Like I said before, there was a time if you were a writer you wrote your book and assisted in promoting it and prayed the sells hit the roof! Now, it's media and multimedia and blogging and youtube and book trailers (I've only known about them for a few months, believe it or not)...it's all so overwhelming! Writing...I can do that in my sleep! The greatest compliment I ever received (did I tell you this already?) is when I was accused (via my son's 4th grade teacher) of plagiarizing something I had helped him to write for a school project. Even when I gave in and told teacher that I helped him, she still insisted I had to have gotten it out of a book, and she was going to find the copy of the book I got it from to prove it! Needless to say, she never found that book! On one hand she was insulting my intelligence in insisting that I couldn't have written that well in the first place; on the other hand, it was a compliment because it was my very first hand at fiction. She had given the children a scenario whereas a young girl dressed in red (or was it white) was sitting at a bus stop (supposedly waiting for the bus) and the children (including my son) had to take it from there. This, of course, was a class assignment. It only had to be 2 to 3 pages long. Well, my son and I did it together: I asked him where was the girl going? Did she miss the bus? Was there a seat on the bus for her to sit down? Was the bus late? Did it come at all? The kind of questions that would get him thinking. And, the next thing you knew, we had a story! She gave him a B because she insisted he (even with my help) couldn't have made the story up! My point is, telling stories comes easy for me, but I didn't know it until that assignment. Until then, I had only written non-fiction; although, I loved reading fiction books.
Finally, I've stepped out and am ready to do something with this fiction and the world has changed on me! I've been trying to edit for 3 months! Normally, that would have taken me 2 to 3 weeks, but having to stop and blog and stop and tweet and stop and add to Facebook and stop and respond to people writing me...by the time I finish all that, I'm exhausted and the editing gets an hour in and I'm calling it a day! My kids (who don't write and don't understand how it works now, either) are saying, Leave Twitter alone until you finish, but then you lose your following and have to start all over again. You ignore Facebook and in a few days they want to know...who are you?
An assistant would solve that problem but who can afford one? Amanda Hocking, for sure. But, I'm not there, yet. Because I will hire one as soon as I am. I have 2 hands and 10 fingers...and I sure haven't learned how to type with my toes, yet!
The thing is (truth time) people are hungry for interaction...any kind, any way they can get it. Parents ignore children, children are bored out of their minds...everyone is looking for that new wave of interaction, even if it's behind a keyboard. Words of encouragement. Words of kindness. A sort of media holding of the hands! We're human and we yearn for the human touch...even if it's behind the glare of a computer or smart phone screen!
That's why I've named my Publishing Company, A Soft Place To Fall. I know it's a mouth full and not at all, a typical name, but it's what people need and it's what my books will offer when one reads them. Comfort, Hope, Care...Possibilities! And, no...it won't be all fun and games between the pages, but there will always be light at the end of the tunnel: There will always be a Soft Place To Fall.
Yep, this great grandma has had to face and achieve a learning curving and I'm still going around that bend (sometimes a bit slow), but I've met a community of wonderful people that will help me to get where I'm going, just like I'll help the next person to get where they're going. If we all keep that shoulder strong and firm, we'll always BE that soft place to fall ON...or at least, to LEAN on. That's been my learning curve..realizing that in all this, I'm NOT alone! And, neither are you! So, come on...take my hand...Let's go around this next curve together!
Finally got it!
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