Just in case anyone missed the news: ROGUE FAMILIAR is now out and available in ebook and print from all of your favorite retailers! The audiobook is coming, but probably won’t be out for a few weeks. Because I ran late on this book, I lost my time slot with my narrator, the fabulous Deborah Balm. She has the manuscript, but has not yet started recording. I’ll keep you all updated on that!
This week at the SFF Seven, we’re offering one piece of advice for aspiring writers.
It’s funny because we were just discussing my favorite piece of advice for ALL writers on my mentoring and coaching Discord. This is shaping up to be a really fun community of authors at all levels. You can get there by joining my Patreon. At any rate, in the General Writing Advice channel of the most basic Patreon level – Community Member – one of the gals said that this piece of advice is “one of my favorite Jeffe Mantras.” I love that! We may even make a special emoji to denote this mantra, as it’s a recurring point of discussion.
So, what is it?
Figure out what your process is and own it.
See, the point is that every single creator has the0ir own creative process. It’s as individual as retinal patterns. While it can be helpful to take classes on writing processes and techniques, to learn from other authors, in the end we all find that our process is unique to us. I’ve seen SO MANY writers struggle to change their process and try to “make it be” something or other, to no avail. The whole point of learning various techniques is to triangulate on what works for you. It can be a long and iterative process, but that’s the “magic formula.” Figure out what your process is and own it. Don’t try to make your process be something other than what it is, even if you are occasionally frustrated by it. (I often am by mine!)
Like learning to love yourself, learn to embrace your process. Own it. It’s yours.
How to graciously answer that invidious question: “Have I heard of you?” Also, some lovely early feedback on ROGUE FAMILIAR – just released!!! – and how we don’t always know what we’re writing.
He left to save her from herself… But who will save him from her?
When Lady Seliah Phel wakes from a drugged sleep to find herself abandoned by her newly bonded wizard, she vows revenge—and to hunt him down. Tracking him through the familiar wilds of the marshlands of her home is the easy part; learning to use her nascent magical skills is something else entirely. So is facing the vast, uncaring society of the Convocation in a time of brewing war.
Jadren El-Adrel is not known for doing the right thing, but getting as far away from Seliah as possible before he drains her dry will be his one noble gesture. So what if she weeps a few tears. Better than her dying in his service—or enabling him to become the ravenous beast that crawls beneath his skin. Unfortunately, in his self-imposed exile, and without the power of his familiar, Jadren quickly runs afoul of the enemy.
As her vengeful quest for recapture becomes a rescue mission, Selly faces all she still doesn’t know about the greater world of wizards and familiars. And Jadren, once determined to walk his own path and stay far, far away from the idealistic fools of House Phel, finds himself aligning with them against the house of his birth. War is coming to the Convocation, which means a clever wizard should pick the side most likely to win.
Yes, oh my lovelies: I completed the final proofing of ROGUE FAMILIAR this morning and will have it uploaded everywhere tomorrow for release on Monday, April 24.
Cue the rejoicing!!!
And, since this is coincidentally (OR NOT???) spring promo week here at the SFF Seven, it’s actually apropos for me to be mentioning this book. I know a lot of you have been waiting for something like mumble mumble two months mumble for this book. All I can offer is….
Now you can haz!
He left to save her from herself… But who will save him from her?
When Lady Seliah Phel wakes from a drugged sleep to find herself abandoned by her newly bonded wizard, she vows revenge—and to hunt him down. Tracking him through the familiar wilds of the marshlands of her home is the easy part; learning to use her nascent magical skills is something else entirely. So is facing the vast, uncaring society of the Convocation in a time of brewing war.
Jadren El-Adrel is not known for doing the right thing, but getting as far away from Seliah as possible before he drains her dry will be his one noble gesture. So what if she weeps a few tears. Better than her dying in his service—or enabling him to become the ravenous beast that crawls beneath his skin. Unfortunately, in his self-imposed exile, and without the power of his familiar, Jadren quickly runs afoul of the enemy.
As her vengeful quest for recapture becomes a rescue mission, Selly faces all she still doesn’t know about the greater world of wizards and familiars. And Jadren, once determined to walk his own path and stay far, far away from the idealistic fools of House Phel, finds himself aligning with them against the house of his birth. War is coming to the Convocation, which means a clever wizard should pick the side most likely to win.
Sadly, Jadren has never been all that clever…
As a special treat, here’s a little excerpt:
It wasn’t as if magic made logical sense at the best of times anyway. Closing his eyes, trying to screen out the worry that he hadn’t heard Seliah’s heart beat in far too long—you wouldn’t be able to hear it from here anyway, idiot—he let his fingers drift over the gadgets. Waiting for one to speak to him. As if a metal doohickey could speak.
You’re wasting time, his inner voice observed. Wasting what little life Seliah has left.
I’m not. She wouldn’t survive a trip to find a healer. She might not survive the next few minutes.
At least finding a healer has a chance of working.
An infinitesimally small chance.
Still a non-zero chance, whereas this… What are you even thinking? You might as well dance around the bed beseeching the spirits of our ancestors to intervene.
He paused. Is that something people do?
You’re asking me? I am you. I don’t know anything more than you do.
I’m not asking you. I’m wanting you to shut up.
Then shut up.
You shut up! Cursing in frustration, Jadren took his own advice and attempted to quiet his mind. If this had any chance of working—It doesn’t. Shh.—then he needed to give it his all. Quiet mind. Trust his wizard’s intuition. Seliah deserved his best effort.
Sharing insights I gained from being a guest author at the Jack Williamson Lectureship, including thoughts on emotion in stories and the critical importance of endings – and why you HAVE to finish that book!
A special guest on the show today! Multi-bestselling author Darynda Jones and I discuss ideas, how to know which ones are good and have staying power, and how to continue to grow as writers.
A lil reminder that my FALLING UNDER trilogy is now re-released and on Kindle Unlimited! These books are NOT fantasy, but are contemporary erotic romance. If that’s the kind of thing you like, then you may like these!
Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is hard work vs. luck as applies to authorial success.
One of my least favorite pieces of advice from successful authors is when they declare something along the lines of “Just write a good book!” This happens a lot with debut authors, happily reveling in the out-of-the-gate success of their first effort. I say this because authors who’ve had lots of trunked books or only midlist success almost never say this.
Why?
Because they know that writing a good book isn’t enough.
Yes, writing a good book is key. Improving our craft as authors is critically important. That’s where the hard work comes in. At least, one kind of hard work, the foundational kind. If the books aren’t written and revised and polished to the best of our ability, there’s nothing to sell.
On the other hand… luck is a huge factor in publishing. It just IS. That’s why I roll my eyes at any successful author who fails to acknowledge the role of serendipity in their rise to (relative) fame and glory. As human beings – especially ones with egos sufficient to withstand the slings and arrows of creative life, which is rife with downs as well as ups – we like to credit ourselves with being awesome. Are we fortunate or are we just that good?
We’d all like to think we’re just that good.
The thing is, lots of creators are really good. And lots of good books go nowhere. Acknowledging the role of serendipity in success not only keeps us humble – remember that ego is the enemy! – but also should reassure us when things don’t go our way. Authors careers, as previously noted, are rife with ups and downs. We can’t control the luck. What we CAN do is work hard and put ourselves out there so the luck can find us.
Should you throw out the first 30 pages of your manuscript? Um, no. Bad advice. BUT, figuring out where to start a story is an ongoing challenge, craftwise, and also because the marketplace changes rapidly.
My Patreon and Discord community are live! I’m also talking about one of the best pieces of writing advice I ever got and how, if you want to be a writer for the right reasons, there’s no fire to put out content.
As far as our topic this week, what we do for health insurance, I self-insure. As a full-time author, I have no employer to provide me with health insurance (or other benefits). My husband took early retirement from his career and was insured through them for quite some time, though each year the premium was sucking up more and more of his retirement stipend. Soon we were going to have to pay in – ugh! Then the concierge health insurance service became available through SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association). SFWA collaborated with other writers’ organizations to make this service available to our members. I was able to transfer my husband onto insurance via the Affordable Care Marketplace – and both of us together ended up paying over $1K LESS EVERY MONTH. I’m a fan! Thank you, Obama – seriously.
