Writer Wednesday Welcomes Author Stephanie Albright

You're riding down the road thinking you're on a one-way path straight ahead and into the future. But something from your past comes around the corner and you realize you're not on one long linear path but a weird, wonderful tangle of twists and turns and that anything can happen.

Me meeting up again with a childhood pal, Stephanie is one of those odd turns of the wheel that I didn't see coming. Who knew that by publishing my books that I'd not only meet up again with long-lost chums, but that my act of wild, uppity-woman, literary abandon would inspire another to do the same?

I'm so pleased to welcome my friend, Stephanie Albright, to Writer Wednesday. We played imaginary games together in elementary school and now we're sharing our imaginary games with the world through our writing. How cool is that?

Kudos to you, Stephanie, for allowing your heart to bleed onto the page and bring forth your words into the world for all to enjoy.

Stephanie's current release is The End. Here's the setup:

We all have it. That feeling that something bad is about to happen, something really bad. We don't like to think about it and we never talk about it, but still, we worry about it. Sometimes we can almost feel the Earth holding its breath and waiting. We are all preparing in our own ways. Some have built bunkers and gathered supplies, some have a contingency plan on paper or maybe just in their head but nothing concrete. Then there are those of us who are in the middle, we don’t have a well supplied bunker but we have a stash of things we might need when that day comes and a sort of plan to go with it. We think about how much we will miss things like chocolate bars, wine and coffee and brainstorm about ways to preserve the things we will miss the most. We decide where to go, if leaving is possible and consider the pros and cons of each possible location. The more pessimistic at heart are checking things off their bucket lists before it’s too late and maybe even devising an exit strategy. When Lucy and her sons wake up to a living nightmare on the last morning of their weekend camping trip, they must make the most of the people and resources surrounding them to endure, The End.

Sounds like the sort of Apocalyptic story where people find out what matter most to them kind of story that I like. Stephanie was kind enough to share an excerpt too. Check it:

  As I walk down the beach on the last day of the Columbus Day weekend, I wonder if I am the only one who feels it. Maybe I’m just crazy, but then I see the fear in the eyes of those I pass. Even if they are smiling, it is there, the fear. We all feel it, every person on this planet, but if we don’t talk about it maybe it will just go away. Who would want to be the first to mention it?  People would call you crazy, even if in their hearts they know you are right. So we all just keep working and going on as if nothing is wrong, but waiting for it to begin and wondering what will happen when it does.

     We are all preparing in our own ways. Some have built bunkers and gathered supplies, some have a contingency plan on paper or maybe just in their head but nothing concrete. Then there are those of us who are in the middle, we don’t have a well supplied bunker but we have a…..stash of things we might need when that day comes and a sort of plan to go with it. We think about how much we will miss things like chocolate bars, wine and coffee and brainstorm about ways to preserve the things we will miss the most. We decide where to go, if leaving is possible and consider the pros and cons of each possible location and what to take with us and what to leave behind. The more pessimistic at heart are checking things off their bucket lists before it’s too late and maybe even devising an exit strategy.

     It’s sad really, this thing that should be uniting us is not. It is driving us more and more inward, making us keep secrets even from those we have rarely kept them before. We tell ourselves that our fear is irrational, but we know it is not. When the lights blink, we wonder has it begun. Every storm, or drought or sinkhole or earthquake could be the tipping point, so we silently go over our plans and gather those we love around us under the guise of movie night or dinner or painting the den. Whatever it takes to have those we want with us near, just in case.

     Some days, I am so tired of my job and my life that I wish for it to begin, most Mondays as a matter of fact. Maybe it will be a good thing, a time to hit reset. A chance to make things better. Sometimes out of the rubble something beautiful emerges, something wonderful. But, then again, it could just be a slow painful death.

     We can’t stop it. The signs are there to see if we only look, but we don’t like to look. There are too many of us living too well for the Earth to sustain and the Earth seeks balance. It will come one way or another, the Earth will get her way and we are powerless to stop her. She’s done it before and she will do it again, the black plague, the ice age, tsunamis, floods and droughts. Which tool will she choose this time?

     Everyone scoffed about the ending of the Mayan calendar and made fun of those who were ready for the end that day, but we were secretly relieved when that day came and went without incident. We patted ourselves on the back for not holing up in a shelter, or stockpiling food, water and ammo while at the same time, we knew we had dodged a bullet.

     There will likely be no warning. It will probably begin innocently enough. Some people will get sick and we will think that the epidemic is contained but it won’t be, or a drought will make our already overtaxed water supply insufficient. We will be encouraged to conserve and told it will be okay, but it won’t. Things that we thought we had conquered will return to exact revenge, things like cholera, dysentery, smallpox and the plague. Or maybe it will be a large catastrophic event that will change everything in a moment.

     I didn’t realize how long I had been walking, as I turned to head back I saw the sun was just about to set. I stood still and watched until that magical moment when dusk began, then I hurried back up the beach before it got dark. Tomorrow I was going back and it made me sad because I felt more at peace somehow at the beach, more alive.

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I'm so glad that I got to connect with the old friend through our love of reading and writing. I hope that you'll check out Stephanie's new book. I'm off to buy my copy now. Buy links are after the author bio.

Stephanie Albright grew up in Amanda, Ohio. She moved to West Point, Mississippi in 1986 and graduated from Mississippi university for Women in 1989. She now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband and four sons, where she is a reading specialist. Stephanie loves Georgetown, South Carolina and much of her work is set in and around Georgetown county.

Is Self-Publishing a Collaborative Process?

I spend some time each day reading blog posts by writers and others in the publishing industry.  One blog I enjoy quite a lot is by Nathan Bransford.  Many of his blog posts, at least since I've been following him, are a compare/contrast between self-publishing and traditional publishing.  Because Nathan's first book recently came out, published by a legacy publishing house, his choice was to engage the traditional publishing industry rather than self-publish.

In a recent post, Nathan said:  "Personally, I like the collaborative element of traditional publishing."  He was commenting on the fact that he enjoyed working with his editor and the illustrator and enjoyed the collaborative effort of bringing his book to fruition.

This statement seems to presuppose that a self-published book is not a collaboration.  Self-publishing IS a collaboration with all the same folks you'd work with if you had a contract with a publishing house.

I'm getting my first book ready for self-publication this fall and it is quite a project!  I feel like I'm the General Contractor for my book and I have to hire all the sub-contractors I'm going to work with on my project.  I recently went through the process of choosing an editor who is busy at work on the first professional edit.

I already hired an artist to create cover art (I chose Claudia at PhatPuppy Art).  The process of creating a cover was definitely a collaborative process - back and forth with Claudia as I worked to express my ideas and she worked to translate it into art.

After the editing process is complete, I'll need to hire someone to do the interior book design and e-book formatting.  Again there will be a back and forth between me and the designer about how the interior should look.  What fonts will we use?  Will there be flourishes?  How will we separate chapters?  Where will the page number go?  I've never published a book before, so while I have ideas about what I like and how I'd like the book to feel, I will rely on the professional who has done this many times to guide me and help me create the polished book that I want.

I'll also need to hire a cover designer.   This person will take my cover art and create a front cover, spine and back cover.

In all, I will likely work with three to five different people in the publication of this one book.  It is indeed a collaboration and I agree with Nathan that - so far anyway! - it is a very satisfying process.  But unlike with traditional publishing, I get to choose the people I collaborate with.  I'm steering the project.  My ability to choose is one of the largest differences between self-publishing and traditional publishing.

Having said all this, I am aware that some writers who choose to self-publish do not hire designers and artists and others to help them create a professional-looking final product.  I think that this is changing and will continue to change as self-publishing becomes more common and as there will be more competition amongst self-published books.

What are your thoughts?  Do you self-publish?  What is the process like for you?  Are your books published by a  publishing house?  What is that experience like for you?

Nathan Bransford's middle grade novel, Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow is now available.

Social Networking: Powerful New Procrastination Drug of Choice for the Writer

The new conventional wisdom for the writer:  Social Networking is a Must.
You have to "build a platform."  Create the audience for your work.  If you're an unknown writer, you must tweet and Facebook and blog and link in.
In the past, my procrastination drug of choice:  Gaming *head dips in shame*.  It started innocently enough.  I had to check out Pirates Online before I let my kid play it.  But like so many things, a little was good, a lot was better.  My child quickly lost interest.  Me?  I played until my wrists hurt from clicking the mouse; played until my character was maxed out.  Then the power of the drug had worn off.  I needed something harder.
World of Warcraft ("WOW") was just what I needed.  Characters could go to level 85 (not the wimpy 50 of Pirates Online).  There were whole continents to explore, powers to learn, weapons to earn.  Ahh, that's the stuff.  Gaming heaven.
My family tried to reach me but I said "just one more battle."  Once in a dungeon I may not surface for over an hour.  My refrain was "it boosts my creativity" and it "helps me relax."
What I was really doing was procrastinating.  The longer I played, the longer I avoided looking at the dreaded white screen.  When playing, I didn't have to think about how I was going to get my characters of the precarious situations I'd put them in or worry about plot problems.  When gaming, I was on auto-pilot, closing out the world around me.  
But I was also silencing the world within.
With the help of my husband (my ever-present external wise man and knower of all that is Nat before Nat knows it) I realized that gaming didn't "relax" me.  If anything, it made me more tense.
And there was no enhancement of my own creativity.  Gaming impedes my creativity.  When you game, you enter a world someone else created.  It can be fun, but if you spend too long there, you're just closing off your own creative powers.
The pact was made within - no more gaming.  And it helped when I got my new MacBook because I just didn't load the games.  Out of sight, out of mind.
And creativity thrived.  Writing happened.  White screens were filled with words.  Not always great, wonderful, beautiful strings of words, but words.  I was writing again and living the life of a writer.  Every day, writing happened.  That's what being a writer is all about.
And then . . . Social Networking happened.
It is necessary.  Whether your book is acquired by a legacy publisher or you self-publish, you must self-promote and these days, to self-promote you must be engaged in the online conversation.  No question.
And it is valuable.  You learn a lot from the conversation.  
But oh, the seduction it holds for the OCD-type.  Tweeting, blogging, Facebooking, checking, reading, following threads, re-Tweeting.  Round and round it goes.  Loops and follow-backs and some Goodreads thrown in for fun.
You look up at the clock and it's noon and you haven't written a word on that novel or short story or poem.  After lunch you open the document and look at the empty white screen before you.  You look down and you've got 7800 words. That's the same number you had last week!  Where did the time go?
Hey, procrastination on the Social Network, now that would make a good blog post. . .