beginning 5/26)

Classes at The Porch Writers' Collection (Nashville, dates vary beginning 6/2)

Clarksville Writers' Conference (Clarksville, 6/2-3)

Mountain Heritage Literary Festival (Harrogate, 6/9-11)

Manifest Voices, a free workshop for teens (Chattanooga, 6/12-24)

Humanities TN's Appalachian Young Writers' Workshop (Harrogate, 6/18-24)

Utopiacon (Nashville, 6/22-25)

Humanities TN's Tennessee Young Writers' Workshop (Lebanon, 7/9-15) 

Crosstown Arts' Zine Workshop (Memphis, 7/15)

Belmont "Writing for Your Life" conference (Nashville, 7/18-19)

Tennessee Writing Workshop (Nashville, 7/22)

Killer Nashville International Writers' Conference (Nashville, 8/24-27)

I'm off to a retirement party this afternoon, and then the week stretches before me, unformed, perfect for diving into a new story. I can't wait!

Sweet dreams!

Daily Tao ☯ 5.19.17

Back in 2016, when I was working on the book now known as LIE TO ME, I was struggling with my work. I knew I wanted to really tap into the creative universe, try something new and different, but something was holding me back. I have been doing this long enough to know that fear is resistance. 

I decided to really hit back at this resistance that was proverbially tying my hands behind my back. I printed three labels with the following reminders:

WHAT YOU SEEK IS SEEKING YOU

DON’T TRY TO STEER THE RIVER

WRITERS WRITE

I taped them on my laptop so they could inspired me daily, and put a starred reminder in my To Do List: Be willing to take one more step with TMA...

Today, I gifted my dad the laptop that wrote the book, as I have a new one that’s smaller, faster, and easier to write on. After we got it all set up for him, I peeled off the labels and put them in my bullet journal, so I’d never forget the inspiration they gave me. 

We writers take inspiration wherever we can get it. My Instagram account is dedicated to this sort of inspiration; that’s me trying to spread it out to the universe (remember, what you seek is seeking you). But I receive inspiration from you, daily. You read my work, you share it with your friends, you tell me when you love (or hate) something, you cheer the successes and comfort the failures. You are as important a part of my daily writing process as the little reminders I leave for myself.

As I sit here today, plowing through a synopsis, watching the snow-capped peaks and the flitting hummingbirds, I am struck by how much you help me on this creative path. So thank you!

Have a lovely weekend, and I’ll see you Monday. 

(Also, see our gorgeous new branding for these little dailies? Big kudos to The Kerr for keeping everything so gorgeous around here! She's up for Sunday Smatterings this weekend, too!)

Daily Tao ☯ 5.18.17

A MUCH better work day today. Solid planning and outlining, editing some cool stuff for a project y’all will hear about shortly, and, of course, a mega-storm that as of this writing has dumped nearly a foot of snow on us, with more to come, which spurred me on to great focus and energy.

I am worried about the goslings, and I saw a hummingbird, so we put out some food for them, so they have enough energy to stay alive in this. Other than that, it’s a stunningly gorgeous winter wonderland. It snows in May a lot out here. Growing up, it always snowed on or around my birthday. This is a nice treat, considering we came out for the snow in March and ended up in shorts. 

As much as I accomplished, I forget how hard it is to start a book. It’s super strange to have the ideas bouncing around but not be getting up in the morning to write them down yet. Such is the annoyance of the outlining process for me. I spent so many years just diving in and figuring it out as I went that this whole planning a book stuff isn’t my forte. But planning I am, and with luck, I can start actual writing next week.  

Amazon launched their new bestseller list today, which is a very interesting set up and a clear shot across the bow to the NYT. One list is for actual sales, and one tracks which books are being read. In doing that, Amazon acknowledges how we buy books but don’t read them right away. I’m guilty of buying books that I don’t read for months, and we’re conditioning readers for a sale, which is rough on front list, but a boon to our backlist titles.

Case in point, I’m curious to see which, if any, of my books ever show up on either one of these lists. 14, Taylor Jackson #2, is a Kindle Daily Deal today for .99 — will those sales be enough to push me on? I have no idea. Will this help tap into the zeitgeist, as they claim? Perhaps, though the Reads list is limited to digital, so it’s not a fully comprehensive look, because there are still a lot of people only reading print. But as far as I know, it’s the first of its kind trying to measure what people are actually reading, and so warrants watching. 

Will you be paying attention to Amazon Charts? Do you pay attention to any bestseller lists?

That's today's food for thought. I’m off to watch the snow and keep dreaming up plot points. Sweet dreams!