A Road to Getting Published by Lynn Griffin #WWII #publish

MUSE MONDAY

I love stories of how a writer gets her book out into the world. You'll enjoy Lynn Griffin's post today.

They say your childhood shapes your life, but you choose which path you take.  

Pinch me now. I am a traditionally published author! It’s amazing I can say I am a published author. 

The thing is I have perpetual imposters syndrome, and therefore I’ve never had the confidence to submit my work. That was until one day, when a new friend, who turned out to be an editor in our critiquing group, suggested I should get my story out there before ‘I popped my clogs.’ Yes, she was that blunt! But she had a point. It became the push I needed. 

I have always written around the full-time paid job. My work took me to places that I never dreamed. I met people that were remarkable, honest, vulnerable, and wonderful. They shared their stories. They made me laugh in the face of adversity, and their stories brought tears to my eyes as they spoke of their love and devotion. Each of those wonderful people were survivors. They were my inspiration. They are my hero’s. 

My latest novels Secrets, Shame, and a Shoebox and its sequel The Twenty-One-Year Contract are standalones and based around WW11 which leads to 1960s. 

So, back to how publication all came about. When the invisible big bad wolf came knocking on everyone’s door in 2020, I was living and writing in Spain. When we returned to the UK my imaginary friends continued to keep me awake. Yammering away. Still telling me their stories.  Telling me what to write, what to say, and how important they were. I had to listen, after all, who am I to argue? Because my ‘little friends’ had so much to say, this particular book ended up being humongous! It weighed in way over 180,000 words. Of course, I knew I wouldn’t get away with that, but you can’t blame a girl for trying. 

Then the search for the perfect publisher began. This may sound obvious, but often writers fall into the pothole by not submitting to publishers that:

Are open to submissions.

And equally important, those who published work that fitted with my genre. 

Three months later, after ensuring the final product was polished, shiny and everything in between, I was offered a contract! I’m still stunned. 

Though it wasn’t as simple as that as you can well imagine.  The 180,000 words needed some cutting back which was hard, but necessary and became another huge learning curve. Then believe it or not, writing is hard enough, but once you have a contract, the real work begins. 

I put my fingers on the keyboard, listened to my editor and went for it. 

To my delight it resulted in my debut, Secrets, Shame, and a Shoebox being born, followed by The Twenty-One-Year Contract. 

Of course, there is more to this than I can share right here, but all I’m saying is if I can do it, and you are a writer with the dream, do it now. Try before it’s too late!  

One last word, or two: If you are a reader, or writer, thank you so much for taking the time to read my books. The reviews have been wonderful. They are important to any author, but I can’t thank you enough. I am still humbled, and always will be. All writers are encouraged to read, and I am naturally an avid reader. I don’t restrict myself to one genre, just check out my reviews on Goodreads or Ben Shepard and you will see for yourself.

Only a simple shoebox, but with life-changing secrets…

Blurb:

Fourteen-year-old Kathleen Gray— talented, a little wild, at times rebellious, but always popular—has a fun, easy life in rural Somerset, with a doting family. Suddenly, they are gone, she has only Uncle Jack. Try as he might, he cannot be father and mother to her. Kathleen takes a chance and becomes Kate Westfield, fending for herself in London, with a new life built on her hopes and dreams and new friends. She could hardly have imagined that one of those friends has a shoebox full of answers.

BOOK LINKS: 

mybook.to/twentyone

https://books2read.com/u/3JER1P

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Twenty-One-Year-Contract

https://www.amzn.com/1509239723

https://www.amzn.com/B09THQKFJS

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn1509239723

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Shame-Shoebox

https://wildrosepress.com

https://fb.watch/b3c2bZPyRF/

FIND LYNN HERE:

https://www.instagram.com/lynngriffinauthoruk 

https://www.Facebook.com/lynngriffinauthor/

https://www.twitter.com/lbgriffinauthor

https://www.wifeinthewest.com 

@LBGriffinAuthoruk

Beating the COVID Blues by Alice Renaud #FearlessFriday #Inspiration #WritersLife

FEARLESS FRIDAY

Please welcome Alice Renaud back to Discover... with an inspirational Fearless Friday. 

The pandemic has turned many people’s lives upside down. Things, habits, beliefs that seemed solid and durable have melted away like snow. Routine activities like going to the shops, riding a bus, attending church, are suddenly fraught with danger.

Have I done something rash recently? Hell, yeah. I went to church and took Communion, then I took the bus back home. Armed with my mask, hand sanitizer, and a six-foot force field around me to stop people coming too close, I felt like Ranulph Fiennes trekking across Antarctica.

COVID has undoubtedly made us a lot more fearful. Yet the more time I spend at home, the more I avoid risks, the more I realize that I do need some excitement in my life. I need to try something new, to push the boundaries, to take a little bit of risk. Otherwise my brain and even my body start to feel… stale. Like a house closed up for too long. I yearn to open a window and let the fresh air in.

So, what to do, when we are deep into our third lockdown, and can’t even sit outside because it’s pelting down with rain? How can we be a little more fearless?

Thank God for writing. My Fearless moments in the past months have come from stretching myself as a writer. Getting out of my comfort zone. Experimenting with new genres, characters, styles.

During the first lockdown, last spring, I wrote my first sci-fi romance story. Appropriately, it’s about a cowboy who goes much further and takes far more risks than I ever could. He goes into space, to another planet. Albastra is a beautiful world, blue and peaceful, but it is ridden with germs, every one of which is deadly to humans. When the cowboy meets the gorgeous alien Melynas, he soon falls for her, but one kiss could be fatal… You won’t be surprised to learn that I got my inspiration from a lockdown dream! The story, Space Cowboy Blues, is included in the BVS romance anthology Cowboy Desire, on pre order now for only $0.99.

Then during the second lockdown, in November, I wrote my very first gay/menage story. It is set in Las Vegas, features a mermaid, a witch and a warlock, and will hopefully be out later this year (if my publisher agrees) in a new BVS anthology, Rainbow Desire.

Whatever our circumstances, stories can help us escape, at least in spirit. I hope you will enjoy this latest offering from BVS and its talented authors, and hope you and your family are safe and well. As Tiny Tim says at the end of A Christmas Carol, “God bless us, everyone!” 

Buy Link for Cowboy Desire: https://amzn.to/2LmdUhD 

Blurb for Cowboy Desire

Cowboy Desire is an eclectic assortment of short stories. Including contemporary, historical, fantasy, and even outer space romance, Cowboy Desire offers fourteen stunning short stories.

These fourteen authors provide a range of sweet to sexy stories all with a cowboy theme. They feature strong men and women battling the weather and dangerous terrain, here on earth and in outer space.

The collection is as diverse as the authors who wrote them. Here’s a chance to discover new talented authors and the characters they create. Within these pages, there are blends of tender, often moving, thought-provoking and downright sexy stories. 

Blurb for Space Cowboy Blues

Josh is a space cowboy. His job? Taming alien species. But on the blue planet Albastra, the beautiful Melynas is more than a match for him. He'd love to get close to her... but everything on Albastra is lethal. Including her...

 

WIP Update A Writer's Life #WritersLife #suspense

puppy exuberance

If I keep on schedule, which I have not been doing of late, today's post should update you on the progress of my current manuscript. I've missed posting two Thursdays in a row, one of which should have been some rambling on what's happening in this writer's life.

first new tooth

But what's happening in this writer's life is exactly why I didn't have time to post. Between the new puppy and a couple of trips to the valley to help out my DIL, we've had medical things. FDW had rotator cuff surgery. This was a complicated surgery for him because it was the same shoulder he had the same operation on eighteen years ago. His chances were 50/50 on fixing it. I'm happy to say, he was in the right half of that 50/50 deal. Now comes the very painful recovery. He is unable to take anything stronger than ibuprofen. He's miserable. He has no use of the arm for weeks so I'm on call. This I-hate-to-cook wife is cooking every meal plus all the other stuff my wonderful other half usually does. Busy.

My medical issues were dental. I had the final steps of getting an implant tooth for the one I knocked out doing a face plant on the sidewalk seven months ago. Four days after
getting it in, it fell out. No kidding. Yesterday, I got another tooth. Let's hope he used Gorilla Glue this time!

Now...the reason I should be blogging today is where I'm at with my new book, working title Magpie MacKenzie, a Joshua, Arizona Novel.

At fifteen chapters in, I realized the book was not on track. Something was off. Magpie had taken a backseat to Zack. She also didn't have near enough angst. Where was her conflict? Why had she drifted off? I did a little ripping of my plot. I gave Magpie and Zack a good talking to. The sparks flew and ideas burned. I went back to the first ten chapters, added scenes, rearranged, and rewrote them. It was a bit of a nightmare. At one point a scene disappeared. I had timeline issues. But I finally wrangled it into shape. The ten chapters are now twelve. I'm happier with where the plot is and the trouble I've dumped on Magpie.

Time to get back to writing.