Living the Rock Star Life, Author Style

In addition to all of the authors of various genres I have in my network, I also have musicians. I love having them in my corner because they too have the same challenges: writing new material, publishing, producing, marketing, and making the time for work and family obligations. I love talking with them, seeing them when I can, and reading about their victories and challenges in making their break, making a new album, or going on tour.



Over the next few months, I'm going to be at events for many weekends where I will be selling my books, after a week of hard work at my day job.  Some of them will be at night and will involve loading and unloading a plastic box full of books and table decor.  There may even be a preferred way of dressing.  In thinking about all of the places I will be, that ranges from jeans and t-shirt all the way to Sunday best.  For all of them, I have to stay on top of the flow of the crowd, making sure I don't miss a sale.

This past weekend, I was a rock-star author in the best way.  I attended the Knoxville Tattoo Convention.  I was there both Friday and Saturday, at my designated table, for long hours. Of course, I have to also include the time I needed beforehand to make sure I had plenty of books and other necessary resources and to locate the place in more than enough time.

After a long weekend, I slept most of Sunday and Monday afternoon and evening after work. It's now time for me to do more writing and preparing for my next "gig".  That will be next Saturday, September 9th from 9am-1pm at the Union County Library.  I look forward to seeing you there, to rock out with me! 

Decaf Books

A few weeks ago, I had to make an unexpected change to my diet.  I had to quit drinking caffeine due to a mild case of reflux.  Of course, my initial thought was, how am I going to write when I don't drink the liquid stimulant that allows me and many other writers to stay up late at night and think of great ideas?

For three weeks, I weaned myself off it.  During that time, I continued writing.  Guess what happened when I had less caffeine?  I was able to think better.  The ideas for my stories were coming easier to me.  I loved so much what was happening to me, it almost made me regret not having this happen when I was working on The Long Road Around the Corner of Hope or Crawling to the Light.

But then I had to remind myself this is a process.  I can only learn from it and move on and be better at this craft.

Secondly, it means my mind is getting clearer.  I couldn't help thinking of when I started on the second draft of Wise Turned Foolish.  I had just had a major surgery.  Two weeks later, I looked at it and noticed how disjointed everything was.  Though I was happy to write as an outlet for all of the pain I had had from endometriosis, I realized everything was so inconsistent and sometimes even repetitive.  I pretty much rewrote the whole story.

The same applies to my current work on Professional Fans and Twofold Love Comeback (formerly Two Suitors).  I've been busy decaffeinating them, making them clearer and have a better flow to them.

So much clearer I can think now because of not drinking any more caffeine, I can't get ideas on paper fast enough.  So if you need to talk to me, and I'm not available, I'm busy writing even better books.

How Do I Know I'm a Writer?

Three books into my author career (with a fourth one coming really soon), and I am just now figuring out what renders me as a dedicated writer.

Here they are:

• I make sure to take my laptop with me every time I go out of town.
• I have pens of various colors in my purse.
• I have pads everywhere around my house and even in my purse.
• Any spare time I have at home, and when my husband is busy with something at home, I write.
• When I have to try hard to not say the name of one of my characters, who is a portrayal of the person I'm talking to.
• When I hear autobiographical songs, such as "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock, and want to cry.
• I bristle every time someone says to me, "That is something to put in your books."
• Every other thing I talk about is my books.
• In conversations, I talk about my characters as if they are real people.  I've done this a time or two.
• I talk about something that had happened...only to find it was something I had written in my book, it didn't happen in real life.
• When my husband sees a car on a car auction show, it's one that one of my characters drives, and he asks me about it.  I give him the character and what book it is from.
• I quote things from my books in conversations.
• I would see someone and maybe even talk with them.  They look the way one of my characters would, and I try not to tell them so, even if those characters were good ones.
• Last but not least, when I consider my main characters my children.

Why I Should Live in a Hotel Room

I spent this past weekend in a hotel room.  

But it wasn't to get away and write.  While I could do that (and I did), it was for an AmVets conference. Though I knew I would be busy with meetings for two whole days, I took my laptop, journal, and notebook with me anyway, knowing I'd have some time in the mornings and evenings to write.  And I knew inspiration would strike, so I decided to not pack lightly for this.

As soon as I got there, I was reminded of the great things I could do when I only have a bed, a refrigerator, a desk with a swivel chair, and a bathroom.  And I have a housekeeper. Therefore, no dishes to wash, no laundry to do, not even a bed to make.  All I have to say about that is: Bring on more creativity!

What did I spend Friday and Saturday mornings doing?  Working on Professional Fans.  I believe this was the first time I had been able to work on it when out of town.  Having the time and temporary break from any other responsibilities made the difference in my being able to concentrate on it.

I probably don't need to tell you any of this.  You who are writers yourselves already know the benefits of staying in a hotel room just to write.  But sometimes I need to be reminded of small things like that, and when I'm longing for alone time just to write but spend my time sometimes resisting distractions.

I was so involved in the writing, I almost forgot to go to the meetings.  As the first day (Friday) unfolded, I noticed I had about two hours for lunch.  What did I do?  You guessed it. But I did it in style.

I sat on a lounge chair by their indoor pool and continued my writing.  The funny thing is, for a while I had envisioned writing by a body of water, whether it was a pool or the beach.  I knew in doing so, I would be able to think of great ideas.  And they just kept coming!

Needless to say, pretty soon, I had to remind myself why I had to come here in the first place.  Great things were happening, great character development.  I was working hard at making Professional Fans un-disjointed.  These are some examples of how I made it that way.

As can be expected from what became this stupid amount of time to write, I only wanted to do it more.  

It was such that though my hotel was only a half mile from all of the shopping and sightseeing I could possibly do, I did none of that.  

This book, as you can see, has a hold on me.  I cannot wait to release it and have it in your hands.

In an attempt to draw this post to a close, I'm having to watch my time, which is very limited this morning, before I have a full day of work.  Hopefully, I will be able to keep my desire to write more at bay.  If not, I may have to check into another hotel room...maybe for about two weeks.  Oh, if only I could!

Dancing 'Cross the Pages

"Rain, play my song today.

No one wants to know me anyway.

Perfect lover, where are you?

I can't wait much more for you to come true?"

These are a few of the first lines from Heart's melancholy ballad, "Magazine."  I have known that song for thirty years now and have always liked it.  It wasn't until I started writing that I found the reason why not only Heart is my all-time favorite band, but the purpose of this song in my life. (Yes, to me, songs can have purposes.)

It rained this morning.  I was at work.  I couldn't concentrate.  If the last time it rained as hard as it had done today was anything to go by, I'd be able to leave early.  In fact, when this possibility sank in, I sang those words to that familiar classic Heart song.

After the great weekend I had had, at the Perry Stone Regional Conference, I was re-inspired, refreshed, and ready to go.  The only thing I wanted to do was write.  To have to wait until after dinner to do it would have almost been the death of me.  

I am still working very hard on finishing Professional Fans.  I am determined to get the first draft done sometime this month.  I believe this has been the most rewarding project I have ever done.  After reading many parts of it to family and friends, I have received great feedback about it.  They want to read more of it.  

The more I work on this, the less I like being away from it for a long period of time. Even one day would cause a noticeable separation anxiety.

It poured hard today!  What did that mean for me?  I got my wish:  To go home early and get to writing as soon as I could.

But there was a problem:  I couldn't think clearly due to the rain, I wasn't easily motivated. The first song I cued up once I got in front of my laptop...

Hearing that song on a rainy Monday morning never fails to get me in the right mindset to write. Playing this song, and drinking a little bit more of some sweet tea, I got to work.  It's now just after 8. As I put a bow on this post, and this day, I'm glad I can lay my head down on my pillow and know I accomplished a lot of writing today, took advantage of all of this time alone, and I have the passion for having my fingers dance 'cross the pages....of my own books.

I Showed Up Anyway

Believe it or not, I have had lots of times over the past seven years where I didn't feel like writing. This morning was no exception.  

As I was waking up, I continually asked myself, Why bother?  What's the point of doing this?  

I have had a very stressful week.  Something unforeseen came about in the process of selling our house.  I won't give details, except we went from looking forward to a closing day, to having to start back to square one.

In anticipation of a closing day that was to take place at the end of this month, we took all of these necessary steps to make it happen.  Consequently, I have had to put my writing time on the back burner on some days. This is not the first time that my goals are once again put on hold or on the backburner.  I knew that after everything settled down, I would be able to fully focus on writing. That would be my time to go all-out.  

All of these stresses have burned me out, worn me to a frazzle.  It's to where I don't even want to bother writing, knowing it would take a lot of my time, time I could spend doing something else. 

Hadn't I told myself that no matter how busy I will be in the moving process, I will make the time for what is important to me, to not let all of the stresses and pressures of this move control me?  Now was my time to really apply this to my life.

About two years ago, I read a small, random, yet helpful piece of advice someone had published in Writer's magazine:  Keep showing up. Yes, there have been times since then I have looked forward to having those few hours of writing time--only to be so unproductive I would wonder whether I was meant to write or not.  But I get up the next morning and make it better than the day before.  The more I do this, in spite of distractions and conflicts, the more likely something great will happen.

Here it is Friday morning.  Due to some allergy and sinus issues I am still trying to get to overcome, I chose to sleep in and not run this morning.  Though I was happy to take advantage of a later morning, I had a hard time getting up.  It wasn't so much the seasonal illness so much as it was plain utter discouragement.  Would this be another morning where I'd waste my energy resisting distractions and trying to stay focused?  Would I be able to think of anything, making progress on Professional Fans? By the way, I hope to finish the first draft soon.  Please stay tuned.

In spite of getting up later than I wanted to, I ate breakfast and wasted no time in getting to Starbucks. I had work to do.  I wanted to show up, expecting for something great to happen.  

And it happened.

Here is a little teaser from my latest development of Professional Fans:

At one point, I went inside to go to the bathroom.  After I got out, I went to the front.  Out of one of the windows, I saw Gary talking to a few people.  I went outside to see what was going on, what Gary was talking about..

"Hey, Holly!  Come hang out with us," Gary said, waving his hand in the direction of the conversation circle he was in.

I walked over there and introduced myself to the other guys.  Wow!  What a lot of hand shaking, the most I had ever done in my life!

Gary continued talking, the conversation topic was experiences from a few of his previous bands.  I loved listening to him, like I always did.  All of this was a big step for me from the first time I saw Gary.  When that happened, it never crossed my mind I would talk to him and many others before a show.

At least a dozen questions came to my mind.  Would I only listen?  Would anything I say sound foolish?  What if someone in our midst acted like they liked being around me, only to be like Lee and hate me?  As I stood next to Gary, I tried hard to not look nervous and to focus my attention on the rest of Gary’s story.  It reminded me of when I was down in his studio—sharing one story after another.  That conversation could have gone on for hours.  

It now now close to ten.  Between appreciating the atmosphere Starbucks never fails to provide for concentrating and some more great hard rock music (Whitesnake), I have had a great morning of writing.  I hope the week to come is even better than this one.

P. S.  I am now home.  Before heading out of Starbucks, I saw one of the drive-thru cashiers.  Though it has been a number of years ago, he was our neighbor at the house we lived in before the one we're living in now.  I was able to vent my frustrations to him and in so doing, use lots of the creative energy that had been building up inside me. To this day, he still considers me and my husband the best neighbors he has ever had.  Though I could have been in a hurry to get back home, I'm glad I stopped and talked to someone, knowing he would help.  Josh Phillips, if you're reading this, please know that I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.  It certainly did help me in sorting out all of my stresses.

I am now even more proud to be the creative person God has made me to be!

An Unusually Later Day

I don't see the need anymore to get up at 3:30am, to leave the house by 4:45 to go to the gym.  I need long workouts.  The only time I could ever do it, and be showered and at my desk at or around 8am,, is at this early morning.  I need to keep in mind that before too long, I will no longer need to be up at this very early time, to be at the gym.

While I've been doing well at getting up at 4 most mornings, I have never been able to get up a half hour earlier than that, though I have told myself it will be for only two days of the week.  As expected, I didn't get up at 3:30...

not even 4:30...

or 6:30...

I woke up at quarter after seven.  

I was feeling fatigued and congested, symptoms I have had with allergies. I wondered how today was going to go, what I was going to write...if I was going to be able to do so.  I had so many ideas rolling around in my head.  The sooner I put them on paper, the better.

They say to write at the same time every day.  My time to do that is in the morning, up until 11 or 12. Given my waking up late and getting into the day much slower than usual, I wondered if I was going to be in a presence of mind today to write.  

It gets even better:  I went for a walk.  Most days of the week, I am either running between 6 and 7 am, or at the gym pumping iron around that time.  In spite of my allergies, I went outside for a walk. 

Every writer needs the outdoors; I am no exception.

It felt great to go outside when it was daylight.  I don't know how long my walk was, but it was refreshing.  

What did I do after I ate lunch?  I sat down to write.  What time was it when I started?  12:30.  Here it is quarter to three, and I am on a roll.

My latest writing idea:  Back stories of all of the main characters in Professional Fans. Both Holly and Natasha have a deep, sincere passion for music, dating back to their high school years.  It's what makes high school memorable.  Scary Harley lead singer Gary Grayson's wouldn't be complete, or even inspiring, without mentioning his love for KISS since day one.  Lighting tech Randy Daniel's describes how he has done many things in his life, including but not limited to playing drums in a high school band, driving a truck, going to seminary and getting a license to counsel, meeting many rock stars in that time and forming lasting relationships.

I think I have my work cut out for me, regardless of what time of day it is, or how I feel.