IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?

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IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?

Trickster Gods In April Call for Submissions V7

Call For Submissions

Deadline 
February 10th, 2020

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES!

Please read the instructions for submission carefully and follow the requirements of the guidelines.

Publication of Grumpy Old Gods Volume 4 is reset for on or before January 15th. Due to all 3 editors having the flu that hung on for weeks and interrupted our schedule. December was a bust for progress at Stormdance Publications. We all are doing better, although the crap is trying to hang on for me anyway, hopefully, we all will get a lot more done this month.

IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?
Volumes 1 thru 3 available on Amazon

IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?

IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?

INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP

 FOUNDED BY 

Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh 

IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?

IWSG Description from their Newsletter: A database resource site and support group for writers and authors. Featuring weekly guests and tips, a monthly blogfest gathering, a Facebook group, a book club, and thousands of links – all to benefit writers! #IWSG
Website / Facebook Group / Twitter / Book Club

IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?

Twitter is @TheIWSG Hashtag: #IWSG = IWSG Instagram
IWSG Dec 4th: Writer Role Play
IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?

Co-Hosts:

 T. Powell Coltrin, Victoria Marie Lees, Stephen Tremp, Renee Scattergood, and J.H. Moncrieff!

IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?

IWSG OPTIONAL QUESTION: What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just “know” suddenly you wanted to write?

MY ANSWER: What started me on my writing journey?  When I really think about it, I guess it started with loving to read and my mother.  I could read before I started Kindergarten.  I was an only child so books became my friends, my adventure and way to experience things that normally I could not.

My mother took me to the library whenever I wanted, which was often. She did not restrict my reading the way the school did.  The school would not allow you to check books out of the school library they considered above your grade level.  They did not have advanced reading classes in my early days of school.

I read “Gone with The Wind” by Margret Mitchell at age seven without a problem.  Books played in my head like movies for as long as I can remember.  I read Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys before age seven. I found Victoria Holt in Junior High.  I fell in love with Gothic suspense romance.  I then discovered Narnia and Lord of the Rings.


Off and on from about the age of nine, I would draft little story scenes in a journal, or diary along with various thought processes and doodles. I also discovered my friends like me to make up stories to tell them, so I did, all done verbally, but I wish I had written them down. I also had some story dreams that I would write down.  I still have two dreams I wrote down.  I lost a lot of early writing when our home flooded in 1989.

In 1977 when Star Wars A New Hope was released, I was turning 14. My mother would buy me any related books which at first were few, but after the Return of the Jedi, all the books in the Expanded Universe started appearing. I read most of them every grade level including graphic comic books and cassette tape audios.

In adulthood around 1999, I started doing the online Star Wars roleplay fanfiction. I then joined other roleplay groups such as a LOTR group, a Regency historical romance fan fiction group, and one about dragons.  

I played with the same groups up through 2005. In 2006 I wrote Star Wars fan fiction with a friend from the Star Wars group until 2015, in fact, we were also roommates for 10 years of that.  
In 2011, I decided I wanted to be a paid author, so started writing and learning more in-depth about the writing craft.

Don’t get me wrong I have always read and loved learning about the writing craft since the 1990’s when I took my first writing course.  That was before there were online courses and the internet was in its infancy.   The course came to me through the snail mail from Writer’s Digest and one from The Children’s Writing Institute, so I have always been preparing, I guess.

I had three poems published in 1995-1999. One of those poems was republished, to be set to music, for an anthology for the Millennium.  I have had shorts in a couple of anthologies, took part in flash fiction blog hops, and Story Advent Calendars for the last few years.  I have also published stories through Stormdance Publications. I am writing on Medium and I am working on four different novel series. I will also be doing the 2020 Ninja Write Along with Shaunta Grimes Ninja Writers Club.

My writing and writing life are a work in progress.  I am working toward the long term, so everything seems to take forever, but I continue to make forward progress.  Show up, persist, learn, practice, and set micro-steps.  Just do them, don’t think about all the other that needs doing, and when you look back you will be surprised how much forward motion you have taken. 

Yes, I would like to be further along in the journey, but I fight giving up all the time, but even if I do, I come right back to it.  My best writing year so far has been 2019 for publication, and by April 2020 we will have published seven Grumpy Gods anthologies.

Any step counts as long as you complete it.  That is something I keep telling myself.  What about you?  Why did you start writing?

I went to Star Wars Theme Park @ Disney World in Orlando Monday, Jan 6th. I came home with a pet Porg from the planet AchoTo and a BB8 droid. And I developed a hidden Yoda connection and grew some Yoda EARS. Oh yeah, I booked passage on the Millennium Falcon twice. The first time as a gunner and the second time as one of the pilots. Obviously we survived and captured our cargo, but not without a bit of damage to the Millennium Falcon. Don’t worry it will be fixed they took the credits out of our pay for the delivery.

We did not get to ride the new ride The Rise of the Resistance even though we got there at 7 am when the park opened. They have a capacity limit. We were #155 on the backup log. Another girl that was there at 650am said she was number 126 and did not get to ride either, so get there before they open at least while it is new if you want to ride it. They said it was pretty awesome.

The Millennium Falcon was awesome too it was like being inside a moving video game where you feel everything. The best position is the pilot for the best in action experience, but the gunner was fun too. They have a pilot, gunner, and engineer position. Two for each, it seats six. The details of everything was awesome to be in and walk around.

IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?

IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?

Voyagers: The Third Ghost

An Insecure Writer’s Support Group Anthology

Journey into the past…

Will the third ghost be found before fires take more lives? Can everyone be warned before Pompeii is buried again? What happens if a blizzard traps a family in East Germany? Will the Firebird help Soviet sisters outwit evil during WWII? And sneaking off to see the first aeroplane – what could go wrong?

Ten authors explore the past, sending their young protagonists on harrowing adventures. Featuring the talents of Yvonne Ventresca, Katharina Gerlach, Roland Clarke, Sherry Ellis, Rebecca M. Douglass, Bish Denham, Charles Kowalski, Louise MacBeath Barbour, Beth Anderson Schuck, and L.T. Ward.

Hand-picked by a panel of agents, authors, and editors, these ten tales will take readers on a voyage of wonder into history. Get ready for an exciting ride!

Available May 5, 2020 $13.95 USA, 6×9 Trade paperback, 168 pages, Freedom Fox Press Juvenile Fiction: Historical (JUV016000) / Action & Adventure (JUV001000) / Fantasy & Magic (JUV037000)

Print ISBN 9781939844729 eBook ISBN 9781939844736 Order through Ingram, Follett Library Resources, or publisher direct $4.99 EBook available in all formats

Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database; articles; monthly blog posting; Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram groups; #IWSGPit, and a newsletter. www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com

Amazon – Print  Kindle  Barnes & Noble –  ITunes –  Kobo – 

IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?
IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?
The next #IWSGPit  will be in January 15, 2020
8:00 am – 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time

Create a Twitter-length pitch for your completed and polished manuscript and leave room for genre, age, and the hashtag. On January 15, Tweet your pitch. If your pitch receives a favorite/heart from a publisher/agent check their submission guidelines and send your requested query.

Many writers have seen their books published from a Twitter pitch – it’s a quick and easy way to put your manuscript in front of publishers and agents.

IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?
IWSG JANUARY 8th: Why Do You Write?

Join the IWSG Book Club on Good Reads for polls, freebies, book chats, and fun. 

The December 2019/January 2020 book will be On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King.
Discussion Fun Day will be January 22, 2020.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group made the Write Life 100 Best List!

Check it out here!