I’m heading out of town for the weekend, but I wanted to point you over to Oh Get A Grip!. This week’s topic is “The Road Not Taken.” Here’s a snippet from my column:
A Long and Winding Road
by Kristina WrightIf I had been my mother’s daughter, I would never have been a writer. My mother’s talent was in art and music-- she did not read and, with an 9th grade education, she did not write. She did not understand my love of books, of words, of storytelling. She didn’t understand how I could sit in my room all day, all alone, reading a book.
My mother did not like sitting still, she did not like being alone and the only books I can remember seeing her read were cookbooks (rarely) and the Bible (which I don’t recall seeing her read until she went through some sort of mid-life finding religion experience). Oh, and when I was around 12, I remember finding a tattered copy of Peyton Place tucked in her nightstand. I never read the book, but I suspected it was something “dirty” that I wasn’t going to be allowed to read anyway. I was often in trouble for reading “dirty” books like Judy Blume’s Forever and Wifey, and romance novels with open bodices and shirtless men on the covers.
And do stop back by tomorrow when the lovely and talented Shanna Germain will be guest blogging on the same topic. There have been some really terrific, thoughtful columns this week and I’ve appreciated the insights into other people’s lives and the choices they’ve made. Life is a funny thing sometimes.
Now that I’ve turned in Best Erotic Romance 2012, I wanted to share the table of contents for Steamlust: Steampunk Erotic Romance! I’m very excited about this collection-- the first of its kind, as far as I know. This is a fabulous book (with a gorgeous cover, I couldn’t be more delighted!) with delicious steampunk stories from fourteen authors and a foreword by steampunk romance author Meljean Brook!
Table of Contents
I’m over at Oh Get a Grip! today talking about writing pressure. Which is ironic, considering the week I’ve had.
The pressure I feel as a writer/editor is purely self-driven. I suppose if I was chronic about missing deadlines, the pressure would come from editors and publishers. (I desperately hope there isn’t an editor out there who would truly nag me for being one day past deadline, but I can’t take that chance.) Of course, much of my writing is on spec, so if I’m late enough the deadline slips by and no one cares-- but me.
While it’s very, very rare for me to miss an expected deadline, I have missed many, many self-inflicted deadlines. Contests, anthologies, conferences, promotional opportunities-- I have missed them all many times. It requires a tremendous amount of discipline to be a freelancer, but I still don’t have as much discipline as I should-- or as much as I would like. (Slacker, slacker, slacker!)
It’s hard not to compare myself to my peers. Especially those who are more productive than me. (Which seems to be all of them, some days.) Author X has written three novels in the past year, Author Y submitted four stories, six poems, two essays and ran a marathon this week and Author Z just signed a ten-book contract.
Or so it feels, sometimes.
Stop by and say hi. And tell me how you cope with pressure.
I can’t announce a table of contents yet, but I have sent Best Erotic Romance 2012 off to Cleis Press! I think this was the most challenging of the anthologies I’ve edited so far, mainly because of the wide-open theme. And let me tell you, it’s quite a process to determine what, exactly, qualifies as the “best” of a genre. But I feel pretty confident that I’ve selected seventeen of the best and most beautifully written erotic and romantic stories.
There are still things left on the to do list from yesterday, but I think I’m going to bed. Tomorrow is another day.
So, yeah, that was a little ambitious of me yesterday. But today’s a new day and there are still things on yesterday’s list to complete:
**UPDATED at 11:20 PM**
1. Finish writing my story for Best Erotic Romance 2012.
2. Finish writing my introduction for BER. (DONE TODAY!)
3. Finish editing BER.
4. Print BER, do final read-through/proofread, make corrections as necessary. (DONE TODAY!)
5. Finish writing story for Rachel Kramer Bussel’s Curvy Girls anthology. (Half-finished.)
6. Stop by store on the way home and pick up bananas (for raccoons) and big bottle of Tums (for me).
7. Take care of baby after 4 PM. Play, feed, cuddle, bedtime (around 7 PM).
8. Eat at least a couple of times. Take Tums after every meal, no matter how bland.
9. Email final draft of BER to publisher. (DONE TODAY!)
10. Print final copy of BER and package to mail tomorrow.
11. Proofread Curvy Girls story and submit to RKB.
12. Draft blog post for Oh Get a Grip! on the topic of Writing Pressure. (Ha!) (If time.) (WRITTEN AND POSTED TONIGHT!)
13. Write and post link for next week’s Naked Reader Book Club discussion. (If time.)
14. Catch up on work-related emails. (If time.)
15. Finish paying bills from yesterday. (If time.)
16. Start drafting discussion for next week’s talk at Fountain Bookstore. (If time.)
17. Put away dishes in dishwasher and on counter.
18. Shower, eat again, make to do list for tomorrow, fall into bed.
Plus, for today:
1. Drop off my car at the mechanic. (DONE!)
2. Answer new work-related emails. (DONE!)
3. Make Richmond reservations with Sheri.
What’s it all about?
Life. Love. Writing. Editing. Sex. Books. Romance. Movies. Friendship. Photography. Teaching. Coffee. (Lots of coffee.) Travel. Feminism. Academia. Insomnia. Memories. Experiences. Rants. Raves. Reviews. Babies. Pregnancy. Motherhood. Insanity. Musings of an insomniac writer. Want to know more?
