Ka-Ching!

Writing is something that gives me great personal satisfaction. I love to see a completed sentence, paragraph, page, work - a hard copy of something that once only existed in my brain.

My dream is to be able to do what I love and make a living at it. Although my current job involves a lot of writing and provides that outlet for me to some degree, it is not fiction writing. That is where the dream begins.

On days when I am really indulging in fantasy, I try to put myself into the shoes of authors who not only make a living at it, but have hit the jackpot, either financially or with name recognition and legacy. It seems wrong to make crazy amounts of money for doing something you love so much, but I wouldn't turn it down.

My musings led me one day to research the best-selling authors of all time. Wikipedia provided such a list. Of course, it is not comprehensive, nor, being Wikipedia, necessarily fully accurate. But I found it very interesting. Here is the link.

A couple of reactions: Glad to see Willie Shakespeare on top, as it should be

Holy crap Barbara Cartland! Now I really feel like a slacker. She must have written a book a month.

I also found this article about Dean Koontz. I like him enough after reading this to try one of his books again or his autobiography.

It seems like a lot of successful authors are not as flashy as those who succeed in other areas of the arts, especially actors and singers. Although J.K. did buy that castle...

Golden Authors

Just wanted to drop a short note to all you aspiring authors out there. I work with some amazing authors--authors with style and class and who understand how the publishing process works and what an editor does to bend over backward and help his authors. There are a few authors, on rare occasion (thank goodness), who do not respect editors.

My message today is that the degree to which you, as authors and even aspiring/submitting authors, respect your editor is the degree to which they will mortgage their reputation and clout to get your book published and give you every advantage of a successful release into the market.

Be one of those golden authors that every editor dreams about.

Be a champ.

Just for FUN!!!

This is my sons' soccer camp coaches grooving in a demonstrations dance that a very talented 9 year old girl taught them. They made everyone do the dance every time they made a goal in the mock World Cup. They also had the parents doing it once or twice.

Here are the words in case you can't understand their lovely accents:
Snap your fingers in a Z formation
Hip rotation,
Elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist,
Shut up, boy, you just got dissed.

Discussion

Is competition "good" for the creative soul?

Hooray for My Writing Group!

Yes, that's right. I'm giving props to my writing group because they come up with the greatest ideas. For example, a writing marathon. Somehow, miraculously, all of our spouses have agreed to give us crazies an entire day to do nothing but write. I'm extremely excited in spite of not actually being able to join them since I live a state away. We will be together apart doing one of the things we all love best. So, good luck Donna, Debbie, DJ, Linda and Kirk! I can't wait! :)

Why?

Why? Such a great question - so open ended with many possibilities. Sometimes we have an answer and sometimes we don't. With a five-year old in the house, I hear it at least 100 times a day.

This week, as part of our family's "staycation" we visited a dinosaur park in Ogden, UT. It featured a handful of traditional, indoor museum-type exhibits with fossils, but the main attraction was the outdoor portion, with models of various species of dinos in a natural environment, that you could discover around a corner or behind trees, etc. Our kids loved it of course.

The aforementioned five year-old asked the big question: Why did the dinosaurs become extinct? To which I answered, "Well, honey, scientists have many ideas about why it happened" and went on to explain the various theories, such as volcanic activity, an ice age, disease, climate change, etc. Then, I added, "But no one really knows except for Heavenly Father." To which he responded, "I'm going to ask him when I get back to heaven." LOVE him.

It got me thinking, as writers, we create the world, we provide the answers. Does this mean we have a God complex? No, (although I'm sure there are some that do) I would argue it means we like to consider the Why? in everything around us, and let our imagination dictate the possibilities. When you think of all the dino extinction theories, I believe every one of them has had a story told about it - not to mention Jurassic Park, which asserts dinosaurs do exist, on an island near Costa Rica.

What has Debbie gotten me into now?

So You Think You Can Dance, that's what. One more obsession to take up the time I don't have.
Still its a great season and these two, Lauren and Kent are just awesome on so many levels.

They make great characters. Am I the only one who does that? When I meet someone or see a show or get cut off in traffic, I immediately start a character sketch in my head. It's not the same as judging people because I know that most of what I decide about the character is not going to be true of the person, but still I can't help myself. I start to think about who this person or that person might someday be in my writing.

I guess I sort of play a "So you think you can write" game in my head. It's a lot like the show about dancing, except there is less dancing and more daydreaming.

Who have you turned into a character lately?