Life Intrusions

by: Joelle Charbonneau

Things get in the way.  We all know this.  No matter what your intensions for getting things accomplished, life happens and all the things you planned to do don't get done.

As someone who works at home, I can tell you it doesn't take much to get the day off track.  And wow did this week get off track.  Between phone calls and music brainstorming sessions with students, support calls with writer friends, several book events, putting together stuff for the Valentine's Day party at my son's kindergarten and getting all of the supplies required to make the craft as well as having a son come down with a stomach bug things this week were crazy.  Not to mention the work being done in my kitchen.

Yikes - the kitchen!!!  That's a whole other distraction.  Banging.  Sawing.  Laughing.  Plastering.

It looked like this about a week and a half ago:

Now it looks less like the set of SAW (my husband's description) and more like this:

Monday there will be tile and later in the week the cabinets will be added and soon it will look like a kitchen again.  Huzzah!

However, as wonderful as the transformation is, having people coming and going in the middle of getting the kid up and ready for school, getting him off the bus, keeping him entertained, getting ready for events and all that jazz...well, it makes it hard to focus on writing the book I'm working on.  Have I gotten pages done.  Yes.  Is it the number of pages that I'd hoped to create this week.

HA! HA! HA! HA!  No.  No, it's not.

And that's okay.  Because I am still moving the story forward.  I am still climbing up the mountain and working to get to the other side.  But life sometimes gets in the way.  And when it does, it is best to just accept that tomorrow, or next week or in three weeks (which is when they assume our kitchen will be completed), life will settle down and do what you can until that time.  In my case, I am plugging along two or three or four pages a day in the middle of dust and hammer noises and no heat.  (Did I mention that to revamp the kitchen there was a day they had to turn off the heat?)  I will accept that I will do my best and celebrate every page even if they aren't as numerous as I'd like.

At least, that is what I tell myself.  Because really - what other choice do I have?  Sometimes life gets in the way.  That's what life is for!

BUT...since I don't have huge word counts or work related milestones to celebrate- I want to know yours.   What awesome things big and small have you accomplished this week?  Tell me what you have written, or worked on, or helped your kids achieve!  I want to celebrate you!

  

A new year. A new adventure.

by: Joelle Charbonneau

Welcome to 2014!  I hope you had a great holiday season and that the new year has gotten off to a great start.

For me, the new year is kicking off with 2 books hitting shelves and me hitting the road on my first major publisher sponsored book tour.  EEK!

I mean - hooray.  12 days.  10 cities in various climates.  One carry-on suitcase in the middle of winter.  What could possibly go wrong?

To be honest, I'm a combination of thrilled and excited and terrified of going on tour to promote INDEPENDENT STUDY.  I love that in each city I get to meet readers and chat with students at various middle and high schools who have already read The Testing and are excited about the newest book in the trilogy.  That is awesome.  And for the performer in me, there is something really excited about getting up on a stage and putting on a show about writing and books.  But because I've never done this kind of tour before, I am a little nervous about how things will go.  There are so many things I have no control over - planes schedules, weather...you know...travel stuff.

The travel stuff is the reason that I've chosen to heed the advice of authors who have gone on many a tour before me - No Checked Luggage!  I mean, why tempt the travel Gods.  With that many flights checked luggage is bound to go astray.  Hence, for this trek I will be taking with me one small carry-on suitcase and the attache cache that used to belong to my father-in-law to hold my computer and Cold Eeze.  (Yes, I will be writing on planes....at least that is the plan.)

Because of the limited space, I find that I am incredibly grateful to my love of Tetris and my lack of love of shoes.  (Trust me...not loving shoes means less footwear and more room for clothes.)  Some people have said rolling clothes is a good way to go, but I have yet to master the skill and have found I can fit more clothes into the suitcase by folding.  I have also found the world's smallest curling iron and checked my itinerary and the hotels I'll be staying to make sure I have a day for laundry.  So if you see pictures of me wearing the same clothes in more than one location on tour - I promise that they're clean.

Sadly, I won't be wearing my favorite jeans pictured to the right since I know the nifty sparkly designs on the butt will set off all the bells and whistles at the airport.  I'm hoping to avoid pat downs by the TSA.  Do you want to take bets to see if I can do it?

Needless to say, 2014 is kicking off with a huge adventure.  And really, it is only because of you and your support that this adventure is happening.  I hope I get to see a bunch of you on the road.  If we haven't met before, please introduce yourself so I can put a face with the name.  And while I'm gone, please be nice to three amazing ladies who will be guest blogging in my stead.  I have a feeling you're going to love them.

Okay - time to finish packing so I can prepare to get this show on the road.  While I'm fretting over whether to pack another pair of pants, let me know what adventures you are planning this year.  I can't wait to hear all about them!

Boy do I feel dumb

by: Joelle Charbonneau

This week, I've been working on copyedits for GRADUATION DAY, the third book in The Testing Trilogy.  Copyedits are always an interesting time in the production of a novel.  The book has been revised and revised and revised again.  My editor, agent and I finally believe the book is in great shape. Then the book goes off to the shadowy figure known as the copyeditor to make sure all commas are in the right place and all the spellings in book 3 actually match the two that came before.  A great copyeditor also checks for overused words and makes suggestions about any repetitive phrases that could be eliminated.

So it is with a great deal of joy and angst that I approached opening the package with the copyedited manuscript. Joy because the book is getting close to being spiffed and polished and ready for readers and anguish because the pages will be filled with lots and lots of notes and tons of little tweaks that make me think...wow...why didn't I think of that in the first place?

Copyedits (when done by an amazing copy editor, of which I have been blessed with) make me feel dumb.  Not the comma part, because the one thing I have learned in this writing process is that every publishing house seems to have a different idea of where commas should actually go.  So the added or removed punctuation doesn't phase me.  But the rest....

Yikes.

All the notes and the suggestions and the polite requests for changes make me grateful that I have a copyeditor.  It also makes me feel stupid.  Very, very stupid. Like I failed ever grammar class that I'd taken in high school.

The funny thing is, I know that's not the case.  In fact, I know that often I have far less notes on these pages than I'm expecting.  But it is the nature of a writer to think that we should be able to do everything without help.  That we should be perfect.  That we shouldn't need an editor or a copyeditor or anyone else who reads the story throughout production.  Because the story is ours.  As the storyteller -we should be able to make the story fabulous all by ourselves.

And that's wrong.  Yes, the story is ours, but the best thing about writing a story is watching the process of the story being turned into a book.  And not just any book...the best book it can possibly be.  And that's what all those amazing people helping shape the story are for.  My copyeditor makes me feel dumb and incredibly grateful to have her working on my book.  I mean...the book is SO much better for her.  And my editor...well, let's just say I am thanking my lucky stars I get to work with her because she is brilliant.  Here's hoping she liked my work enough in this trilogy to work with me in the future because I'm not sure if my work could ever be as strong without her.

Writers feel dumb a lot.  We feel stupid when we don't know what comes next in the story.  We feel like complete idiots when we're in the middle of writing a book and we are certain it is the worst book ever.  We think we're not so bright when we read the manuscript and think the story might not be as bad as we originally thought.  We bang our heads against walls when we get editorial notes that point out glaring errors that we swear we should have spotted.  And we even feel stupid when the book hits shelves and readers pick it up because we're certain someone is going to finally understand how much we don't know and that we're total frauds.

But you know what?  Despite that, I feel like the smartest person in the world for being in this business.  Why?  Because I get to work with people who make my work look sharper, more focused and just plain better than it was before.  How cool is that?

So, as I finish these last couple pages marked with green pencil and lovely notes from my wonderful copyeditor, I am incredibly thankful that I have such an amazing production team helping me shape this book.  Because the dumber I feel, the luckier I know I am.

Um....

by: Joelle Charbonneau

Well, it's Sunday.  That means I'm supposed to have a smart, interesting or funny blog post for you to read.  The problem is that I have nothing!  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  I have a deadline looming and the end of a book in sight.  Which is probably why my brain can't come up with a single thing that you might want to read about.  So....while I add pages to my manuscript and get closer to THE END, please feel free to share any thoughts you might have on what you'd like me to blog on in the future?  Is there a question you've been wanting to ask?  Is there a piece of publishing info you want me to discuss?  Do you want me to post pictures of my cat?  If so, let me know and I'll be happy to be smart, funny, and erudite when I'm not on overload.  And in the meantime, please feel free to send caffeine.  Lots of it!

Happy Sunday all!

Do you think it’s difficult to take a vacation?

By: Joelle Charbonneau

I don’t know about you, but taking a vacation sounds like a great idea.  Time to read.  Time to relax.  Time to do all the things there just isn’t time to do while work is getting done.

And yet, I would argue that while people take vacations, it’s harder that it used to be to get away from all the things you need a break from.  While you might take time off from going into the office, the office is only a computer log-in away.  Or a phone call.  Or a text.  People know you have your cell phone handy so it doesn’t matter if you are at the beach or strolling along Downtown Disney.  The age of technology means that no one is ever able to leave the office at the office.

For us work at home types, I would argue that vacations are even harder to take.  Even on the days where I vow to take off there are e-mails from my agent or editor or publicists to answer, blog posts to write, and pages that have to get done by my deadline.  I find it hard to ignore the call of work because it can travel wherever I go.  E-mails and social media can be accessed on my phone.  My laptop can come anywhere that I travel and that deadline (no matter how far) always feels like it is just days away.

And it isn’t just work that we often need a vacation from.  It’s anything that causes stress.  For some that might be family.  For others it could be politics.  It used to be that the minute you got to the airport or arrived at your vacation destination you were free of all of the things you needed a break from. 

Unfortunately, airports are armed with televisions playing CNN 24/7.  Social media, phone calls and e-mail keep you updated on everything you might want to ignore.  Stress intrudes even when you need a break from it all.

And I don’t know about you, but I need a break!

So, as soon as my current deadlines are met, I am going to shut off my cell phone and internet for a day to take a respite from it all.  No news programs.  No radio updates.  If someone needs to talk to me they can call my landline.  (We still have one!)  I plan on reading books.  Spending time with my family.  Enjoying life without the plugged-in feeling technology gives us. 

And I’m wondering if I’m the only one that feels this way about technology.  Do you find it difficult to “get away” even when you are technically on vacation?  How do you deal with the every day demands that can intrude when you need a break?

Perfect parent? Me? Yeah-right!

by: Joelle Charbonneau

I am the worst parent in the world.  Okay, maybe that’s overstating.  I mean, I’ve only been parenting for a mere four and a half years.  There are lots of folks out there who have been doing this for a lot longer, which means they have had more opportunities to screw things up.  Right?

My son is four. He’s my first and after the scares he’s given me he might be my last.  Like any parent, I try to keep him safe.  The thing is, my best efforts to be a responsible parent seem to end in tragedy.  Kind of like the time I took him to the park and he wanted to go on the big slide.  He was a large nineteen-month-old, but the really big slide looked – well, really big.  It seemed irresponsible of me to let him go down alone.  I mean, what parent would let their kid go down a really big slide all alone when they were only 19 months? He could fall off or worse.  So, I did the only responsible, safe thing I could think of – I went down the side with him. 

And he broke his leg.

No, I didn’t fall on him, although in retrospect that would have made far more sense than what did happen.  My son squealed with delight, kicked his left foot out and caught the edge of the slide for just a moment – long enough for him to twist it perfectly and cause a tiny break. All because of my desire to have perfect parenting skills.

Since then the tot’s head had made impact with the corner of the coffee table, taken I don’t know how many dives to the concrete from his bike and had had his chin broken open because of a close encounter with metal steps on the playground slide.  (Hint...when metal steps and chin collide, metal steps win every time.)  Yep, despite my best efforts, I seem to be doing everything wrong.

Or am I? 

I admit that I have started to look for guidance for my parenting life in my publishing journey.  The first four manuscripts I wrote I did with careful consideration for the subject matter and the tone.  I tried to do them perfectly.  None of them sold.  In fact, despite my best “parenting” of those they weren’t and still aren’t publishable.  However, the fifth book I wrote I did without worrying about being perfect or even selling.  I sat down at the keyboard, let my goofiest ideas take over and had a blast.  I wrote for myself and forgot about the need to be perfect.  That book, as wild and wacky as it was, sold.  And somehow when I wasn’t looking I wrote a young adult novel without understanding any of the young adult novel rules.  It, too, sold.  I understood the rules, put them away and just wrote.  By doing so, things seemed to work out.

So, now that I’ve learned a lot of rules about parents, I guess I’m working on learning how to stop trying to be the perfect parent.  But I need help.  If you have any tricks you’d like to share about how to survive the parenting experience, please do!  I have a lot to learn, but the one thing I know is that like my books, the kid is going to have some rough patches and he’s going to have some fabulous moments and I hope that when I go back and look at my whole parenting story I will find that my son and I both enjoyed the ride.  

And in case you hadn't heard, our very own Dave White has joined the ranks of parenting.  Congratulations to the entire family.  I wish you all lots of sleep and great future!

Debate or damage?

by: Joelle Charbonneau

I love debate.  Even if I agree with someone, I am happy to debate the other side of the argument just because it allows me to look at something from a new point of view.  That may not change my mind, but seeing an issue from all sides is the best way to understand it.  Personally, I think that the more information I have, the better I can make a decision.

Unfortunately, no matter what the issue – self-publishing, which books should be eligible for what awards, politics, fast-food CEOs and their religious beliefs—I have found that a great number of people do not take care with the words they use when discussing the topic at hand.  I have seen US political leaders likened to Hitler (which—yes, we have problems, but NO none of our current US leaders are killing millions in gas chambers) and publishers referred to as the devil.  The employees at the polarizing fast food chain (and if you’ve lived in a bubble this past week and don’t know which one I mean – I’m jealous!) have been called evil for needing their paycheck and have been praised by some patrons for beliefs that they do not support.  And up and down my Facebook newsfeed I see messages that bash those who do not hold the same political or social ideals.

YIKES!

Technology is wonderful.  It puts information at our fingertips.  We get to communicate via Skype and social media with people we might otherwise forget to pick up the phone to call.  However, technology—specifically social media, websites and blogs, have given many the impression that because they are communicating to the masses via a screen that their message doesn’t not do damage.  They throw around highly charged words like “Hilter and “Against God” and call people who hold certain beliefs names all the while not believing that they are doing anything wrong.

And maybe you don’t believe they are because—hey—the first amendment says that we all have the freedom of speech.  Do I believe in free speech?  Hell, yes!  But I would argue that much of the discourse I have seen could be considered a form of bullying.  It is one thing to say “I support this idea.”  It is quite another to say that anyone who supports something else is ignorant or evil.  Saying that there are questions you have about publishing or self-publishing is valid.  Saying that anyone who makes a choice to traditionally publish is an idiot and is a traitor to their creativity is just silly.  And let’s not get me started on what people were saying this week about those who supported the fast food chain and those who protested it.

People!  Yes, there is free speech.  Yes, I believe in it.  People I know and love have gone to war and fought for our right to have that privilege.  But they didn’t put their lives on the line just so people on Facebook could browbeat and bully their friends who dare not agree with their stance on certain issues. 

As writers, we know that words matter.  Words can evoke tears.  Prompt laughter.  Cause pain.  Whether face to face or behind a screen, words should be chosen with care.  Debate should be encouraged, but while debating we should hold ourselves to the standard that we would hold our children to.  Think of many of the posts that you see by your friends on Facebook, on blogs or on other social media sites today.  How many of those if posted by a teenager to their friends would be considered belittling or bullying?  How many could cause them trouble with parents or get them expelled?

So, I will say it again—words matter.  Please, choose the words you use with care.  By doing so, you will encourage others to do the same.  Once we have taken the anger and intent to damage out of our discourse, debate is possible.  And debate—a true exchange of ideas—is a wonderful thing.

Ready, set, launch!

by: Joelle Charbonneau

Happy July.  I’m not sure how it is already July.  I mean, I understand the passage of time.  Seconds turn into minutes.  Minutes turn into hours.  Hours into days.  Etc… Etc… Etc…  But despite knowing how it happened, I am still protesting the fact we are halfway through this year.  My to-do list for the year hasn’t gotten shorter, which is the reason I’m totally freaked about the turn of the calendar and this new month staring me in the face.

The month of July also makes me feel nervous for another reason.  MURDER FOR CHOIR launches in 2 days.  I’m excited and panicked and thrilled and about ready to throw up.  (Don’t I make publishing sound totally awesome?)  These are all emotions I’m used to feeling on the opening of a new show and thus far every book that I have published has come with its own set of butterflies. 

Launching this series is particularly nerve wracking because it has so much of me in between the jacket covers.  My heroine, Paige Marshall, is a classically trained singer hoping to land her big break.  To make ends meet, she takes a job as a high school show choir coach and finds a rival choir director strangled with a microphone cord—dead. 

Ok—I’ve never tripped over a dead body, but I know what it is like to go to audition after audition and not land that break you have worked so hard for.  I’ve also taught voice to lots of high school students.  So, while Paige is in no way me, I know her.  I know what kind of drive it takes to face those auditions.  To keep hoping and dreaming.  And how frustrating and rewarding it can be to work with the next generation that are looking to take that same career path.

So, while everything I write has bits and pieces of me in it, this one has a great deal of my soul.  (Probably an odd thing to say about a book with a large standard poodle intent on making the heroine go hungry!)  I hope readers pick up the book.  I hope they enjoy the story enough to read the next one. 

I hope.

Schizophrenic writer wanted

by: Joelle Charbonneau

This is one of those weeks. The husband is out of town for a trade show. College auditions are approaching for some students. The tot is sick. My grandmother is in the hospital. A snow storm hit Chicago yesterday making things a little scary out on the roads and I’m racing to finish a manuscript. Which of course means this is the week that two sets of revision letters arrived. One was for MURDER FOR CHOIR which hits shelves on July 3rd. The other was for THE TESTING, my post-apocalyptic young adult novel that will make its appearance in the spring of 2013.

Now, I love revisions. I happily dove into the revisions on MURDER FOR CHOIR and had them out the door in lightning speed enjoying every minute of the revisions. (Yeah – go ahead and throw things. I’m betting I can duck faster than you can throw.) Fun, quick revisions are great, but I also I love revisions that challenge me to think harder, go deeper and work like mad to make the story the best it can be. So, I was totally stoked when I got a revision letter from my editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that does that. They are the kind of revisions that scare the hell out of me when I first read them and then challenge my brain to work overtime. I’m having trouble sleeping because I have all sorts of great ideas rolling around in my head. Only—I can’t work on it yet.

Why, you ask? Well, I have about 4 or 5 chapters left of the current book I’m working on, END ME A TENOR. Why does that make a difference you ask? Well, if I keep to schedule, I should be typing THE END on the last page sometime in the next 10-14 days. Because of the family issues I’ve been dealing with, I’ll admit that getting this book done was a struggle. While it hasn’t taken me all that much longer to write (I started the first page near the end of October) it feels like it has taken years. I want to climb the last stretch of the mountain, plant my flag at the top and do a happy dance celebrating the completion of this round.

Of course, I could write on END ME A TENOR during the tot’s nap time and then work on revisions at night. In fact, I ache to do this. Only, there’s an even bigger issue.

My mystery voice is punchy and a little off the wall.

My YA voice is dark, taught and a bit plaintive. (At least, I think so…who knows what the critics will say.)

While some people excel at writing two projects at the same time, I’m mostly a tunnel vision kind of girl. I affix my eyes to the light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how small, and step by step work in a single-minded fashion until I get there. Aside from page proofs and copy edits, nothing interrupts that hike to the finish line. And while this week I was able to edit MURDER FOR CHOIR while also writing on END ME A TENOR, I was able to do so only because they were the same voice. There was no transition. No worry that one would bleed into the next. Last year, I made an attempt to write the opening to THE TESTING while I was writing the beginning of SKATING UNDER THE WIRE. Um…not such a good idea. Every time I sat down I had to work hard to keep my mind in the correct tense. It took twice as long for me to get that day’s work on the page. The minute I decided to focus on one project things fell into place. The first three chapters of Rebecca Robbins 4 were finished and polished in about 9 days. I then turned to THE TESTING and watched my fingers fly.

So I will wait. I will remember that while other people can write on two projects, and in two distinctly different voices, at the same time I am not one of those people. I have to stick with what works for me.

But of course, I am curious to know what works for you. Can you work on two projects at once? Are the voices similar? Or are you like me who looks at longing with that second project knowing no matter how much you might want to play, doing so will only make things more difficult?

Where the heck did summer go?

by: Joelle Charbonneau

Okay, I know that you hear people say this all the time, but HOLY CRAP where did summer go? I mean, just the other day I was writing a blog post about summer goals and suddenly September is right around the corner. What the heck happened?

The good news for me is that I’ve managed to hit all of my summer goals and the coming of fall means really awesome stuff. The most exciting of which is my toddler’s first encounter with school. Pre-school starts in a couple of weeks, which means twice a week I get 2 ½ hours of free time in my mornings. YAY! There’s also a bunch of library author events, Bouchercon (which is you haven’t registered to go – do it! It is awesome.), and the release of SKATING OVER THE LINE.

Yeah – cool stuff is coming in the fall, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready for the summer to be over yet. I still have a to-do list a mile long and a TBR pile that is getting larger by the day. If someone can figure out a way to expand summer to last until I get through both of those, I’m willing to pay. I can even pay in homemade baked goods if you’d like.

But since I fear there is no way to stop the passage of time and the fast approaching fall months, I’d like all of you to take a moment to tell me what you are looking forward to this fall. Are you going on a fabulous vacation that will make all your friends drool with envy? Is there a book hitting shelves that you are dying to get your hands on? Do YOU have a book or a story launching in the next couple of months that you want to tell everyone about? If you have a horn to toot, this is the place to let it fly. Give me the rundown on what you are most looking forward to during the upcoming fall months. Perhaps with enough cool stuff approaching, I won’t be sad when the end of summer arrives.

Tunnel Vision

by: Joelle Charbonneau

What kind of writer are you? Are you the kind that starts several different projects before finally settling on one that you want to take to the end? Are you the kind that needs to write more than one project at once? Maybe you like writing short stories in between chapters of a novel to keep your perspective fresh.

I’m a writer with tunnel vision. I start a project and I need to get to the end of it before I can begin another. Sometimes I have an idea for a new project that I jot down a few ideas for before I put it to the side, but I always put it to the side. Because there is a story that I am telling and until I get to the end I feel incomplete. I need to get to the end.

Right now I’m 73,000 words into the new WIP. The end is in sight. Maybe a week to ten days left of writing before I get there. Which means I’m ignoring almost everything else on my to-do list to get to closer to THE END. Nap time with the tot never seems long enough. Going out to have fun seems like a chore. I pray that my editor doesn’t send edits for MURDER FOR CHOIR to me until after I am finished because I don’t want the distraction.

Yeah – I’m sick. I need some kind of vaccination against this driving need to finish this book. But I can’t help myself. I want to finish. Then I want to get to reading the whole thing and find out if it is any good.

Which makes me wonder if I’m the only one with this kind of drive when THE END is in sight. What kind of writer are you? What is your process as you write the novel and as you start to approach THE END? Do you creep toward the final pages dragging out the enjoyment of the process or do you barrel straight ahead? And once you are done finishing a book or a story – how do you celebrate the event?

It's the end of the world....or not

by: Joelle Charbonneau

Despite all the hype, the rapture didn’t happen. The world is still spinning. Which mean I have to start thinking about gearing up for my next release.

I find the pre-release process to be both exciting and scary. Last week, I finished proofing the typeset pages of SKATING OVER THE LINE, which was lots of fun. For those who haven’t been through the process, this is the last step in which I the author can make any changes before the publisher waves his magic wand and turns the pages into a real life book. Yippee.

This is only the second time I’ve had to go through this step and each time I held my breath hoping to God I’d still like the book after I was done reading it. So far, so good. Although, I am well and truly baffled as to how so many typos that weren’t in my word document version of the book (I know this because I am anal enough to go back and look) ended up in the typeset version. Something tells me this mystery is a lot like the sock going missing in the dryer and will never be solved.

Now that the pages have been proofed and the corrections sent back to my publisher, it is time for me to start working on pre-release publicity and all that entails. EEEK! So, I now am embarking on setting up a blog tour, getting copy ready for some advertising opportunities and scheduling signings and conference appearances. (Now do you see why the end of the world was looking so attractive?)

So, I am now asking for your help. Tell me – what are your favorite blogs to read about new books? Do giveaways and other novelties draw your attention? Do short stories in magazines grab your notice and make you want to pick up the author’s longer fiction? In short – tell me what you think I should be doing to get the word out about my books. And if the rapture folks got the date wrong for the end of the world and it ends before I respond to your comment – thanks for the help! I really appreciate it.

When Panic Sets In

by: Joelle Charbonneau (posting for the soon-to-be-wed Dave White)

Well, the calendar tells me my release of SKATING AROUND THE LAW is less than two months away. And yes, I am panicking. In less than two months, I’ll be touring the country hoping to God people show up and keep me company at my signings. I’ll also be hoping readers like the book.

It’s funny, but as a stage performer I’m used to people expressing their opinions about the work I do. That’s just part of the job. However, as a performer, if an audience doesn’t react well to your work, well, there’s always tomorrow. A new show, a new audience, a new day.

For writers, tomorrow is a new day, but it takes a long time for a new book to hit the stands. I think that’s the reason I’m panicking more for this opening day than any in my performing career. If someone doesn’t like this book, chances are they won’t read the next one. Scary stuff.

And yet I wouldn’t trade the panic and the sleepless nights for anything. Does that make me a masochist? Probably. This adventure is a lot like a roller coaster ride. The submission process is the long ride up the hill. Every click of the coaster as it lurches up and up makes your muscles clench and your heart skip. And just when you start to get comfortable with that part of the ride, the coaster hits the top and tilts over the edge. That’s when the real fun begins. There are highs and lows, twists and turns and a lot of loop-da-loops. Most likely during this ride I will scream with joy and fear, shed a few tears and have some good laughs. At some point during the ride I will want to get off and never climb back on and yet, I am hoping that by the time the car pulls into the station I’ll be first in line to get back on. If they let me.

So for all of you writers out there, what has your writing journey felt like thus far? Does it feel like a roller coaster, a dive out of a plane or something else?