I recently came across an excellent resource for freelance writers by Laura Yates of blogging.com. Laura is a writer, coach, and podcaster who has been blogging and writing in the niches of fashion, beauty, relationships, and personal development since 2009.
You Won’t Get Anywhere by Standing Still – Finding Ways to Progress your Writing Career
As Tom Howard of blogging.com explains, there are many examples of where a passion for something has turned into a meaningful career. Freelance writing is a classic case of where you can start out doing something for your own enjoyment and discover you can make a decent living from it.
Image: Blogging.com
You can find a number of stories of successful bloggers who have carved out a successful career and enjoy a big following from a loyal audience, but plenty of these people have had to learn from their mistakes along the way.
The previous summers weren’t like this one. My son would have school to make sure he didn’t have any regression. He was eligible for it this summer too, but we had already signed him up for a half-day program that ran through July. Even after we found out, we thought this program would be better. Besides, I could do things with him to help prevent regression. He showed me some online games that include math and the library has a big reading program. It isn’t like I have anything else to . . . Oh yeah, I’m also a stay-at-home author.
I knew this challenge was coming, which is why I was working so hard from January to the end of June. Write 3 books, published one, edited the others a few times, and busted my butt to make sure I didn’t have anything hanging over my head for the 2 months of summer break. It wasn’t pretty, but I maintain that the experience was worth it and I was able to relax a little during the days my son had his program. Leaving myself the Raven finale and outlining wasn’t bad since those are low pressure projects. That was basically what I had to do here. Put parenthood to the forefront and maintain my social media presence as an author. Releasing Quest of the Brokenhearted was the biggest event that I had to contend with.
Honestly, I think most of the pressure of balancing working from home and a kid was coming from outside forces. Allowed to relax and focus, I could work at the table while my son played with his toys during the hotter parts of the day. Before and after that, we’d go on trips or play outside. Sure, I couldn’t take on my projects with gusto and dump an entire week into work. Things that require full concentration weren’t going to happen, but many people acted like my son was going to be a whirling dervish of destruction in terms of my schedule. Since I only have the one kid, it’s a lot easier to plan around him. This is just me though because I do know people with multiple kids who have to do a much bigger juggling act than me. My hat is off to them and I wish them many nights of blissful sleep in their future.
Because I know others who are in worse spots than me, I feel like I can’t complain about keeping one kid at bay. It does get frustrating when my email, tweet notifications, and blog comments build up. Yet, I figure many people are busy during the summer, so delayed responses are expected. I mean, we’re all trying to enjoy the weather or the break if we can. Not to mention, I can’t exactly hand my son off to someone or plop him in front of a video game. Some people would say that the second thing is an option, but I’m not a fan of that. If he’s going to play a game then I’ll be joining him and I don’t want him in front of a screen all day. Not unless the weather is really bad and even then I’d prefer we play with Legos and board games. I decided to be the stay-at-home parent, which means I have to do the job.
Battering myself earlier in the year definitely made this easier, but it’s something that I shouldn’t try again. At the very least, I need to take a week off between projects to get my head back together. Not my son’s breaks because I can’t really rest during those periods, but ones where there are fewer people around. I did it a little, but it was more because there were so many events going on during those weeks. Didn’t make any sense to force writing when my mind was elsewhere. That’s the main point of the summer too. I could tackle the next War of Nytefallfirst draft since Volumes 1-3 are done. Yet, I wouldn’t be fully invested in it. Taking on the Raven finale was fine and starting in on the next Ichabod Brooks collection is something I could easily pause. Again, we come down to priorities and that means putting my ego and own wants aside.
So, what do other people do during the summer? Is it a time of slowing down and a shift in focus?
So, my son got 10 Lego sets for his birthday and we spent last week putting them together. I went into the details with this yesterday, so I’m just going to show him with all of the completed projects. Ending on the big one. Enjoy!
The Wall of Lego!
Ant-Man and the Wasp (Ghost was his favorite)
Yoda’s House (He really only wanted R2-D2)
Superhero Dance Party (It’s already been dropped once)
Harley Quinn’s Cannon Truck (I’m probably more amused by this than him.)
Egghead and the Condiment King (This set was my favorite)
Qui Gon and Obi Wan vs Darth Maul (He is determined to protect Qui Gon)
Brother Eye (Bought for Batwoman, but the light up block in Brother Eye was his favorite part.)
So, I’m away for the weekend and will only be on the blog in the mornings and evenings. Maybe since it depends on how well I’m sleeping. I’ve found that it’s easier to handle Twitter, Facebook, and email by phone than blogging. So, I’ll get to any comments as soon as I can. All that being said this might be an oddly short post.
Last weekend was my son’s birthday, which went relatively smoothly. His actually birthday was Saturday while the party was Sunday. We made personalized water bottles for all the kids, but were two short, so I went racing around town Saturday morning to find two white water bottles to decorate. This was insanely difficult and it also resulted in my son getting two Lego sets on clearance, me randomly running into my dad at one store, and the search ending only a few blocks from the house thanks to an act of desperation. I was exhausted, but victorious!
The party itself was at the local park where we reserved a picnic area that was near a playground and sprinkler area. I was scared that the latter wouldn’t be up and running in time due to them replacing all the pipes. It was down and the kids had a great time. The pizza was delicious and the cake was awesome (Name covered by request of my wife):
He got a lot of fun toys, a CD that he wanted, some clothes that he needed, and a slew of other things that he loves. In the end, he got 10 Lego sets that we spent the week putting together and I’ll have in a post tomorrow. He got Lego Batman, Lego Star Wars, Lego Superheroes, and DC Superhero Girls, so it was a good variety. My thumbs are still hurting though. Anyway, another reason we spent most of our time doing these sets is because he hurt his leg during the party. Nothing that stopped his fun, but he was complaining that night and it seems he may have strained his calf. Just let him rest since this weekend requires a lot of walking. Thankfully, he was good about drinking water and using a heating pad.
I’d like to say that I got other things done, but that didn’t happen. All I accomplished was editing the first chapter of Derailing Bedlam and starting an initial idea page for one of the superhero books. I’m still leaning towards a short story collection for each volume, but that’s all I’ve got. Not sure about Windemere or Super Earth, how many stories, who to put where, etc. I’ve got no idea what I mean by ‘Rebirther’ in my older idea list. I’ve taken the notebook along in case I get a little time to stare at it. The laptop is coming too in case I can’t sleep since I won’t be getting my sleep apnea device adjusted until Tuesday. Plus side is that I don’t have to take all the stuff along, but that also means I won’t be sleeping well.
This coming week has no Lego sets, but a few doctor appointments. I’ll be running around a lot, so I won’t expect to get much editing done. The dream of having time during the summer has been dashed pretty thoroughly. Good to know for next year and I’ll probably have to use September for editing two books then dive into War of Nytefall: Eradication in October. Maybe I’ll get lucky and be gifted a few afternoons or days where my son wants to rest in the house or somebody wants to take him out for some fun. I’m hoping this happens on the days that I have afternoon doctor appointments since it isn’t fair to him that he gets no fun while I run around. The heat hasn’t helped matters around here, but it’s the summer, so what can you do?
So, the goals for next week?
Doctor appointments.
Entertain the kid.
Continue practicing multiplication tables with the kid.
Maybe get to a little Derailing Bedlam editing.
Maybe tinker with the superhero story.
Set up cover teaser and volunteer post for War of Nytefall: Lost
Cook dinner a few nights
Hang out with an old friend next weekend
Enjoy the trip this weekend
Figure out another manga to read since the only library with Yu Yu Hakusho is closed for renovations. Naruto or Fairy Tail? Maybe a smaller one?
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED SILISTRA QUARTET.
Cruiser Dreams
The cruisers called.
She answered.
Book II in the Kerrion Empire trilogy.
Cruiser Dreams: A young woman inherits an empire beyond all imagining, where interstellar cruisers become sentient and the cosmos itself is transformed.
In this epic of political treachery, interstellar insecurity, human passion, and artificial intelligence, Morris continues the saga of the fiery girl Shebat, stolen away from a decaying and primitive Earth to become the adoptive heir to the Kerrion Empire. Molded to serve the designs of the Kerrion state, Shebat instead becomes the harbinger of change sweeping the civilized stars.
Against the chaotic background of simultaneous social and technological revolutions, Shebat struggles to face the fact that the man she loves is her implacable enemy, that the man she reluctantly married is perhaps her only ally,and that her space-faring cruiser may be her…
Princess Cyrena is the wife of the Shadow Earl and the caretaker of Rayne. In fact, it’s stated that she was transformed from a regular harpy to one that is more humanoid and civil. Even stranger, she has a facial resemblance to Luke Callindor, which stems from an early idea. Honestly, I can’t remember when she turned up in Quest of the Brokenhearted, so there isn’t too much of an origin. This is similar to Hyde in that it was a simple concept that came out of necessity.
Cyrena began as a demon, but I wanted to make her something different from the Shadow Earl. The idea of him being married to a more mundane being is what had me gravitate to harpies. It was locked in and then I remembered I’d already had them show up in Curse of the Dark Wind. It was only a cameo, but I couldn’t make Cyrena more human than the bestial version. This is where I got the idea about making her altered by the Shadow Earl and the reason came later. It was fun designing a variation of an established monster and I might have it be a permanent species down the road. I mean, it happened once, so it could happen again.
The change also made her more of an outcast even among the monsters. Cyrena was originally going to be a lustful romantic temptation, but it didn’t really work out the way I’d hoped. She came out different as if she really just wanted to find a place to belong and hid this with an air of nobility. This also brought out a bit of opportunistic behavior that she seemed to restrain it as much as she could. Unfortunately, this can make her come off as random and flighty. I did enjoy having her jump at so many opportunities that you could never be certain whose side she was going to be on. This was rather human for a monster too. It also made it that Cyrena couldn’t be considered a hero or villain. I can’t say she was neutral, but she was definitely all about her.
I really wish I had more to say about her that isn’t a spoiler. Didn’t realize how often she showed up in crucial scenes. In fact, I would put Cyrena a step below Rayne in terms of supporting cast importance. She sets a lot of events in order once she begins trying to play all sides. This is another reason I’ve been considering having her be the basis for a new type of harpy that will spread out from Lacarsis. The possibility of having one type be wild and bestial while the other is civilized is intriguing. It won’t create a whole new story, but it can open the door for unique characters. So far, I’ve only had winged elves for flying heroes, but maybe harpies can work as well. Guess this also makes Cyrena the surprise character of the book too.
Don Massenzio This week’s author interview features Balroop Singh, a poet, non-fiction writer and blogger. She lives and writes in California On a side note, though the initial response was gratifying, I find myself running out of interview subjects by … Continue reading →
Welcome all you lost wanderers, and those without purpose. You’ve found Lisa Burton Radio, the only show that brings you the characters from the books you love. Except for this week, that is.
This week you get me, talking about Craig’s book, The Yak Guy Project. I’ve run out of guests right now, and want to keep the slot open for everyone.
It’s okay though, I was there through the writing of this whole story. I can wing it enough to pull this off. As an example, see this poster.
It’s about this rotten kid, who leeches off his friends, and brings nothing to the table. At the beginning of the book he wakes up having been dumped in the desert. Guess people grew tired of his crap.
He gets rescued by a talking yak, but the whole thing is a setup. He’s been relocated to an alternate reality, and…
I recently came across an excellent resource for freelance writers by Laura Yates of blogging.com. Laura is a writer, coach, and podcaster who has been blogging and writing in the niches of fashion, beauty, relationships, and personal development since 2009.
Image: Blogging.com 
Samantha Keel logo 
Legends of Windemere 