Authors Electric

You should always wear your wee red briefs for any up-front Big Reveal. And I say the briefer the better. Keep my Reveal in hand--er, mind--as I approach the climax of my years-long affair with AE: It's time for me to say goodbye. In brief, hear are a handful of lessons I've learned and memories I'll treasure. --AE affords its members a rare sense of community. Most of us begin with no sense of our audience; many writers never acquire that sense. Even once we've published, it may be years between books and the loneliness of our profession may seem at times to be too much to bear. Here, once a month, we address writers we've gotten to know. Kindred souls with war stories to share. --The blog can be a great testing ground. Which of our monthly posts strike a chord...and which fail, like my last post, to attract a single comment--or raise the hackles of colleagues, like my Jack the Ripper post. This chance to test the impact of our words can be immensely...

I've loved sharing all my bookish experiences with all at AE I posted my first blog for Authors Electric in April 2016, just a month after I'd self-published my debut solo book. I felt a great sense of belonging - reading other author's posts, having a new monthly "deadline" and sharing my bookish experiences with everyone involved with AE. In the past year and a half, that feeling hasn't changed, although my situation has. My son finally entered the world of full-time education, and while that sounds like I should have more time on my hands, I haven't. It's quite a surreal feeling to be given more "free" hours each day, yet feel you're still not getting enough done. But, not only am I using this time to write the fourth book in my series, I've also taken on a new project that will mean I can continue to work from home and keep my working fingers in the proverbial publishing pie. Sadly, that does mean something has to gi...