RoadBroads

As December unfurls, the madness of the holiday season sales and publicity campaigns rolls on. My small press, Inklings Publishing, is working hard to implement marketing plans we hope will yield a substantive winter season revenue stream.

Interestingly, these campaigns were planned way back in July and August. Graphics were ordered during the fall. Coordination with podcasters, bloggers, and other media influencers was carefully set up so that the cumulative effect of the various pieces would work to create exponential sales.

One of the most difficult pieces of this process is creating campaigns which will sell books and bring in new fans for our authors while at the same time not over relying on ‘Christmas gifts’ as the main push. The Christmas holiday has become, for businesses of all sizes, a huge time of potential revenue. Sadly, this means that many create their campaigns solely around the images of Christmas presents and Santa.

At Inklings, we really want to honor the fact that there are many other holidays, besides Christmas, that are celebrated during this winter time. Some also include gift giving; while others don’t have that as part of their celebrations at all. We also didn’t want to be seen as creating promotional materials that played to the diverse beliefs as a gimmick. The company truly wants to honor the fact that this time of year is not all about Christmas or christianity nor Santa Clause.

So, we decided to simply run our seasonal sales campaign as we would do at any other time of year. This meant having selected bundles of books at discounted pricing which we promote through our ads which have a seasonal look that encompasses only the winter theme. Our ads do not encourage shoppers to purchase these as gifts for the holidays. Rather, we encourage shoppers to consider spending their money on our discounted bundles and supporting this small press which is bringing new and exciting voices to readers everywhere.

It is my hope, as the owner and head of Inklings Publishing, that we are doing it right. That we can have good sales which will help the company recuperate some of the losses we have had during the past two years of pandemic times. Most importantly, that we are not playing up to the commercialization of Christmas. Whatever you and our other readers may celebrate during this time of year, or if you don’t celebrate anything at all, we hope you will indulge in purchasing our books. And as the winter quarter of our year continues, I continue to work with my team to engage our social media to bring sales and help our books find new readers.

It is an exhausting time not only because of the sales push, but because end of year inventory and financials must be gathered before, hopefully, we can all take a much needed two week break. That’s the goal. And each year that Inklings Publishing has been in business (eight total so far), we have closed our doors and refused to let any of our people work the last two weeks of December. Not until the first Monday after the New Year do we return to work. It’s important to me that my staff, and me, take time to rest and enjoy our families.

But, we still have another week of work to wrap up all the loose ends for the 2021 work year. So, back to the grind…

The pandemic road has been a rough one. There has been so much hardship, confusion, and anxiety. It is easy to let your mind dwell on the darkness around us, on the uncertainty, and on the difficult road to recovery which we still face.

But this day, on Thanksgiving, it is a good moment to stop and fill our minds with hope. To remember that during all of the difficult times, alongside the negative, there are always shinning moments of light. As I think about this year, I see that on the pathway through the rough time there have been amazing people who have shown love and support, moments of joy and happiness, along with a renewed sense of purpose.

One of the coolest things I’m thankful for from this year is the review my book, United Vidden, received from Dr. Who Online. The official site of the Dr. Who fandom follows me on Twitter and saw me post the cover of my book. They liked it and had one of their reviewers read it. Nathan Jones posted his glowing recommendation of my novel in July on the site’s review page. I’m still thrilled to have received the high praise.

My writing community has been amazing this year. From the June retreat session has emerged a monthly Write Now intensive which helps keep my writing flowing and brings the energy of a supportive creative community into my life continuously. The opportunity to be a part of this blog arose as well in my writing community, and I am very grateful to Ellen Seaton who graciously accepted having me on as a contributor.

My new podcast, The Hot Mess Express, has launched this year. It has taken off in a strong following of cool participants. My co-host, Aimee Ravichandran, and I share the behind the scenes madness of our lives. The social media platforms are filled with posts of perfection and how successful everyone is. This creates the feeling that everyone else’s life is worry free and fantastic, while our own lacks luster. Our goal is to show that you can make your life a success in spite of the hot mess around you. Aimee and I are a hot mess, yet we are making our life work.

I have not had a chance to finish book two of my series, Gortive Offensive. I had hoped to have it ready to go for April or May, yet that will just not happen. However, I have a side novel that emerged with a character that will be critical to the main story line in book three. The Scifi Fantasy Romance, Love’s Call, which is book one of The Dragon and His Kitten series, will definitely debut in April. While it does not bring the story my fans have been waiting for, I hope it will be enjoyable for them while I finalize the second installment of Thyrein’s Galactic Wall for release in Fall of 2022.

In the end, as I look back upon all that has happened, there really is more reason for celebration than for sadness. Ellen and I, both, hope that for you, too, this is the case. On this Thanksgiving day, take time to search out for the light and fill your mind with all the good things that have happened. These will sustain us as we keep moving forward through the darkness into the next nuggets of light and success waiting for us.

This is the last week of October. As excited as I am for the coming weekend, and the enjoyment of all the spooky Halloween fun it brings with it, I’m dreading midnight on October 31st. Not because of any witchy possibilities, mind you. But because when the clock strikes midnight on that evening, November officially begins.

You might be thinking, well geez, Fern, so what?

Well, my friend, that’s when Nanowrimo kicks off. For those not familiar with Nanowrimo, let me pause in my dread to share what that actually is. Nanowrimo is a nonprofit organization that sponsors a writing challenge every November. During the month of November, writers who participate must get down 50,000 words of a brand new novel. Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month.

Of course, some Nanoers are rebels — yours truly for example. That means we work towards writing 50,000 words of any kind in November. I don’t always start a brand new book in November. Sometimes, I work on assorted pieces of short stories, poetry, or novel scenes from more than one project. The key thing is to write 50,000 words, which means 1,677 words per day.

Daunting as the challenge feels, it does a couple things for you as a writer:

1. You get words written towards your project goal, making you close in on completing a draft.
2. It makes you assess your time, and find places in your daily life where you can get words written. This does wonders for a working writer’s practice as you realize where time is being wasted, and hone in on building a continuous practice for your writing as a job.
3. It also forces you to put aside the inner editor that keeps you from just getting the story written. As a writer you often obsess over a single sentence, or word, to such degree that you start revising rather than moving forward to a final first draft.

So, you see, as the time for deciding what project I will work on draws neigh, I’m confronted with the reality that I have done nothing to prepare for this year’s Nanowrimo. Grant you, as a born pantser, or discovery writer, I usually write without outlines or timelines or other well-crafted design documents of any kind. I just start writing, and let it all go where it wants to go. Usually, about half way through a novel, I realize I should probably consider where it is going, so I might pause to design an outline or timeline of some kind.

Most of the time, though, I just write it. It is when the time comes to revise that I outline what I already have on the page to find where the plot holes are that need filling. The fact that I’m starting off without an outline doesn’t worry me. What does is that I have been struggling with the section of book two that I absolutely need to finish. Worse yet, I’ve been stuck on this section for a long time. I should by now have some plan for this portion of the book, that remains basically unwritten because really the first draft just said “there’s a war, then they make peace.”

Yeah. No.

Now, I have to write the war. And I’ve never written a war before. And there’s where the dread comes in. At midnight, on October 31st, I will start writing the actual war.

For real…

Like fully.

Wish me luck!

As I reflect on this past weekend’s conference, I think about the many learning roads my life has taken. I graduated high school, and went straight into college. Being of Mexican origin, I had the blessing of deciding between two cultural traditions. I could do the American method by heading off to a distant university, living in dorms/or off campus apartments, and getting the full college Americana experience. OR, I could opt for the Mexican way, which meant staying home with my parents, attending the local state university, and having less expenses.

My parents added an extra bonus when they offered to pay for the full college tuition if I stayed home and went to University of Houston, plus they would not charge me rent so I could go full time. Well, that sold me on the deal. The opportunity to carry a full load of course work, and finish faster was too good to pass up. So, I am an alumni of the University of Houston.

Now, as an adult, my learning roads lead to writers communities. Houston Writers Guild offers two amazing conferences a year, and was the organization that returned me to the serious consideration of writing as a career choice. I’d given up on it since I was trying to be sensible. After all, we know writing as a career rarely pays the bills. Getting connected to the guild was the best thing that could happen to me during my teaching days.

I also love the connection to the Boulder writing community lead by the amazing Max Regan and Rosa Glenn Riley. Technically, Rosa headed the Spectrum Writing Guild in Houston, but she moved up to Boulder at the start of the pandemic. I don’t blame her for not returning, because… well… Boulder is gorgeous.

Which brings me to the learning roads of the pandemic years (yes because we are now nearing year two of the era of human history). Thanks to Zoom and virtual platforms, I’ve been able to delve deeper into my writing than ever before. I’ve learned so much through writers retreats and workshops hosted by Max, and, perhaps more importantly, I’ve stayed connected to other writers during the times of isolation and quarantines. This has been huge benefit. I have not felt as lonely or depressed as I think I may have been if these avenues of camaraderie and fellowship had not bee available to me.

So much is changing in the world, but one thing is certain. Regardless of how or when or where, learning is an ongoing part of our lives. Truth is that no matter how much we already know, there’s always more to discover. Finding new techniques, revisiting well-worn ones, and fellowshipping with those who have the same interests and creative sparks as you are parts of my life that I would not give up for anything in the world.