Because we blog, too.
MDBer Jared Garrett has just completed writing his third novel.
Usually, the completion of a novel would seem to be a time for celebration. But Jared used the occasion to make a surprising announcement on his blog.
He quits.
It could be a brilliant career move. Not because he can’t write (you can tell by reading his blog that he can). But because the “what” he is quitting is the kind of freeing act that can let a writer become the “who” he is meant to be.
Let Jared himself explain in I Quit.
Writers are the best people in the world. And MDB newcomer Jared Garrett isn’t just saying that because he’s a writer.
Well, in a way, yes he is.
Because as a writer, he’s had many opportunities to associate with other writers at varying points in the writer’s journey from unpublished to bestselling author. All along the way he has found them to be generous and extraordinarily helpful.
Maybe not Mother Teresa generous and extraordinarily helpful, but still.
When you consider the scads of books clamoring for already limited shelf space, and how many of them are about to be inundated by the tsunami of ebooks heading their way, you’d think writers would be a viciously competitive, back-stabbing bunch.
Not so, in Jared’s experience. They give you their time. They retweet you. They linkback. OK, still not quite in the Mother Teresa’s goodness league. But, for this day and age, not too shabby.
Get Jared’s take on the Mother Teresa v. Writers cage match for Best People Champion in Why Writers Are the Best People in the World.
For the writer blogging into what can feel like a vast void, even the simplest comment can offer some much appreciated validation.
One way to enhance the likelihood of getting comments is to give comments. Comments beget comments, as blogger/writer Keith Fisher reminds us.
But, as Keith goes on to point out, time spent working on posts and novels and the like, combined with a growing number of blogs, can leave little time for keeping up even with our favorite blogs (except MormonDaddyBlogs, of course), let alone posting comments.
Yet Keith’s reminder was a good one. I’m going to try to do better. A comment here and a comment there. Maybe not the deepest thoughts, but just a little something. And I’m going to start with posting a comment Keith’s post. If you have a moment, perhaps drop by Keith’s post and, if so moved, join me? Let’s consider it good posting karma. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll come back our way.
Here’s the link: Comments Beget Comments.
To the would-be author, who spends countless hours alone in a room, the idea of time spent with actual humans who get what you’re doing at a book signing may sound like pure bliss.
But too often, according to Jeffrey Savage in LDS Publisher, the reality of a book signing resembles the countless hours alone, only with a bigger room and more echoes.
“Ask any author and they will recount horror stories,” writes Jeffrey. “The store isn’t even expecting you or seems less than enthused that you are there. The stores that are out of your books (or never ordered them in the first place.) The times you sat alone for two hours watching every second tick off the clock. The customers who come through the door, see you, and instantly head in the other direction.”
Such ignoble honors aren’t exclusively the domain of unknown authors, according to Jeffrey, who names some names you might recognize who have faced the non-crowds at book signings.
Come read what advice Jeffrey, a semi-retired publisher, has to share for authors contemplating such an adventure in Book Signings. Manna From Heaven or Publisher’s Curse on Authorkind?
I’ve been a big fan of Michael McLean for a long time. His work in music and storytelling reaches deep within the LDS community, but has also touched many hearts beyond.
More than that, he has worked hard to successfully forge a path through the business side of a market that is small and not overwhelmingly famous for easily parting with its pennies. And, on top of that, I have found him to be a gracious mentor to those who are likewise trying forge their own paths.
One of his most recent projects was a book and CD called “Mission to be Happy,” which he dubbed M2B:). As part of the project, he spent a year blogging nearly daily on the things that made him happy in a real-time test of the notion that whether we look for the good or the bad in life, we will find it. This would be a brave undertaking for anyone, but especially for someone who, as he openly admits, has struggled with clinical depression.
I had the opportunity to read several of his blog entries over the course of the year. In true Michael fashion, these were thoughtful, funny, and often poignant essays of things both small and large that happened to him along the journey of 2010. As one who struggles to blog weekly, I can only imagine what it would take to sustain that level of effort throughout a year.
The year ended, and the blog has been silent for the past couple of months since. Then yesterday, Michael blogged again. In his latest post, we get a glimpse of the toll the effort exacted, especially given that the project hasn’t been exactly embraced in the marketplace.
You can sense the disappointment. But no bitterness. Ups and downs are part of this business. Granted, there is much to be learned from what Michael has accomplished with his “ups,” but maybe even more from how he gets back up after his “downs.”
Read his latest blog post here.
Abel Keogh
His latest post contains some of his thoughts on an excerpts of a memoir for someone else who has gone through the death of a spouse.
By day, Richard Tait is a mild-mannered analyst for the Department of Defense in Maryland. On nights and weekends, however, he dons his superhero writing cape and becomes the Mormon Third Eye.
The Mormon Third Eye strives to see and document from alternate angles both the humorous and inspirational aspects of life serving as a faithful brother, husband, father, and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Between regular Sunday blog therapy sessions, he prefers to talk politics and religion with his wife, and spend time worrying about how his two YSA children are spending their time. He bleeds BYU blue — he warns his babies that “they can attend college wherever they want to, but their tuition is going to BYU.”
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