(This is an excerpt from my Indie Author Survival Guide, available on Kindle and Nook.) Ch 3.9 Taking the Road Less Traveled* *Apologies to Robert Frost I’m preserving the original flavor of these two chapters (Taking the Road Less Traveled, The Secret Ingredient: Confidence) written just before my leap into indie publishing. Partly because they show what I was thinking before I knew self-publishing was going to… Read More

   (This is an excerpt from my Indie Author Survival Guide, available on Kindle and Nook.) Ch 3.8 Have Faith In Your Work Sometimes a theme beats on my head.  I notice things. I’m sure most writers are this way: we pick up on signals in the world. A blog post here, a tweet there. A friend’s complaint. A news item. Suddenly it shows… Read More

   (This is an excerpt from my Indie Author Survival Guide, available on Kindle and Nook.) Ch 3.7 Emotional Judo: Lack of Support for Your Writing Many creative workers (writers, artists, musicians) are blessed with people who enthusiastically support them in their creative life. Some have spouses, parents, and other well-meaning people who either give tepid non-support to their writing (or other art) –… Read More

   (This is an excerpt from my Indie Author Survival Guide, available on Kindle and Nook.) Ch 3.6 Four (Nasty) Lies We Tell Ourselves About Writing There are positive lies we tell ourselves to make life easier (we think): I don’t need a critique partner; I can only write when I’m inspired; I don’t need to learn the Rules, I’ll just break them. But… Read More

   (This is an excerpt from my Indie Author Survival Guide, available on Kindle and Nook.) Ch 3.5 Owning the Writer Title For a while, I’ve owned the title of writer, accepting it as a part of who I am, as much as the titles engineer or mom. These are all things that, once you become them, you do not unbecome them. It was not ever thus. Many writers struggle with owning… Read More

   (This is an excerpt from my Indie Author Survival Guide, available on Kindle and Nook.) Ch 3.4 How to Be Brave Writing is an emotionally risky thing to do. You discover things about your characters. You discover things about yourself. (You fear, perhaps, those things should remain undiscovered. This is never true.) When I posted an article on FB by Brene Brown about Why… Read More