The Journey, Zinovy's and Mine

A friend just did a great video interview with me about Zinovy's Journey. If you'd like to learn more about the process and the motivation behind the writing of the book, you're welcome to view the interview at "Going Home."

I miss the opportunity to post more to this blog, but life is consuming me right now. I don't even have time to write about it. It's a good (God) thing, but limits what I have time to do on the side.

Please keep being my friend on this blog. I intend to post more one of these days, if you have the patience to wait.

Kicking the Camel Out of the Tent

Or, "Ten Steps Toward Taming the Technology Tiger."

Yes, I mixed my metaphors. You may take your choice of the two images. If your use of technology is starting to feel more like a bothersome nuisance than a useful tool, choose the camel analogy. If the beast is more like a dangerous wild animal that threatens to devour you, choose the tiger.

My new Mac computer is a camel that encroached into my personal space so gradually I didn’t notice until my bum started to get a little chilly in the cold Canadian winter air outside the tent door. So, during this reflective time of the New Year, I’m making plans to kick the camel out of the tent, or at least to push her over into a smaller corner.

I’m going to become more disciplined and deliberate in my use of this wonderful technology. My goal is to make sure the tail quits swinging the tiger in 2012. (Arrggg. Internal critic is cringing at that irrational expansion of the mixed metaphor, but I’m ignoring her.)

So here are my plans. They are NOT resolutions, or regulations. They are simply steps I plan to take toward the goal of harnessing this wondrous beast so he will find out who is boss, and will get down to the important business of carrying my stuff to the market.

In 2012, I will:

1. Honor my personal priorities: I’ve been practicing this discipline for a while now and it has saved my sanity. I will not turn on my computer in the morning until I’ve spent some quality time with my Lord and Master. Every morning, I need to yank on the anchor chain—to make sure I’m properly attached to my fixed point of reference—before I’m ready to begin sorting through all the flotsam and jetsam the culture has washed up on the internet shore during the night. If I oversleep and don’t have time to spend reading my Bible and talking to Jesus, then I don’t have time for the internet.

2. Write every day: This is a new one for me. I’ve resisted it for a while, because it sounds like a New Year’s resolution with a built in crash mechanism. I suspected it wouldn’t work because it clashes with my lofty ideal of not writing unless I have something worthwhile to say. I’m deathly afraid of spewing out more flotsam and jetsam. But I’ve decided it might work if I connect this step with the previous one. If I make my daily writing assignment a simple entry in my personal devotional journal, I will benefit in several ways: I will become more disciplined about writing; I will become more practiced as a writer; and if the journal entry ends up having some nugget of truth or beauty in it, I can incorporate it into a blog post later. If it’s jetsam and flotsam, it can just float around in my personal eddy pool without bothering anyone else.

3. Manage my computer work time well: I have decided I need to be deliberate about how I use my computer for marketing my book. I’ve collected a huge list of things I could do to increase the exposure of Zinovy’s Journey on the internet. I need to sort out the useful items on that random list and make a plan—a daily, weekly and monthly plan—for traveling down this uncharted road toward worldwide marketing and distribution of ZJ. This planning step will be the first thing on my list of things to do.

4. Blog more consistently: I know. I’ve made this commitment before and not followed through. So I will try again. I will work out a schedule that keeps my two blogs going at a steady pace. I’m not saying I will post often. I will aim for more regular submissions, rather than more frequent ones. I will start out with the intention of posting one blog a week, to one or the other of the two blogs. My goal for the year is to work up to one post for each of the blogs every week. Without posting flotsam or jetsam!

5. Be deliberate about the blogs I follow: I’m discovering so many good blogs out there—writing ones, devotional ones, entertaining ones. I could spend hours every day reading them all. But I’m going to have to discriminate. I will pick the best, most useful ones, and subscribe to them. I may have to choose a number--ten or twelve--and subtract one blog on my list for every new one I find that I want to add. Ouch. This one will be hard to live up to.

6. Develop my social network carefully: I’m making so many new “friends.” I want to “like” them all, but I can’t keep expanding my list of friends forever. I’m going to have to define some parameters. My “friends” should be people I’d like to sit down and have coffee with. And each social networking community needs to be treated a little differently. It took me a while to figure out that LinkedIn connections should only be people I actually know, and I’m still grappling with how to add networking “friends” to my personal community on Facebook. Twitter is a complete mystery to me, but I’m already deciding I only want to follow birdies I can respect and learn from.

7. Interact with, and make a positive contribution to my internet community: I want to give as well as take in this social network exchange. I will not only read my chosen blogs, I will comment, and contribute often to other sites that are worthwhile. I will always give credit for material that is not original, linking to sources of information so the creators can gain internet exposure. When I communicate on Facebook, I will link to friends who are trying to expand their networks, and contribute in ways that will be helpful to them. I will pass on useful information, rather than shallow personal comments.

8. Limit my social chatter: I spend way too much time during the day checking my social networks for no apparent reason. I will set a schedule for checking them, and resist gravitating to the computer, just to see what’s up, when I’m bored or trying to procrastinate.

9. Play Games for the right reasons: Those reasons are: 1) personal refreshment; 2) healthy entertainment; 3) social interaction. I have to confess I’ve got a weakness for Spider Solitaire, but I honestly feel I am not able to play that game any more. It’s too addicting for me. So I have decided to delete that game completely from my roster of potential computer entertainments. I will play other computer games—ones that satisfy without creating an inner vacuum that only gets bigger when I try to fill it. I will play games that involve other people, and I will play them for the connection with my friends as well as for entertainment. Any entertainment activity that does not allow me to walk away feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work will be off limits to me.

10. Exercise spiritual disciplines in regard to overall computer use: My plan, this year, is to fast one day a month from both food and technology. I took a personal retreat day last week, and was amazed at how it clarified my focus and recharged my spiritual and emotional batteries. I’ve already scheduled my next one, and they will be slotted into my calendar every month for the rest of the year. One day out of every thirty, I will abandon my tent to the camel and find a solitary place where there are no backlit screensavers, no “you have mail” dings, no way to comment or reply with my fingers alone. I will check heaven’s mailbox, and read, comment or reply with my heart instead.

So those are my plans. We’ll see how it goes. Until this time next year.

The images in this blog post are from the delightful children's book, Humphrey's First Christmas, Written and illustrated by Carol Heyer.

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

I am so far behind in blog posting I don't know where to begin. One of my New Year's "plans" (not resolutions, which tend to produce more guilt with me than profit) is to post more regularly. And there's lots to post about.

The big thing is that Zinovy's Journey is published, printed and "out there," finally! Such a good feeling! So far, I've sold or given away over 200 copies and I'm getting some good reader reviews. I'm also collecting a list of typos and other errors that will need to be corrected before I order the next batch of books--relatively easy to do since the book is print-on-demand.

But the good "finally published" feeling lasted only about three weeks. Now it's back to plodding along, one day at a time, after a very short and somewhat uneasy transition from the writing mode to the marketing one. It's about a long obedience in the same direction.

I'm uneasy with the marketing mode because I know even less about marketing than I did about writing when I began this project 35 years ago, but I'm moving forward one step at a time. I'm expanding my social network: wrestling with the problem of how to merge my new writer/reader "friends" with my personal ones on Facebook; still unclear about the value of Twitter, but trying to figure out how to Tweet effectively; looking toward e-publishing later in the month.

Meanwhile, I've received a good review by Tracy Krauss, a great new author/blogger friend. And Janet Sketcheley, another author/blogger, and a faithful promoter of Canadian writers, has done a blog interview. I've also been a guest author at a friend's Bible study group, and am looking forward to doing more of that kind of face-to-face interacting with readers.

Since it's only been two months since the book was released, I'm off to a fairly good start in the marketing department. I never expected a great burst of excitement.

Because my book is self-published, its journey from "virtually unknown" to "world-famous ;-)" will be gradual. It will grow in notoriety from the baseline of my friends and relatives to the broader reader population at a snail's pace. That's okay with me. I have no editor or publisher pushing me to make sales happen. (One of the many advantages of self-publishing!)

Because the story deals with universal themes, I don't think the book will become outdated, so I'm not worried about how soon it reaches readers. But I do feel a responsibility to faithfully inch along on the marketing and distribution road. If the book was worth spending years writing, it's got to be worth some effort at promoting.

So that's a catch-up on my doings. For something a little more interesting, I'll leave you with one of Passive Guy's latest posts. Referencing Mary W. Walters, he says: Creative Writers Can Be Difficult to Detect During Job Interviews. If you're wondering if you're a writer, read this article. It gives a clear description of this odd kind of person.

If you haven't yet discovered The Passive Voice, check it out. Passive Guy, as he calls himself, is a veritable concordance of information about self-publishing, and he's got a great sense of humor so is fun to read. The website is chock full of helpful, interesting content, that will come to your e-mail inbox several times a week if you sign up to receive it. Highly recommended!

A year ago, my New Year's musings were focused on the publishing journey ahead. The coming year will carry me down the marketing road. I'm excited to see where the tandem bicycle ride will take me this coming year. I love being seated behind the greatest cyclist the world has ever known.

May your writing journey in 2012 be eventful, and satisfying beyond your wildest expectations.

Letting Go of the Baby

Kathryn M. Weiland shared a quote that resonates with me at this stage of my writing journey.

‎When a book leaves your hands, it belongs to God. He may use it to save a few souls or to try a few others, but I think that for the writer to worry is to take over God’s business.
-Flannery O'Connor

Like every precious baby, Zinovy's Journey belonged to God from the beginning. But it’s hard not to hover over the cradle, watching to make sure the baby’s still breathing. About 175 ZJ books are now out there in the public somewhere. Many are with people I’ve been praying for off and on for years. It’s mind boggling, even when I sit down to pray for them. But I know I need to keep a forward-thinking attitude. I need to keep pressing on into where the Lord leads from here, without looking back or around to see what’s happening. It’s totally in His hands, His business.

So I need to quit fretting about distribution and marketing.

I haven’t been obsessive about it, but I have been trying a little too hard, conniving a little too much, to place the book into the market. All that effort has added up to a number of little contacts, often with people I don’t even know. I have no idea (nor control over) what will come of these small contacts. I don't know which tweet or post will take off or connect with a broader audience. But I do know that God can take the tiniest candle and light up the whole world. He can take a helpless, vulnerable, shivering little baby, born in a stable on a chilly night, and bring eternal salvation to a broken world.

So I'm making a decision. A commitment. Please hold me to it. I will leave the book that has left my hand, in God’s hands. I will keep doing the little things, under His wise direction, and just expect that He will use it to save, or to try, the souls He has intended all along to reach.

His network is huge. He has access to every social media source. He will bring this book to its target market audience, and He just might do it through some little contact that seems insignificant to me at the time.

Dirty Little Self-Publishing Secrets

Last week I found a great interview on Michael Hyatt's site. It’s chock full of "dirty little secrets" on the hot topic of self-publishing. It sums up a lot of what I've been hearing.

The SiWC in October was abuzz with gossip--both nervous and excited--on this topic. Writers were excited. Editors, and even some agents, were nervous.

They were nervous because traditional publishing is beginning to look like an outmoded, bunglesome dinosaur of a system, and the editors and agents who are a part of that system are scrambling to find ways to keep from becoming obsolete, or at least being considered obsolete by writers.

Many of those writers, who used to sit on the doorsteps of traditional publishing houses waiting anxiously for an invitation to come in, have gotten up off their bruised rear ends and gone down the street to the local Starbucks. There they sip lattes as they put the final touches on their manuscripts, and then they navigate the internet, looking for other, more realistic options for getting their work into the market.

Industry people say it's the wild, wild west in the publishing world right now. Apparently, the writers are the outlaws. They rustle cattle, shoot from the hip, stake claims in uncharted territory. Then they go into town, get drunk on their winnings, and make a general nuisance of themselves in the bars.

Yes, that’s a slightly exaggerated, more colorful account of the reality. But the reality is that, for the first time in a long while, or maybe forever, it's a writer's market.

Technology has made the difference. It's now easy (that's also a slight distortion of reality) to publish books yourself. And more and more writers are choosing to go that route.

Thanks to new technology, self-publishing has grown from its infant stages, when it babbled and drooled all over the place and left messy piles of you-know-what all over the book industry, through its childhood and into pubescence.

Self-publishing is now a teenager, brash and a little undisciplined, but becoming better at communicating, and almost ready to say something worthwhile to the world.

No, actually, in the last year or so, it almost seems like self-published authors have graduated from high school. They now call themselves “indie” publishers, declaring their independence from the “parents” who used to be their only means of support. Even the self-publishing companies, who offer services such as editing, printing, and distribution, are being sidestepped by writers who have decided to become their own builders. They are choosing to do much of the work themselves, and contract out to sub-trades for things they can't, or don't want to do. They are cutting out the middlemen, making more money, and enjoying the control they have over how the edifice turns out.

I know that’s happening because I’m in the middle of it. It’s a long, slow slog up the mountain, and the learning curve is steep. But the challenge is invigorating, and the view from the top is going to be fantastic.

So, in case you missed my point, I'm an eager supporter of the self-publishing movement. I've slung on my six-shooter, hitched it up, and I'm heading into town. Ride'em cowgirl!

My blog post on September 30, 2010 mentioned Dean Wesley Smith’s article, “The New World of Publishing: The World is Not Ending.” I’m posting the link here again, because it’ a great review of all the reasons writers might want to self-publish.

And two favorite new websites with a wealth of information on self-publishing are:

The Passive Voice
Terry Whalin

I couldn’t have made it "out west" without a lot of help and encouragement from my friends. Jeff Gerke, my consultant, editor, typesetter and cover designer, was invaluable. When I first embarked on this journey, he said, "It's going to be fun, Ginny."

He was right. It has been fun. That’s one dirty little secret Michael Hyatt and Kevin Weiss didn’t share.

US Presidents and SWAT Teams at the SiWC

I’ve been away from this blog for a long time, for a number of good reasons. But I’m back and planning on doing more regular posts from now on, because I’ve got lots to say.

Sheesh! I don’t know where to start.


A FAMOUS WAR CRIMINAL ON PEACE-LOVING CANADIAN SOIL

This past weekend I volunteered at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in Surrey, B.C. The weekend began with pre-conference workshops on Thursday, and the day was spiced with a bit of unexpected excitement.

That day we were sharing the Sheraton Hotel with a local municipal economic summit that featured guest appearances by presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton.

Protesters picketed outside, calling for the immediate arrest of George Bush for the crime of “torture.” It was all very legal. Someone had filed a suit in a local Surrey court, laying criminal charges, and the protesters expected the RCMP to bring the culprit to jail, where justice would finally be served.

Presumably, the ex-president of the United States was to be tried in a Surrey courthouse and convicted. He would then languish in a Canadian prison, paying for his crime but never, of course, having to suffer the intolerable experience of waterboarding.

But the RCMP were busy with other preoccupations, the biggest of which was their assignment to protect the presidents while they were in town.

I arrived at the hotel at 6:45, early for my duties because there would be security checks. I only had to go through a couple on my way to the underground parking lot. The final one was a polite RCMP officer who asked for my picture ID (they had a list of conference volunteers, who had probably been looked up on Facebook by the secret service beforehand ;-), and then asked me a question I couldn’t answer:

“What is the theme of the conference this weekend?” Shucks, I didn’t know. So she prompted me: “It starts with an 'F'."

When it became obvious that I was having a hard time selecting the right "f-word" from my quite extensive writer's vocabulary, she gave me another hint: "It’s “Fantasy.” I must not have looked like much of a security threat because she let me in.

We never saw the famous duo, and their handlers politely refused my request that they give each of the presidents a copy of my newly released novel, which I was sure they would enjoy reading on their flight back to the US of A. My husband pointed out that the books might have been laced with anthrax, an idea that had never crossed my innocent mind. But the whole day was a “novel” experience, all the same.

Hotel personnel said we were being watched through the curtains, in the inner conference room where our registration was temporarily set up, by surveillance technology that could pick out the moles on our faces. Images were being sent to a satellite and bounced back to a room somewhere deep in the bowels of the hotel where everyone’s movements could be monitored. SWAT teams surrounded the hotel, and there was a lock-down during the few hours the presidents were in the building.

The SiWC planners, who were swamped with extra work informing everyone and working around the unusual situation, were not amused, but the rest of us rather enjoyed ourselves. With our important looking conference badges, we traipsed downstairs and sailed around the lobby area, looking as official as possible, weaving in and out amongst the hired hands in suits with wires in their ears and probably some who didn’t look like they were on duty as well.

But, in the end, when the presidents arrived (at an undisclosed time), they were sneaked in and out of the room they’d be speaking in through the kitchen, and we never caught a glimpse. The next time I saw president Bush was on TV at the world series game last night. He looked a bit stressed, but I assume he was only worried about how the game would go. I can’t imagine he was still thinking about how close he came to spending the rest of his life in a Canadian jail.

It would have been a very civilized jail. Maybe that’s why he wasn’t too worried. Everyone knows Canada’s reputation as a peaceful, and peace-loving country.

Unless their hockey team loses, in which case they riot and break things.

FUTURE POSTS

Yes, in case you didn’t notice, my book is now published. I’m waiting for my web designer, the amazing Kramer, to get the website ready for the public eye before I officially announce the release of the book. Then you’ll be hearing more about that.

You’ll also hear more about what I learned at the conference while I was busy monitoring workshops, sitting at the Book Fair waiting for people to buy my book, and checking name tags at the banquet room door.

Expect some exciting news about the current publishing industry buzz—a very loud and frantic buzz specifically around the topics of self-publishing and e-book publication.

The natives are restless, and the establishment is nervous.

An Exhilarating Ride!

Today I sent my book off to the printer. It’s print-on-demand, so in a few days I’ll have hard copies in my hand!

It's been a long journey. The idea for the book came over 35 years ago, and I've been working it on in a focused way for the last fifteen. At times, I was exhausted, and discouraged, but I kept going because the story wouldn't let me stop.

I was reminded, last night, of “The Bicycle Poem.” This morning I read it again and realized it’s the perfect poem for writers. If I’ve shared it before forgive me, but here it is again.
__________________________________________

The Road of Life

At first I saw God as my observer, my judge,
Keeping track of the things I did wrong,
So as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die.
He was out there sort of like a president.
I recognised His picture when I saw it, but I really didn’t know Him.

But later on when I met Christ,
It seemed as though life were rather like a bike ride,
But it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Christ was in the back,
Helping me pedal.

I don’t know when it was that He suggested we change places,
But life has not been the same since.

When I had control, I knew the way.
It was rather boring, but predictable. . .
It was the shortest distance between two points.

But when He took the lead,
He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains,
and through rocky places at breakneck speeds.
It was all I could do to hang on!
Even though it looked like madness,
He said, “Pedal!”

I worried and was anxious and asked, “Where are you taking me?”
He laughed and didn’t answer, and I started to learn to trust.
I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure.
And when I’d say, “I’m scared,” He’d lean back and touch my hand.

He took me to people with gifts I needed,
Gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy.
They gave me gifts to take on my journey,
My Lord’s and mine.

And we were off again.
He said, “Give the gifts away; they’re extra baggage.
Too much weight.”
So I did, to people we met, and I found that in giving
I received, and still our burden was light.

I did not trust Him at first, in control of my life.
I thought He’d wreck it.
But He knows bike secrets, knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners,
Knows how to jump to clear high rocks,
Knows how to fly to shorten scary passages.

And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places,
And I’m beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze in my face
With my delightful, constant companion, Jesus Christ.

And when I’m sure I just can’t do any more
He just smiles and says. . . “Pedal!”

Author unknown

_____________________________________________________

So, dear author/writer friend, look on Jesus’ face today. See His triumphant, delighted smile.

And just pedal.