A Milestone

I was interviewed.

As an author.

By an author.

I can't tell you how validating that feels. Even though I have two books out and a number of blogs where I write regularly, I can not find it in myself to tell people I am an author. Why is that? It feels like I'm not allowed to call myself an author until .... what? Until I earn enough by writing to support myself? That means almost no one ever has been or ever will be an author. Even people who write bestsellers often have a day job.

Am I waiting until someone else calls me an author? If that's what it is, then today I am an author. (Look Ma! An author!). :D

Go check it out. You'll fall in love with The Sarcasm Goddess. Maybe you'll like me, too.

What It Is

Writing is a lot of things. It's work. It's a process. It's a ride. It's imagination (even non-fiction writing takes imagination!). It's pounding your head against your keyboard in frustration and desperation. It's a catharsis, a balm and an open sore. Which is why we love it, I guess.

After a year of thinking and rethinking, writing and rewriting, my second novel is in the process of being released. It's on Amazon and Smashwords now and will soon be available nearly everywhere else that ebooks are sold. I hope.

For me, this series is something of a journey. It started many years ago with a homework assignment that planted the seed of a story in my brain. I had to grow up, get married, have children, get a career, have grown children and have more freedom before I finally took the time to grow that story seed.

Then I had to decide who the characters were going to be. That's always my first step in any writing project: who am I writing about? I might be writing about me or my dog or my momma on my blog. For a novel, I need to know who I am writing about and whose story I am going to tell.

The first book was finished; that story was told. Now I had to decide who the sequel would be about. Did I want to continue where the first book left off? That's always a good choice. But I decided to head in a slightly different direction. (Don't read any further if you are worried about spoilers). I chose to start with a new main character: Geneva, a woman who is a distant relative of my first book's main character, Sarah. Geneva has her own challenges and her own attributes, but she shares the same gift as Sarah.

Sarah makes a cameo appearance in the sequel, and I'll let you in on a little secret. That was foreshadowing. In the sequel, Geneva and Sarah learn of each other's existence through one of Geneva's sons. The third book is going to bring that idea to fruition. 'Nuf said.

I started by telling you a story. So far, with one exception, readers have been telling me that you enjoyed the ride. Now the second part of the story is ready for you and I hope you love it, too. In a year or so, we may meet again to talk about the third book.

woo hoo!!!

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/134858?ref=PatriciaIles

99 Cent Sale!

Find it at these ebook retailers:

Smashwords
Amazon
Barnes and Noble online
iTunes

Also available at full retail price at
Sony ebookstore
Kobo

Trying, Trying.....

This weekend I offered "A Gathering of Light" to several review blogs. Scary!  After reading the famous meltown thread on Big Al's review blog, I actually felt a little better. It wasn't such a terrible review, after all, that resulted in the author's now-viral tantrum.

Am I the only one wondering: was that just an absolutely brilliant publicity ploy for both the book and the blog? Would anyone every really behave that way? Really? F bombs? I have to wonder.

Rain

It's raining. 

That makes me wish I could sit down, grab a cup of good coffee and some Fritos.......and spend the afternoon writing.

Inspiration

I was a freshman in high school and the assignment was to write a report on the experience of civilians during The Civil War.  While doing my research, I came across a copy of a newspaper clipping from a small Southern town, dated near the end of the war.

A band of renegades had passed through a small Southern town, causing trouble of all sorts and doing great damage.  One young woman in the area, who had recently lost her last surviving relative, was alone at home when the renegades found her.

She did not survive.  I suppose that is one reason why the news reporter could share as much detail as he did.  I think if she had lived, what happened to her would have been treated more as a private matter.  As it was, over a hundred years later a skinny little freshman girl read a news story and was affected by it.

There isn't anything I could do for that long-ago, unnamed girl.  But I could imagine a different ending for her.