#WriterWednesday: WriterlyLinks And #WritersLife 15-01-20 - #AmWriting

In case you missed my post announcing it last week: "Puppy Poems And Rodent Rhymes" is now available in audio, narrated by Suzan K Hennen. You can find the purchase links for all available formats via the post I just linked to, or simply go buy the book from Audible.

If you'd like to get to know Suzan a little, you can check out her recent narrator interview, which went live on December 27th 2019.

Poetry is subconscious conversation, it is as much the work of those who understand it and those who make it.
~Soniaa Sanchez

As I mentioned would be the case in my first post for the year, with that announcement officially made, we're 100% caught up with everything involved in making all my books available in the various formats I offer. Which are multiple eBook formats, paperback, and audio, for anyone who might be new here. This means I'm free to let the publisher hat sit on the shelf for a bit while I work on producing new content. Something I'm glad to be able to do, let me tell you. After all, the writing is the best part of producing books. Well, actually, the best part is when someone reads the books, and then I find out they enjoyed them. That's why I do the less fun stuff required to publish my poems and stories after I'm done writing them. But the writing is the best part of the aspects of producing books I'm in control of.

You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it.
~Susan Orlean

I've booked a cover creation slot with one of my cover artists for April though, so I will have to start wearing my publisher hat again in a couple of months. For now though, I get to just focus on enjoying some writing sessions.

Anyway, I've been keeping an eye out for links for you between enjoying writing sessions and doing other things, so let's see what links I've managed to gather for you over the past couple of weeks, shall we?

First of all, does your workspace affect your writing? Short answer: it probably does, though perhaps more so for some than others. Check out the post I just linked to for ways you can make the energies of yours work for you rather than against you.

OK, so you have your writing space sorted out. Now, let's get writing!

What? You want to, but you're struggling to get motivated? Well, perhaps this guide to writing when you're feeling unmotivated, or this (almost) foolproof method for lifting yourself out of a writing slump, will help. If not, why not try these hacks to instantly finding the motivation to write, even when you don't feel like it. You're welcome.

All you need to do is write one word after another. Don’t think about the whole novel, or about what you’ve written, just think about the next word.
~Karen Woodward

Of course, sometimes you just need to hear more stories to make more stories.

Don't forget, if you're stuck for story ideas, there are plenty of great posts to help inspire you in among the posts for StoryStorm 2020. So, if you haven't done so, you should check those out.

When you have your idea and are ready to write, here's a simple writing exercise that might change your craft forever. It does work as well, so could potentially help you get that first draft written.

By the way, it doesn't matter when you're doing the first draft - and definitely doesn't if you're doing the stream of conciousness writing mentioned in the above paragraph - but when it comes to the revisions, don't forget, the start of your story needs these puzzle pieces to hook your reader. So make sure you include them.

Don’t write it right, just write it—and then make it right later.
~Tara Moss

Don't forget to make use of these laws of foreshadowing in your story, and build up suspense for your readers. But use them well, because they can be over used. Everything in moderation, after all.

Next, let's talk about character archetypes, complete with a trick to using them without over-populating your story.

Also, here's an interesting comparison between magical powers and psychic abilities. So, are they interchangeable? Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter.

No matter the kinds of abilities your characters may or may not have, remember that your stories are a mirror, so think about what you see when you look at what you have written, and what others will see when they read it.

Whatever you describe to another person is also a revelation of who you are and who you think you are. You cannot describe anything without betraying your point of view, your aspirations, your fears, your hopes. Everything.
~James Baldwin

Regardless of what your story is about, here's some advice for how to write a strong resolution.

No matter how your story ends, do you know what the hardest thing about being a writer is? The hardest part about being a writer is that you are not 'just' a writer, and have to be other things too. But that's a good thing. After all, what would you have to write about if you weren't those other things too?

Whatever you are besides being a writer, writers: find your light in the darkness, and remember you are not always going to love writing, but that's OK.

Ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night: Must I write?
~Rainer Maria Rilke

Another hard thing about being a writer - especially if you want to be a published author, and want people to buy your books - is marketing. It doesn't help that marketing trends are constantly changing, and what worked yesterday may not work today. So, if you're starting to think about what to do to market your book, you might want to take a look at this post on how to market your book in 2020, and these social media marketing tips for authors.

Finally, whether you're a writer or not, if you have a blog, don't forget to make your blog user-friendly. Though it doesn't say this in the post I just linked to, this should include making it accessable for disabled readers, such as visually impaired readers who may be using screen readers, for which things like pictures with no description, background music, etc, are a big issue. That's another argument for not using word verification... It's not easy - in fact, sometimes it's impossible - for blind people to do. The only reason one of those word verification things appears on my blog is it won't go away, even though I've told it not to have it on there. As I say in the comments section though, you should be able to ignore it and just hit "publish" for your comment to post anyhow. If I figure out how to actually make it go away, I'll get rid of it completely. Anyone else with a Blogger blog know how to do that? If so, I'd appreciate your help in doing so. Thanks in advance.

#WriterWednesday: August 7th 2019

First of all, Emma Thorpe - the narrator for the audio editions of my Magical Chapters trilogy - was interviewed recently. Her interview went live yesterday, so click here if you want to get to know Emma.
  
In other news: rewriting progress is still incredibly slow. I can't really blame the weather this week, because it's been in the comfortable range with temperatures, and even quite cool for a while at times. I've just got my priorities all messed up again, and keep getting distracted by other things. Some of them I actually did need to put ahead of the writing, but others could have been told to wait. Except I've gotten out of the habit of making my writing a priority, and am still working on fixing that. It doesn't help that I'm in a part of the story where I need to look things up and check I've got things right, and research is one of those rabbit holes for me, since I find it fascinating and get sucked in. Next thing I know, hours have passed, and I've read all kinds of interesting things, but not done any work on the story. *sigh*

Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.
~James Baldwin

Anyone who says writing is easy isn’t doing it right.
~Amy Joy

The quotes above - especially the second one - goes for all stages of writing, and the writing life. Writers: we'll never have our lives all together. Let's accept and embrace it.

Anyway, this is what to write about when your brain dries up. Just in case you needed help figuring out what to write about.

Next, here's a great expansion pack post from Story Empire about the stakes characters in your story, and why you need to use the right type of character(s) to make your readers care. Oh, and... Speaking of your characters: check out these tips for avoiding the boring stuff with character descriptions.

Regardless of the kinds of characters you have in your story, make sure you consider threat: what it is, and why your story needs it.

Finally, while earning a living from your writing is never guaranteed, here are some online writing jobs that may make you some money. Writing and publishing books is just one of the ways you can potentially make money with your writing, after all.

#WriterWednesday - November 21st 2018

In case you missed my post about it from Sunday: "Yua And The Great Wizard Hunt" is now available in audio, narrated by Matt Jenkins. If you want to read about Yua the talking West Highland White Terrier, you can buy the audio version from Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. See Matt's website page for the book, or the post I just linked to, for purchase links. My post also contains details of places where you can buy the eBook or paperback version, if you happen to prefer either of those formats.

To find out more about Matt, check out his narrator interview (which I've posted the link to before) and this interview he did on reading for the talking newspapers.

Speaking of interviews: I participated in a couple of interviews recently. There's two of them. One is a blogger interview that went live on Friday November 16th, and the other is an author interview that went live on Monday November 19th. Just click on the links if you want to go check them out.

How's your own writing going? Are you remembering that sometimes you need to write small to bring your reader in to your story? Or, are you still trying to figure out how you know when enough is enough?

Either way, we'll need to know what your characters look like. So, check out this post on unveiling your character's physical description with style.

No matter what you're writing, or what kind of characters are in it, here are some tips for getting in a 10K day, in case you need to catch up on your writing goals a bit.

Although, having said that, if you haven't been writing as much as you think you should be lately, and feel guilty about it, here's why you feel guilty about not writing (and what to do about it).

Or, maybe it's time to start revising or editing your manuscript? Don't kill your darlings; shelve them. After all, just because something doesn't work for one story, doesn't mean it isn't any good at all.

OK. It's time to talk about marketing, and any of you who are children's authors like me will want to check out these ways to market children's books.

By the way, did you see that Smashwords unvailed a new book discovery interface? They've introduced a whole new way to find your next great read, which also means a whole new way for authors to get their books spotted in their store, and - hopefully - brought by potential new fans.

Now, here's a post about why you might want to give away free books, at least sometimes.

Finally, here's how to get the most out of your calls to action. Speaking of which: if you enjoyed this post, please share it aroung. Thanks!

#WriterWednesday - November 14th 2018

We're already basically half way throughNovember. Can you believe that? Where is this year going? Ready or not, December will be here soon, which means Christmas is coming up fast!

Speaking of Christmas: my book, "Ulrike's Christmas" was featured in this post in Sally's Cafe And Bookstore, along with some other fantastic books that might make suitable gifts for the children on your gift list this year.

Anyway, in case you missed Lilie's post from Friday: "Where's Noodles?" is now available in audio. The narrator is Judith Bareham, who you can learn more about in this narrator interview. Lilie did an interview this past weekend too, which you can read here. All three of the posts I just linked to provide a variety of purchase links for all available formats. Here's where to buy the book on Audible though. Oh, and here's a story snippet, which I posted on Sunday - in case you didn't see that, and would like to read it.

Speaking of audio book production: if you know the narrator you'd like to work with, you can now speed up your audio book production with direct offer, which is a new feature ACX has added.

I managed to do a bit of writing, but if I was doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) I would currently be failing, since I've only written a few hundred words so far this month. Hey, it's better than nothing though, right? After all, any progress is good progress, whether you're participating in NaNoWriMo or not.

If you're a writer too, how is your writing going? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? If so, how are you doing? Are you on schedule? If not, that's OK. Yes, it is. In fact, here's why it's OK to fail NaNoWriMo.

Regardless of whether or not you're participating in NaNoWriMo, if you don't feel the same way, and want to increase your writing output, here are four foolproof methods to increase productivity.

No matter how fast you write, are you worried your story isn't original enough? Well, don't! we're all basically writing the same things at the same time. The trick is to make them your own, which you can only do by writing. So, just write, and enjoy the process.

Don't think you can write, because you have writers' block? Well, this is what causes writers' block, and why you should just sit down and write anyway. I get it. There's nothing more frustrating for a writer than feeling too tired to write. But sometimes you just have to do it anyway.

Yeah, I know there is a problem with 'just write anyway' being the go to advice. Sometimes you really can't. I get that too. I've been there most of this year. It's up to you to figure out if you really have a genuine reason why you can't write right now, or if you're making excuses because there are other things you'd like to do. If you can though, you really should try to get that writing in. Even if it's just a few minutes a day. That way you can feel the positive effects of writing every day.

Oh, and here's a post for when people say you work too much. Although, sometimes you really do need to listen to those people. In fact, here's why you need a 'nope day'.

Anyway, let's assume you're writing, regardless of when, or how long for. So... Here's what you need to remember when writing the beginning of your story.

Speaking of beginnings: here are four steps to starting your novel.

Are you writing a gory story? Then check out these blood-oozing tips to including gore in a story.

No matter the kind of story you're writing though, check out these tips for making a scene pop.

By the way, most people will never tell you how your writing makes them feel, and that's OK. Though it's nice if they do, you don't need them to. We authors do love feedback though, so if you want to tell an author how what they wrote makes you feel, go for it.

Speaking of giving feedback: this is how to give feedback to anyone, which will be especially helpful for those times when the feedback you need to give isn't exactly positive.

Finally, if you're looking at your 2018 goal list, and thinking how much you still need to achieve if you're going to meet your goals before the end of the year, here are some tips for sailing in to the end of the year.

#WriterWednesday - October 17th 2018

"Where's Noodles?" will soon be available in audio, since Judith has already completed production of it. As long as it goes through the part of the reviewing process that ACX are responsible for without any issues, it won't be long now. Personally, I love it! I especially love Judith's voice for Lilie!

Also, the new narrator for "Yua And The Great Wizard Hunt" is Matt Jenkins, who you can learn more about in this recent narrator interview of his. Matt has done so well with production progress that we'll soon have that one available for you to buy in audio too.

Oh, and I recently updated the page on here that lists all my published works. It now also lists the narrators beside the titles - though only in cases where the audio versions are available - providing direct links to their ACX profiles. I'll do the same for the rest as the titles become available in audio. I thought it would be nice to list the narrators beside the titles they've narrated. At some point I plan to send a list to the person in charge of my website, and have him list them on my actual website too.

That's all the personal writing and publishing news I have to share today, since none of the other audio books are finished yet, and I don't have anything worth saying when it comes to actual writing progress, since there really hasn't been much of that. At least, not enough to make it worth talking about.

Have your adventures, make your mistakes, and choose your friends poorly — all these make for great stories.
~Chuck Palahniuk

My mind is full of ideas. Finding time to write all the stories and poems is the problem. But, if you aren't so lucky, and you're struggling to find your next idea, try one of these 7 places to find novel ideas. Yeah, it really is that simple. Ideas are everywhere. The trick is to find the one that speaks to you, and turn it in to a story people will want to read.

Speaking of which, this is how to turn an idea in to a plot - in case you're struggling with that, or want to make use of those steps to ensure you're totally ready to write your story when it's time for NaNoWriMo (which is only a couple of weeks away now).

Sticking with the subject of NaNoWriMo for a moment: this is a great post on how to achieve NaNoWriMo success - even if you're really busy.

Oh, and... If you have an idea, but feel you can't write about that, because it's too boring, or weird, or whatever. Well, just write it anyway. You can always improve on it later if you need to.

To help you with that, here's a post about how to describe settings, and why it matters, along with some tips for improving show, don't tell, tips for invoking the five senses, fixes for microblocks and miniglitches, and tips to help pantsers get moving again when the story stops.

Anyway, to keep things realistic, chances are you're going to want to do at least a little research. In fact, with some genres - historical stories, whether fictional or otherwise, for example - you may find yourself using research as your novel outline, even if you don't usually use outlines, just so you can keep your facts straight, and make sure nothing gets missed.

Cram your head with characters and stories. Abuse your library privileges. Never stop looking at the world, and never stop reading to find out what sense other people have made of it. If people give you a hard time and tell you to get your nose out of a book, tell them you're working. Tell them it's research. Tell them to pipe down and leave you alone.
~Jennifer Weiner

You need to make your characters believable too. So, to help you do that, here are some tips for how to write grieving characters, and writing the teenage protagonist.

By the way, sometimes impostor syndrome will try to sabotage your writing career - dont let it! Yes, publishing has gotten easier, and success has gotten harder, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
Sylvia Plath

Your answers to these three questions will determine whether writing is your true calling, or if you just like the idea of being a famous author, but should probably go do something else instead.

On a similar note: these are five things every writer should have, to help you on your writing journey. Those following other creative paths could do with having those things too.

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
~Erich Fromm

Here are some ways to keep writing when you're struggling with your mental health, because sometimes you need to, and a lot more people deal with that kind of thing than you might think. The image of the depressed writer may not always be accurate, but sometimes it is, and there are a lot of people suffering from depression, anxiety, or some other mental health issue. Not just writers, but other creatives too. In fact, plenty of people in general. In short: you're not alone in your struggles. With that in mind, here are some self care strategies for authors, which will either help you avoid the issues, or help you deal with them, depending on your state of mental health.

Remember: sometimes you need to press that reset button.

Finally, check out these ways to support writers (and other artists) online, and maybe consider doing some of them.

#WriterWednesday - August 29th 2018

(Cover art by Jacob Blackmon, banner creation by Barbara G. Tarn).

In case you missed yesterday's post: my entire "Zeena Dragon Fae" series is now available in audio from Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. The narrator is Ella Lynch, who was a delight to work with, and who you can learn more about in her narrator interview on Alex's blog. Links for all formats can be found in both my post from yesterday and Ella's interview post. Alternatively, you can use these fancy universal book links, and just click on the book title to find the book at your favourite retailer: Zeena And The Dryad, Zeena And The Gryphon, Zeena And The Mermaid, and Zeena And The Phoenix.

Also, Enid The Spirit Fairy from my "Zeena Dragon Fae" books was interviewed over on Barb's blog on Sunday (August 26th 2018). You can read her interview here.

In other news, I was over on Sally's blog this past Saturday (August 25th). I was one of the brunch guests, as part of her end of Summer party. If you have a few moments, why not pop over there and meet her other guests. Also, you can check out the song requests that didn't make it in to the brunch post, including my own musical request.

I'm glad I set things up for those posts before ending up in hospital, and didn't have to sort them at the last minute after getting home. This is one benifit of my habit of making sure things are scheduled ahead of time whenever possible. You wouldn't even have had posts on this blog last week if I hadn't scheduled them already, because I wasn't feeling up to doing much last week, including sorting blog posts and eMails, or doing writing of any sort. I managed to sort enough eMails to avoid my inbox getting even worse than it was, and wrote the post for Sunday. But that was about all I managed, and I almost didn't even do that much. It was this past Monday (August 27th) before I felt up to doing anything more than that, which is lucky, or you wouldn't have today's post, since only Monday and Friday already had something scheduled for this week.

Speaking of which: sometimes you just don't feel like writing, and that's OK. But should you only write when you feel like it? Probably not. If you've got a good reason not to be writing as much as you'd planned to - health issues, family or work commitments, etc - that's fair enough. But constantly putting off writing because you just don't feel like it will make it impossible to reach any of your writing goals. Taking writing breaks is fair enough, and can often be a good idea, especially if you're dealing with a lot of life stuff, such as hospital trips. Sometimes you have to write when you don't feel like it though. At least, you do if you want to get anywhere with your writing.

So, we all agree you need to write. But which point of view will you write from? If you're thinking of writing in first person, and looking for some tips for doing so, check out this post on how to make writing in first person easier.

Hey, what's going on with CreateSpace and KDP Print? Well, it sounds to me like KDP Print is taking over. I'm sticking with CreateSpace for now myself, partially because I don't want to deal with moving 53 titles from one to the other right now. Yes, 53, since the proof for "Where's Noodles?" is currently on its way to me. I think I'll probably end up with no choice eventually. But right now I don't have to, and could do without making more work for myself when it can be avoided. Though how much longer I'll be able to avoid it is unclear, since I think it's going to happen soon. More on this as I know more myself.

#Writing Wednesday - February 21st 2018

"Jinx And The Faerie Dragons" is now available in audio - just in case you missed seeing my post about that on Sunday. You can buy it from Audible, Amazon, and iTunes; see the post I just linked to for links, as well as details about where you can buy the book in other formats if you prefer. The narrator is Andrew Pond, who you can learn more about in his recent narrator interview.

Speaking of my audiobooks: I went ahead and listed the poetry book projects on ACX. I was going to hold off a bit on listing them until all the stories were produced, but changed my mind. Anyway, I'm working with narrator Jane Hopkins on one of them, and narrator Carol Weakland on the other seven.

With all the books from my backlist in various stages of production, I have quiet moments between messages and samples from narrators, which I hope to make use of to get some actual writing done, as well as arrange for a cover to be sorted for the pet themed poetry collection I want to publish, which I've now got the final edits and formatting sorted for, so can publish once it has a cover. I know which of my cover artists I want to use for it, but have to check if he's able to do a cover for me right now... I haven't spoken to him about it yet, but plan to do so soon.

If you're dealing with any editing yourself, or are in the revision stage with your current writing project, here's a post that talks about why you should make time to write while editing and revising.

Remember: you will not use your writing time wisely if you do not plan ahead. Now, it might seem strange for someone like me who can't stick to a schedule for long to be agreeing with this. I mean, the routine I had when I did the post about my writing routine at the end of November no longer applies, as I warned in the post would probably be the case. But bear with me here. The thing is, the article makes a good point, and some kind of planning for writing time is required if you want to actually get any writing done. Whether that be planning a longterm routine that you stick to at all times, or doing what I usually end up doing and planning my writing time for each day on the day in question (based on what I want/need to get done each day, whether any of it is time sensative and what times those things need to be done at or by, and what my current sleeping schedule is). Either way, it all comes down to having some kind of plan for your writing. My longterm "plan" is pretty vague, and my schedule is unpredictable, but I still have a plan of sorts, and you should too.

So, you have your plan. Now it's time to work on that story! Come on. What are you afraid of?

Now you've established what the cause of your fear is, and hopefully managed to move past it, here are some things to consider when choosing the perfect setting for your novel (or short story, or whatever).

Regardless of setting: do your characters talk too much? The postI just linked to gives some tips on ways to avoid your book looking like a screenplay without stage directions, and will help you avoid the talking head syndrome that irritates so many readers.

Speaking of your characters, here's a post about the hero's journey and the real world. Also, don't forget that your villain needs a heart, because everyone has one, even if it's not always obvious.

Next, here are some tips to being dramatic in fiction, because most stories could benifit from at least a little drama, and sometimes a lot of it.

By the way, if you publish paperbacks via CreateSpace, and are interested in moving your books to KDP Print, here's how to do it.

#Writing Wednesday - January 24th 2018

I've done a lot of writing related work during this past week, but very little actual writing, since I haven't really worked on the writing projects I actually want to be working on. It's frustrating, but the other tasks did need to be done, since they're an important part of the writing and publishing process, and it does feel good to get them out of the way. Yes, I could ignore them and just write. But then I wouldn't be sharing my stories and poems with the world like I am, and that would be sad, because stories and poems should be shared. At least, I think they should be. So I spent the past week working on the things I put in the "publisher tasks" catagory.

I got my profiles updated, and now they mention audio books instead of just eBooks and paperbacks. Then I sent the updates for my website to the person in charge of dealing with that (I do my social media accounts and blog myself, but am not personally responsible for maintaining my actual website). I also changed the links on my books' Smashwords pages so they have Amazon links in place of the CreateSpace eStore one, since - as I mentioned in previous posts - CreateSpace are no longer selling books directly from their own site. Plus, while I was on Smashwords sorting things, I updated my Smashwords interview. After that, I got more of my books set up for audio production, and even arranged who would be narrating some of them. Considering I've also written several blog posts, and managed to keep my inbox mostly under control... I even cleared it at one point... I think that counts as being a pretty productive week... Even if I still didn't spend as much time on the actual writing part as I'd hoped to.

So... All the stories I hadn't yet made available in audio are now in various stages of production, ranging from accepting auditions to heading for retail. I'll deal with setting up the project pages for my poetry books later.

Speaking of my audio books: "Cubby And The Beanstalk" is now available in audio - in case you missed that post. You can buy the audio version from Audible, Amazon, and iTunes; see the post I just linked to for links. The narrator is JD Kelly, who you can read more about in his recent narrator interview.

Like I said, it's been a pretty productive week... Even if actual writing time has been a bit thin on the ground, so to speak. I was being rather critical of myself, and struggling to feel positive about it due to not having done the thing I really wanted to do, despite the fact dealing with all the stuff took up most of my waking hours during the past week. But seeing it all written down in this post, and realizing just how much I actually did do, made me realize I actually achieved a lot. Maybe I should reward myself? Or maybe I'll just go for a nap...

You know, it's so easy to be critical of yourself and your own work. Do you find that? Is that critical voice getting in your way when it comes to coming up with story ideas? Don't worry. Just check out this post on keeping a dream journal, and using it to generate ideas. There are several other great posts among those for this year's STORYSTORM, so you may want to check those out too... Assuming you haven't already been doing so. And, hey, if you're participating in STORYSTORM 2018 and don't have as many ideas as you should have, remember that it's ok to fail.

OK, so you've got your idea(s). Good for you! Time to write! Oh, you can't concentrate? No problem. Just check out these tips to help you concentrate while writing. Better? If so, great! If not, I hope you find something that works for you.

Either way, do you want to inject some comedy in to your writing? Then read this post on the art of bantering for some tips on how to keep it fun - and entertaining - rather than hurtful. Unless insults your readers will find amusing - even if the characters don't - is what you were going for, in which case the post will be advice on what to avoid. Either way, you should consider the difference between playful banter and insults, and make sure to use the right one to get your message across, giving some consideration to the relationships between your characters when doing so.

Speaking of your characters: here are some ways you can choose a name for your characters, as well as some tips on describing your characters' physical appearance. Rachel has several other posts about creating characters and character development, so you may like to check those out.

Are you writing a series of books? Or, perhaps, you've already written one? Either way, check out this post for some tips on promoting a book series.

Whether it's a series or not though, here are some tips on figuring out your idea's potential marketability.

When the day comes that you reach the turning point you weren't expecting - and, yes, I do mean "when" not "if" - only you can decide how to go on. What will you choose? Whatever you choose, write the kind of content you enjoy reading whenever you can.

Finally, here are seven tips to being an indie author - in case you're planning on going that route when publishing your book, but new to the world of self-publishing.

#Writing Wednesday - December 20th 2017

In case you missed the posts about them...

"Home Squeak Home" is now available in audio, narrated by Jerry Fischer, who you can learn a bit more about by checking out his recent narrator interview.

And...

Just in time for you to count it among your holiday reading/listening for this year, "The Forgotten Angel" is now in audio, narrated by Jenny Bacon, with Beatrice Turner as the voices of Holly and the children.

Both books are now available to buy in audio from Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Links for those - along with links for the eBook and paperback versions, should you prefer those - can be found in the posts linked to above.

If you have books of your own you want to produce in audio, you may be interested to know that there's more than Audible available for you to use to do so. Personally, I'm sticking with ACX/Audible to do mine, but it doesn't hurt to be aware of having other options.

Regardless of whether you're aware of the various options you can choose from when it comes to sharing your work, I'm sure you're aware that the end of the year is approaching. Are you looking back on the past year? Are you making plans for next year? Most people are. If you're a writer doing this, here are some thoughts from one author on how he handles the end of the year as an author. How do you handle it?

However you view your writing, here are some excellent guidelines for if you using familiar faces in newer works.

Struggling to think of ideas for something to write? Want your story to have a holiday theme? Then check out these writing prompts for holiday inspiration. Some of these can potentially be adapted to work for blogging prompts too, especially if they trigger memories of your own past holidays.

On the other hand, if ideas aren't your problem, but you're still feeling uninspired, and like you want to quit writing the book you're working on, revisit your old favourites.

Always remember: if you're a lonely writer, you're not alone. Also, if you're a writer who worries about, check out this list of things writers really need to stop worrying about.

Finally, here's some advice on how to survive discovering your story idea has been written before - in case you need it.

#Writing Wednesday - December 6th 2017

Did you participate in NaNoWriMo this year? If so, how did you do? Let me know in the comments.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I didn't participate in NaNoWriMo. I did participate in another author interview recently though, which you can read by going here.

In other news, and just in case you missed my posts about it:

My Battle of Hastings story, "Eadweard - A Story Of 1066" is now in audio, narrated by Danny Letham, who you can get to know more about by reading his recent narrator interview.

And...

"Asha's Big Adventure" is now available in audio, narrated by Patricia DeBruhl.

The audio editions of both books can now be purchased via Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Links for those - as well as the main links for the eBook and paperback versions - can be found in the posts linked to above.

By the way, I still have several free copies available of the audiobooks for my Toby's Tales series, Degu Days Duo, and Kero's World series. So feel free to still enter the giveaways for those. As a general rule though, here's why your favourite author probably can't give you a free book.

Finally, here are a few thoughts on Optimistic Authorship, and here's some advice for when you feel like your writing is going nowhere.

#Writing Wednesday - The Degu Book Post Round-Up - #KidLit #Pets #Degus

Not only were there some posts over the past two weeks on my own blog about my degu books, but several wonderful bloggers - many of them authors themselves - have taken the time to post stuff for me on their own blogs. When I sent the posts to each person, I tried to make them different enough that you can take a little something new away from each post. So, if you missed any of them, you might want to check them out. With that in mind, here's a round-up of the posts:

Posts from my blog:
#KidLit #Books - The Degu Days Duo By @VictoriaZigler Now In #Audio! Plus A #Giveaway!
#KidLit #Book - Degu's Day Out By @VictoriaZigler NowIn #Audio!
#Writing Wednesday - A Degu Days Duo Teaser - #KidLit #Pets
#KidLit #Pets - The #Degu "J" Gang
#KidLit #Book - How To Trust Your Human By @VictoriaZigler Now In #Audio!
Meet The #Narrator: James Watkins
#Writing Wednesday - A How To Trust Your Human Teaser - #KidLit #Pets
#Furkid Friday: Joshua's Thoughts On The #Degu #Books Now Being In #Audio

Posts from around the web:
Now In Audio – The Degu Books
Sunday Surprise: Jenks The Degu's Interview
Narrator Interview – James Watkins
Introducing Author Victoria Zigler’s New Books!
New Release – ‘Degu’s Day Out’ by, Victoria Zigler
Degu Days by Victoria Zigler- Now in Audio Book
Guest author: Victoria Zigler – The Degu Books
Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – Author Update – Victoria Zigler, Angid Dokos and Rebekkah Ford
How to Trust Your Human, on #LisaBurtonRadio

Thank you to those wonderful bloggers who gave me a spot on their blogs, as well as to those people who took the time to share any of the posts that appeared on either my own blog or someone else's blog.

Meet The #Narrator: James Watkins

As I've mentioned a few times lately, James Watkins is the narrator for my Degu Days Duo. He's also done the narration for my stand alone degu books, "Degu's Day Out" and "How To Trust Your Human" - all four of which are now available to buy in audio, as you probably know from my recent posts. Anyway, I thought you'd like to get to know him a little, so here's a little bit about James, in his own words:

Canadian born James Watkins spent a number of years wandering extensively, studying and working at a variety of exciting things, including surveying in the Yukon, fighting forest fires in the boreal of northern Ontario, sailing on the merchant schooner Avontuur through the Caribean, working as a singing cowboy, and teaching in Central America, to name a few, until finally settling in San Diego, California in 2011. He loves good music, good stories, good writing, fresh air, animals, and a healthy balance between action and quiet time.

Working from his home studio, James offers a full suite of services - from voice over production and scripting, to sound design with music and effects.

James currently has a podcast in production together with SC Watkins, that will feature original spooky stories, set to launch in late October, 2017. You can check it out at http://thebonefire.com/.

James really enjoyed reading the Degu Days series, and couldn't be more proud to work with Victoria Zigler, who knows how to tell a great children's story.

If you'd like to contact James, he can be reached at jameswatkinsvo@outlook.com

You can get to know James a little more by checking out his recent interview on Library Of Erana.

#Writing Wednesday - The Toby's Tales Post Round-Up - #KidLit #SightLoss #Blindness

Not only were there several posts in this past week or so on my own blog about my "Toby's Tales" series, but some wonderful bloggers - many of them authors themselves - have taken the time to post stuff for me on their own blogs. When I sent the posts to each person, I tried to make them different enough that you can take a little something new away from each post. So, if you missed any of them, you might want to check them out. With that in mind, here's a round-up of the posts.

Posts from my blog:
#KidLit #Books - The Toby's Tales Series By @VictoriaZigler Now In #Audio! Plus A #Giveaway! #Blindness #SightLoss (LBE)
Meet The #Narrator: Joseph A. Batzel
#Writing Wednesday - A Toby's Tales Teaser - #KidLit
#KidLit #Pets - Toby's #Dog, Max. Plus A #Giveaway!
Interacting With #Blind People, And Busting #Blindness Myths

Posts from around the web:
Narrator Interview – Joseph Batzel
Launch of audio versions of “Toby’s Tales” by Victoria (Tori) Zigler
Sunday Surprise: Toby's character interview
Guest author: Victoria Zigler – Listen to Toby’s Tales
Toby's Tales
Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – Author Update – D.Wallace Peach, Mary Smith and Victoria Zigler
Introducing Victoria Zigler and her new children’s books!
Toby’s Tales by Victoria Zigler: Now in Audio Book
Toby’s World – Guest Post by, Victoria (Tori) Zigler

Thank you to those wonderful bloggers who gave me a spot on their blogs, as well as to those people who took the time to share any of the posts that appeared on either my own blog or someone else's blog, or who do so after reading this.

Meet The #Narrator: Joseph A. Batzel

As I mentioned in yesterday's post - not to mention, in several of my "recent"Writing Wednesday" posts - Joseph A. Batzel is the narrator for my "Toby's Tales" series. I thought you'd like to get to know him a little, so here's a little bit about Joseph - in his own words:

Joseph Batzel has a BA and an MA from Brigham Young University in Film and Theater. He is also a professional actor for stage and film for over thirty years. Joseph has over 150 voice- over credits including radio, TV, audiobooks, and animation. He has traveled extensively throughout the US teaching voice over workshops. Joseph is a dialectician and can perform most American regional dialects and most foreign accents.

Mr. Batzel has just joined Deyan audio one of the world’s largest Independent producer of Audiobooks as one of their narrators.

He is married to his wife Alice of forty-four years, she is a published playwright and working on her first novel. They have two sons and five grandchildren.

He presently lives in Brigham City, Utah where he currently works as an adjunct instructor at Utah State University teaching courses in Creative Arts and Public Speaking. 

Joseph is excited about being involved in producing the audiobook narration for “Toby’s Tales” and working with Victoria Zigler, the author.

You can get to know Joseph a little more by checking out his recent interview on Library Of Erana.

Also, he's doing a live Facebook event in a couple of days time, which you can find details of here. He has some more copies of the audiobooks to give away during the event.

#Writing Wednesday - September 20th 2017

Thanks to the skills of Joseph A. Batzel, my "Toby's Tales" series are now all available in audio. I'll be sharing links, doing guest posts, offering chances to get your hands on free copies, etc, all next week. Some of this will take place on my own blog, some will take place on the blogs of others. I'll do a round-up of the posts once they're all live so you can make sure you didn't miss any of them. If you're in a hurry to grab your copies though, you can find them on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Oh, and Joseph is doing a live event next week on Facebook. You can see the event details here. I'm going to do my very best to be there for it.

The audio versions of some of the other books I'd set up for production are now headed to retail and will also be available soon, so I'll be able to add their links to their posts, and get those posts sent out to the people who have generously agreed to host me. I have blog tours scheduled to start every four weeks starting from this coming Sunday, with the last of them scheduled for January.

With that being the case, I'm starting to think about dealing with the production and promotion of my stand alone stories and poetry books. I've decided not to ask people to host guest posts and things for me for those, since I don't want to make their readers sick of hearing my name. So I'll just be posting about the stand alone stories and poetry books on my own blog, as well as all over my own social media accounts. I'm sure the narrators will post about them on their own blogs and social media accounts too - assuming they have them. When I next publish something new, I'll plan another book tour to promote the new title, and mention in it that all my books are available in audio. That seems like the best option to me. Oh, and... No. I'm not only saying that because it means less promotional posts for me to put together (AKA less work for me). I genuinely think it will be the best way to avoid making people so sick of hearing my name on other sites that they start ignoring anything that mentions me. As it is I worry followers of my own blog will start getting sick of book announcement posts before I'm done. But I have to post them somewhere, so I'll be posting announcements for the stand alone stories and poetry books as and when they're available, probably between the tours for the series books initially. I promise to make sure to get some posts that aren't about the availability of audiobooks in among them though. Just bear with me over the next few months, OK?

Anyway, if you have books you want to make available in audio too, here's a guide to self-publishing an audiobook. Bear in mind that the amount of time required for doing it will actually depend on the length of the book. The author of this article, for example, quotes an average of eight hours listening time for the finished book, where as my own books - which are children's stories so much shorter than your average novel - don't even come close to that length. You need to make sure you allow the time you'll need to set everything up, deal with auditions and any questions your narrator might have, listen to the sample they'll send you first, and then listen to the final version. Not to mention, extra time if something needs to be changed that means you have to do the listening stages all over again, or if ACX spots an issue when your book goes to their review process. It's quite time consuming even for someone like me with shorter books to deal with, so just bear that in mind if you plan to join me on the audiobook production path.

Oh, and since Audible recently introduced the Audible.Ca platform, your audiobooks will now be available to even more listeners.