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If you’ve ever planned a wedding, you’ll be familiar with the feeling of marvel at the vast amount of details you must attend to. I remember the night before my wedding realizing that I needed to wash my hair before I had my nails done, or else the paint would chip. This resulted in a much later bedtime than intended, but also in a fun evening with my wedding party, painting white pinwheels onto blue nails. To last June and find me panicking because I don’t have the right shoes to wear to my signing at Revelations Cafe in Fairfield Iowa.

I did manage to sort the shoe debacle thanks to my thrifty nature and sister with a similar size, but it seems I still haven’t learned my lesson. Launch party, book signing, alumni talk, it doesn’t matter. Before any of these events I find myself absolutely panicked because some detail or other has gone awry. As these are still the early stages of my publishing career I am trying to give myself a break, but I thought it would be useful to share with you some of the dilemmas I’ve encountered. That way, you can avoid them and run into your own, and then let me know what they were so I can make sure they don’t happen to me. So here we go:

1) You Need The Right Outfit.  Delightful! thought I, as I anticipated my getup. Research showed me that there are two ways you can go a) business casual or b) something that represents your genre and style of writing. I went with B, and found a pretty pink dress that was modern, comfortable, flattering, and professional. My friend was set to do my makeup and my hair, which was relatively short, didn’t seem like it was going to be too much of an issue. But, as you know, I forgot to take into account shoes. When planning an outfit, take everything into account. Visual how you’ll look head-t0-toe and figure out what you’ll need in case of bad weather, location change, comfort, and practicality. A different event presented me with the issue that the only dresses I had didn’t conform with the organization’s dress code, so again I was reduced to begging to borrow. Fortunately, I have fantastic people in my life and was, once again, saved.

Don’t let this happen to you. Always. Be. Prepared.

2) You Will Use These Pictures for Publicity. And that, sadly, means you can’t wear the same thing again and again. That beautiful pale pink number is now stashed away in my closet, and I have to go back to the drawing board for this Saturday‘s outfit. Why? Because I need these pictures. I need to show people where I am, and what I’m doing, and I need to use them for things like these blog posts, and social media shares. I can’t rely on my follower’s to be able to tell the difference between Revelations and The Toadstool. I need to show them through how I look. So pick out a new outfit, practice your smile, and use these opportunity to nab the photos you need.

3) Have Your Pens Ready. I did a lot of research on what kind of pen to use. It was special, and fun, and in the end I chose a wonderful kind of pen. And forgot it. Luckily, I was able to rustle something else up, but I would have liked to have seen my signing pens fulfill their true destiny. Ah well, next time.

4) Time Your Reading. At my launch party, I found myself reading just a little longer than I, and I suspect, the audience, would have liked. I was able to minimize the trouble there by skipping a few words and even a sentence or two as I went, but in general I would suggest to anyone doing a reading practices the passage he or she is planning on reading, and times it as well. Try not to go over ten minutes.

5) Stock Up On Swag. People like freebies. So prepare bookmarks, pens, business cards, or anything else you can think of to hand out as you sign. I have a beautiful set of bookmarks featuring art of the different characters in Untold that I had to make a mad dash to the printer’s to get. They also, unfortunately, don’t sport any of the places you can “like” or follow me, but I’ll be sure to add them in the next batch. Plan these things out ahead of time, make sure the information you want is clear and legible, and be sure to get them made on time.

Bonus: Make Sure You Have Your Books. This one should be obvious, but it can be confusing if you or the bookstore are going to order them. Plan it out early, then follow up. You’ll be glad you did.

Anyway, I hope this helps. In closing I’d like to say: Come to the Toadstool in Peterborough this Saturday (September 6th) at 11:00 am and hang out with me while I read to you for just the right amount of time in my pre-planned outfit, sign your books with my special pens, and hand you free bookmarks. What could be better?

See you then!

Amy

Can’t wait 😀

I have just returned from my most productive weekend of the year. Every summer since I was twelve my mom, my sister DuCiel, and I would take a few days to go somewhere not too close but not too far and just write. The tradition has changed very little over the years, with the one notable exception of my younger sister Haley joining in once she was old enough. Now it’s the four of us, and it’s some of the most writing fun I have all year.

I remember my first retreat very clearly. It was originally intended as a trip for just my mom and DuCiel, but fortunately I was allowed to tag along – perhaps a bad decision as I ended up spoiling the surprise of the white water rafting day my mom had planned. The three of us stayed in a cabin that had a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room, and a loft. If I recall it correctly, the place also had a total of twelve beds. I spent the weekend in the loft, sprawled out over my sleeping bag, filling up my recycled-paper peace sign notebook with as many words as I could. It was entirely overwhelming, and really, truly wonderful. We’d break from writing long enough to read the various things we had written, and then give each other exercises to develop scenes, characters, and conflicts before getting back to our main projects.

Fast forward to early this year. Picture me staring hard at my computer and on the screen is… Facebook. “I’m promoting Untold,” I’d tell anyone who asked. “It’s too hard to focus on another project right now.” This was, to some extent, true, but I was also ignoring what I knew best: you can’t just create when you want to. So I started slugging away at my next novel, a ghost of NaNoWriMos past. It’s one I’ve had in mind for publication since its conception, but ones whose problems I’ve been ignoring with the naïve hope that they’ll just go away. They haven’t.

After we all piled into the car on our way to The Porches Inn in North Adams Mass., I let everyone know that I would be needing their help. I was, I finally admitted, stuck. The characters weren’t doing what I wanted them to do, the tone was getting too heavy, and the plot was nowhere to be seen.

The first thing I was treated to was a fairy tale about the creative process. This, by itself, with its comforting and true moral that projects need to be nurtured, not forced, set me ahead by leaps and bounds. The weekend spent in a “retro-edgy vintage granny-chic” hotel writing and review, writing and reviewing, was icing on the cake.

I now come to you from a place of new ideas, strengthened characters, and confidence in the different voice I am using to tell this story. It’s going to be very different from Untold, but I’m hoping it will be even better. Taylor Swift said recently about her upcoming album that it’s her favorite thing that she’s ever created, and to that I say: everything you create should be. There should never be a new project that’s out there and ready to go that doesn’t make you feel like it’s better than anything else you’ve ever done. So thank you, family, for reigniting my excitement over this upcoming book. It might be a while until the confidence I feel about it is anywhere near to what I feel for Untold, but until it is I will nurture and feed, and let it grow into whatever it is that it’s supposed to be.

— Amy

PS. I’ve gotten some excellent comments  on my last blog post that are well worth the read. Go back, see what others are saying, and join in the conversation!

Retro-edgy industrial granny-chic indeed!

Just the other day I encountered a dilemma entirely new to me: I wrote a scene that was just. Too. Sad.

I’ve written sad scenes before. When telling a story, not every part of it is going to be happy, or easy, or comfortable. But generally I’ve enjoyed exploring the not so shiny parts of a tale. Saturday, however, I crossed the line.

I’m not going to get into the details of what I wrote about, as I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do with it. On the one hand, I entirely respect authenticity in writing and not shying away from things that might be unpleasant. Sometimes sad scenes make my insides twist in an absolutely delightful way (think Les Miserables), but sometimes they leave me feeling cold and unsatisfied. I read stories to go on a journey. I don’t read books to feel sick.

Now, I find myself in a difficult situation: what do I do with this scene? I don’t want to be thin-skinned and lose some serious character development because I can’t handle what my character went through, but neither do I want to create a story that I wouldn’t want to read. Yes, authenticity is about portraying real and sometimes unedited versions of life, but I believe it is also about your own values. If I wouldn’t like to read it, why would I put someone else through that? I’m certain that this isn’t going to be the last time I run into this question, and I suspect each time I’m going to come up with a slightly different answer. Maybe I’ll keep it in, maybe I’ll leave it out, maybe I’ll change it around and make the thing a bit more palatable.

I appreciate creators who unapologetically explore worst-case scenarios, but I don’t believe that every story of value needs to have the cheer factor of Great Russian Literature. I want to get out of my comfort zone more and more as I continue to write so I can explore the boundaries of my own authenticity. I’m not sure yet if this scene in within those borders. What I do know, though, is that for now I have to leave the tragic smudge where it is, and not do a single thing to it until I’m sweeping back through on my second go-round. Otherwise, I’m not going to get anything done.

Let me know your thoughts on the matter. Is it inauthentic to write something that you wouldn’t want to read? Have you had any experience with that? What was it, and what did you do? Let’s figure out our breaking points together.

Amy

I’ll save the editing for later…

Hello all!

I’ve been having trouble starting this blog, first because of technical reasons, and then because of nerves. I’ve lost the window of opportunity to focus on the launch of my book, so I admit that it’s tempting to wait until I have another signing to promote, or other news to share. But that, I’ve come to realize, is the heart of the matter. Read more…