Blogs,  business of writing,  experiments,  Publishing,  rants,  the writing life,  thoughts

More Tales From the Writing Life

So earlier this evening I was watching that Siri commercial and thinking, I really need to get my phone to remind me to call the vet to set up the appointment to have the cats shaved. Looks like I really do need that personal assistant after all – even if it is my phone. Now granted my phone doesn’t talk to me like Siri, or call me by name (which is creepy anyway), but it does a fabulous job of reminding me to do things provided I set the reminders and turn the volume up.  It also keeps me up to task on my writing life. I know when my deadlines are. My task manager splits up each to-do list by project and gives me fair warning when stuff is coming up on its due date. My phone also keeps my editors’ phone numbers at hand and keeps me in constant contact with my email, social networking, readers, etc… no matter where I am.  Technically it has become my personal assistant despite the fact that a personal assistant is only as good as the boss who informs him/her what’s going on. The only thing my “personal assistant” can’t do is speak for me or run my errands. But I’m cool with that. I sometimes wonder how I lived without a smart phone or how lost I’d be if I lost it.  It’s amazing how much of one’s life can be on their phone.

On an unrelated note I realized today just how much of a negative nellie I can be. Especially when it comes to politics, subjects I have strong opinions on (like the current publishing climate for example) or my views of certain types of people who annoy me.  I always focus on what I don’t like or what’s annoying me. That’s when I realized I am different from a lot of authors.

Most authors steer clear of anything political (whether we’re talking the country or the publishing industry) and discuss nothing except milk-toast crap. They talk about writing process or plotting or motivation or their word counts. Maybe a conference and book signing here or there. If they do talk about publishing it’s generally in favor of whoever is writing the check and it’s usually not that controversial.  Or all their social networking + blog postings promote themselves or fellow authors. Or they use these sites just to herald reviews, releases, etc…

I have to admit — I sometimes wonder if that’s what I should be doing.   Sure, I actually do that stuff already, but I still share my political views (both about the industry and the country) and I’m not afraid to share those things that frustrate me.  But I guess benign posts are less likely to alienate readers. I also suppose a lot of writers have broader audiences, whereas my books tend to attract a more liberal, open-minded reader who is more likely to be pro-choice, pro-religious freedom, or pro-gay rights.

All the same, perhaps it’s time to drop any negativity and keep it to myself. Especially when it comes to anything political (country or industry).  Let’s see how long I can last. Anyone want to place bets? LOL!

Steph is an award winning and bestselling author of thrilling steamy and paranormal romances, dark urban fantasy, occult horror-thrillers, cozy mysteries, contemporary romance, sword and sorcery fantasy, and books about the esoteric and Daemonolatry. A Daemonolatress and forever a resident of Smelt Isle, she is happily married and cat-mom to three pampered house cats. Her muse is a demanding sadistic Dom who often keeps her up into the wee hours of the morning. You can contact her at swordarkeereon@gmail.com

5 Comments

  • rufusopus

    I think most of us are at the least inspired to write things from our negativity. We have a shit experience with stupidity, and we try to fix it, by ranting, arguing, and bitching about annoying bullshit (I mean, drawing attention to a social issue by establishing a forum for public discussion via blog posts). Sometimes we couch it in positive terms for political reasons, other times we don’t bother. Negative Nellie is the secret name of our Muse. 😀

    Favorite Blake Quote evar:

    ‘I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception; but my senses discover’d the infinite in every thing, and as I was then perswaded, & remain confirm’d, that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences but wrote.’

    The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

  • Steph

    Well, I lasted 12 hours. All it took was a discussion about gay rights on someone’s wall and, well, you know… LOL! I like your view that it’s the muse. 🙂

  • Martin

    I think it is important, now more than ever, that we don’t allow our indignation to go unvoiced. Things for a lot of us, and probably the country as a whole, are going seriously down-hill. The “Keep America Great”, everything is “hunkey-dorey” attitudes are not going to get us out of this mess, and we can’t even begin to fix the problem until we at least acknowledge that there is a problem to fix in the first place.

    Plus as a reader, I always love when a favored author launches into a tirade or rant. Gives us readers a little more insight on who it is that writes our books, and lets us know that no matter what ” The Today Show” says, there are others out there that are just as pissed off.

    More rants and raves, not less!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

What is 14 + 9 ?
Please leave these two fields as-is:
IMPORTANT! To be able to proceed, you need to solve the following simple math (so we know that you are a human) :-)