This year was off to a rocky start as I struggled with health concerns that didn't seem to be getting any better as time went on. I felt like a medical jig saw puzzle with parts missing. Now, I finally have some answers and the pieces are all falling into place so I can begin this year again starting now and I'm only four and half months behind schedule.
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A seasoned best-selling author once advised authors to not read the online reviews posted by readers, saying, "those reviews are intended for other readers, so they know if they'll like the book. You might get your heart broken if you see a bad review and focus on that one rather than all the good ones."
Fair enough, except recently, I saw a one-star review of "Knitting Up a Murder," the first book in the Yarn Genie Mystery Series. Curious, I foolishly read the review, hoping to see what about my writing or the mystery the reader didn't like, as those comments help with my future writing endeavors. I found the reader was angry because the series started out with the protagonist knitting in the first book and then switched to her crocheting in the next. The reader only knows how to knit and felt it is deceptive because all the books aren't about knitting. Did I not clarify that Imogene being blamed for her husband being killed with her knitting needles caused her to stop knitting with sharp needles for a while? While it saddens me to think I disappointed this reader, I don't feel I was deceptive in having Imogene shy away from knitting for a few books. The entire premise of the Yarn Genie Mystery Series is that Imogene loves yarn and keeps buying more. She went back to knitting in book four, "Wedding Lace Murder," when she knit a beautiful ribbon yarn shawl, but that reader won't ever know that because she will never again buy one of my books. *Heavy sigh* It is probably just as well that reader decided to abandon Imogene since I'm thinking of having her take up crewel embroidery in book six. I don't know about you, but my holidays are always fraught with a certain level of anxiety. My mind is always racing ahead to the next thing I have to do, making it hard to focus on the task at hand. I flit from one item to the next with little getting accomplished. I've been through this more times than I will ever admit to in print, so I know I can handle it, but each year it feels like I can't.
This year, I promised myself I would squeeze in more time for my writing, but how do I squeeze one more thing on my plate when it is already full to bursting? Should I do what everyone does at Thanksgiving? Take some deep breaths, stuff writing in any way, and then loosen my belt and relax after everything is done? Or would I end up busting a gut before I got to the relaxing part? You'll know the answer if you see me beltless and smiling after the holidays! Yesterday, I dropped a flower into his grave to honor and say goodbye to fellow author, artist, entertainer, my best friend's brother, and my long-time friend, Dann Furrow. The funeral home was standing room only. He loved the family who adopted him as a baby and, in recent years, found his biological family to have even more people to love and be loved by. More importantly, everyone he met became his family. He lived his life doing the things he loved and with the people he loved. I plan to take a lesson from all the dances he danced, the pictures he drew, the plays he performed in, the music he wrote and played, and the fun he had just being himself. We should all strive to live our life with that same joy.
, It's time to reveal a part of my past that I almost abandoned.
In 2014, when I was driven to get my book published before I died of breast cancer, I designed my book cover using materials I had on hand. Once I had a better cover, I would look back at that cover and cringe. Now I see it as something to be proud of. When that book was published, I paid $38 a day co-pays for six weeks of daily radiation treatments and $1,500 a month to keep my two girls in college. There was no money to pay a cover designer, and I didn't want to wait 18 months to get traditionally published so the publisher could do a beautiful cover for my book. Once my manuscript was complete (or so I thought) and I wasn't too exhausted from treatments to do anything other than sleep, I read everything about writing and publishing I could get my hands on and watched every video I felt was worthy of my precious time. That first cover was created using a scarf picture of mine. It sold some books so that I could afford a better cover eventually. I didn't keep a copy of that first book, not even as a memento, but I have pictures to remember that cover. Many years later, I am still writing and publishing books, with better covers. I don't know why all these years I failed to recognize that first book cover as the accomplishment it was. That simple cover represented the hard work I put into beating cancer and the start of my journey as an author. I am grateful that I had that chance. If I could go back, I wouldn't change a thing because it's why I am who I am today. No matter where you are in life, embrace your journey. It's uniquely yours and yours alone. I sometimes lay awake for hours because worry weighs me down and crowds my brain. that is trying to deal with what I can do to stop or deal with the things that are causing me to worry. I've taken to writing down those plaguing thoughts, especially those that haunt me in the middle of the night. This way I can tell my brain it's alright to go to sleep; we'll start fresh on those problems in the morning.
Amazon has a new publishing platform for authors. It's called Kindle Vella. The stories on Vella are written one episode at a time. I love writing and often have several novels in progress at any time. Kindle Vella is the perfect incentive for me to get back to writing these novels. Having to complete one episode before going on to the next keeps me focused on moving forward with each book. I love Kindle Vella because it has let me dust off some novel ideas that I'd been flirting with for years. Ambition is one of the stories that I started in 2010. It's a dystopian novel with all the perils of everyday life included. Because this novel contains sex scenes and is far removed from my cozy mystery series, I decided it needed a pen name. I love the name Seneca Storm, but that was the real-life name of someone I know, so I settled on a name that has historical significance for the women's movement but is spelled a bit differently. You can catch Ambition on Kindle Vella written under the name Seneca Fauls. You can also follow along as I write the next cozy mystery, Knot Another Murder, the fifth book in the Yarn Genie Mystery series written under by cozy author name, Celeste Bennett. If you want something zany, try my middle-grade novel, Call Me Beef Brisket, also under Celeste Bennett. If you are into romance, you might like, Run Away to Texas, written under the name of Seneca Fauls, due to the mature content. Note: A contentious issue with the township I live in has kept me extremely busy, so it has been a while since I was able to add to these stories. The good news is that things have slowed down some, so I will now have time to write again and will also have plenty of material for my next murder mystery! I didn't watch the ball drop at midnight New Year's Eve. I didn't even stay up until midnight. I did wake up at 12:02 am to discover that I'd made it to 2022.
At each year's new beginning, my goals for the year have been simple: Finish my latest Yarn Genie Mystery novel, use up my yarn stash, and stay away from consuming sugar. That's it. Just like last year and the year before that, I'm eating an apple fritter as I type this. I have renamed the newest Yarn Genie Mystery to "Knot Another Murder," as though that will help me write the story that I haven't touched since last year. I just started another crochet project before I finished the last three I'd started, but I have a good excuse; it's frightening cold here in Michigan, and working on an afghan is warmer than crocheting a cute little dog. And, oh! I am thinking about starting another novel before the last four are done simply because I think it would be cool to have a protagonist with the name "Spade." Is it Groundhog's Day yet? I decided to try expanding my ebook sales beyond Amazon. "Murder at Yarn Mansion" is now available on Nook, Kobo, Apple books, Scribd, Tolino, and Borrow Box. More options to come!
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Celeste BennettI'm a struggling author, these days what author isn't? I'm learning that life is better when you do what you love and I love writing, when I'm not crocheting or spending time with family. Archives
May 2024
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