Looking for Ms. Rose

I have a friend who has talked about writing her own book since we met 2 years ago. I think it's why we bonded initially; she was writing a work of fiction based on her life growing up, but only had a few chapters after a couple of years of writing. I had 2 finished novellas and was thinking about getting back into writing (this was during my hiatus). I was excited to meet someone - face to face - who had a similar goal as I did. She was excited because she had never met anyone else that liked to write, period.

I talked about writing constantly and she never did. I've worked on getting my writing muscles back to where they once were by doing creative writing prompts, and blogging on occasion, and actually writing stories. She started to edit the stuff she had, but quickly stopped. Then she started talking about a children's book she wanted to write.

She sent me her children's story this weekend. I am proud that she wrote it, and finished it. Proud that she started taking steps into getting it published. I'm also proud to say, that I enjoyed reading it.

I have become a sounding board to her, not only as a critique partner for the things she's written, but also as far as getting published and the steps that she needs to take.

I am not a published author, I've barely just begun to consider myself a writer again. But I've done some research and I've submitted manuscripts in the past, and I guess in her mind that means something. I am more than happy to impart whatever sliver of knowledge I do have.

Can I just say that for someone who loves to research stuff, she sure does NOT research any of this! Haha.

My friend spent this weekend bugging me - and I say that with all the love in the world - about what to do. I tried to tell her that there are a number of ways to go about getting her book out there, including self publishing which she did not want to hear about.

After that the conversation changed to marketing - her writer's platform. Now, I recall a few weeks ago having a conversation with her, telling her she needed to get her name out there, let people get to know her. I told her to at LEAST get a Facebook page. She said no. Said, she would do all that after the book was written. Funny how life is; I remember saying the same thing to my friend Lisa and her kindly setting me straight. A writer must market themselves in addition to their product. If people "know" you, they're more likely to buy your stuff. This weekend, my friend did a bit of research and came across the term writer's platform, so I encouraged her again to create an online presence. To meet and interact with other writers, to network.

This got me thinking about my own platform and my own networking. I believe I have a voice...but it isn't a full voice. I make my passion for reading known. People know I review books. But not many of them know (or remember) that I write. And that's my fault. I purposely don't mention it. Because I'm scared. Because I doubt myself every minute of every hour. I keep telling myself that I'll start promoting myself as a writer when I know for certain that I'll finish the current story I'm writing. But that's just a cop out. I'm afraid of announcing to the world my intentions and then not following through. I'm afraid of not finishing my story. I'm just afraid, period.

I've met and have surrounded myself with a great bunch of people who I know would be supportive of my journey. I need to believe in myself and throw myself out there 100% and just do it. I need to overcome my fears - I really do!

Did You Just Sign Me Up To Your Newsletter Without My Permission?

I just realized this earlier today, and the more I think about it, the more irritated I become. We all know I love to read and some of you may know that I have a book review blog (see the tab above), and I'm all for supporting authors...that being said, I don't like people to just assume things or push things on me without my knowledge or consent.

Now, I have been pretty active these last two weeks; entering contests, adding new authors, following said authors, etc. and there is a very small chance that I did this myself - but I don't think so. Here's why:

I don't know this author. I've never read anything by them. I even looked at my browser history to see if her name popped up and nothing did. I am familiar with the author's name, and that's because my best friend, who is also one of my contributors to Book Verse, wrote a review for one of her books. I went over and checked the date of the review and then did a search in my inbox to see when the first newsletter came in, and it was dated 3 days after my friend posted her review.

So here is what I think happened: She got a ping on Google or something alerting her that someone had mentioned her name, and she went to my blog and read the nice review that my friend left, and then clicked on the contributor links where I have my email address and proceeded to sign me up to her newsletter.

Like I said, I don't have a problem supporting authors. In fact, I have gotten emails before from authors who asked if I could read and review one of their books, or to follow them on social media or sign up to their newsletter. I am more than happy to. But don't force it upon me. I will choose whether or not to follow you or your newsletter - do not take the choice away from me. And yes, I know I can (and definitely plan to) unsubscribe, but the lack of courtesy really bugs me. I have my email address up so if an author wants to contact me for whatever reason they can, not so you can abuse it and spam me. Yes I called it spam, because it was unsolicited.

For any writers/authors reading this: This isn't meant to discourage you from contacting me. I welcome it! A simple, "Hi, thanks for the nice review. Can I sign you up for my newsletter?" will go a long way with me.

Stop it!

You know how people get annoyed by people on their Facebook that post nothing but baby pics, and so their wall is filled with like 100 different babies? Well that's how I feel, but about religion. I don't know if it's the upcoming election or "the end of the world" or whatever, but every other post on my wall is about religion. At first I just ignore it because it was nice things...stuff like "God cares about you blah blah blah" but now it's stuff like "You better let God save you or you'll burn." And if that wasn't bad enough, now there's religion/politics crap on my wall. I already don't like religion and I already don't like politics, so add the two together and it really irritates me. I know some things go together like chocolate and peanut butter, or peanut butter and jelly; but not religion and politics. I can't STAND it when people say stuff like, "Oh well if you're against this then why are you voting for this person." or "The bible predicted this and so and so will bring this nation down." I'm about to scream. It's gonna come down to me just deleting a whole shit ton of people. I don't mind people expressing their religious or political views...we're all entitled to our opinions. And yeah, we think other people are wrong...but at the end of the day who the fuck are we to say who's right and who's wrong? It's all about perception. I don't care if you think I'm wrong or you think I'm right...STOP SHOVING YOUR BELIEFS DOWN MY THROAT! You want to have a discussion, go to a fucking forum and stop posting on your FB wall every 30 seconds about God and/or one of the presidential candidates! Seriously! Every fucking 30 seconds. Enough already!