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Category: Writing

10th Anniversary as a Published Fiction Author

10th Anniversary as a Published Fiction Author

This month marks my tenth anniversary as a published fiction author. My first novel, The Prophecy (Lucy Varna), was released on 10 February 2014. The publishing landscape was very different then. Self-publishing was still denigrated as inferior to traditional (corporate) publishing, and the Gold Rush days of indie publishing were just a couple of years away from becoming a highly competitive red market industry. Now, self-publishers navigate a constantly changing landscape, though some things have not changed at all. The…

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Black Witch Rising (Vanessa Kinley, Witch PI, Book 3) by Celia Roman
Writing Sequentially

Writing Sequentially

With the release of my next Celia Roman novel A Witch and Her Familiar (Vanessa Kinley, Witch PI, Book 2) a few days past, I’m already anticipating the release of the next book in the series. Mostly, that means the writing end of things. When the manuscript for A Witch and Her Familiar was finalized, I took a couple of weeks off from writing to brainstorm the next book, Black Witch Rising. This is the first novel I’ve brainstormed since…

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Greenwood Cove (Sunshine Walkingstick, Book 1) by Celia Roman
If I Could Have a Do-Over

If I Could Have a Do-Over

Back when Sunshine Walkingstick popped into my head in September 2014, I seriously considered publishing her stories under my first pen name, Lucy Varna. Two years later, when the first Sunny novel was published, I decided that her stories were dissimilar enough from the Lucy Varna stories that I should publish them separately. Thus was the Celia Roman pen name born. Over the past few years, I’ve rethought that decision, often with a twinge of regret. How much farther along…

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Writing Don’ts

Writing Don’ts

The awkwardness is obvious if you imagine hearing one in conversation. No one has ever said to you, “A sophomore at Cornell, my niece is coming home for Christmas,” or “Sixty-six years old, my wife is an incredible cook.” Either sentence, if spoken, would sound almost comical, as though the speaker were struggling to learn English. (You wouldn’t use one in an e-mail or a text to a friend, either.) Yet, if you were writing an obituary for your college’s…

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A Witch and Her Familiar (Vanessa Kinley, Witch PI, Book 2) by Celia Roman
Getting Unstuck

Getting Unstuck

As I mentioned in my end of 2022 wrap up, I’m currently working on A Witch and Her Familiar, the second novel in the Vanessa Kinley, Witch PI Series (Celia Roman). This novel is the one I was writing when burnout sent my entire life skidding to an abrupt halt in late 2021. While recovering during the first six months of 2022, I picked Witch/Familiar up several times, trying to finish it. Each time, the story remained stubbornly blank in…

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Money Isn’t Everything

Money Isn’t Everything

Lately, I’ve heard author after author say something like this: “Do newsletters have a positive ROI?” “I don’t do book signings because I don’t sell anything, so they’re not worth my time.” “How many books do you sell in your Facebook group?” People, let me tell you something: not everything is about money. And look, I’m a capitalist at heart and very much in favor of people making a living with their art. 100% for that. But there are things…

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A Witch and Her Familiar (Vanessa Kinley, Witch PI, Book 2) by Celia Roman
2023 Keyword: Finish

2023 Keyword: Finish

It’s time again to review the previous year’s progress, personal and professional, and write goals for the coming year. 2022’s focus was on rebuilding my creativity and pulling myself out of burnout. I did this in several ways. The first was by exploring my innate strengths, beginning with the CliftonStrengths test and continuing from there to the Better Faster Academy, a Strengths-focused resource created by Becca Syme, a success coach for writers. I’m not going to bore you with my…

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The View from Above

The View from Above

Last month, I flew to Alaska for a writer’s retreat hosted by Craig Martelle, SciFi author and the leader of the 20Booksto50K movement. It was the first time I’d been on an airplane in roughly three decades. While I’m an avid planespotter, most of my travel is done by car. The logistics of traveling by air were a little baffling. I ended up shifting my plans and staying in Fairbanks after the retreat ended, thereby negating the need for a rental…

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Failing Forward?

Failing Forward?

I’ve spent the past year recovering from a hard burnout, something I discussed here along with my plans to recover from it. When I wrote that post, I hadn’t fully grasped the depth of that burnout or the causes. Gradually, though, I’ve come to realize that I’d been sliding into burnout for years, and not every factor of the burnout was within my control. Be that as it may, I’ve had to take a hard look at my life and…

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2022 Focus: Creativity

2022 Focus: Creativity

Normally, I would discuss the following year’s goals in my end of the year Book and Author News post. Undoubtedly I will when I work on it in a day or two. I wanted to separate out my focus for 2022, however, so that I can clarify the particular way I’m going to pursue those goals. Hopefully, this will also help other creatives struggling to produce. Productivity For the last few years, my annual keyword has been productivity. It’s a…

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