The Other Part of the Writing Life
I have a confession to make. One of the things I miss about graduate school is the singular focus on writing. Yes, we also did some coursework, but mainly, the idea was to get that novel written! I loved it and had written the drafts of two novels by the time I graduated.
But now that I’m in the trenches as a published novelist, my work life is a lot more complicated. As any working writer can tell you, we’re expected to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to promoting and marketing our books.
Even with the fantastic help I’ve gotten from my amazing publicist, Simone Jung from Books Forward, it’s been…well, a lot! In the past couple of months as part of welcoming my latest release, MISSING MOM, into the world, I’ve written essays and articles for Writer’s Digest, CrimeReads, Boomer Magazine, KidLit Craft (forthcoming), and the blogs of fellow authors Debra Goldstein, Donnell Ann Bell, and George Cramer. Online, I’ve been interviewed by Indie View, CanvasRebel/Voyage, Elizabeth White on “Editing by Elizabeth,” and on Jenny Adams Book(ish). And in the last couple of weeks, I’ve done live interviews with John Crowley for his show, “Talking Books,” Doug Llewelyn for Close-up Radio, Nicole Asselin for her podcast, “Baseball, Books, and Banter,” and Mike Briggs for his show, “Briggs on Books.”
I’ve enjoyed all of it and am grateful to get this kind of coverage. But what I’m really looking forward to is having a bit of breathing space and quiet time to focus on my next book.
Who was it who said, “You can have it all, but not all at once”? I’m discovering that for my writing life.
But hell, it’s a good problem to have.
Sure seems like a good kind of busy!