One Writer's Life -- Barbara Mountjoy

Meadville Market House, Second Floor

A Workshop Presented by the Meadville Council on the Arts No matter what genre you write in, good fiction comes from the basics. Multi-published and award-winning authors Babs Mountjoy and Kathy Otten, will lead this workshop, full of discussion, models, exercises and fun, too! Sessions will include— INTRO TO CREATIVE FICTION-WRITING - Bring a short piece to share, and we'll learn each other's writing inspirations. DIALOGUE- We'll look not only at how to write believable conversations, but how they enhance your story. INCREASING CONFLICT AND TENSION IN YOUR STORY- Do you want to write a story your reader can't put down? We'll examine what conflict is and how it drives the story. DIVERSITY IN YOUR FICTION – We’ll use exercises like those in Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward's, Writing the Other, and other sources to expand your thinking about using characters of other race/class/ethnicity in your stories. PACKING AN EMOTIONAL PUNCH - We'll talk about ways to show how a character feels through visceral reaction and fresh description that will ramp up your reader's investment in the story. WEAVING AN ALTERNATIVE SETTING INTO YOUR STORY- Learn how transport your readers to another era or alternate world without sounding like a text book. Classes will be held on Tuesdays, At the Meadville Market House March 26th through April 30th 2013 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Members-$60.00 Non-members $65.00 For more information contact Meadville Council on the Arts Phone & Fax (814)336-5051 Or to reserve and mail in your payment before the limited seats are gone, send to: Meadville Council on the Arts P.O.Box 337 Meadville PA 16335 Questions? artscouncil@zoominternet.net

Yes, folks, NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. We're all getting out outlines, plot bunnies and other assorted necessaries in line before the big day.

I'm writing a romantic suspense set in the Montana forests with ecotage! And pagans! And Native Americans!  (no elves, tho....that's another series.)

So stay tuned...you can check my progress at the site under my nickname babs1e....wish me luck!

I've got to say, a lot of times I feel like I'm all alone on my writer's path.

Okay, most writers feel like they labor in a solitary profession, and to some extent that's true. But this is more than that.

I belong to a couple wonderful critique groups through Pennwriters, but because of where I am on my particular path, I have so many issues/problems/questions that they can't help me with, most of them having yet to be published. Other writers in Pennwriters, of course, are published and might have some advice, but they're traditionally published, so they tend to look down on the way I've chosen--indie publishers.

I'm a little fortunate, in that I'm not one of the "self-published." (see today's post from Kristen Lamb on this always-controversial subject.) I have contracts and royalty agreements for every one of my novels, with varying levels of support from the different small press publishers. And I have six novels coming out THIS YEAR. Six. It's crazy. I'm trying to write and promote all at the same time. I just finished a trip across the country for research and booksignings in person during the same period I'm running a 38-stop online blog tour. I've just turned in one contracted book for next year, I'm writing another, I have edits waiting on my book coming out in September and I have another set of edits due by November 1.

Oh, and there's the day job. And the family. And the bills, etc. Like everyone else.

Granted, I wanted to be a published writer. Now I am. I have no grounds to complain, and this isn't really a complaint at all, but just a cry of despair in mid-journey, feeling overwhelmed.

Thanks to Red Tash for this blog today, which really made me feel a little better. I am alone, but there are people out there who understand what I'm going through. You came along at just the right time, friend. :)

I just got the word that my class is coming up from Pennwriters-- if you're a beginning/indie author looking for tips and tricks on self-promoting, with lots of links to more reading, check this out!


Promotional Basics
with Babs Mountjoy

Date
August 3 – August 30, 2012

Pennwriter members' cost $79; non-members $89

 Limited class size. Early bird prices end soon.

Course Description
Congratulations! Your work has just been published. Now comes the hard part.
Getting your audience to find your work, buy it, and share it.
Most publishers now want to know your “platform.” What website, blog, or other publicity do you use to sell and promote you work? Such tools are part of the package you are often expected to present as a showcase for your laboriously forged words.
Online and social media are now your best means of broadcasting your efforts and reaching your target audience. Pennwriters upcoming online course, Promotional Basics, will teach you the arts of publicity and marketing, showing you standard techniques and modern tricks to make your release a success.
Learn the four most important things to include in your website. Discover how to get your work noticed on and offline. Tour successful blogs, learn to make your own, and understand why they are a great way to spread your name. Find out what freebies and giveaways attract your readers and followers. Plan ahead for compelling personal appearances and book signings that feature more than just a chair behind a table.
Plus, as a free bonus, receive a list of 50 sites where you can submit you books for review.
Boost your sales and traffic by learning proven promotional methods!
About the Instructor
Barbara “Babs” Mountjoy has written since she was a little girl, unable to restrain the stories that percolated through her fingers onto her keyboard – or, back then, onto the old Royal typewriter. Babs has been a published author for more than thirty-five years, with a number of publications under her belt.

Her non-fiction book, 101 LITTLE INSTRUCTIONS FOR SURVIVING YOUR DIVORCE, was published by Impact Publishers in 1999. Her first novel, THE ELF QUEEN, was released under the pen name Lyndi Alexander in 2010. THE ELF QUEEN launched her Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series, under which the second and third titles, THE ELF CHILD and THE ELF MAGE, released in 2011 and 2012.

Wild Rose Press released her romantic suspense novels, SECRETS IN THE SAND, in 2011, and, CONVICTION OF THE HEART, in June 2012. Will Rose Press will also release Babs’ THAT GIRL’S THE ONE I LOVE in September 2012. Zumaya Publications published her women’s fiction title, SECOND CHANCES, in July 2012.

Also in September 2012, Hydra Publications will publish LOVE ME, KISS ME, KILL ME, Babs’ upcoming vampire story.

Babs is a contributor to two CUP OF COMFORT anthologies. She blogs about autism, writing and life at awalkabout.wordpress.com, and spent seven years of her career as a news reporter and editor in South Florida. Her romances/womens fiction books are published under the pen name Alana Lorens, and her fantasy/sci-fi under the pen name Lyndi Alexander. For more information on Babs Mountjoy or this course, email her at bmountjoy@zoominternet.net This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Come see Lyndi go through her paces--and pages--at the blog of Kellie Kamryn.  today. (Don't worry, my post is white bread; you can safely click through the content warning!!) Kellie has a great romance series based on gymnastics coming out in the spring, which just goes to show what happens when you write what you know. Thanks, Kellie! And come see Kellie's post at the Clan Elves homepage, too! I admire the way she's used her painful breakup to inspire positive writing experiences.

Yes, yes, I know I haven’t posted here as often as I’d like–hopefully you’ve missed me! The good news is I’ve been doing substantial amoounts of writing-related work, which is a good thing! The latest venture is this little bit of video, a book trailer for my first published novel, The Elf Queen. A book trailer is supposed to be like a movie trailer, giving enough of the story to entice folk to come see/read my book. (and hopefully the rest of the series!)

So what did you think? Is it exciting? Suspenseful? Must you go buy the book at Amazon right now? Okay, if you must. Pssst: pass it on… :)

All my life, I've wanted to be a novelist. From the time I sat in the window seat of an Indiana farmhouse and wrote a blow by blow description of my cat chasing down and eating a mouse, other people have commented on my work and how they liked it.

In a few short months, I'll be a novelist. Not a newspaper reporter; that I did in the 1980s in south Florida. I interviewed governors, senators, drug dealers and won awards for my series a Day in the Life. In 1998, I had a book on divorce published called 101 Little Instructions for Surviving Your Divorce, a book with thought-provoking statements about mental health and wellness during the process. I didn't know very much about what an author was expected to do to promote a book in those days, though I sent out copies and did some radio interviews.

Since then, I've had many other pieces published, online and off, newspapers, magazines, even two stories in the Cup of Comfort Volumes for Divorced Women and Adoptive Families. Most of those stories promoted themselves for as far as they went. I didn't have to do much.

But I've come to the conclusion that after twenty years of really pushing at it, trying to score that agent and hit that big sale just isn't going to happen for me at this time. I want people to read my writing. I could just post it all here. But realistically, I'd like to make some money off it too.

In looking at small press, I've met several editors who deal right with the authors, no go-between needed, and even discouraged! Marketing support, suggestions for promotion are shared, and we get the chance to one-on-one with people who share our enthusiasm. It's wonderful. It's creative. It's....time consuming....

At the same time, consider, that at this moment I have five manuscripts IN THE HANDS of an editor.

Not lying around some agent's slush pile. Not waiting for some spring intern to find that I have no references to fashionable shoes in chapter three, so the entire book should be tossed. Not waiting for the interminable back and forth of mail exchanges. I am blessed and fortunate, and by using this, my best shot at contact with a live person, I have in fact been offered and signed a contract for my first novel. I have two unique promotion ideas that we'll be fleshing out as we're closer to the book release in September, in addition to all the items the publisher has already created.

It's happening. Along with her request for the rest of the series to be known as The Clan Elves of the Bitterroot. But I'm still trying to connect with other editors, find homes for my other "children." It's happening. I have no time to sleep any more. *L* But maybe I'll catch up on that later, between stops in the book tour, hmm?