HEY! MIA KING HAS A NEW BOOK OUT! AND OTHER STUFF...

Today is the release date of my friend and fellow Hawaii author Mia King. SWEET LIFE is one of those books you want to curl up with and spend the whole day lost in the world Mia creates.

So I'm back on ORION and back to work. I always reflect on the over arching big things that I've learned from a retreat and conference-- I mean there are lots of details that are stuffed in my head but what are the BIG things I took away from the retreat and conference this year?
Let me see...
1. REVISE. REVISE. REVISE.
Revision is the hardest and the most necessary. It DOESN'T get easier with each book - in fact many times it gets harder because you know too much about the process.
2. LEARN. LEARN. LEARN.
You can learn much from beginning writers and often times you see mistakes in their manuscripts that you make yourself. You can go back to your WIP and it becomes clear what you need to do. I often wonder why I don't see more published authors in workshops. Dunno. I found it really useful to have a mix of all levels of ability and a GREAT facilitator REALLY helps.
GARY BRAVER was phenomenal (some people know him as professor GARY GOSHGARIAN at Northeastern University in Boston).
3. PERSEVERE
Do not quit. Don't. Ever. Quit. I use Tooloose as my model. He always hopes the companionway will be open and he checks it often. It just might be. Then he can trundle over to Beta Reader Bob's Boat and hand over another manuscript.
More often than not it's closed. But he has hope.
Perseverance is for published authors too. Your story might be stuck. You might be stuck. But you know your vision and you don't give up on it. You don't give up on your characters. Or your words. Or your voice.

And the best thing?
We are all alike. Published or unpublished. Best seller or mid-list. Writer or reader.
We all want a good story.

NOTE: Update on Tooloose. All the agents and editors have left. He's really upset with me that I didn't use my influence to get him a consultation with Kristin Nelson or Jeff Kleinman.
But I told him.
Space-Monkey-Alien-Cat-Rehab- Memoirs-Based-kind-of-on-the-truth- are SO over...
I got it straight from the horse's mouth...