by Scott D. Parker

I’m not sure how many folks might need to read Chip Copley’s Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better with Age, but I certainly did. 

Now, before we go any further, I must say that I am not going through a midlife crisis. At all. Most people who see me ask me why I’m always smiling or be-bopping to a song I hear in my head. I’m an optimistic, happy person. Have been for as long as I can remember.

But this book ignited something in me.

I refer to my current age as “fifty f*cking five!” so you know where I am in life. It’s true that when it comes to, say, my writing career, I used to lament that I didn’t start at a younger age. If I did nothing else other than write a book a year, I’d have more than twenty out there. Heck, if I’d even have kept up that pace since 2005 when I wrote my first book, Treason at Hanford, I would have had more books published.

That’s not how it went, and stewing about that fact and the choices I made gets me nowhere. I do, however, have control on where I am now and where I’m going. And that’s where this book comes in.

A Shift in Perspective

Chip Conley is a little bit older than I am so I see him as one of those more seasoned voices I can listen to and learn from. A central tenet of Chip’s philosophy is shifting our perspectives on aging. 

Many folks hate getting older. They look at old photos and see their youthful bodies, recall that zest for life, and were confident they never forgot where they put the car keys. 

Shifting our perspective from negative to positive actually has good benefits. We’ll ultimately be healthier, our brains function better, our days will become more happy, and we’ll actually live longer. And who doesn’t want that?

Those same folks who see me walking the hallways at work with a grin on my face ask me why I’m smiling. “Because I woke up today.” Yeah, there will be bad days. There always are, but the good days always best the bad. 

The Midlife Chrysalis

Chip sees midlife in three stages. Early Midlife (ages 35-50) involves the emotional and physical transitions. He calls it adult puberty. In this stage, we’re no longer young, but we’re still spry enough to play with our kids or maybe run a marathon or ride a bike 150 miles for MS. 

Your fifties is the center of midlife. We’ve changed our way of thinking about ourselves and have settled into who we are. Chip quotes David Bowie here: “Aging is an extraordinary process whereby you become the person you always should have been.” Kind of also echoes the famous quote from George Bernard Shaw: “Youth is wasted on the young.”

Stage Three of midlife is roughly 60 to 75. You’re probably still working, probably still somewhat youthful, but you see your golden years approaching. 

Chip’s metaphor of a chrysalis—of when a caterpillar consumes, then gestates, and then transforms into a butterfly—is the core of this book. It’s the lens through which he advises us to see our lives. He calls everything that came before a dress rehearsal. 

And butterflies? What do they do? They pollinate and, in his take, this is the stage where we can pollinate the world with the wisdom we’ve all accumulated.

What Does This Mean?

The book examines the twelve reasons why Chip sees life getting better as we get older. If nothing else, take a look at the sample pages on the store of your choice and you can see the table of contents. (Or you can click this link that will take you to Chip's page where he has a video on what inspired him to write the book and other resources.) In addition to the twelve, he also breaks things down into broader categories: the Physical Life, the Emotional Life, and the Vocational Life. 

The more I pored over those pages, the more I saw the possibilities of what I want to do and how I can accomplish the things I want. 

A driving factor in all of this is the growth mindset. Chip defines it not as winning but learning. “A growth mindset facilitates seeking out, exploring, and enjoying new experiences. It is the antidote to midlife boredom.”

It is also the antidote to boredom no matter how old you are. 

For us writers, a growth mindset can manifest itself into improving our craft, learning how to write better stories, and letting folks know about our books. For us readers, it might be going to a bookstore and going to a section you’ve never visited and selecting something brand new to read. For anyone, it can be learning a new language, a new skill, or trying something completely new. 

In short, this is a book that can make you ecstatic to be alive, no matter your age. 

You’re Supposed to be Embarrassed, Right?

By
Scott D. Parker

When you look back on your former work, do you get embarrassed?

For the past week or so, I have updated the interior layouts and covers for the paperback versions of my four mysteries. I took the paperbacks offline back in May when I updated the ebook covers and put them in Kindle Unlimited. It was an experiment and one that is, slowly, getting some traction. To be honest, the western side of things, under the S. D. Parker pen name, has been doing much better.
Anyway, I pulled up the earlier versions of the files and went to work. The covers were relatively straightforward. I used the existing cover template, paste on the new front cover, then updated the spine and back copy. Now the four books all appear from the same family: same cover template, same wrap color and font, with little pictures of the other three books on the back cover. The interesting thing was using the first book as a go-by and literally copying/pasting the cover on top of the other three novels in order to line up every font and square. Adobe Illustrator is a powerful tool and I know I’m probably only scratching the surface of its capabilities.

It was the interiors that made me gasp a little. They all look fine, but my sensibilities have matured since I initially created those interiors back in 2015 and 2016. My eye had improved and the details I now want to present were not there in those older versions.

For example: the font on the chapter headings (i.e., Chapter One) were all visually the same but in terms of styles, they were all over the place. There are few things are monotonous as going through each chapter, highlighting the chapter head text, and then applying a new style to it. But it is accomplished now. And I kept ULTERIOR OBJECTIVES they way it already was: simple Arabic numerals. Other than that distinction, all four interior layouts now appear the same.

I admitted to myself a little bit of embarrassment over the matter. Sure, all the books were fine in and of themselves, but as a whole, they were not as unified as I wanted. Now they are.

I’m looking forward to seeing the proofs that’ll arrive sometime next week and then putting the paperbacks on sale again.

As an independent author, the learning process never ends. Yes, we writers are always in school when it comes to crafting our stories. But the nuts and bolts part of the job—like layouts, covers, and marketing—is also a constant learning process as well. As much as some of the parts of my interiors made me cringe here in 2017, I also had internalized one crucial lesson:

Do the best you can with the knowledge you have acquired up to a certain point and then release the book into the wild. Do not wait until you think you have it perfect because you will ultimately never release it. Use your knowledge to make the next project the best ever. And then the next.

A Year From Now…

By

Scott D. Parker

I can’t recall where I saw it, but sometime in 2013, I read a motivational statement: A year from now, you will have wished you started today.

I’m not a guy who has motivational posters on the walls or shelves full of motivational books. But this phrase struck me. I think it was one of the things that spurred me to write a story that ended up being WADING INTO WAR, my first published book.

Why do I bring it up? Well, three days ago, 18 February, was a year since the publication of WADING. Boy, has it been fun! Challenging, but fun.

I’ve had to learn how to format a Word file for Kindle, Kobo, Nook, and Smashwords. They all have their own, slightly different ways of formatting. Then there was the fun challenges of preparing files for CreateSpace and the paperbacks. These had their own unique challenges—how to use InDesign and Illustrator!—with different review processes.

In the year since, I have published 3 novels, 3 short westerns, and submitted 2 stories for anthologies. Quite a bit for Year 1. This coming year will be equally as productive.

Again, why do I bring up this motivational statement? To get anyone who might be on the fence about starting a story, a novel, a painting, or any project …to just do it. Take that first step and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in a day, a week, a month, or even a year.

You can do whatever creative thing you want. You just have to start.

Because, a year from now, you will have wished you started today, 20 February 2016.

Author wanted…self- motivated personalities please apply

By: Joelle Charbonneau

So, in recent days I’ve thought a lot about what it means to be an author.  I think much of my introspection has to do with the fact I’m editing the final book in my YA trilogy, doing copy edits for book 4 of the Rebecca Robbins series all which trying to get new pages done on my 3^rd Glee Club book.  About a year ago, I would have panicked at the pile-up of work.  Panic = stress.  Stress = wasted energy.  Wasted energy = more time it takes to get the work done.  Today, I prioritize, focus and realize that I will get done what can get done and the rest will work itself out. 

This doesn’t mean I am not working every day.  I am.  But I have come to realize that the more I have learned in my publishing journey, the more I understand what I need to do in order to get the work done and still be excited about sitting down to work again the next day.

So, today I’ve put together a list of 5 things that in my 4 year publishing adventure I have decided are necessary for a person to survive as an author.

1)      Self-motivation -  Working at home is filled with distractions.  Only you can put your butt in the chair, your fingers on the keyboard and get the work done.  The discipline to do this is something that all authors need.  If you can find more excuses not to write than reasons to sit down in the chair and get words on the page – this is not the job for you.  Writers write.  End of story.

2)      Patience –  You have to be able to sit back and wait in this business.  You wait for beta readers to tell you what they think of your story.  You have to wait for replies and hopefully an offer of representation when you are querying agents.  You wait when your manuscript is on submission for an editor to love the book.  You wait for editorial notes, for copy edits, for page proofs, for reviews.  You wait sometimes a year or two from the time you get a contract until the day when your book is spotted in a bookstore.  Yeah – this is not a business filled with immediate gratification.  If you need a lightning fast pace…well, perhaps this job isn’t for you.

3)      An open mind – Writers love their stories.  We become attached to our characters and want readers to become invested in the conflicts we create.  But just because we write a story doesn’t mean we’ve chosen the best way to tell it.  Editorial feedback is a wonderful thing.  But it can also be a difficult thing.  Hearing someone tell you that something in the story isn’t working can be painful.  Some authors can get defensive when negative feedback is given.   The most important thing an author can do is remember that there are lots of ways to tell the story and editorial notes are about finding the best way.  Sometimes it takes several different tries to decide if a better way is possible.  My editor obviously loved The Testing when she bought it, but her editorial notes pushed me to make the story better.  And after I did, my editor pushed even harder to see what else was possible.  You have to be willing to remember that negative feedback or alternate suggestions aren’t telling you that you did something wrong.  They are telling you there might be something to write that is even better.

4)      A willingness to give up control – Publishing is a collaborative effort that involves a huge number of people, most of which you’ll probably never meet.  Aside from you the author, your editor, your agent (if you have one) and your publisher, dozens of people will be involved in the production of your manuscript.  And everyone will have a point of view about their piece of the production pie.  Type setting, cover art, jacket design, marketing campaign – none of these will be in your control if you traditionally publish.  Will you have opinions about them?  Sure.  My editors always ask me what I think of the cover designs that the art department creates.  But while that is true, that doesn’t mean I get the final say.  Heck – there have been 3 different covers for The Testing.  (The final was revealed this week.  I love it, but I had NOTHING to do with it.  Good since I can’t draw to save my life, but some authors might not feel that way.)  You have to be willing to voice your opinion and then step back and let those who get paid to support your book do the best job possible.  Not always easy when they have a different vision than you. 

5)      The ability to move on – Once the story has been edited and moves into production (copy edits, page proofs, advanced reader copies) the book is done.  Yes, there is work still to be done, and details to be handled, but the story has been told.  As much as you love it, you have to be able to wave goodbye, open up a new word document and start the next book.  Yes, you should celebrate the book that is coming through production and congratulate yourself when it hits shelves, but that story has been told.  The next one is waiting for you to fill the pages.  Because no matter what happens – a writer writes.