Writing. Submitting. Chocolate Reward and Repeat

And so the writer's life goes. This week it's all about putting finished work out there, waiting for replies on picture book, NOT a Halloween Book and writing through the messy middle of Rise of the Dark Faeries Book 2 in the Dear Warden Trilogy.

I've developed a lovely little pattern, where my writing breaks are now filled more with business matters such as submitting new work and marketing my published novels and less social media distraction. (Stupid shiny internet and your endless maze of fascinating articles and rarely known facts.) And of course, my chocolate rewards.

Because what is the point of anything if there isn't sweet, sweet chocolate?

How do you stay motivated? 

Always curious to see how others meet deadlines and stay on task.

Happy Valentine's, Galentine's and Dudentine's Day!

Sending you all a hug whether you're celebrating Valentine's Day with your sweetie or Galentine's Day with your BFF's! Not sure what it's called when guys send flowers or chocolates to their pals. 

Dudentine's Day?

Whatever you want to call it, three cheers to love!

And three cheers to tiny tin-foiled chocolate hearts!

Write to Write Another Day

Writing a book is thrilling and exciting, and at the same time an extremely difficult business full of rejection, critique, and struggle.

I have often been asked, how I take a nugget of an idea and turn it into a bound novel. So today, I thought I would distill it down to;

The Creation of a Book in Seven "Simple" Steps:

1. A writer combines their passion for words and storytelling with bits of their heart and soul to create a first draft.

2. To produce the best possible manuscript, a lengthy period of editing, rewriting, and revising follows.

3. With heart a' flutter that book baby is then submitted to editors and publishers to find a home.

4. Contracts are signed.

5. Further edits are completed at the request of an editorial team.

6. Cover reveal! Happy Dancing begins.

7. The launch. Happy Dancing continues.

However, this takes time, patience, and an extremely thick skin. Think Earth's crust magnitude.

Not mentioned in the above process are the rejections that flood in. Sometimes it is tempting to quit under the weight of the "no's", the "sorry this is just not for us", or "we like it, but not enough to really get behind this project." Ouch.

However, I am exceedingly stubborn and will not go silently into any good night (er' whatever).

To combat rejection woes, I have developed a (mostly effective) strategy. Perhaps it will work for you. If nothing else, you may find it delicious.

Three steps to overcome writing rejection:

1. I repeat over and over again the following mantras:

"Real writers write, they don't quit."

"Winners don't quit and quitters never win."

2. I write to write another day:

This is more than just a clever sentence. I find the best way to assuage the sting of rejection is to write myself back in the game. Essentially, I write to renew my passion, pouring myself into a new project. This creates the writing fuel I need to continue.

3. Chocolate:

Eat. All. The. Chocolate.

What are your salves for rejection?

Writer's Block Fix!

Sometimes writing feels like careening blindly down the road to hell. 

And it's not like it's a quick trip, nor is it always obvious you are on the Highway to Hell. 

Nope, you may actually believe you are on the Candy Land Freeway, but then something happens and suddenly those bright jewel-tone jujube hedges that whip by as you zip along, don't look so tasty. In fact they seem to have melted into black pools of gummy goo, sort of like your thought process. You plod along for a while, stall out a few times as your words become more elusive and harder to pin down. Finally you come to a dead stop when your red licorice expressway decays into a fiery stretch of hot lava.

Your imagination is tapped. The writing has ceased. 

As the Soup Nazi would say - No Words for You! 

This process is repetitive, which is hellish in its own way and makes you wonder about the sanity of writers. Why bother to continue? Simple answer; we'd feel crazier if we stopped.

Sometimes I return after a brief lull in creative creation, with heady anticipation. My characters eager for further adventures, my plot bubbling, as excitement drips from my fingers onto my key board. Ew. That sounds sort of gross and my drippy fingers may be more the result of a broken air conditioner and wackadoo hormones, but I digress. What I was trying to say is my typing skills are maxed to keep pace with the seemingly endless perfect words that explode from my imagination. Trust me. This happens and it is sublime. (Love that word. It is so sublimely sublime.)

Other times, like right this very instant, my words hide from me, just out of reach. I've been nearly wordless for the entire summer, peeps. Writer's Block to the extreme. But I have a plan. This weekend I am off with my writing group, The Anitas, on our annual retreat to Grindstone Provincial Park at Christina Janz' cottage. It has been the solution to my past writing woes, so I am certain  hoping it will be the fix to my current predicament.

How can I be so sure?

There will be zero distractions; no kids, Internet, phone, laundry, wall scrubbing or window washing for me. Stop laughing. There was this one time I washed some windows.  My point is I will be hyper-focused, obsessed even, with stalking those verbs, nouns, prepositions, and conjunctions from their cozy hidey-hole in the back corner of my brain. (I can sense they are chilling out right behind the grey matter that controls my constant cravings for chocolate.)

Crap. Now all I can think about is brownies. And Hershey Kisses. Wait, what if there was a Hershey Kiss brownie? Must Google...

Sweet Mama! There is an entire Hershey Kisses site!

Hershey Kisses Recipes

What was I blogging about? Right. Writing distractions. 

I do believe I have made my point.

Sweet Chocolate Bliss

"Do NOT Touch my Chocolato!"
AKA: The birth place of "Talk to the Hand."

My deepest gratitude to those Ancient Mayans and their discovery of chocolate. It truly makes my life complete.

As do my children. And The Drew. And the dog is pretty special, too. Of course that all goes without saying, right?

Recently I was interviewed by fellow Winnipeg writer, Susan Rocan for her delightful blog, My Withershins, named after her spell binding young adult novel, Withershins. (That's correct that was a blatant plug for her book.)

After asking me all the important authoresque questions, she got to the deets on what makes me tick - my favourite comfort food.

Without hesitation I listed chocolate in all it's glorious forms. Chocolate covered strawberries. Silky caramel en-robed in chocolate. Triple chocolate cookies as big as your face. (Because really, life is far too short for tiny treats.)

Today I discovered another chocolate delicacy, thanks to IKEA.

Winnipeg IKEA. Not even blizzards keep us away!

Yes, we Winnipeggers were overjoyed to welcome North America's largest IKEA to town earlier this year. And yes, IKEA is all we were hoping for in terms of inexpensive furniture, fabulous bedding, and shelves overflowing with kitschy nic-nacs.

My favourite IKEA find was their sweetly icing'd cinnamon buns. So cheap, so tasty, so yum.  Until today.

My discovery is so ground breaking it is...

 Beachus Interruptous Blogus Worthyum. 

(latin for: must share with other chocoholics, pronto.)

So here it is:

Jodi's 10 steps to IKEA Chocolate Nirvana

First, find a parking spot at your closest IKEA. Good luck.

Second, race to the foods section with your environmentally friendly cloth bag.

Third, load up on 99 cent milk chocolate bars as well as the darkest IKEA bar you can find.

Fourth, skip merrily to your car. If you can find it. Don't let chocolate delirium cloud your memory. Concentrate. You can find that automobile. If all else fails, pound on you key fob's panic button. Then follow the ear piercing siren. What do you care?  You're rich with chocolate.

Fifth, zip home. Carefully, my fellow chocolate addicts. You are almost to the chocolatey goodness part. Don't blow it with a speeding ticket.

Sixth, brew some coffee. Or pour a tall ice cold glass of milk. I leave the beverage of choice in your capable, now shaking hands.

Seventh, crack off large pieces of both the milk and dark chocolate bars. Lay one on top of the other. No, it doesn't matter which is on top. This is G-Rated peeps. Gheesh.

Eighth, bite into your IKEA chocolate stack. Chomp slowly, savouring the flavour.

Ninth, sip your freshly brewed coffee/icy milk.

Tenth, close your eyes and relax. You have entered IKEA Chocolate Nirvana

Did this photo make your heart skip a beat? 

Stay tuned for my next food related blog post:

The Carmichael Family Spaghetti Recipe

(Feeds 11 hungry, beach weary Canadians with leftovers for 4)

What if Chocolate had Zero Calories?

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Another summer has begun at our wee cottage overlooking, Manitoba’s own inland sea, Lake Winnipeg. It’s a small piece of paradise hidden, in the heart of the Canadian prairies. Another summer, I am fortunate to spend with my family, swimming, kayaking, sandcastle building, and (whenever possible) writing.

The kids are off for a quick swim, so I have a few minutes to sit at my computer, tap away at the keyboard, letting my imagination explore new worlds and all the characters that inhabit them. My mind is flooded with my favourite question.

What if?

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And not just the cliché, wah-wah-wah questions like; What if we could fly? Or What if the moon was made of cheese? Or What if chocolate had zero calories, cured cancer and was the fifth food group, but has too weak a lobby group to compete with the all-powerful dairy, grains and protein lobbyists? Okay, so maybe the last one is my own personal what if, but I think you can see where I’m going.

Currently I’m working on Gemini, a paranormal YA about twins. It’s the first in a trilogy called Triggered. The protagonist is Kate and the story is told from her point of view. Her brother, Chris, is the assistant protagonist.

“But Jodi,” you may ask (or not depending if you talk to your computer screen as much as I do.) “Can you have an assistant lead character?”

And I would have to ask you back, “But what if you can? What if you HAD to?”

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Which of course would lead me deep into a “what if” chain of questions.

What if two characters were so interconnected that you couldn’t have one full character without the other and what if something was changing, deep inside one, but not the other? And what if that something that was changing was dangerous – even deadly? And what if for the sake of one, the other had to be hidden? But what if they hid the wrong twin?

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What if, I ask you, what if?

This is the flow of my “what ifs” at this very moment and I’m amazed where each new “what if” is taking Kate and Chris. I feel more of an observer, along to record their journey, marvelling at their courage and fearing for their survival.

Oh, wait! I feel another “what if” coming on –

“What if I had a Hershey Kiss machine hidden behind a false wall in my attic? And what if I was the only one who knew…”

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