Valentine for Writers

The image of the writer locked away in a dark room pounding away on the keyboard is one that's always been imbedded in my head. And for a good reason, I mean, writing doesn't get done except by some solitary confinement with a writing implement of some sort.

Today is Valentine's Day and, for a lot of people, that means spending the day with their loved one(s) (or alternatively complaining about a lack of loved one(s)). Today in particular reminds me that writing isn't just a solitary effort. Yes, the act of writing generally happens alone, but writers don't have to be alone. 

I think that love and support is one of the most important things that a writer can find. Having a supportive group who helps on the days when you don't want to type another word, or who tells you  that million dollar story idea you had about a bear who finds love with a hunter might not be such a good plan.

Writers need that.

That's one of the reasons I love living in this age of digital connection. I'm very lucky to have a very supportive family, and a great group of friends who support me, and believe in me. But I find people online all the time who don't have that, and who are reaching out into the webs of interspace to find it, hoping someone will reach back.

Maybe it's in the #amwriting tag on twitter. Maybe it's on a forum board. Maybe it's through putting up fan fiction. Maybe it's through Nanowrimo.

But finding that is a vital and important part of writing. Writing is lonely, and it's hard. Ripping up pieces of your heart and spreading them on a page in a finger painting you hope someone else will understand can make a person a wee bit off after some time, and sometimes it's easy to lose your way and wander through this writing world lost and confused.

That's where a loving, firm hand is great to have to help pull you up and whisper, 'You can do it.'

So happy Valentine's Day to everyone out there and an especially big hug to everyone I'm blessed to call friend!

Paper thin Steel

Getting a bad review sucks.

No matter what it always sucks, but it also comes with the territory of being a writer. You put your work out there for others to have at and sometimes you get hit where it hurts.

I've started to look at writing as an almost physical thing. You carve off a piece of your skin and blood and craft it into something with its own legs. Other people help shape it too, editors, beta readers, publishers, etc. all work to turn this ball of your flesh into something that can live outside of your body.

And then you give it a kiss on the forehead (or a swift kick in the butt) and send it into the world. You help guide it, try to get it into the right hands, and hope that it won't wander down any dark alleys, but sometimes you watch your little crafted piece of skin get filleted and left for dead in the gutter.

And then you start the process again with a new hunk of flesh.

I've always been fascinated (and struggled) with that line between being confident enough to not let sharp comments cut too deeply, but still able to listen to sometimes painful criticism.

Spending almost 5 years in creative writing programs in various colleges definitely has helped me build up a thicker skin than I had when I was 15 and finished writing my first serious attempt at a novel and threw it away when a friend was harsh on it.

But there are still days when those reviews dig deep and twist little barbs into my skin. And there are other days where I put my nose in the air and think that no one could possibly critique my work (those are far less frequent though).

I'm still trying to find that line between paper thin where everything cuts deeply and being steel where nothing gets through (save from things with serious and explosive force).

How do you handle it?

2014: One Thing At A Time

I love making resolutions for the new year.

Anyone who has ever been to a New Year's Eve party with me knows that I take my time to put my resolutions on pretty scrapbook paper, carefully chosen and decorated. I then hang that paper somewhere in my room where I will see it every day for the next year.

I also have a bad habit of making somewhat unrealistic resolutions, like the year I resolved to write a best selling novel and make a million dollars...in that single year. But this year I've done really well with my goals and kept them at a realistic level. I'm not going to share all of my resolutions, but I have made a goal that I want to talk about because it's the one I'm most excited about.

This year I have resolved to do things one at a time.

It sounds so simple, but it's something I really struggle with. In the past, while writing a blog post I would  have a youtube video going, and probably be chatting with a friend or two, and maybe reading a book or playing a game too.

I would watch movies with my phone in my hand, and read books while trying to play a game. I would never really stop to 100% focus on the one task I was trying to accomplish, so I ended up with a lot of confused, half-finished projects that I never quite knew where to pick up.

So this year I've resolved to do things one at a time. So while I'm writing this blog post, that's all I'm doing. There's no video playing in the background; I'm not trying to cook dinner at the same time. I am sitting here giving my entire attention to the task at hand.

So far, it's gone wonderfully, and I really can see a difference in a lot of what I do. I've accomplished more, and kept better organized. I see a project, start it, and finish it. BAM.

Now, I know there are projects that cannot be finished in a single sitting, and that's fine too. I devote a certain amount of time to them, and when that time is up I can work on other things. For instance, I'll write on the next novella of the Bone Queen series for twenty minutes to an hour, and then I'll work on something else, but during that project time, that's all I do.

It's strange to think that actually stopping to just focus on one thing is a resolution I would make, but lately I've noticed how badly multi-tasking has served me. I get a little bit of work done on a lot of different projects but can never cross anything off my list. What good is that? Just a whole lot of spinning in place and going nowhere.  So this year I resolve to forget multi-tasking and go back to focusing on a single project at a time!

What kind of resolutions are you making for this year (if any) and how's it going keeping them so far?

Nanowrimo Lessons

So Nanowrimo has officially been over for over a week. To everyone who reached 50,000 words, well done! To everyone who made an effort and wrote their heart out, awesome job! 

To me Nanowrimo has never been about the finish line. It's never about getting 50k in a month: it's about remembering that I can write every day and that there is a supportive community of writers out there.

So, to everyone who wrote for Nanowrimo, I hope you're still writing every day. I hope you remember the excitement of it, the thrill of coming up with something new to say every day, and that you remember the days you didn't want to write a thing but that you still put fingers to keyboard (or pen to paper or ya know... whatever you do to write!).

Remembering the times you wrote when you didn't want to, when you were tired or uninspired, are what is the most important thing to take from Nanowrimo. Writing isn't easy; it isn't a simple, easy task. It requires giving up time from other areas of your life, and putting it into stories, and words that you believe in day after day.

For me, Nanowrimo is about remembering that writing is work, not about sitting and waiting for the perfect time to write. If you don't make the time, you're never going to just find it hiding under the couch.

…unless of course you live above a time temporal anomaly and that sort of things hides under your couch. 

Back to my roots in Milledgeville

This weekend I will be a guest at the Georgia Literary Festival taking place in Milledgeville, Ga. This is my first year as a guest, and, for me, what makes this honor even more special is the fact that I received my bachelor's degree from Georgia College in Milledgeville. It's also the first place I was published (in the Georgia College Literary Magazine, The Peacock's Feet.

So Milledgeville is near and dear to my heart and I'm very excited about returning.

So, where will I be?

Friday

Somewhere between 5-7: The Georgia College reception in the Dunahoo Lounge on campus (next to the Chic-Fil-A).

Saturday

12:oopm: Rise of the New Pulp in the Georgia College Library Information Technology Center.

4:00pm: Georgia (and Murder) On My Mind in the Old Governor’s Mansion Education Room.

Between those, I'll be in vendor area wandering from table to table. My awesome friends, and fellow writers Bobby Nash, Sean Taylor, Van Allen Plexico and Barry Reese (who also deserves a huge thanks for all the work he's put in the festival and making it awesome!).

I will be selling my books and am happy to sign anything, so just come say hello!

Tears and Book Releases

Today my first stand alone work debuted on Amazon (which you can buy here).

It's been an incredible trip to get here, and I have a confession to make.

Today, after getting home from work, and just staring at a book cover with my name on it, I  burst into loud, ugly sobbing for about thirty minutes.

Because a year ago, I didn't think I'd ever be here.

I wrote the Bone Queen while I was in my second to last semester of grad school, and I was ready to give up writing. I hated the first draft of the Bone Queen. Hated it. I was ashamed of what I'd written.

I lost all faith in myself as a writer, and resigned myself to never writing again.

And for about six months after that, I didn't write. I was at a point of exhaustion I didn't think could exist. I was past just running on fumes; I ran on nothing but spite, hate, and caffeine. Graduate school really did nearly kill me and every creative bone in my body.

It wasn't until I had turned in my thesis that I even really gave writing a try again, and I was shocked at how much just writing again helped me feel like me again. It helped me be not so exhausted, not so depressed, and anxious.

It was like falling in love with words all over again.

The Bone Queen's revisions all happened during that slow return back to words. The first few revision drafts were painful and awkward like trying to crawl through a mine field with your arms and legs bound behind your back. But by the time the third draft was taking shape, I felt confident in my own fingers again.

I found my footing, and The Bone Queen's story found its heart.

Seeing it in print, knowing that everything had paid off in the end just sent me into tears of relief, and joy at knowing that I did it, that I was much stronger and way more dedicated than I ever gave myself credit for. (and waaaaay more dedicated to writing than to say... getting up early to exercise. hahahaha)

So, here's a little bit of encouragement and hope out there for anyone whose struggling with writing, who can't see the end of the road. It's out there, and you can get there even if you have to crawl through the mud, and drag your exhausted body across coals.

I know a lot of people are starting Nanowrimo right now, so just buckled down and crawl through the fire.

You can do it.

Special Announcement! My debut digest novel announced!

Hi all!

Sorry the blog has been in disrepair lately, I've been hacking and editing up something I'm very excited to share. My first debut stand alone work will be available soon! Now, while I go scream and dance and flail with joy: here is the official press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BREAKOUT CHARACTER FROM PRO SE COLLECTION RISES SOON IN HER OWN DIGEST NOVEL- THE BONE QUEEN BY ANDREA JUDY

In 2011, Pro Se Productions, now a leading publisher of New Pulp and Genre Fiction, debuted a new character initially as a live spokesmodel to promote both the company and New Pulp in general-The Pulptress. Proving popular in the New Pulp Community, the Pulptress appeared in her own volume of adventures by various writers in 2012. One story and one character besides The Pulptress within that volume in particular captured the minds, tongues, and hearts of fans so completely that she now comes to life in her own digest novel.

Pro Se Productions proudly announces the upcoming release of THE BONE QUEEN, a digest novel by Andrea Judy. Judy, a contributor to the original THE ADVENTURES OF THE PULPTRESS collection, titled that short story ‘The Bone Queen’, but the new book is something more. It is that most hallowed of stories-The Bone Queen’s origin.

The Bone Queen-Strangely exotic, absolutely disturbing. A woman who, although hauntingly beautiful in some respects, is also horrifying, much of her upper torso missing and bone exposed. A Practitioner of Death itself, able to bring the Undead to Unholy Life by consuming their bones, The Bone Queen stands as a formidable archenemy to The Pulptress. But who was she before Fate ripped away her flesh and committed to her a most terrible, awesome destiny? Andrea Judy takes readers back to the beginning for this enigmatic character in THE BONE QUEEN.

I’ve always loved the villains in a story,” says Judy, “so I was thrilled to have the chance to tell a story from a darker point of view, showing the reader where a villain came from. It was a struggle at times to write, to remember that this wasn't a story about light overcoming the dark, but about embracing that darkness. I’ve had an amazing time working with Pro Se getting this book together, and I’m thrilled to share it with the world!”

THE BONE QUEEN is the first of two digest novels set in the Pulptress’ world that Judy will write. The second, due out in 2014, will focus on the second meeting of Judy’s villainess and the Pulptress, a follow up to the initial short story.

THE BONE QUEEN, featuring an absolutely gorgeous cover by Ariane Soares, an artist with Fitztown, is tentatively scheduled for release in November 2013.

Andrea Judy is a writer, student, and professional pixie. She makes her home in Atlanta, Georgia She enjoys causing mischief by talking non-stop about Internet memes and all of the stories she’s working on. She has had poems and short stories appear in various literary magazines. She is returning to her roots in genre fiction and is happy to have her first novella published with Pro Se Productions.

For more information or to interview the Author, please contact Pro Se Productions’ Director of Corporate Operations, Morgan Minor, at MorganMinorProSe@yahoo.com

For more information on Pro Se Productions, go to www.prose-press.com and like Pro Se On Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProSeProductions to keep up with future releases concerning THE BONE QUEEN and other Pro Se works.