When Do You Write?

A friend asked me what time of the day do I write. For me, there's no specific time. Some writers need a schedule, and if they can stick to it more power to them.

Unfortunately, I don't have that luxury because there's always something going on.

When I was practicing law, I wrote during my lunch hour and whatever time I could have to myself on the weekends. Which frankly wasn't much because GK was a toddler.

When I stopped practicing law (thanks to high blood pressure), GK was still in public school. It gave me some time during the day between dropping him off and picking him up. It was only about six hours, but I made the most of it I could. The problem? I was still very much a newbie. At that point I'd only finished three novels--one of which will never see the light of day. The other two were Blood Magick and Zombie Love.

Because of our finances, I had to get a job a year after I'd left law. Unfortunately, that was about the time we pulled GK from public school. The public sphere just wasn't working for him. It wasn't working for me and DH either. We were constantly getting phone calls from the school personnel. Neither of us was getting work done.

So, I worked part-time at a Hallmark store, wrote a legal column for a law enforcement magazine, home-schooled my only offspring by myself, and tried to write in whatever spare moments I could grab. By that time, I was making some headway with my submissions, but after reading the full manuscript, the agent or editor would invariable say, "Love the story. Love the voice. I can't sell this."

In the meantime, Amazon was allowing writers to upload their novels in e-book format so Amazon had content for their brand-new e-reader, the Kindle. In 2011, I decided to take a chance. Heck, Maybe trad publishers couldn't sell my book, but maybe I could.

Within fifteen months, I was making more through online book sales than I did at my other two jobs. The magazine crashed and burned during the summer of 2011, and I quit my retail job the summer of 2012.

I had time to write again even though I was still homeschooling. I would get up and be at the local Barnes & Noble when it opened at nine a.m., write for a couple of hours, then head home for lunch and a afternoon of schooling. On weekends, I tried to have the lesson plan and materials ready for the following week, so I could have a little more time to write after GK went to bed. All of this worked because, DH was scheduled for Pacific Time hours with his employer.

During the stresses between having to watch my health, worrying GK, and trying to keep my marriage together, I often had insomnia. On those nights, I'd write until I became drowsy.

At the end of 2012, my father-in-law had a heart attack. About the same time, GK asked about going back to public school. So we made the difficult decision to move from Texas back to Ohio.

DH and GK moved to Ohio in August of 2013 to get GK enrolled in school and for them to help the in-laws. In the meantime, I would do the last little things to get the house ready to go the market. We thought the worse case scenario was I wouldn't have the house ready until Christmas.

It took a lot longer because everything seemed to break after my family drove north. On the plus side, I had plenty of time to write because I had no interruptions and we had weeks or months of saving up for the additional repairs.

Once we were all in Ohio, I was back to writing during the day while GK was at school. Just one problem. DH also worked from home. He had for the last ten years. But now we were in an 1100 sq. ft. apartment instead of a 2500 sq. ft. house. And when DH is on the phone with a client, he was loud!

It didn't help that I was having trouble with insomnia again. I started staying up after DH went to bed and writing into the wee hours of the morning. He'd take GK to school. I'd wake up in time to pick up GK.

But shortly before GK was done with high school, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Which meant I needed to be up before two in the afternoon for various doctor's appointments and scans.I couldn't stick to a writing schedule for a year. I still write, but I did when I had the strength and the quiet.

A couple of years later, GK was off doing Army stuff, and DH and I found a home that would fit our working styles. Our offices are on opposites side of the house. I can't hear him. He can't hear me. For the most part, we are back to a relatively normal daytime schedule.

Except with everything going on in our lives over the past three years, I don't have everything unpacked, and it's driving me crazy. So now, on days I have a morning yoga class, I take my travel laptop with me. After class, I stop at Starbucks for breakfast and an hour or two of writing. Plus, I do writing sprints with some fellow writers for an hour or three in the evenings. In between, I work on the boxes and sort between stuff to keep, stuff for the spring garage sale, and stuff that just needs to be thrown out.

It's probably going to take me the rest of the year to empty the boxes inside the house. Nest year, I'll focus on emptying the storage unit where everything that we couldn't keep in the apartment ended up.

But I may change my writing time depending on the whims of the one true god Murphy.

So what I'm trying to say in this long-winded diatribe is find whatever time to write works for you in your current stage of life. But be flexible enough to change that time when you have to. Good luck!

Tax Season Again!

Nope. I don't wait until April to work on taxes. I can't. Things are too complicated between DH and I owning our own companies in different states over the nearly thirty years of our marriage.

And for a bit, I was terrified that our CPA might not survive his own cancer. I know, I know. I was selfish as fuck, but he knows our stuff inside and out. Ironically, he's one of the few people in my life who's super excited about my writing career.

For those of you who are attempting a career in writng, here's some tips (and NONE of this is financial or legal advice!):

1) Keep all your receipts. If you don't want to deal with a whole bunch of paper, scan them as PDFs in case the IRS has questions.

2) What expenses apply to your business? Cover artist fees, software, formatting fees, editing fees, basically anything that goes toward your writing career.

3) Pay attention to IRS rules. I do everything in a cash accrual basis. What this means is pay for your expenses ahead of time. For example, I'm attending a class Kris Rusch is teaching next January. I've already paid for the class itself, which means I can take the deduction for 2024 instead of 2025. By the same token, most retailers pay me on a 60-day delay, so any money I made in November or December of 2023 isn't paid until 2024. Therefore, I don't owe taxes on it until 2024.

4) Find accounting software, learn how to use it, and keep your entries up-to-date. No one likes this crappy part of owning your own business. I generally do all my data entry every two weeks to keep up. For software, I prefer Quicken, but use whatever you feel comfortable with. GK prefers Excel spreadsheets.

5) Find a certified professional accountant! You may think it's too expensive, but a good CPA is worth their weight in gold.

By the way, don't let your spouse/partner talk you out of proper bookkeeping just because they do your tax return. Sure, writing may start as a hobby, but things can change in a flash. If your other half doesn't know what they are doing or are just plain damn lazy, it's time to find a CPA for both of you.

Or maybe find a significant other who's more supportive of your dreams.

Love Songs

Best use of a Backstreet Boys song in a motion picture!

Another Hugo Fiasco

There's more than enough online about the crapfest that was the 2023 WorldCon and the Hugo Awards. The problem is the Chengdu conference suffered from similar problems as the Puppies Debacles that started ten years ago.

Decades ago, I used the Hugos to find new reads in my favorite genre. Not anymore. I don't want to read books based on someone else's political or social agenda. Moreover, I don't like other people to choose my reads in the hopes that they can brainwash me.

The sad part with this latest fiasco is that it wasn't the voters throwing a hissy fit. And from some of the leaked e-mails, it wasn't the Chinese government. The true story may never come out, but it's looking more and more like the 2023 conferences committee self-censored the nominees.

The question one everyone's mind is why. Were the members bribed by the Chinese business people who funded the brand-new building that housed the conference? Did the committee members think they were protecting the artist who might run afoul of the Chinese government? Or was this a back-end method for fascists to take over another institution?

It's sad. It's tiring. It's why I don't give a shit about winning an award for my writing. Because I've already been told I write radical feminist propaganda and I'm anti-white. *sigh*

I was taught that things need to be fair. And I took that lesson to heart eve though the people who taught me the concept were incredibly racist and misogynistic. The hypocrisy burns at times.

Regardless, I believe in picking out my own books. I believe in everyone having the right to express themselves. And I believe in everyone's right to read or view what they want.

P.S. If you need a rundown of the events, check out Abigail Nussbaum's blog post. It has all the same links I would have posted.

Spotify Will Be Spotify

A lot of writers favored Findaway Voices to retail their audiobooks after some of the stunts that Amazon's Audible had pulled regarding rights, returns, and royalties. Over the years, streaming service Spotify had treated music artists to similar bullshit. So, when Spotify bought Findaway back in November of 2021, I knew it was a matter of waiting for the shoe to drop.

Which it did last week. And the outrage of writers is boiling on social media sites.

Why didn't I say anything before this? First of all, because no listens to me. I'm not successful by some people's standards, though I'm quite successful by my own standards.

I'm the old lady on the street who quietly gardens while her neighbors get into a kerfluffle over basketball hoops in the driveways and whose dog is shitting on whose lawn.

And I've found that concentrating on my garden keeps me healthier in the long run. Or at the very least keeps my blood pressure in check.

So I looked on with amusement at the torches and pitchforks raised by folks with their audiobooks on Findaway Voices. At the sight of the commoners calling for blood at their gates, Spotify revised their pathetic rights grab.

But frankly, I don't trust Spotify to keep things that way. They'll switch things back when no one's looking.

So here's your warning if you choose to listen: Get your audiobooks off Findaway. Create your own store. It's the only way to protect your rights.

Love Songs

One of my favorite boy bands who grew up nicely!

The Unlikeable Heroine

I've been a little busy this week. I thought I would be doing the final edit on Magick and Murder, but the original ending was rather abrupt. After many tries to fix it, I scrapped it and wrote a few additional chapters so things make more sense.

I've also been re-reading a lot of Anne McCaffrey lately, and I found myself comparing and contrasting the Wilson twins with Anne's heroines, especially Killashandra Ree from the Crystal Singer series and Lessa of Benden Weyr from the Dragonriders of Pern series.

Why am I doing this? One concept emphasized in many of my early craft classes was if the story had a female protagonist, she must be likeable.

What the hell does this mean?

For a lot of writers and readers, this means the heroine is not allowed to have any flaws. Ironically, this means she needs to be polite, quiet, and demure. In other words, passive as fuck.

This behavior explains why I hated the Harlequin romances from the '70's and '80's, and I gravitated to fantasy and science fiction. For example, Lessa has a mind of her own. From the age of ten, she quietly sabotaged her home, Ruatha Hold, after it was conquered and her family murdered. When dragonriders appeared at Ruatha on Search for recruits, she manipulated their leader F'lar into dueling and killing the man responsible for her family's deaths.

F'lar still shakes Lessa and actually slaps her--actions that wouldn't go over well with a modern audience. Hell, it didn't go over well with F'lar's dragon Mnementh when the story was originally written in the '60's. But Lessa's fuck-you attitude more than makes up for F'lar's stupid and brutal behavior.

In Killashandra's case, she learns her voice is unacceptable to her teachers after ten hard years of training. Her dreams of being a solo performer are dashed in an instant. Her anger at being led on by her mentor cause her to leave the school while she tries to figure out what to do with her life.

She doesn't cry into her pillow in her dorm, which is what a "likeable" heroine would do. She ends up having a wild holiday with Carrick, a Crystal Singer, she met. When she tries to leave her home planet with Carrick, Killashandra's old mentor tries to stop her, saying she's mentally unstable. A tragic accident at the spaceport solidifies Killshandra's plan to leave home and become a Crystal Singer like Carrick.

Stubborn, angry young women, both of whom are everything I was told not to do.

Yet, Anne McCaffrey captured the warring needs within young people as they try to figure out themselves and their place in their worlds.

I found myself using Anne's examples in my own writing. I made the confusing juxtapostion of child and adult in one's teen years more intense by making the Wilson sisters identical twins. Are Kaley and Kirsten perfect? Hardly. But they are human. And I think that's the most important part of any character in the end.

Love Songs

Everybody falls in love!

Old People Yoga Is Killing Me!

I've started taking a yoga class here in town. Mainly, I'm taking it because I need SOMETHING to get me up in the morning besides Princess Bella's constitutional. Considering my age and lack of real exercise, the instructor I spoke with recommended a flexibility class for senior citizens. I don't feel like I'm that old. Really, I don't.

But with popping knees, stiff hips, and sore shoulders, I took her advice. I'm glad I did.

Holy Crap! Don't get me wrong. The class is totally worth it, but after the first one, my hamstrings complained up a storm the next day despite all the water I drank and the Naproxen I took.

The crux of the class is gentle stretching. Nothing extreme. I guess I'm a lot older than I want to think. LOL

On the plus side, I treated myself to breakfast and got some writing done at Starbucks after class.

I'm going to keep at it for the rest of the month. Hopefully, the class will get easier, and I'll be able to try something new in the next level.

Monday Movie Mania - The Beekeeper

A colleague's wife got me hooked on Jason Statham twenty years ago, and the shine still hasn't worn off. He's got a wonderful comedic slant, and he's even better when he works with Melissa McCarthy.

However, The Beekeeper goes back to his action roots with a bit of a twist.


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SPOILERS


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PROS
1) Like I said, Jason's back to form, waging a one-man war against evildoers, but in this case, it's techbros ripping off the elderly. And as a person approaching the traditional retirement age and subjected to a zillion scams, part of me wishes there were real life people like Adam Clay to go medieval on the scammers asses.

2)The concept of the Beekeepers is intriguing, giving the viewer just enough of a taste to want more. It's similar to the John Wick universe, and the crew leaves the story open-ended enough to do a sequel or three.

3) The ladies (Eloise, Verona, Janet, and Mom) were more interesting characters than Adam. More should have been done with them. Especially Verona.


CONS
1) Jason brought an almost Terminator-like quality to the story. While I don't expect deep characterization in action thrillers, the writers have done a better job in Jason's other flicks. There needed to be just a touch more about Adam's relationship with Eloise, why she hid him from her daughter, and what happened to cause the mother-daughter estrangement.


All in all, The Beekeeper was fun, but unfinished. I give it 7 stars out of 10.

Love Songs

It's February! Time for Love Songs!

Gaining Traction

Our little town has a huge number of restaurants per capita. That also means we have an equally huge number of coffee shops.

I had really looked forward to the end of the pandemic so I could go back to the George House near the University of Findlay campus. Unfortunately, it has gone out of business. The Timmies near our house had reduced their hours. The staff at the Timmies across town glare at you if you dare to sit and eat at one of their tables, nevermind being in your laptop. Cafe Amici has excellent coffee and no parking since it's downtown.

Why am I talking about coffee shops? Because sometimes, I need to get out of the house in order to write.

DH and GK used to laugh at my because I'd circulate from room-to-room on the first floor. When that didn't work, I go to the neighborhood Barnes & Noble or one of the nearby Starbucks.  I know it's such a cliche. Also, I don't know why a change of scenario works to unstick my writing, but it does.

Best of all though, we now have two standalone Starbucks in town.

I've been stuck since the beginning of the year. Normally, I'd have half a novel done by now, but I'm struggling with edits since November. The cataract surgeries didn't help. Neither did my normal trigger of cleaning the bathroom. We bought this house so I could have my own office for crying out loud! And all I do is stare at the boxes I haven't unpacked yet.

So this morning, I grabbed Baby Blue and my Kylo Ren flashdrive and drove to the closest standalone Starbucks.

It worked! Solutions started clicking. My grilled cheese sandwich even got cold as I fixed the issues on the current manuscript. I came home feeling pretty good. I may have to go to Starbucks every day next week to keep up the momentum, but it'll be worth it.