The Return of the Evil Crossing Guard
School crossing guards are good folks. In my heart I know this. They provide a valuable service to schools and the community in general. But this week, I curse the crossing guard. Because the sight of that crossing guard means the end to my lazy days of summer.
You see, even though it’s been &%$^ years since I graduated high school and had those nice, long summer vacations, I have a habit of taking things just a bit easier in the summer. This summer, I intentionally gave myself a break. Instead of waking at 5:30 a.m. every morning, I awoke at six, and sometimes slept until seven. Ah, how glorious were those mornings! As long as I got in my required writing hours and/or pages, it didn’t really matter what time of the day or night I worked.
However, I told myself that when the kids started school again, I would go back to my pre-summer schedule. Up at the crack of dawn, churning out pages of fiction before most people even raised their sleepy eyelids.
I haven’t looked forward to that day. And this past Monday it arrived with the return of the evil crossing guard. I groaned the moment I saw her. And even though I’d love to pound her shiny whistle with a hammer and write “I hate you” in magic marker all over her bright orange vest, I will curb these awful urges and instead thank the crossing guard with a smile and a wave. After all, she is only doing her job. And by waking before the sun rises and writing my little heart out, I’m only doing mine.
Writers vs. Storytellers
Today I'm over at the fabulous group blog,
Novel Spaces, chatting it up about the differences between storytellers and writers. Yeah, there's a difference. I discovered that I am all storyteller. I have to work at being a writer.
If you haven't checked out
Novel Spaces yet, you're missing something good. We're a unique blend of authors from multiple genres, blogging about all aspects of writing, the publishing world, and life in general. Check us out!
From the Book Buyer's Perspective
As an author I'm always focused on the book buyer, as in, the "the reader." You know, the person who will walk into a book store, be drawn to my snazzy cover, and eventually spend their hard-earned money purchasing my book for their reading pleasure.
But there's another book buyer whose eye I have to catch before any reader can get their hands on my book. Every bookstore, from the big guys like Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Wal-Mart, to your small local independent bookstore has a book buyer who decides which book they're going to stock. If that book buyer isn't interested, then you don't have a shot.
I've learned much about this side of the business over the past few years. Let's face it, if I want to sell books, I have to learn the game inside and out. The fabulous Sue
Grimshaw (you can
follow her on Twitter), the romance buyer for Borders, is always incredibly helpful in providing writers useful information from the "book buyer" end.
To get another buyer's side of the business, hop on over to Michelle
Buonfiglio's fabulous new blog on
BN.com,
Heart to Heart. She has Tommy
Dreiling, the romance book buyer for Barnes and Noble stores. It's interesting to see the business from his perspective.
