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I find that I tend to shy away from a lot of self-promotion. It feels…awkward. I’ve never been great at direct sales. Let’s face it, that’s what self-promotion is geared towards.

As an author, you must make yourself available in some fashion. The internet is awesome for this because you can interact with readers, other authors, professionals who provide various services, EVERYONE, via digital communication, and you don’t have to crawl out of your introvert shell.

But you have to be out there. I think most of us struggle with it. Some do not – they seem right at home. I’m not there yet.

I’m more comfortable talking with other writers about craft issues, or better ways to do things, or any of the number of concerns we have to handle as part of being in business. I like to help people. You have a problem? Tell me! I’ll be Googling a solution within minutes! I love finding solutions.

I would be great at a museum help desk. I was a docent for over a year at Historic London Town.

It was fabulous, and I would totally do such a thing again. You know, when I retire, and my to-do list isn’t burying me. (I was a docent before I had kids. LOL, tells you something.)

So, anyway…I would rather be helping others than promoting myself.

But I am really excited about something that happened, and it will seem sort of self-promote-y – but I want to share.

I’m a member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I serve on the Board of Directors as the Newsletter Editor, and the IPAL Liaison (that’s the professional group within RMFW for independently published authors). I love it. It takes time from my schedule, but the organization is fantastic, and I like giving back to a group that I get a lot from. I have a fabulous critique group, a wonderful group of beta readers/critique partners – those things are invaluable.

Indies are still the new guy on the block in the world of publishing. We don’t still have the new car smell, but we’re still shiny. Two years ago, RMFW recognized the movement of indies as professionals and created IPAL. It’s an amazing group of authors.

What we also created was an Independent Writer of the Year award. We’ve always had a Writer of the Year, but it was for traditionally published authors only. The IWOTY is only for indie authors. It’s a great step in upping our professional status.

I am thrilled to share that I am a finalist for the first ever IWOTY award. Along with my amazing colleagues Sue Duff and Nathan Lowell. I am humbled to be in a grouping with the two of them.

This is a huge deal. Not just for me (and I am personally thrilled) but for all of our indies. For so long, we’ve had to battle the stigma of being ‘not quite professional’. The Selection Committee for our IWOTY nominees worked really hard to look at all the indies who’d submitted credentials, and we have really talented authors in our indie pool.

So that’s it. I wanted to share, because it’s truly an honor, and every time I think about it, I just can’t believe it.

Tomorrow, May 5th (other than being the day that Revenge of the Fifth follows May The Fourth Be With You) is the one year anniversary of my first time hitting the ‘Publish’ button. I’ve put out three full-length novels, a novella, and a serial novel under two names. I have more novels than I probably ought to on the various burners right now.

While I’m not exactly where I want to be (Having won The Bet with My Beloved, and in possession of a pair of tickets to the annual Jane Austen Ball with appropriate costumes), I’m getting there.

It’s a great time to be a writer, and an even greater time to be an indie writer. Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the past year, and to my colleagues in RMFW for nominating me for this honor.

Now, back to the grind. Tally Ho!

I follow Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s blog. She is a font of information. What I enjoy most are her Business Musings. She’s been in the business a long time, and I really like reading her take on things.

This one…wowsa.

That’s all I got. You. Need. To. Read. This. If you are creating intellectual property, this is worth the time to read, re-read, and go through her links.

It’s a whole new world out there, and we the creators need to understand it. The times of someone taking care of us or “looking out for our best interests” is, in my opinion, over. WE must take care of ourselves, and manage and shepherd our interests.

This is a good place to start.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS (CONTRACTS/DEALBREAKERS)

Link to KKR’s entire blog post.

You’re welcome.

(Another Kris, to inspire you along)

Well, it’s not flowers. I did have flowers, and all three of my juvenile trees were budding and flowering, but…as per the bipolar Colorado weather, it snowed.

A lot.

I can only hope my poor trees and flowers make it. The pic above represents an A.M. situation. I’ve shoveled at least 2.5 feet at this point. I. Am. Tired. Still wouldn’t live anywhere else. Except maybe Key West. For a couple of months in the winter. On a boat.

I digress.

Spring is also the time we clean, organize, and generally clear out, readying for all that comes with summer. Or at least, we attempt it. I’ve got a lot of attempts under my belt.

Last month, I reorganized my basement. My Beloved got a quiet room with a door for his office. The Darling Children also got their own office, also with a door. Everyone has space to go and work, and be quiet. Well, maybe not so much the DCs.

I got the loft. The loft has been where our main desktop sat for the last ten years. It’s also the place where things got dumped, shoved, and stored when we didn’t know what else to do with it.

I spent a good month working on my loft, now my Office of Awesome. It has all the decor I love – I don’t care if anyone else doesn’t like it. I do, and that’s what matters. It’s my favorite place to be in the house now, other than my bed. And my front room with the Christmas tree up.

Sounds great, right? It is, and it isn’t. Now, the rest of the house needs to be organized. I got the main level done – a heroic effort was put in by all of us to clear out the debris that no one used or loved anymore. When I look around, there is so much less clutter.

That leaves only one place.

*cue the Jaws tune*

My closet and dressers. Dear lord, I am a terrible clothes collector. Ter-Ri-Ble. I have gone through the closet, and the dressers loom, waiting for some attention.

Once done with my room, the entire house will have been addressed, in some fashion. The work is never done, but it’s cleared out in a way that it hasn’t been in years. You all know how it is – kids, work, second work (writing), house stuff – the clearing out and paring down gets pushed waaayyy down the list.

But I’m making the effort. After forty-five years, I am finally becoming more organized than I have ever been in my life. It allows me to live cleaner. I don’t mean that in a food sense, but in the sense that less crap means less clutter in my mental real estate. I find I can focus better, and am more productive, both with writing, and all the other things I need to get done.

Except today. I managed to shovel snow, and shower. And feed people. That was it. But generally, in the last month, this is what I’ve found – and I didn’t plan on it, I wasn’t aiming for it. But by clearing out the physical clutter, my mental clutter went down too.

There’s a lot of mental clutter in the world. Good lord, just go hang on Facebook for five minutes – it’s tough not to get distracted. I’m working on that too – and I’ll be honest, with my physical setting feeling less like it’s in disarray, I don’t feel the need to get all involved in other people’s social media. Unless it’s positive.

So the snow has been good for one thing, other than substituting for my workout today. It’s allowed me to think about the changes I’ve made, and how said changes are affecting me.

Now that it’s spring, take some time, and see what clutter you can toss. See what you don’t really need – if you read Marie Kondo’s book, she recommends tossing anything that doesn’t give you joy. JOY. That’s a strong word. I’ll tell you, it was hard for me. But I would look at something and think, Does this bring joy? If I had any hesitation, into the Toss pile it went. And I don’t miss it. We hang onto crap, worrying that we might miss/need it.

We don’t. Not usually.

Be brave. Be strong. Be HONEST. What brings you joy? If you’re sitting there, glancing at something that doesn’t, get up now, and go make a Toss pile. Then go tackle a small area that’s been driving you mad, and bag it up. Put it in the car, even.

And get rid of it.

You’ll feel better.

Happy spring!

I am not a movie reviewer. Let’s sort that out right up front. However, I read my friend Mark’s review on his SoWizard site (you should definitely check he and his colleagues out), and after I saw it this weekend, I was compelled to respond.

I AM, however, a lifelong Jane Austen fan. As in, I LOVE HER. I know all her books, and only Northanger Abbey doesn’t get five stars from me. (All the NA fans, ease up. It’s just the one where the heroine bothers me. It gets four to four-and-a-half. I had a hard time identifying with her, even as a teenager.) I am also someone who loves the movie adaptations, even though they often lack any real “action” (or anything at all, other than snobbish accents, according to my Dear Husband. He’s not a fan). Jane Austen wrote about small worlds, and lives that were part of a narrow, understood path. They were complex in their relationships but small on a global level. Fans of Jane Austen are good with that. We love that, actually.

So it stands to reason that someone who is not necessarily a JA fan will be put off by the general tone of a JA based movie, even one that has zombies at the heart of all conflict. As I said commenting on Mark’s review, I like the quiet story line of a Jane Austen.

With that, let’s get to the review.

I loved the book. Loved it. I loved what Seth did with the story. I’m not a purist, most of the time. I can totally get behind an adaptation if it’s clever and well done. I felt like he did that. I also like the intro in the movie of the History of England, 1700 to 1800. I like that sort of vintage cartooning, so for me, it worked.

When it came to the movie, I was disappointed. They took Mr. Darcy and gave him a story arc that was supposed to create tension. However, there was already tension. Mr. Darcy in the movie had governmental muscle behind him in the quest for zombies. He didn’t need that to bring tension to the relationship between he and Elizabeth. His suspicions-that are revealed later-create enough tension as it is. Both in his thoughts and actions. I thought it was unnecessary. It would have worked to use the tension written into the story. Darcy would have still been the dour, unpleasant, rude man that he’s been since creation, insulting our heroine and drawing our ire. This is probably my biggest complaint.

I loved the Bennett sisters. LOVED them. That scene in the assembly-every one of them is a powerhouse, and that’s true to the book. It’s one of the changes that was made in the adaptation that I liked. Every one of those young women went in with katana drawn and ass-kicking on her mind. That was fantastic.

One thing that I missed was the relationship between Lizzy and Jane. It was not shown to the depth that it ought to have been. More like skipping a rock across a pond than what it really was. That was…sad. Because that relationship is important. I wish they’d gone deeper.

That leads, however, to the portrayal of Wickham. That, in my opinion, was fabulous. I loved that change. I wholeheartedly approve. I thought it brought a really interesting plot arc in that added, rather than detracted from the story. And the fact that Jane and Lizzy walk right into that arc for love (you’ll see what I mean) shows that the relationships within the Bennett family are there.

Let’s not forget Mr. Collins. Holy hell. I laughed at him nearly every time he was on screen. Oh, you Doctor, you! Matt Smith made him. I think he’s my favorite adaptation of Mr. Collins. He wasn’t the greasy, slimy one we’ve seen before. He was cheerful and a complete social climber, and eternally optimistic and convinced of his own fabulousness. I thought it was a perfect way to play him.

Darcy, in the end, made me weepy. I adored his letter, as I always have, and how he eventually speaks for himself. It was well done.

So where does that leave me, rating the movie? I give it four stars. Why? Because even though there are things I didn’t like, or didn’t understand the need for, I felt they captured the essence of the time. Which is both the world that Jane Austen created, as well as a time when people would have thought it was the end of times. The coming of Revelation, for those who are spiritual. I was thinking about it after the movie, when I was musing on the loss of seeing more of Jane and Lizzy. It’s a hard balance to walk when you feel your world teeters on the edge of ending.

The ending was fantastic. Sit and watch the credits. I was really pleased with it, and if it means what I think it does, I’m good.

But if you’re not a Jane Austen fan, I do think it might fall a bit flat. I often think that with many book-to-movie adaptations. Even as those making the movie want it to stand alone, and entice new fans, they’re also making it for the current fans. It’s a tough road to keep to. I say that as a reader who’s read most of the books that are made into movies.

I will admit that I have a teensy bit more of a bias, because Jane Austen is probably my top choice for an author’s works to take on a desert island with me. I re-read them now, and still love them as much as the first time. So I am a bit harder on the adaptations.

I liked this one, though. It’s not perfect. But it did a great job in bringing that book to to life. As Mark mentioned, the love story takes over. In the original P&P, that’s true. Because it’s the point. I think it’s true for P&P&Z as well. Even in the midst of an apocalypse, love will take over. We’re human. It’s how we’re made.

Even in the midst of a Potter’s Field with hands clutching at your ankles.

I feel like I’ve been all over the place lately with the blog. Kind of like life. Anyway, today I wanted to talk about being an indie author. Let me say straight away, I like being indie. I like knowing that both success and failure sits right in my lap. I’ll admit I much prefer the success part rather than the failure part.

Be that as it may, I like being the place where the buck stops. Why is this important? Well, I’ve had to do some overhauling on my writing, and writing plans. I have had to look at what I want to do, and what will work with the goals I have for 2016. Suffice to say, in order to spare you all a long, boring diatribe, the two don’t always meet.

That’s the awesome thing about being indie. At the end of last year, I looked at where I was, and I won’t lie to you all. It wasn’t where I wanted to be. So I did some reading, and tried to look at other avenues, and then I looked at me-to see where I might have done something differently or better.

That is never fun.

But there are things I can change. So I’m doing it. Because I think I need to, and when something isn’t working the way you want, you need to make changes. Not that you have to hop like a mad rabbit from one plan to the next in a frantic race to find the right way. But you need to make a plan, and stick to it, and when you see, after a respectable amount of time, that’s not working, it’s okay to change.

As an indie, I can do that. I don’t have to run it by an agent, an editor, or a publisher. Now, Lisa, some may say, Perhaps they would have kept you from making a mistake in the first place.

Fair enough.

But let me counter, my friend. I have friends who have all those wonderful people working with and for them. They are also in a state of looking over what worked, and what didn’t. Some have fared better than I, some worse. So I’m not sure that having those people working with you guarantees anything.

2015 was a great learning year for me. I figured out what I absolutely must keep up with, and what I need to shift or change. That’s valuable.

It’s not easy, and requires I work every day on some aspect of my career. It’s a lot to keep up with. Some days, I slack horribly. Learning to work through that has been a piece of the process along with everything else. But I’m improving and that is a positive to celebrate.

So there you have it. I’m in the midst of reorg-and while it’s a bit chaotic, it’s a good thing. See the Seth Godin quote above. It’s so true!

While I’ve been doing this, I went online on Monday, and read that David Bowie, the Goblin King, Major Tom-had left us. I cried. I cried off and on all day. I’ve loved him since I was ten years old. He was the first artist I saw in concert. We were in the fourth row-All the Ziggy fans were up there-talk about an eye opener!

It brought home the fact that time, for us, is finite. That we must not hesitate, must move forward, take the chance, and Carpe Diem.

I read an amazing, amazing tweet about him:

Dean Podestá ‏@JeSuisDean

If you’re ever sad, just remember the world is 4.543 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie.

Aren’t we all lucky as hell? Be like Bowie, take charge, and sally forth!

Rest in peace, Goblin King.