Happy Monday peeps, this week starts another exciting new chapter in the ever changing drama of General Fiction.
Please welcome to the board debut author
Lynne Spreen.
She'll hang around all week if you'd like to say hi, ask her some questions or just chat some.
Without further ado here's Lynne's Blog Post
Deb, thanks so much for asking me to write for the General Fiction Forum. I’m honored. I’d like to talk about the writing life, and also about my just-published novel.
Dakota Blues is about a middle-aged woman who thinks she's got the world figured out, and then it explodes and she has to discover not only what to do now, but who she IS now, at age fifty. Since all her carefully-constructed lifetime strategies didn't work, what now? Where might she go, what might she do, now that she's free to recreate her life?
I love this theme of coming alive in midlife, but it wasn’t until I reached my own middle age that I discovered it.
Ever since I was an adolescent, I wanted to be a writer, but life interfered with that dream. Like most of you I had to work. In my twenties and thirties, I raised my son, climbed the career ladder and endured several divorces. All of this really interfered with writing!
When I reached my late forties, I was able to cut back to part time and start my novel, but I didn’t realize how much a person had to know to write a whole flippin’ book! It took me about ten years to write Dakota Blues because I learned while writing. Now that the book is published and people are saying nice things about it, I feel like I've graduated.
About the time I started to write, the publishing industry began to change. New writers were told not to query an agent until we had a platform. By platform they meant thousands of ready customers for when your book was finally finished. We were told that we had to do all of our own selling and marketing because unless you were John Grisham no publisher would spend any money to publicize your book.
Most of us writers panicked. I was very discouraged. But I vowed to do what was necessary to launch my writing career, so I started platforming. I built my own website using Dreamweaver. I get a headache just remembering that! It wasn’t very good. Then somebody invented WordPress and things got easier. I started a couple of practice blogs but eventually figured out my niche.
I could be mad at the traditional publishing industry for kicking us new writers to the curb, but it’s not their fault. Everything is changing. Because I worked so hard to develop a platform, I discovered my passion: the idea that we are more powerful in the second half of our lives than we ever knew. I began to write about the strengths of old age, like not getting swept away by drama (because you've seen it all before), and having more resilience in the face of adversity.
I began to write about this and other benefits of maturity in my blog, AnyShinyThing.com, and the response has been tremendous. It seems I'm not the only one celebrating the glory of being older. Of course that means you have to shout back at the commercials featuring 17-year-olds demonstrating the latest anti-aging products! Or magazines that run articles about how not to look old, because old is bad and young is good, right?
Well, old is good in some ways. If I were a lamp, I'd be a priceless antique!
But back to platforming. In her book, Get Known Before the Book Deal, Christina Katz proposed we figure out what we love and then write, speak, blog, and tweet about it. She said a book is only one form of media, but the idea is the big deal. What is your passion, the thing about which you must speak? It was a moment of awakening for me, because like most writers, I thought it was all about the book. It isn't about the book. It's about what you believe in.
I wrote Dakota Blues because I'm obsessed by the idea that we create our own prisons. Some men, but particularly women do this. We sleepwalk through our lives, not realizing that were basically throwing away a great gift. We have more freedom than we can imagine. Roll the world off your shoulders. Create a new life for yourself. Walk away feeling light. This is the message of my writing – the good news about the second half of life.
My next book is a collection of short stories about that very thing. It’ll be called, “The New Country – Stories of Midlife and Beyond.” I hope to have it out just before Christmas. After that, a novel about a smug CEO who retires to an affluent, age-restricted community, thinking she’s going to enjoy her leisure time, only to receive a surprise package – an infant to raise, courtesy of her estranged and newly imprisoned daughter. The working title is, Golden Years, My A-s. But I’ll probably have to change that.
Deb, thanks again for inviting me to blog for the General Fiction forum. I hope we’ll get lots of questions and comments.
Visit Lynne's website here
LynneSpreen wrote:Hi Deb! Well, like most people, I dreamed for years of getting that phone call. It would go something like this: "Hi, Lynne, are you sitting down?" asks your agent. "Big Publisher is offering you a hundred thousand bucks for your book!" However, in the ten years it took me to learn how to write and polish my book to perfection, the publishing industry changed. Now, even incredibly successful authors like J.A.Konrath are getting their rights back and going off on their own, publishing their old and new books without the help of the traditional agents and publishers. That's the direction I went, and although it's a lot of work, it's like my own business. I do it all, I make all the decisions, hire the cover artist, trailer artist, editors, publisher, etc, This is the direction the industry is going. I'm pretty excited! (I'd say more but my grandson needs a diaper change - phew!)
Hi Lynne,
Sounds like you've got you're hands full.....ah, let me rephrase that....How do you find the time to write? Are you someone who has to schedule dinner with your husband! 
One question I always asks authors, and that is: Do you listen to music while you write? If you do, or don't, could you explain your reasons?
Thanks!
KathyS.
LynneSpreen wrote:
Hi Deb! Well, like most people, I dreamed for years of getting that phone call. It would go something like this: "Hi, Lynne, are you sitting down?" asks your agent. "Big Publisher is offering you a hundred thousand bucks for your book!" However, in the ten years it took me to learn how to write and polish my book to perfection, the publishing industry changed. Now, even incredibly successful authors like J.A.Konrath are getting their rights back and going off on their own, publishing their old and new books without the help of the traditional agents and publishers. That's the direction I went, and although it's a lot of work, it's like my own business. I do it all, I make all the decisions, hire the cover artist, trailer artist, editors, publisher, etc, This is the direction the industry is going. I'm pretty excited! (I'd say more but my grandson needs a diaper change - phew!)
Oh Lynne thanks for clarifying that, I thought you just didn't have an agent or publicist, but that must be a very good feeling knowing that you sucessfully did this all on your own and are hearing good things. I'm glad you're here this week because I think that readers should be more informed too, that's why I like to follow authors on Facebook, Twitter and visit their websites and blogs.
I've linked your website on your blog post, but can we find you on other social media sites.
Thanks for responding Lynne
Oh and please do change that diaper
LynneSpreen wrote:Thanks, Becke! I'll check out your links, too. (That's a pretty great graphic, by the way.) Thanks for stopping by!
Lynne, Becke is the resident welcome-flower giver, and graphic adviser. If it's out there, she will find it! I guess I should have done my part in the welcome department too. I'm shirking my duties!
Becke, thanks for stopping by
Lynne, Becke moderates the mystery forum for B&N.com and is a very good friend as well
and I like Kathy am also shirking welcome duties so I do hope you feel welcome here, I want you also to know that there are some of us who choose to look and not reply, as your blog post has already gotten almost 70 views since yesterday, you're voice is being heard.
as for the glitter graphics we all have our favorite on-line sites to get them
Welcome
LynneSpreen wrote:Kathy, how do you do those graphics? Beautiful! I feel very welcome!
Good morning, Lynne! Don't forget to answer my question! 
And, as far as the graphics go, or specifically animated graphics, just Google whatever suits your fancy. Hit the IMAGE, up at the top left of the Google page, and scroll until you find the one you want. Click on that image, and see if it does become animated...if it does, Copy and Paste it into this text body. If you find it won't post, showing red errors....just keep clicking the post button until it does work. But, after three or four tries, and it doesn't work...you're out of luck for that image.....Sometimes this program is stubborn. And if the animated images won't become 'animated', after it's posted, then you might have to find another one. Just hit the options on your right, above the text box, and a drop down will show EDIT. Click that, and delete that image, or edit whatever you want to in your post.
Above the text box, you'll notice that there is a Spell Check option, and a Quote option,. This program doesn't automatically check your spelling, it's your option. If you're replying to someone's post, it's always a good idea to click on the Quote first, that way we will know what and who you are referring to in you reply. It's not always necessary, but in book discussions, with multiple participants, it's always a good idea, saving confusion.
That's about it....
Thanks, Kathy, that link really helped! I am having a hard time finding time to write, at the moment. I'm trying to adjust to my babysitting gig - this is only the start of the second week - but I'm sure I'll adjust. I need to find some discipline, enough that when he goes to nap, I leap to my laptop and begin churning out new material. What a nice fantasy, right? But I will be doing this job all school year, until June 2013, and I can't afford to sit out a year.
Besides, most of us have other obligations pulling us this way and that, so learning to write on the fly would be a great skill to master. This morning I had an idea for a blog post, so clicked on my digital voice recorder and made notes as I drove to work on the freeway. Gotta capture the inspiration when it hits!
As for my husband, yes, exactly. We do schedule things, and it's not always what you'd see in the movies. Like this: every Wednesday, he joins me over here at my son's house and we babysit BOTH kids (both under 2 years old). At the end of the day, on the way home, we'll stop for dinner at Dragon House, have a glass of wine and celebrate our day. If we can keep our eyes open.
But you know what writers get when the chips are down? MATERIAL.
