Lake Atitlan, Panajachel, Guatemala

Monday, December 12, 2011

Happy Holidays to My Blogging Friends

It's time for my traditional holiday blogging break. I know many of you will be doing the same. See you next year!

 Wishing you all a wonderful, magical Christmas season


Photo  Farm Girl. Lucille Marker enjoying Christmas on the Nebraska farm, 1920.
For more on a Farm Girl Christmas, see my website.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Refining the Writer's Voice

I'm guest posting at Shirley Wells' blog today. Shirley, a British crime writer with some fabulous books to her name and a very nice person, graciously offered to host on my House of Diamonds blog tour. Each month she features a guest writer on her This Writer's Life series.

This is the last stop on my tour. I interrupted it to post about Celery Tree because for some strange reason which I still don't understand, the launch of House of Diamonds coincided with the launch of Celery Tree which coincided with Thanksgiving and NaNoWriMo.

For a couple weeks there, my universe was in total disarray.

 I didn't make all the stops I originally planned but I appreciate all who volunteered and offered. I can't imagine living the writer life without the support of my online friends.

I owe many thanks to those who did so much to help me with the House of Diamonds launch--reviews, comments, opening your blog for my tour-- I appreciate each and every one of you.

See you over at Shirley's website, where I'm talking about Refining the Writer's Voice.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Fear of Failure

I have anxiety and fear of failure about a lot of things, depending on what I'm working on at the moment. I have three books out there in the big scary red ocean doing their thing, maybe sinking, maybe floating, maybe headed to some distant shore. Who knows? I can't think about it or I drive myself crazy.

Fear of failure can be paralyzing, keeping one from acting or moving forward. I cope by reminding myself that better people than me have failed. And what's failure anyway, but success postponed?

Now that I'm launching my massive, nearly two-year project in the making, Celerytree.com, and it's out there with doors open, the fear of failure creeps up.

I remember when Farm Girl was first published and listed on Amazon, and suddenly one day a little device appeared under the cover image with the words "Download this book to read on the Kindle."

My thoughts at the time: What in the world is a Kindle and why should I care?

I'm not saying that Celery Tree will become anything like Amazon or the Kindle. But I like to remind myself that the Kindle was pretty much ignored for its first three years. If Amazon hadn't believed in the concept and kept it out there, it would have faded away before it had a chance to change the world.

Failure is success postponed.

It's the first Wednesday in December, and this is an insecure writer's post. Hi, Alex.

Monday, December 5, 2011

What could a YA paranormal writer possibly like about literary women's fiction?

Sometimes we writers can limit ourselves in thinking who our demographic might be. I never really thought those who enjoy and write in the YA paranormal genre would get my books.

But when Kerri Cuevas, paranormal author, offered to do a review for my blog tour, I thought sure, why not. If her review is critical, I can take it. I'm a professional, right?

Have you ever had second thoughts about allowing certain readers to review your ARC? And to participate in a blog tour? Any fear of "what if they don't like it?" 

If you want to know what Kerri thought about House of Diamonds, just click on her blog to find out.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Time to Digest some Celery

Before going to bed I double-checked my Celery Tree post scheduled for today and realized, I didn't write one! The last three were all very intense and packed with information. Maybe today should be a time to digest everything.

So if you care to digest, here's the first post, What is Celerytree.com and should you join?

Second, Why Celerytree.com?

And even more to chew on:  Frequently Asked Questions about Celerytree.com

And guess what? This week our first books sold from the site! Four print books were purchased by two different customers! Which is just the coolest thing ever to see it working as intended, with people actually buying books!!

 Regular updates will be posted on the Celery Tree Facebook page. Please pop over and Like us! (And see which was the very first book sold on Celerytree.com) We're on the other side of 50 likes, going for 100!