The Birth of The Runner

This post is going to detail some of the steps I went through in order to turn my manuscript into a finished product I self-published on Amazon.

• My Cover - For my cover of The Runner, I went to Alchemy Book Covers. Their website has a section titled "Quick Covers". I picked out three pictures from **Fotolia.com and for $35 they turned these:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Into This:
  
   **WARNING - looking for pictures for your book cover is very addictive. Do not attempt to do this unless you have some free time.
• Beta Readers - If you haven't checked out GoodReads, do this NOW! Create your profile and join some groups. There are people who may enjoy reading your manuscript and will give you feedback for free. They will give you an idea of what to expect in your reviews when you do publish. There are people who will charge you for this service too. In my opinion, why not get as many free opinions as you can and then if you feel like you need a paid expert, find one. Make sure you know what you're looking for. Some beta readers specialize in plot, characters, flow, and that sort of thing while others are grammar and punctuation experts. Remember, only make the changes you feel you want or need to. If you are getting the same criticism over and over, maybe you should change that aspect. Every person who reads your work may have a different opinion and you can't make everyone happy so just make yourself happy.
• Editors - A good editor is not cheap. Again, are you looking for someone who specializes in grammar and punctuation or your content? I used this editor. She is pretty inexpensive and very helpful. I would recommend sending your manuscript off to an editor as a final step. Do as much as you can yourself, get some free beta readers, take their advice or leave it, complete one more draft or two, and then start paying the experts. 
• Start your blog and join social networking sites if you haven't already. Start building your book up before you publish. Get others excited about it. Set your release date and start counting down the days. This is something I would have done earlier if I had to do it all over again.
• I've mentioned this book before, but download this free Ebook to help you format your finished product. 
• Check out blogs written by and for self-published authors. I am very new at this. I have gone through the process, so I have that experience, but there are people who have been doing this successfully for years and are sharing their FREE advice. I love this website.
• Just Keep Writing!! After you've done all you need to do for your first book, start the second. Keep writing. This is the one piece of advice that all self-publishing advice givers agree on. 

Good luck to all you self-published authors out there. To all you readers, thank you for your support. 

Virginia Woolf had Problems Too!

I thought, driving through Richmond last night, something very profound about the synthesis of my being: how nothing makes a whole unless I am writing. – Virginia Woolf, Diary Vol. 4

Right now I should be working on my master's thesis on Virginia Woolf, but my brain did manage to convince the rest of me that this blog post is related to my thesis and therefore counts as working on my thesis. 

As many of us may know, Virginia Woolf had problems. We probably know that on March 28, 1941, she walked to the River Ouse, filled her pockets with stones, and drowned herself. 

What I didn't know was that despite the fact that Virginia Woolf is one of the greatest authors, ever, she was also one of us. By this, I mean, if she were alive today and wanted to self-publish her novel on Amazon, she would be going through a lot of the same things us normal folks have gone through. I am going to quote from some of her diary entries so you can see what I mean:

George Eliot would never read reviews, since talk of her books hampered her writing. I begin to see what she meant. I don't take praise or blame excessively to heart, but they interrupt, cast one's eyes backward, make one wish to explain or investigate.

It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned...writing is always difficult.

I don't know why it always amazes me that the greatest authors doubted their abilities. They dreaded and sometimes received bad reviews. They had writer's block. 

Virginia Woolf loved writing. She lived for it. Writing is what got her though tough times. It made her feel better. When she was institutionalized her doctors would not let her write. They said it was bad for her mental health. They knew nothing. 

Melancholy diminishes as I write.

In Virginia Woolf's suicide note she believed she was beginning another breakdown. 

I can't fight any longer...You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read...If anybody could have saved me it would have been you.

Here is my all-time favorite Virginia Woolf quote:

Yet who reads to bring about an end, however desirable? Are there not some pursuits that we practise because they are good in themselves, and some pleasures that are final? And is not this among them? I have sometimes dreamt, at least, that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards–their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble–the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when he sees us coming with our books under our arms, “Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading."

A Crash Course in Natural Living

A lot of the research I did for my book The Runner came about after trying to live a more natural lifestyle. I didn't want to have to worry about my son drinking windex and I didn't want to teach him how to brush his teeth with a toothpaste that warned, "Do not swallow!" I mentioned in an earlier post that I was moved after watching the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, but didn't know where to begin. This post is a crash course based on years of research, trial and error, and creativity.

1. Toothpaste - A link to my favorite natural toothpaste recipe can be found here. This recipe contains ingredients that you may find at your local health food store, but I did not know how the characters in my book would make coconut oil in a region where coconuts don't grow and xylitol is hard enough to find, even when you have three hippy healthy grocery stores to choose from. The recipe in my book for the toothpaste Avi uses from charred eggplants came from this book:
   
   This is a great resource for hippy-wisdom full of recipes, how-to's like instructions for building a sweat lodge, and naked hippy drawings. This book was written as an instruction manual when the author was living in a commune in the seventies.
2. Clothes Washing - All of the research I've done on washing clothes says that agitation is more important than soap. I've even read that putting your clothes in the washer without soap is enough to get your clothes clean, but I've never been brave enough to try this. Ever seen women smacking clothes against rocks in a river? Agitation.
   
   A washboard works fine too.
   
   I like this little hand-cranked washer.
   
   If you have enough money to spend, you can check out Lehman's unplugged catalog. 
3. Laundry Detergent - If you do decide that you can't live with washing clothes by agitation alone, there are lots of recipes for homemade laundry detergent that will save you a ton of money and cut down on the harmful chemicals in your household. This is my favorite homemade laundry detergent recipe and it will literally save you 95% of the money you were spending on laundry detergent.
4. Homemade Soap - In The Runner, Avi's village makes soap using wood ashes. I have never made soap this way because it seems difficult and dangerous and it doesn't sound like it would be easy to get your measurements precise, which is such a crucial element in soap making. There are plenty of soap recipes on the web like this site where the soaps look good enough to eat
   
   and there are plenty of resources for soap making. I would recommend a lye calculator if you want to make up your own recipe. Remember to be careful with any additions you add to your soap recipe including color. I've used crayons to color my soap, but remember anything you add could affect the chemical reaction you're creating so you have to be careful. Also, you can't buy lye in any store I've looked in. I had to order it online and fill out a form so someone can track my purchases and make sure I'm not using this to make drugs. 
   
5. Bread Making - In The Runner, Avi talks about how her village makes sourdough bread.
   
   I've used a recipe from this book. It literally takes weeks to make enough starter for this recipe and then it takes a whole day to make the bread (because it takes longer for the bread to rise with homemade starter instead of store bought yeast). This is my all-time favorite dried sourdough starter. If you follow the link, you will find instructions for getting your own Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter in the mail for FREE! It will look like this:
   
   This starter has an interesting history and is very easy to reactivate.  
6. Reconnecting - I can honestly say that this book changed my life. If you think that it is a little odd that Avi knows how to speak to animals and thanks her food after she's done eating, I think it is odd when we seem to forget that we are not the only feeling animals on this planet. 
   
7. Household Cleaners - If you look online you will find numerous recipes for homemade household cleaners. I simply use baking soda anytime I need an abrasive. Sometimes I'll mix baking soda with liquid dish soap and this works great on bathtubs. I buy empty spray bottles from the hardware store and fill them with 1/2 water and 1/2 white vinegar. This is great for just about anything (even windows and mirrors) and if you run out of salad dressing a few sprays will liven up your greens. 
8. Baby Bums - Sure, we've all heard of cloth diapering and many of us know that today's cloth diapers are much safer (no gigantic pins) and much cuter than those in the past.
   
   Have you ever heard of going diaper free?
   
   I read this book when my son was a little over a year. While he wasn't technically a baby, baby anymore, I modified things a bit to get him used to life without a diaper and this made using a potty fairly painless. I stuck him in the backyard sans diaper and he literally jumped the first time he went #1 because his diaper had kept him from truly experiencing this bodily function. 
9. Backyard Animals - If you're like me and always wanted to live on a farm, but lived in the city, don't let your small backyard become your excuse for not having a farm. Here are my backyard chickens:
   
   Check out this inspiring family who has been farming on 1/10th of an acre for years in downtown Pasadena, CA. 
   
10. Personal Hygiene - I've read and reread the Little House on the Prairie books many times and I remember Laura saying that she only bathed once a week, on Saturday evenings before church and the family would re-use the bath water.
    
    I've heard (but never asked to confirm this) that the Amish have a similar routine. Now, this is only my opinion, but I think that this would be a lot easier to get away with when everyone around you has a similar bathing schedule. I also think that because of the labor involved in bathing, that this was okay. I've taken a shower from a rigged up black barrel that had sat in the sun all day and dripped down as a shower. While better than nothing, this did not replace the feeling of a nice warm shower. I've read that some people follow the same philosophy as clothes washing and will simply use water alone with agitation to wash their bodies, but I don't think this would work for me. If society collapsed and I had no other choice, I could get clean in one way or another, but it would be very difficult to look back on the days when I simply had to turn a knob to get hot water.
11. Cooking - Look up recipes online. You can find recipes for just about anything nowadays and when you cook from scratch you get to control what you're eating. There are tons of people who will go out of their way to create a recipe that tastes very similar to your favorite fast-food items, but without any mystery ingredients. I've looked up recipes from Pizza Hut pizza to goldfish crackers. I love the internet!
    

Well, that's it for now. Post a comment if you think I left anything off or if you have any questions. Living a more natural lifestyle is not something that should cost you more money and should actually save you money. The internet is full of recipes, tricks, and wisdom, but so are old people! Visit your grandparents or a retirement village and talk to the people who live there. You will learn a LOT and brighten someone's day.

Never Give Up!

Once upon a time there was a dog. He loved to run. He loved to run so much that he would drop any living or dead animal he was playing with at the time to go on a run with me and my son. One afternoon I began one of our runs and noticed some pieces of colored glass or plastic laying in the road. This was something I was used to seeing all over city streets from leftover car accidents, but I couldn't understand what it was doing in the middle of a country road. What did it hit? I continued on my run with this question rolling around inside my head. After about five minutes of running I thought to check the dog. I didn't think of it at first because he was just as eager as ever to join me on a run. Sure enough, I spotted some blood on his back end. I took him back home and encouraged him to stay on his bed. I moved his food and water close to him and my son and I gave him extra love and attention. After a few stiff days, he was completely fine. (This dog weighed as much as a small adult or a supermodel, probably why he survived the incident) The moral of this story is that when you love doing something, you will continue to do it, and ignore any excuses such as getting hit by a car. Alphonse, we love you!

10 Things You Probably Did Not Know About Me

I'd like to think that I've lived a fairly exciting life. I am one of those people who like to sit at home and curl up with a cup of some kind of hot beverage and a good book. However, sometimes when I do leave the house, exciting things happen. Here's my list:

1. I once rescued a man out of a trash can. 
2. I have a motorcycle license and used to own a motorcycle. 
3. One of my dreams was to ride a camel near the pyramids in Egypt. I have fulfilled this dream.
4. I am a shy and quiet person, but I have performed on stage. I have also sung on stage on three separate occasions (only one of these occasions involved alcohol). I know, some people do this without batting an eyelash, but this was not easy for me.
5. The dead speak to me in my dreams and they usually have nice things to say.
6. I took tae kwon do as a child so now I can beat up the average person and most children (if I wanted to).
7. I once met the actor Ben Stein ("Bueller? Bueller?") and he nicknamed me "Trixie".
8. I am really good at finding four-leaf clovers.
9. I have never enjoyed myself in a ball-pit because my older brother told me there were skeletons on the bottom from the people who drowned. I used to cling to the side of the pit until it was time to come out. 
10. My television production teacher in college told me that my final project offended the whole class. I received an "A" anyway.

On Football and Writing

I love football season and I'm not a big fan of football. I know, odd, but football is great white noise for me and while my husband is engrossed in a game, I'm engrossed in my writing. That is, of course, until my husband begins cheering or yelling, and then I get to watch the replay of whatever fantastic or disappointing play that just took place. I did just say that I'm not a big football fan, but there's something about those players diving in, headfirst, doing whatever it takes to complete a play (or stop it) that fascinates me. This is what separates the professionals from the amateurs, this diving in without a care. I admire this and I believe that the same can be said for writing. How do I take my writing to that professional level? How do I dive in, headfirst, without a care as to what anyone else thinks, only that I do whatever it takes to get the job done, the job that is true to my soul? This is not an easy question to answer. When football players go all-in, we can visibly see the magic. When writers go all-in, there's a response from the reader's soul.