Please vote for your favorite pic!

Last night, my sister, Millie, and sis-in-law, Allison, got together to get a photo shoot done for the love poems book. Millie and Als did the hair and make-up, as well as take turns shooting several photos.

It was a great time. We had a lot of laughs (especially after Als started making faces and Millie was playing around with the lamp!) and it was cool trying various poses and throwing around ideas for theme, lighting, clothes, etc.

After the make-up was done, I was stunned with the face I saw in the mirror. That certainly was NOT me! All this time, I have stressed that I'd rather go for a natural look. I talk so much about how I won't wear some "mask" (as in, put on a face that is not mine) or cover up my burn scars with make-up. I am not ashamed to be a burn survivor! All the same, this was a special occasion. I wanted to go for it and get all dolled up for this photo shoot. It was, after all, for my book, and so I decided, why not? Still, I was a little taken aback by how different I looked. I'm just glad I don't usually wear make-up because I prefer the natural look over that stranger staring back at me in the mirror.

So we had a bunch of pictures taken. The theme we were, um, "shooting" for is romance. In the end, we decided on 3 different possibles for the book. I tried to break this tie by letting my daughter decide on the picture to use, but even with her choice, I was still unsure. Then we decided to let the publisher pick which picture to use.

These are the three candidates:





Millie and I liked the first one, Allison and my daughter liked the second one. We all thought the third one was good, too. I'm starting to lean towards the third one. It has a more "romantic" feel to it. (Maybe because of the dim lighting and red??)

I am hoping I can get some votes on which picture would work best in my comments. So please let me know which one you like best!

Two acceptances

Because of the holiday this week, and with family visiting, I decided to take the week off from doing the paid writing work. I would continue to write, of course, but only when the time allowed and when an idea struck. This kind of writing would be something I wanted to write, not something I HAD to write.

That said, I figured my e-mail account for the writing stuff wouldn't be very active this week. I thought that other people would be taking a break, too. Not so!

Turns out, my e-mail account was pretty busy this week. I got two acceptances!

The first acceptance came before Thanksgiving. I got an e-mail informing me that my short story, "A Phone Call Away," has been accepted for publication in an anthology. Hooray! The anthology is called Inner Fears. When I saw that call for stories, I thought that this particular story would be perfect for it, since the theme really is about our inner fears! I'm so happy I finally found a home for that story. Woot!

The second acceptance came on Thanksgiving Day. I have so much to be thankful for this year, and on Thanksgiving Day, I was blessed with something MORE to be thankful for! My poetry book, Love Is Like a Rainbow, has been accepted for publication by Gypsy Shadow Publishing. Woo-hoo!

This book has had quite a long journey on the road to publication.

The first time it was accepted, in 2005, there was something that came up with an editor I was working with and since she is friends with the editor at that company (based in France), I guess that's why they decided to drop plans to publish my book.

Then another company had plans to publish the book, but financial hardship changed those plans.

I decided then and there I would publish this book myself. After years of being told this book would be publish and then being told it wouldn't, I was fed up. I was also concerned about putting excess financial hardship on book publishers already straining under the trials of the recession. I didn't want to be an extra financial burden.

Still, with my failed attempts to self-publish a book behind me, I was even more wary of attempting this route once again. Believe me, I've been boning up on everything to do with self-publishing. But, the financial thing was an issue. How would I be able to afford it?

I started asking around. One self-pubbed author, L.K. Hunsaker, shared ideas with me about the self-publishing thing. She later told me about Gypsy Shadow Publishing, so I thanked Loraine for the reco and sent the manuscript to them.

With this acceptance, I am hoping, and praying, that my dreams of seeing this book published will finally come true. I've been trying to get this book published since 2005! And that short story that I have received an acceptance on was written a few years ago, at that. (I also have a novel I have been spending years trying to find a publisher for. I am hoping that I will find one soon. Right now, it is being reviewed by Eternal Press.)

It makes you really think about the long journey we must embark on to write certain stories and books. Writers aren't kidding when they warn aspiring authors that they could end up spending a year or more writing their books, then longer than that to find an agent or publisher. The road to publication can be long and trying. I hope those trying times of finding publishers for my books will be less and less in the future.

A time of thanks

During this time of year, those of us in America who appreciate the grander idea behind traditional holidays are taking the time to reflect on what we are thankful for.

As a writer, I am thankful for many things. Of course, I could not possibly recall every single thing and person which I am thankful for, but I do know there are definitely some things which I must take note of.

First and foremost, I am thankful for my faith and for the Lord coming through for us in so many ways. I have often felt that, for the grace of God, I have been able to accomplish certain things in my writing career. We look at the people we meet, the opportunities we come across, and we think, “Wow, small world.” Or, “It must be Fate.” But I think something bigger is at work here. I am thankful to God for bringing certain people into my life and leading me along certain paths. Thank you for being that whisper in my ear, Lord.

I am also thankful for my friends. My writing buddies, fellow authors, blogging buddies and other writers and editors who have communicated with me over the years. I am thankful to the friends who are still here, despite everything. Thank you for your kindness, patience, wisdom and understanding. I have been sad to see some friends decide that ours was not a friendship to continue anymore, for some reason or another, but I am thankful for the friends who are still here.

I am thankful to all of the writers, editors and agents out there who have taken the time to work with me on articles and books. Your time and assistance mean the world to me and have helped in more ways than you could ever know. Thank you for recognizing that I don’t know everything that I’m “supposed” to know about writing and publishing, and for patiently addressing my concerns and answering my questions. Thank you, also, for overlooking my mistakes and understanding that I am not an “evil person” trying to make things hard or bad for you.

I am thankful for the writers, attorneys and authors out there who devote themselves to fighting for the rights of writers, who work to spread the word about scam artists or fraudulent businesses, and who are sacrificing their time and energy to bring to an end shady scammers out there who take advantage of writers and crush the dreams of aspiring authors.

I am thankful for our Constitutional rights in this country to freely express my ideas and show my creative side. We hear so many stories about censorship in other countries. About how people have been imprisoned, exiled and even murdered because of something they wrote. I am so very, very thankful that we live in a country which allows its citizens to freely express ourselves and our ideas. Though some forms of censorship do still exist in America, I am thankful that this censorship is not so widely oppressive.

I am thankful to my parents, sisters, brothers, uncles, cousins, etc., who have supported my dreams as a writer and never told me to “get a real job.” Thank you for seeing how this writing thing is something I just can’t live without and encouraging my efforts to see my work in print, and even maybe someday on the screen. Thank you for always supporting my dreams from the very beginning!

Last but not least, I am thankful to my children for their support. Thank you for being my number one fans and cheering me on all the way. Thank you for sharing ideas, inspiring others, offering suggestions for stories and acting as a sounding board for ideas. Thank you for sacrificing the ONE computer we have in this house so that Mommy can write but, most of all, thank you for even being here. You are blessings in my life, blessings that I could never, ever have otherwise known if it weren’t for you.

Setting up business hours

Some time ago, I read this article about how to maintain your sanity while working from home. One of the tips the author gave was to set business hours and stick with them. Don't work after you "close" for the day. By letting your work rule over your daily, personal life, you'll likely start experiencing stress, loss of concentration and burnout. In other words, don't work 24/7!

I had to reflect on this piece of advice over the weekend. Lately, my muse has been supercharged. I have been writing and editing like the wind! Some of that writing and editing has been focused on the paying work I have going on. (My NaNo novel has, alas, fallen by the wayside.) But it was like I wasn't doing anything else. Just writing. Editing. Not reading books, watching a favorite TV show, spending time with my children or just relaxing. Business hours were unknown to me; I spent all day hard at work, writing.

And I didn't like it. You know? I was losing that other part of myself that is NOT a writer/editor. I was losing ME. Where did Dawn go? I was lost in writing and editing land. Not able to do much else EXCEPT write and edit.

So, this week, I have set up a challenge for myself. I am going to set up business hours for the writing and editing thing. After 5 p.m., all that will STOP and I will pick it up again the next day.

Of course, if I feel so inclined to write something that is NOT part of the paying work -- a poem, story idea, article or notes -- then I'll write them. That's fine. But everything else will be reserved for the business hours.

I just want to have my life back. Yes, I DO love writing. And I love to edit, too. But...I need to be present for other things, as well. Especially for my children. They won't stay young forever. And I really miss doing OTHER Internet stuff. So I want to get back to that. And I'm hoping to have some other things going on in my personal life in the near future, as well. I need to make room for that.

Here's hoping I will be able to meet that challenge and keep the habit of maintaining business hours. It will be good for me, and good for my muse, too.

Eureka! I've got it! (Almost)

In my last blog post, I talked about how I had a writing gig but no idea how to put it to use. Since I have to come up with my own topics to write about, including one I said I wanted to write about when I applied, I tried to think of article ideas for that particular topic. Yesterday, that happened.

I kept going through my day thinking, I wish I had an idea for something to write for this topic! Sure, I have some articles for this topic collecting dust on my hard drive, but they're just not "right" yet. I wanted something else. Then something happened that made the light bulb go off over my head. I had my article idea! All in the same day! (I love it when that happens. Ask and ye shall write!)

Then it hit me: This would be a great way to build up an audience for my deaf parenting book. This particular book has not been published yet; it's been stuck in editing limbo ever since I had the manuscript professionally edited. (Thanks, Emily!) I've been dabbling with the edits on that manuscript here and there, all the while focused on trying to finish the books I have DUE. And getting ready for the ones scheduled for publication next year.

I am not planning to go whole hog with revising and editing that draft of the book until January. By then, I'll be able to fit that into my schedule, since I'll have a couple of other books off my shoulders.

But until then, I need to build my platform. One editor told me I DO already have a platform, since I am a deaf parent. But I wanted something stronger than this. Me being a deaf parent doesn't make this book more appealing to a publisher, but having a fan base or some kind of platform set up would look better.

Granted, I do have the SIGNews articles. But those are few and far between. I want something more consistent. Something that would REALLY touch on the theme of deaf parenting, so that my name would be better associated with it.

I also have the work going on with DPPi, but more as editing and feedback than writing about deaf parenting. (I have debated asking Shanta Everington if I could run a regular column on deaf parenting in there, but haven't gotten around to asking her just yet.)

So I thought, why not use this gig to do that? Of course, I could probably do that with Associated Content. But I think this other site would work better.

It's something to think about, at least. I do understand the importance of having a platform, because it helps book sales. With that in place, a publisher is more likely to publish a book. And I'd really like for my deaf parenting book to have that kind of appeal, so that a publisher is more likely to say "yes" to publishing it.

This particular book is something I want to put more focus on building up when 2010 gets here.

Right now, I'm wrapping up projects for this year. But next year, I'm hoping that not only will I figure out how to get that stronger platform in place for the deaf parenting book, but, hopefully, God willing, I'll find a publisher for it, too.

And as a side note, I want to add that I'm sort of glad this book has not been published yet. I've come up with new material for it, which should make the book all the more useful to other deaf parents out there.

Stay tuned.