When Do Writers Sing?

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My organized desk.

Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men happy writers? My most favorite musical of all time is, up to now, Les Miserables, and this song just came into my head as I thought about my post today. Not because its theme is anything like my post but because the first line reflects my absolute happiness to sit and write this post.

I feel like singing! And for the last few days I have been catching myself doing just that.

Last Thursday (March 24) at about 10:15 a.m., I wrote the last sentence of The Loyalist Legacy and almost leapt out of my chair. Oh, I still have loads of work before this book goes to the printer and so do lots of others but, for the moment, I can take a break from it and just let it be.

What a feeling!

You see, this book had its challenges, not so much because of the subject matter but because life kind of jumped up and smacked me in the face. I’ve mentioned my shingles episode before so won’t dwell on it, but getting to this point is so much more rewarding because of the tough journey. It’s like herring-boning up a huge ski hill on my cross-country skis and feeling the rush of elation at the top.

For the first time in over a year I’ve been able to spread something other than notes about the draft on my side table. Here you see what I’m finally working on now that I’m in novel-writing hiatus for four precious weeks.

1. Two piles of notes from a webinar by Pat Charpentier where she taught a bunch of editing tricks for authors. Oh, so useful. She also sent out a cheat sheet about Electronic Editing Tools as a result of this webinar hosted by APSS.   Just in time for my editing coming up. Yay!

2. Several sheets about my new website under construction. Lucky for me, my computer guru son is helping with this but neither of us have had the time since we started last November. Gotta get that done!

3. A half sheet of notes about a new initiative I am taking on the book trail out of the U.K. where I’ll be interviewing other

   Canadian writers and the places they write about. Look for a post about this when I get rolling.

4. A printout about book marketing from a new website I’ve just followed. This sheet is by Sandra Beckwith and gives authors ways to promote their books. Fabulous!

5. And finally I have a sheet to remind me to make sure I promote my books which are in a new bookstore, The Bookshelf (they asked!), in all the ways I can.

6. What you don’t see on the table is my notes about cleaning up my ISBN stuff for the Public Lending Right Program here in Canadian libraries.  This allows registered writers to receive a small stipend based on library borrowings of our books and they’ve just added e-books to those eligible. Another fabulous initiative for authors. Of course, there are many sharp turns along this road and I’m happy to say I got some great advice on the phone this morning to move this project along.

7. Neither do you see the e-mail I got asking me to be interviewed next week on a new tv show about authors called Between the Lines, airing date sometime soon. I immediately prepared a sheet about me to make the interviewer’s job easier.

Oh and I didn’t mention taxes, sorting through research and storing/trashing stuff, finally working on book trailers for all three books, re-editing my e-books, and entering a literary contest with a short story.

I’ll report back in three weeks about how much of this I’ve got finished. Already my head is sneaking back into the book with ideas and improvements so I hope I can wait three weeks before I dive in again.

If you’ve got a similar list of writerly things needing your attention, let me know in the comments. And good luck on your own journey. Readers, I hope you can understand why sometimes this writer’s life is about singing.

Elaine Cougler’s website: www.elainecougler.com

Make this author happy. 🙂

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