What day is
it? What’s my name again?
I’ve spent
the last week in an intense workshop (taught by the inestimable Dean Wesley Smith
and the beyond-amazing publisher of WMG Books, Allyson Longeuira)
learning about independent publishing. My cover design skills have improved a
thousandfold, I now have the necessary InDesign skills to do book layout
(previously, I had a little bit of InDesign knowledge, enough to do short
newsletters and the like), and the evening sessions on the business of
publishing…oh, holy moly. Distribution, bookselling, websites, gift cards, oh
my. One night the Sheldon Macarthur
came in to talk about the bookstore side of things. Mind boggling.
I don’t have
a five-year plan sussed out just yet, and not even quite a one-year plan, but
I’m close to a three-month plan to get me through the end of the year. One step
at a time.
I also had a
major epiphany, and after our 101st anniversary party for our house
in December, Ken and I are going to switch offices. I love my little nook of an
office downstairs (in a room with a built-in desk, meaning it always was an
office), but I need publishing space as well (including a decent-sized
monitor), so the home office/Ken’s office will become my workspace, and Ken’ll
move downstairs. I’m not quite sure how I’ll lay it all out yet, and one corner
will still need to be for home stuff (bills, personal email, etc.), but I’m
really looking forward to it. Having Ken’s slovenly office visible to anyone
who comes into the house is far less important than me having the workspace I
need. (My bigger dream is to use the apartment over our garage as my office,
but we really do adore our tenant/cat sitter…).
This week
I’ll be focusing on writing, though. I plan to get a good chunk of a new novel,
Seasoned With Danger (under new
romantic suspense pen name Dayle St. Clair) hammered out. I’ll work on a little
cover design (I’ve got the SWD cover
blocked out already) because I’ll have Dean and Allyson around to give me some
tips and pointers and suggestions, but the main focus will be writing. Once I
get home, I’ll get several things geared up for printing, so I’ll have a few
print books available by Christmas. (On the list are gothic novel Waking the Witch, gothic romance Blackwood House, short erotic romance
novel In Her Hands, fantasy/SF
collection Written on the Coast, and
lesbian erotic romance collection Kiss Me Hello. If anyone wants to vote on which ones to do first, fire away! I
might even have some done early enough to offer signed editions.)
Ken arrived
last night and settled into my little cabin-away-from home at this Historic Anchor Inn
here in Lincoln City. His goal this week is to write, if not all of it, then a
decent chunk of his nonfiction book about the 2009 Iron Butt Rally. That’s
right, Soul’s Road Press is starting a nonfiction arm (no plans to start an
imprint, but possibly in the future). He’s already been asked to write some
articles for the Iron Butt association magazine, and he’s thinking about some
tech manuals as well. And depending on how the IBR goes next year, maybe a book
will come out of that, too. :-)
In the
evenings we’ll hang out with Dean and Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Christina F. York and
J. Steven York and other local authors and talk shop and listen to
Dean tell stories that inevitably end with “It seemed like a good idea at the
time.” And we’ll catch up on some movies; the Anchor has a nice selection of
DVDs. Last night we snagged The Queen
and The Hangover, because, well,
we’re weird. We watched the former; tonight we’ll enjoy the latter, and then go
back and grab a few more on our list.
In a few
minutes we’re off for a long walk on the beach (which I’ve done almost daily
since I got here—I do so love the Oregon Coast), so I’m off to get a little
work done before we head out.
How are you
working towards your dreams today?
