It’s hot and humid here in North Carolina; bad news for those who are the favorites of arthropods, which is never a compliment. My health has not been the best this past month, courtesy of a little critter I wrote about in my very first book, under a different pen name. Check out www.yearofthemite.com if you’re curious. The good news is, as a veteran of this particular fight, I have some inkling of how to proceed. Progress is slow but real.
Meanwhile I love hearing from you when you get a chance to write to me. I am so glad to know that my blogs and newsletters are helpful to folks. My current health situation leaves little energy for writing, but my intrepid publisher assembled a new three part blog series on “Publishing Your Sexy Novel” from material I wrote previously for a presentation I gave at a writers' conference.
I hope this series on using an agent, negotiating a contract, and bringing your book to publication will be of benefit to other sexy writers past midlife. My behind the scenes guy (also known as My Other Half), Graham was also featured in a panel forum on social media for authors at Writer’s Morning Out (WMO) this month. A summary of that very useful material will soon appear on the WMO website.
To clue you in on how complex author publicity can be, I recently had a solicited article published in an online magazine, but on the day it published I had to request its removal. Staff editing had introduced an error which the magazine was unwilling to change. The article was there one day and vanished the next. So be it, we just keep plugging away; good things happen despite the complexities.
On the upside, I was interviewed by Good Housekeeping magazine this month on the subject of Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (about which I’ve previously blogged). I’m looking forward to hearing when that interview will drop and will share the link with you when it does.
This transition time when many of us are vaccinated, many are not, and things are opening up around us can be disorienting and frustrating, but it’s also a time of hope. This week we dined at a restaurant for the first time in fourteen months. We ate on the patio, maskless, with tables of other maskless diners around us. Across a small park a local pharmacy offered a variety of coronavirus vaccines. We ate food prepared by other hands, drank wine poured by a waiter. The twilight was glorious. And I realized how this snippets of conversation that float by from other guests and staff are a source of intrigue and, perhaps, writing prompts!
The experience was fun, disconcerting, luxurious, and a bit bizarre. Are you having forays like that into the world we used to know? If you have time, drop me a line about your transition.
Here’s to hope, Summer, love, writing, and arthropods that belong outside staying outside. May the warmer weather bring you joy, and may you keep the pen moving and the keys clicking.
All the best,
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