bourbon

Circling The Shadows — it happened!

/ PaigeRandall / 6 Comments

20150429_180211This is maybe the happiest blog I’ve ever blogged. Except the Brooklyn blog, Emotional Rescue. I really liked that one. Thank you to my twitter friend Mohamed.  We had an interesting discussion today. The question … what was the best day of your life?  Everyone immediately defaults to weddings, graduations, etc.  But are those really the best days of our lives?  Those orchestrated, choreographed, costumed events that cost an arm and a leg and require enormous stress. Births are of course wonderful, but they are certainly not the best day of parenting.

Mohamed wanted to know if releasing Circling The Shadows, now available on Kindle and paperback (typing that is actually really fun), was the best day of my life. It really got me thinking and truthfully I don’t have an answer. I’ve been thinking about the best ten days of my life to put the whole thing into perspective. It is really hard to boil your life down into the top ten days. This is going to take awhile.  To answer Mohamed, no, publishing Circling The Shadows, now available on Kindle and paperback, was not one of the best days of my life. Discovering I could write it in the first place, that was definitely one of the best days of my life.

Since the beginning, I was always afraid that writing would be a Flowers For Algernon scenario for me. Much like Charlie Gordon, I would suddenly have this ever increasing intellect, only to lose it in the end. Of course writing isn’t about intellect so much as it is about understanding… or desire to understand.  What makes people act and react?  In Circling The Shadows, now available on Kindle and paperback, Stephanie talks about understanding peoples Whys. Why do we think, say, do, don’t think, don’t say, don’t do? I love that.

I’m a little drunk.  I can feel the ramble coming on.  Let’s end it with a song. At this point, there really is no choice as to the song, of course. Did I mention that  Circling The Shadows is now available on Kindle and paperback?

Lots of love to you all!

And Mohamed – thank you for your friendship.

Writer’s Gotta Write

/ PaigeRandall / Leave a comment

IMG_20150116_200717Yesterday, February 7th, was one year since I typed the first sentence of Circling.  Back then it was called, “The Keys,” and the first sentence is no longer the first sentence, but it was a monumental day for me.  I consider this day to be my writer’s birthday. On February 7th, I left a part of myself behind – mostly fear – and entered a whole new world. I typically celebrate writing accomplishments with a steak and a bourbon.  I was far from home last night, so I kept it to a steak and Shiraz, and it was lovely.

In 365 days I have written and edited and edited and edited and edited and edited and edited and fucking rewritten and edited Circling. (< – – is an accurate assessment of my drafts). I wrote and edited and edited Forever Falling. The second book was a hell of a lot easier to write than the first.

What all of you published authors know (independent or otherwise), the lesson that I am just learning, is that getting a novel in front of readers – covers, promo content, a marketing plan, tech, all of this – is about as tricky as a first draft and not nearly as fun.

I have been adamant about not starting the third novel in this series of four, until Circling and Forever Falling are in your hands.  I can’t keep all these balls in that air.  I am a terrible juggler. The waking up at 3:00 a.m., worrying that John and Anna will destroy each other, blends with waking at 3 a.m., considering how and if Callum and Victoria can find happiness together.  I can’t add a third story to the mix.  So… I am not writing. I am not writing at all.  I am selecting cover art and considering promotion strategies and researching conferences. But I am not writing at all.  I haven’t blogged since I fell down the mountain after New Year’s Day. (I really fell down on the mountain, but the other is such a better sentence. I would prefer to say fell off the mountain, but it is a lie).

The real problem is that I am waking less and less at 3:00 a.m.  I complain a lot about my insomnia.  I hadn’t slept more than three consecutive hours since February 7th, 2014. This morning I slept straight through to 5:00 a.m., woke, glanced at my notifications and went right back to sleep til 7:00 a.m.  My mind is turning to mush.  IMG_20150127_102839I’ve started watching Grey’s Anatomy again and actually looking at the screen. I’ve been cooking and shopping and showering daily.  This has got to stop!  I long for those days I was taking in 900 calories a day, popping a Xanax to get 5 hours of sleep and writing 10,000 words a day.  If I am 100% honest I can say there is probably no better feeling in the world than those days of insanity, pushing a story.  On the planet, how many of us can do it, have done it, and strive to do it again?

So here I am at Starbucks… part of the early crowd for the first time in almost two months.  Truly the Circling rewrite kicked my ass.  I probably needed a break after that, but the break is done. After this is posted, I’ll start the final edit of Forever Falling and then onto book 3.  That will be a joyous day! As we all know… a writer’s gotta write.

How is your W.I.P.?  Challenges, successes?  Share it and let’s commiserate and celebrate.

I seem to be playing this song constantly.  It isn’t my usual but it has really gotten under my skin.  It seems like a good song for beginnings…

 

The Strangest Thing

/ PaigeRandall / 5 Comments

So one day you decide to write and write you do. You write morning, noon and night. Your try to fit in a semblance of a real life, work, family, friends, basic healthcare, maybe too little fitness, and you write a damn book.

For me, the first time around, writing Circling, most of the energy felt like adrenaline. It was probably a nice boost of endorphins. Forget the runner’s high, try the writer’s high! I would get up after hours motionless, except fingers on a keyboard, panting from expended energy. But it was all mental and unsustainable.
Eventually, by the later drafts of Circling, my physiological response to writing normalized, and it scared me. The energy was crazy, but it was magical too. What if the magic deserted me and I went back to being just plain me. I like writer me much more than other me.
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So on June 2, 2014, I started my second attempt at writing. Forever Falling picks up a few months after Circling ends. The story travels west with Anna’s brother Callum. Writing was a bit more staid. It was slow to start and my fingers danced much less aggressively across the keyboard. But it kept coming. The questions kept getting asked and answered and the voices kept talking. It took about three and a half months for a very respectable first draft, but it happened.
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I typed the magic words today. With Circling I didn’t type them until draft four. Forever Falling is a much cleaner first draft. POV and narrative inexperience plagued me the first time around. Not this time, lessons learned.
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Tonight I’ll celebrate with a bourbon and a steak. To me this combination tastes of pure satisfaction.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be working with an editor to put the finishing polish on Circling. I have decided to leave the traditional world of publishing behind. I’d much rather be the pilot of my own destiny. My goal is to have it in the hands of all the world in December.
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Raise a glass with me, if you will, tonight. Toast every beginning and every ending. And may every ending lead to a new beginning.

XO