Greetings, Lovelies! Long time no post. Oops. Sorry about that. My overthinking habits get me in trouble yet again. I've been thinking that possibly in future I might try throwing some shorter, bite-sized posts up. Not that I tend to write horribly long blog posts, but by the time I get done overthinking them, believe my, my brain is telling me they're massive. Or they just stay unwritten, because I want to explore and overthink every single aspect of an idea before I write about it, so nothing ends up getting written at all, and... well, you get the idea! Yikes! Anyhow, thanks, y'all, for your patience as I work on getting this whole author blog thing figured out.
A couple quick updates on what's been happening lately...
I had the opportunity to participate in a local authors' evening at the Honesdale library a couple weeks ago. That was pretty scary. Got to polish up my non-existent public speaking skills. But it went pretty well. We had a decent group, but not big enough to be a lot intimidating. Only a little. LOL.
My books, Betrayer and Quench the Day are now available for sale at Loose Leaf Pages, an ADORABLE book and tea shop in Honesdale. If you have a chance, stop in and check them out on Main Street, and have one of their fabulous house blend loose-leaf teas.
I've been hard at work on book 2 in the Red Wolf Trilogy, and am happy to report that it's coming along nicely.
And here's a little something to leave you with. It's an idea that's been in and out of my attention for quite a while. I lovingly refer to it as the effort / enjoyment ratio. It goes something like this...
The more effort you put into something, the more enjoyment and fulfillment you will get out of it.
And that, in a nutshell, is why I love writing so much. It's time consuming. It totally takes over my brain space. It's really lonesome. It takes major commitment. Its downright ROUGH some days. But I get so much more out of it than, well... most things. People who love books never fail to say that they're better than movies. Movies are easy. No effort required. You sit and watch and don't think, and when the show is over in an hour or two or three, it leaves you hungry for more. More eye candy. More thoughtless entertainment. It isn't particularly satisfying. Books take hours to read. Sometimes a whole day's worth of hours. They require attention and imagination. It's so much more fulfilling when you close the pages of a book and realize that you haven't just been entertained, you've thought, you've understood, you've been someone else and experienced new things. You've been to another world and back. Well, how much more so when you're writing that book. A single scene could take days to write. You live it, over and over, analyzing every detail and which ones need to be put in and which ones need to be left out. You are completely immersed in what your characters are going through, studying their emotions and experiences until you assimilate them into your own personality and memories. Writing a book becomes a part of you, knitted into your DNA in a way that people who don't write will never understand.
I'm convinced this theory holds true for pretty much everything, not just the satisfaction level of your entertainment. The more you put into something, the more it will give back to you. Whether it's your faith, your marriage, your friendships, or your time at the gym. It's so easy to be lazy and choose the lowest level- the "it's ok" level of happiness and set cruise control. But don't stay there! Kick your life up a few notches from "it's ok" to "it's freaking awesome!" Put it the hours. They're worth it!
