I’ve blogged and podcast and Tweeted many times about networking and the importance of reaching out to meet new people. It is always very rewarding to meet new people and build those online relationships.

It is even more cool (for me, anyway) when someone reaches out to me. For example, a few weeks back, K_A_Dewberry contacted me and told me she had found my podcast (Get Published) recently and had downloaded all the episodes and listened to them. She said she loved the show.

Hearing that someone likes my podcast is very gratifying. Learning that they downloaded all fifty-four (at the time, I think) episodes and had done a marathon listen to them was outright stunning. I mean, the episodes average something in excess of fifty minutes each. That is a HUGE commitment to the show and an amazing display of stamina.

When she asked me if I’d like to do a blog interview, I jumped at the chance. I am a strong believer in cross-promotion, after all.

The questions arrived in my email inbox and I was delighted with them. They made me think and really look back at why I do many of the things I do. It reminded me that writing isn’t a competition to see who can outdo whom and get the biggest, best and most book contracts.

It is, as I’ve said many times before, about community and helping your fellow writers to succeed. After all, readers are always looking for new stuff to read. If you happen to have some affiliation with a writer someone enjoys, they might just try your work out too. Helping others doesn’t have to be totally selfless.

Now, before you start to think I only agreed to do the blog interview out of ego and self-interest, let me say this: it was extremely flattering to be asked and I always do my best to help out wherever I can. I don’t know if anyone will read the post except Ms. Dewberry. If she gets something out of it, the effort was worthwhile.

I know, I got a great deal out of answering the questions. As I said before, it reminded me of why I do many of the things I’m doing today. To move forward, you must know where you’ve been. To improve, you must remember the mistakes. To help others in their writing journeys, you need to shine the light on what worked and what didn’t.

I hope I can be a light through my answers.

You can see K.A.Dewberry’s site at: http://kadewberry-author.blogspot.com/. Drop by and say ‘hello’ if you get the chance.

Tags: blog, blog interview, cross-promotion, interview, irreverent muse, k.a.dewberry, k_a_dewberry, Michell Plested, promotion, self publishing, writing

One of the things that always gets my creative juices flowing is the chance to meet and talk with other creative types, especially writers.

That being said, you can imagine how much fun I had last night talking to the good folks at Flying Island Press on the Galley Table. This wasn’t my first time on the show, but it was the first time my co-writer and collaborator JR Murdock and I were on a show together. It is also the first time my alter-ego (JAHite on Twitter) and I appeared on the show at the same time.

Let me begin by explaining the inside joke of JAHite and alter-ego.

I made a comment a few weeks ago that Jeff Hite (the Dark Lord himself) and I had never appeared on Galley Table together. Perhaps we were actually the same person. Jeff took that little comment and ran with it (which continues to this day). We are having a lot of fun with the whole alter-ego and taking over the world ever since.

In terms of JR Murock: I have long enjoyed his work and followers of this blog will know that back in November we officially began work on a YA Superhero, Steampunk novel together. We went for quite some time not actually talking about it and didn’t even acknowledge we were working together. It was simply called the secret project.

Things have, of course, moved on since then and we have begun to talk about the book. It isn’t quite finished, but is well on it’s way. As I’ve said before, we are having a LOT of fun writing it. Now we just have to complete it. But it IS time to start talking about it, which we did on Galley Table.

After the show JR and I went solo and continued the conversation of where we would like to see things go. Lots of different ideas were discussed and tabled and I realized once again that being a writer is awesome! There are so many things I want to write and do, it is sometimes hard to decide where to begin.

That’s when I realized how appropriate the title for today’s post is.

There simply are not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I want to do.

But that’s not actually a bad thing. It means that I will never have a shortage of things to write or podcast or… whatever. It means that my creative inner self will always be well-fed and nourished. It means that I will always have the great fortune to be entertained and hopefully, be entertaining.

So what do I have on the go? Well, it is a long and (hopefully) interesting list:

• Mystery of Lake Chulala: A Outcast Club Mystery – major revisions complete, meeting with cover artist and hope to have it available in paperback and eFormats by end-of-May
• Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero (book 1) – under contract with Five Rivers Publishing - awaiting revisions from editor
• GalaxyBillies – waiting to be revised and pitched to Agents and Publishers
• JR Mudock and Mike Plested collaboration – at least at the 75% completion point. Future to be decided – either self-pub or do an agent/publisher search
• Boy Scouts of the Apocalypse – waiting to be finished. Currently sitting at approximately 10% complete. This is a GREAT story that I cannot wait to finish.
• Get Published podcast – ongoing
• Providing voice to two other story podcasts
• Start revising Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero (book 2)
• Several short stories, novelettes and other books I want to write that are only in my head at the moment.

It’s a lot to do and they are all projects I really want to get going on. So, what happens when I talk to JR? We conceptualize a buttload of other projects to work on. They all sound awesome and they all need lots of time. Where is it all going to come from?

I don’t know the answer but I’m sure going to try and find it because what’s on the horizon is too cool to ignore. I guess the first thing I need to do is quit sitting around writing less than I’m capable of. Perhaps I need to set the personal goal of writing more this year than any other year before. Sleep is for the weak after all, right?

But seriously, there is so much awesomeness, I need to begin looking at how much time each will take and start prioritizing each project. That way, I will get the most bang for my buck. It also means, I have to be more diligent with meeting my goals too. I owe it to myself and to those of you who want to read my work to get as much out as I can.

Part of my reluctance to talk about my writing comes from the fact that I don’t like asking for support. I truly believe that if people like what I do they will pony up. If they don’t like it, they won’t. Asking for that support seems insincere to me. Another part of that is I don’t like talking about things until they are finished. I come from the world of computers where many companies talk about products that never see the light of day. We call it vapourware.

I never want to be the writer who promotes vapourware.

So my commitment to you is that I will always finish stories I talk about at any point. I can’t promise that the stories will be wonderful, but they will be complete. I also can’t promise that they will be done quickly.

So, in the spirit of providing you with more to enjoy, I will commit to spending more time writing and less time not writing. It will be difficult, but the characters, stories and, most of all, the readers (i.e. you) deserve that attention.

Thank you for your patience. And if you can spare a few hours of your day so I can get more writing done, I would appreciate it.

Personal Update

I found out from the aforementioned JAHite that one of my stories will appear in Pirate’s Cove Premium Issue 2 in June. I’m very excited to have it show up and I encourage you to have a read. I will provide the details when it is available.

Tags: five rivers publishing, flying island press, goals, irreverent muse, ja hite, jahite, jeff hite, Michell Plested, pirate's cove, writing