College Bound

By: Joelle Charbonneau

My son is only five, so I am not one of the many parents taking their children to college this month.  However, two of my students did go off to school for the first time this weekend and while I am not their parent, I have had a great number of emotional moments as I’ve watch them set off into this next phase of their life.

The two that left this weekend have been with me for years.  I’ve watched them struggle, triumph, get frustrated and celebrate the happy moments.  I pushed them hard as they prepared for countless concerts and musicals and for the intense college application and audition process.  They rose to every occasion.  And in between the lessons were hundreds of phone calls and texts filled with chat, support, questions and advice. 

As a private voice teacher, I get the unique opportunity to really know these students and be a part of their lives.  They are my kids.  I’ve watched them grow and change and truly become young adults.  They are people who think for themselves, are open to new things and passionate about the subjects they have chosen for their futures.  I’m so proud of how far they have come and part of me wishes I could still be there for their weekly lessons to help them take the next steps.

But I can’t.  

They will have new teachers.  They will take these next steps without me.  And as sad as I am to not be there to see each development as it happens, I am so very happy.  They’re ready for this next step.  They have come far enough that they will listen to their teachers with the confidence to try whatever is asked of them.  They are ready to believe in themselves just as I have always believed in them.  I have done my job.  It is time for others to work magic in their lives and for me to step aside.

So, while I’m not the parent saying goodbye, I still feel the tug of sadness and the incredible pride that those parents must feel.   Because they are my kids, too. 

So to Kristen and Jacob – congratulations on taking this step.  And to all the parents out there who are feeling that ache of sadness because their child has started a new phase of their life—my heart is with you all.  Letting go is hard, but this is the best kind of letting go.

The Change is Coming

by
Scott D. Parker

Nothing major happened this week. Yesterday was Day 82 on my consecutive days writing streak. It was also Day 44 on my mini-streak of consecutive days with 1,000 words or more. I passed the 100-page mark on the new book on Tuesday. I’m up to 137 now. What I’m saying is that this week, like every day since August 1, I’m just producing words on Book 3. I’m just pounding away on the keys and loving just about every minute of it.

The summer of 2013 will always be remembered as the time I finally finished Book 2. What made it possible was the very fact it was summer. My boy was out of school and he slept in most days. Thus, I didn’t have to make sure he was awake and in the shower at a certain time, fed by a certain time, and driven to school at a certain time. I was free, especially on the four days a week I work the day job at home, to write from around 6am to when I clock into the day job, usually around 8am. Nearly all of that time, I wrote on my desk, outside, with dawn breaking and the animals waking up. I know who walks their dogs and when, I know just about the time the sun crests the east roof of my house, putting a glare on the screen, and how to be really, really quiet so as not to wake the family. It's been a magical time, a time consisting of 1.5 to 2 hours of writing time a day. It lets me get the words flowing pretty easily.

For me, that ends on Tuesday. My boy returns to school and my morning writing time vanishes. On that day, and the subsequent days throughout this coming school year, I’m going to have to produce books at a different time of the day. I’m pretty confident that the creation of Book 2 this summer was not a fluke, but I need to get Book 3 written while my boy is in school and we’re in school mode. And then get Book 4 done. And five. Et cetera.

That will be a huge change for me. Option 1 is to wake up at 5am. Not sure I can do that despite me having become a morning person. But it is possible. The only other alternative is 10pm at night. Ugh. The options aren’t pretty and that’s what I need to figure out: When am I going to write?

Tune in next week (and the following weeks) to see how it all shakes out.

Kickdegogo Your Book

By Steve Weddle

Last year, Rutgers blogger Dave White briefly asked about Kickstarter. And you responded with your thoughts.

But, at the same time, doesn't it seem like you may not trust your work to sell otherwise?  You're basically begging for an advance, and then doling out the material.  You're trying to even the odds.  Which is okay, I guess.

Now, it seems as if writers have no shame have new avenues for getting your money before the book comes out. Indiegogo. Personal blogs.

In the traditional method, a publisher supported the effort of getting the book out, by paying the author an advance against future royalties. The publisher would then pay for the printing and distribution and advertising and so forth. We've had many posts about how that's changed in terms of what publishers pay for. This isn't that.

What Kickstarter and Indiegogo and, well, the web itself, allow writers to do is interact directly with millions of fans.

I recently read a post in which an award-winning author asked for donations so that he could continue to pay for his life of sending the kids off to daycare while he spent his day writing. His fans funded this request. Good for him.Good for his fans. It's lovely to have that kind of support.

I am not in any way judging what other people do. I'm not saying this is right or that is wrong. If you can get someone to pay you $10 to fart the National Anthem, then stock up on your broccoli. Whatever. If you're farting art, all the better.

I'm all for unconventional methods of writing. My current project is being written entirely in blue ink. Not black.

BookRiot recently posted some bookish projects worth Kickstarting. Check them out and see what you think.

And here's a post about how ridiculous Kickstarter is, looking at people who want you to donate so that they can make signs for homeless people. There's the nastiness of using the homeless as your fodder for comedy, but the point holds.

This dude got $500,000 to fund a book he'd already written.

This anthology doubled its funding goal.

I'm just wondering, as authors, whether we're doing this right. If you have a project that requires big upfront costs -- overseas travel, scientific equipment, prototypes -- that's one type. It's a project.

There's another type in which the Hollywood millionaires want you to fund the movies they want to make. I guess that's another type. See: Veronica Mars.

Then there is most of us. Not the hiring of an artist for a graphic novel. Not the trip to Ashendenvilleburg to research a murder from 1837.

I'm looking at the author sitting at her kitchen table, writing along each day instead of going to work at Auto Zone. Are you fine with sending that person a check for $50 so that you can get an early look at the PDF? I mean, that's kinda how Harper Lee wrote MOCKINGBIRD, right? Isn't that the story? Someone granted her a year's worth of money so she didn't have to dayjob it?

I get that cover art for a self-pubbed book is expensive. Or should be.

I get that proofreading and editing cost bucks, and that your book doesn't have the traditional path that takes care of that.

Using Kickstarter as a pre-order machine does have a certain appeal for self-published/DIY/Indie authors, I think. I can see getting the $10 from everyone upfront, then using that to buy good cover art and professional editing and all. I get that.

But the donating in lieu of dayjob seems different.

And, of course, what's the harm? If I want to send $20 to Arturo Bandini or Kilgore Trout, what harm is there? I'm giving them money so they can write. What business is it of yours?

If you have a writing project you need funds for, tell me about it. Need money to cover the printing of some cool hardback you have planned? Dude, sign me up. You need to pay artists ahead of time to illustrate a great noir story you want to tell? Yes, ma'am, that's a project I can dig.

Funding a specific project that needs upfront money? That seems like the sort of thing Kickstarter was set up for.

Do you like the idea of authors asking for money so they can focus on writing their next novel? So they don't have to work eight hours a day -- or more -- like most writers? Should we think of this as public grant money directly from the public?

When an author says he/she needs funding to attend conference and pay for kids' clothing and daycare and a high-speed internet connection, I figure we might already have a way to take care of that. An advance. A royalty check. God forbid, a dayjob.

It's clear the writer enjoys the idea of being a writer.

When authors ask for money to cover "life's expenses" so they can write full-time, it seems they're asking for me to fund a lifestyle.

And that lifestyle isn't a project I'm interested in funding.