One Writer's Life -- Barbara Mountjoy

Today’s guest is author Sherry Isaac. Sherry and I met on top of a mountain in Colorado at one of Margie Lawson’s Immersion Master Classes in writing. Since then, she’s gone on to do marvvelous things, and her collection of short stories, STORYTELLER, is out this summer. Please welcome her.



COMMON GROUND

by Sherry Isaac



Someday. What a magical word.


For years, I dreamed of being a writer. Someday.


I’ve spent decades, dollars and devotion honing my craft in the pursuit of Someday.

Uh-oh.


It’s time to promote.


There are plenty of resources on self-promotion. Books and websites and downloadable pdfs. Even online classes.


It’s a whole new industry, full of great ideas. One of my favorites, the one I’ve been engaged in for the last three weeks, is the virtual blog tour.


Networking with other writers is reciprocal. If Author A gives Author B a slot on their blog, Author B will bring their fans. Some fans will stick around and become fans of Author A. Author A’s audience will be introduced to Author B and start following Author B’s blog and buying Author B’s books.


Tit for Tat, a total Win-Win.



Bonus: Author B doesn’t have to come up with a post that week. Ahhh. Time to focus on the reason behind the blog: The Novel.


But first, you need authors to network with.


I signed up for my first Margie Lawson class a year and a half ago. Up until the online class on Defeating Self-Defeating Behaviors, all my contacts were local. So local, in fact, that I had trouble unloading copies of the anthology I was a part of, because, fine as the anthology was, everyone in my circle was either in the publication, so already had a copy of the book, or knew someone who was in the publication, so had already bought a copy of the book.


Growing a national audience, let alone an international one, seemed impossible without a powerhouse publisher behind me.


Until Margie.


That first one-month class expanded into a year spent with Margie Lawson. It was, like the A&E channel advertises, time well spent. I learned so much last year. My writing techniques multiplied faster than a den of unchaperoned rabbits.


And so did my network.


What a fun side-effect, and certainly one I hadn’t bargained on when I signed up for DSDB, Enhancing Character’s Emotions, Deep Editing (The EDITS System) or any one of Margie’s other classes.


And then I went to Denver. Four intensive days of writing and revising and rhetorical devices.


And four new friends.


All right, all right, all right. Gloria Richard was already a friend.


Friendships are not based on geography, but rather, they are based on common ground. In Joan and Jessica, Barbara and Gloria, I found peers. As writers, we shared similar trials and aspirations, fears and passion, goals and dreams. Each understood the sting of rejection, how high the stakes are and how stiff the competition. A sisterhood, if you will.


A family.

And then I participated in IMC II.


Laura and Susannah. Lisa and Carole.


All right, all right, all right. Carole was already a friend.


Over the past few months, as my launch has crept closer, the support, enthusiasm and generosity of these eight women has blown me away. Not only have they opened their blogs to me, but they began to spread the word, long before my book went to print. They found blog space for me among their contacts, and Joan, a fine Twitterer in her own right, hooked me up with a Master Twitterer. Barbara invited me to share book signing space at a Pennsylvania bookstore. At a Colorado reading, Jessica gave up an opportunity to promote her own work and chose instead to read an excerpt of mine.


What ever had I done to deserve such favor?


It pleases me, too, that these connections billow over with downy goodness, just like an plump, over-stuffed pillow. My fans and friends are now their fans and friends. There are far too many to name here, and what would be the point? There will be more tomorrow.

The circle grows.

And so this, the final stop on my virtual tour, is a dedication to all the writers I’ve had the pleasure to befriend on my journey. May your ideas never stop flowing, and may your ink never run dry.

~


Winner of The Alice Munro Short Story Award, Sherry Isaac’s tales of life, love and forgiveness that transcend all things, including the grave, appear online and in print. Her first collection of shorts, Storyteller, debuts July 2011. For more information, or to order an autographed copy, click HERE


Learn more about Sherry at her website: http://www.sherryisaac.com/