Do you feel it? Emotions writing prompts

I've been hard at work on several collections of writing prompts that I hope to release in the coming months. Just for fun, I thought I'd give you a small taste of what's in store. The prompts below are a very small sampling of the character and emotions prompts collection, over 1,000 in all. on 40 different emotions and numerous aspects of character development.

(Update: 1001 Evocative Prompts for Fiction Writers is available NOW!)

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Emotions are the raw material for all creative writing (and quite a lot of nonfiction as well). Use one of the following prompts to delve into a strong emotion, writing as yourself, a fictional character, or a poetic persona. Let your exploration lead you toward the beginnings of a work of memoir, fiction or poetry. Some hint at a particular genre, others could be spun to fit multiple genres.

Amusement / Mirth

• The best prank I’ve ever pulled / heard about.
• How the court jester turned back an invading army.
• Ten terrible metaphors and/or similes
• Epic fail involving a skateboard, trampoline, or rope swing.
• Mischievous magical folk create havoc in a village one spring evening.
• Ten of the most ridiculous ways to kill off a character.
• I can’t keep a straight face when I see ____.
• A group of stand-up comics is taken hostage and must joke their way out of captivity.

Boredom

• The most boring family event I can remember (or imagine)
• You are a spinster noblewoman in 1815 England.
• An athlete recovering from a concussion may not do, watch, or read anything to rest his/her injured brain.
• A child’s eye view of a wedding.
• You work as a lifeguard at a lap pool in a retirement home.
• The diary of a prisoner in solitary confinement.
• To marry your true love, you must attend weekly three-hour prayer meetings with your future in-laws for the next six months.
• The dullest person you have ever dated.
• An astronaut must live alone on a space station for a year.

Defeat / Discouragement

• A setback or failure from which you thought you would never recover.
• You missed the last bus/train/flight for the day.
• Your science fair invention works perfectly until the judges come to observe it.
• A false rumor causes everyone to shun you.
• In a team competition, your teammates suffer a series of injuries, one after another.
• Your corporate sponsor threatens to withdraw funding for a minor mistake.
• You can’t hold a job because of a crazy relative who makes trouble everywhere.
• A chronic illness makes it impossible to complete an important task.

Embarrassment

• I have never been so embarrassed as when ____.
• A beauty queen gets a nosebleed/gas attack during a pageant.
• A dignitary comes for dinner and you/your child/your pet vomits on him/her.
• Your swimsuit gets gobbled up by the pool drainage system.
• Your parent with Tourette’s Syndrome chaperones the class trip/school dance.
• The bakery accidently sends a lewd bachelorette party cake for Nana’s 90th birthday party.
• The fart that changed my destiny.
• Your doting mother shows off your baby pictures/awkward adolescent pictures/dweeby polka-band pictures to a potential mate.

Hope

• You romantically connect with someone on a chance encounter, and the person asks for your number or gives you theirs.
• A woman who has suffered several miscarriages enters the 36th week of a healthy pregnancy.
• Describe the bodily sensations you have when you are hopeful.
• Interstellar explorers find what looks like a viable planet for colonization, capable of sustaining human life.
• A cancer patient begins an experimental treatment.
• Police get an anonymous tip about a cold case.
• The addict you love reaches their first anniversary of sobriety.
• A group of castaways finds a crate on the beach full of farming and fishing equipment.

Shame

• I could never tell ____.
• How someone with an eating disorder might think about his/her body.
• What deeply shameful experience could I more easily write myself free of if I gave it to a fictional character?
• What skeletons do my parents have in their closets?
• The day I realized there was something deeply wrong with me.
• What shameful secret might my antagonist hide at all costs?
• Deeply religious parents learn their child is leaving the faith because…
• You learn that your parent or grandparent was once a Nazi, a torturer, or slave dealer.
• A doctor makes a simple error that causes a patient to ____.

Interested in doing more with emotion in your writing? Pick up my guided journal Emotions in the Wild: A Writer's Observation Journal. This tool, based on exercises used in method acting, leads you through observation activities so that you can better describe character emotional responses in your writing. 

Pocket sized, with plenty of space to record your observations, this is a tool useful for writers of any genre. 

Available here: 
Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Createspace / Book Depository

Which of these prompts appeal most to you? Why?

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Lessons Learned: Author School Visits

by guest Chrysa Smith

Some schools do it every year. Others have never had an author come into their school to speak to their students.  Yet for me, it's the only way to sell children's books--to sell books in quantity. But it's surely not for the faint of heart. Here are some of the lessons learned from "going back to school."

I learned long ago that if I wanted to get noticed as an author, I'd need to offer more than my book. After all, what makes my book different than the tens of thousands of children's books out there? So, after a little research and a lot of chutzpah, I decided to create a school program that went along with my first book.

Naturally, it spoke to my book, but it also included quite a bit about the writing process, which can also set an author apart. The presentation then became a lesson. More than a show 'n tell from an author, kids learned a few things without realizing it, all from a different perspective. And from my experience, teachers love it.

 Eight years ago, my program began as an overhead presentation (so much for technology). But it evolved, as the purchase of a projector gave birth to a PowerPoint, complete with cool graphics and fancy effects. A screen presentation is a 'must' if you visit schools, as assemblies are often held in gyms, auditoriums or cafeterias. Many schools do have Smart Boards with internet access and presentations can be shown from laptops. So it helps to have presentations on a memory stick as well--a little easier to tote and compatible with those schools that have the latest technology.

Presentations must fall in line with school schedules and teachers have to clear the space, the date and rearrange classes for the day, so while you might expect innumerable schools as your target market, my experience has shown the return on contacts to be quite low, thus my point about it not being for the faint of heart. Scoring school visits involves lots of time--lots and lots of time, perseverance and a budget--all necessary to create things like bookmarks, postcards, brochures--all must-haves in order to spread the word about you.

But perhaps the biggest question of all is how to market to schools? I wish I had a magic formula to share. To put it simply, it involves lots of contact. Emails, direct mailings, getting on school visitation websites. And while I have listed myself on 'authors who visit schools' sites, very little has come of it. For the most part, I do email blasts, and it does yield some results, but with the ever-growing number of protective filters out there, so many emails go unopened, which is why complimentary postcard mailings help. And don't underestimate the value of going to book fairs. I have sat at many, twiddling my thumbs and contemplating the universe, but some of the seemingly unending events have yielded school visits. All it takes is one contact to sell a few dozen books and perhaps lead to another school visit.

My advice? Start out locally. Hitting schools where you live is the best place to begin. They are often more open to authors who share their community. Discipline yourself with regular contact with them, and slowly, like a spider or world-wide web, cast your net larger and larger--as large as you care to or as long as you can stand being back in the classroom once again Good luck!

About the Author

Author of the easy-reader series: The Adventures of the Poodle Posse and a new picture book, Once upon a Poodle, Chrysa Smith always likes to see the fun side of things, as she observes her miniature poodles during devious endeavors in her home. A long-time feature magazine writer and shorter term children's author, Chrysa has always been a fan of the written word. It's just that now, it comes in simple, concise sentences.

Connect with Chrysa:

website / e-mail / Facebook

About the book

Once Upon a Poodle

Mom's Choice Award Silver Medalist for excellence in Juvenile Fiction

When miniature poodle Woody goes on a hunt for a new brother, all sorts of adventures are in store. Several attempts bring chaos into the house while trying to find a suitable creature to become the latest member of the family. Feathers fly, gardens are harvested and nuts are cracked in this full-color illustrated tale that embraces fun, problem-solving and learning what family and friendship are all about.

Available here: The Well Bred Book / Amazon

What questions do you have for Chrysa about booking and planning school visits?

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Riffing on Classic Characters

by Franky A. Brown

The Courtship by Charles Green. Wikimedia commons.

My Austen Inspirations series is loosely based on Jane Austen’s works, some more than others. Emma’s Match features my character, Emma Wallace, a modern version of Austen’s Emma. She first came into being in the second book in the series, None But You, as the heroine’s best friend.

My goal was to craft her personality as closely as I could to Austen’s Emma, while setting her in modern-day South Carolina. She’s well-bred and classy, and while some may see her a snobbish, she has a generous heart and the best intentions when matchmaking her friends. But Emma’s Match is not a simple retelling of the story of Emma Woodhouse and George Knightley. What I set out to do was to take her character, add similarities to the original Emma, but make it my own story. And while None But You has many similarities to Persuasion, it’s also a new story.

Following the original books exactly didn’t work for me; it felt too much like being boxed in. Obviously women of today have more opportunities than women in the early nineteenth century, but human emotion hasn’t changed. The internal struggles women faced then with things like self-image, financial security, and understanding the opposite sex remain today.

Photo: DMedina on morguefile

Using Jane Austen’s characters as a springboard, I allowed myself the freedom to go in new directions. Pride and Butterflies shares simply a theme with Pride and Prejudice: first impressions can go seriously wrong and opinions can change. These heroines are women striving to succeed in building their own businesses, and struggling with personal weaknesses. The leading man either unexpectedly crashes into the back of her car, suddenly reappears seven years after a broken engagement, or lives down the hall and has no idea of her feelings.

All three of the books in this series can be read on their own. They’re filled with clean romance and plenty of humor. Austen, of course, was the first to combine humor and romance.

About the author

Franky A. Brown has always called the South home and loves to write about it. She holds an English degree from the University of South Carolina and can’t seem to stop reading. She is the author of women’s fiction and chick lit about life, love, and Southern women.

Brown started writing her Jane Austen retellings in 2015 with Pride and Butterflies, then None But You. Now she's published Emma's Match, a retelling of Emma by Jane Austen.

About the book

Emma Wallace has a plan up her sleeve to save her struggling design business, but not a clue what do to about the man who has her heart.

Stealing a kiss from Will Knight years ago ended in an embarrassment she didn’t want to repeat. But when a popular new designer in town starts taking her clients and has eyes on Will, too, Emma decides it’s time to fight for what she wants. The perfectly irritating designer she wants to shove into a hole isn’t the only one who can be down-to-earth and likeable. After all, Emma’s never failed at anything...except walking the line between friendship and love. Crossing it again could mean losing Will’s friendship for good.

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IJL1XK2/

Giveaway

Franky has generously offered a paperback of Emma’s Match! Use the Rafflecopter to enter. The giveaway will be closed at midnight on October 5th and the winner will be announced around 6AM on the Bookish Orchestration blog on October 6th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule

Saturday, October 1

Bookish Orchestrations-Tour Introduction

Rachel Rossano's Words- Excerpt and Character Interview

Perpetual Gardener, Writer, and Mormon-Excerpt

Sunday, October 2

Melanie D. Snitker, Author- Excerpt

Author Franky A Brown-Excerpt

Monday, October 3

Crystal Walton- Excerpt and Book Review

Laurel's Leaves-Guest Post

Tuesday, October 4

Ramblings- Guest Post

Once Upon an Ordinary-Author Interview

Wednesday, October 5

Rachel John Reviews- Book Review

Thursday, October 6

Bookish Orchestrations-Giveaway Winner


If you ever did a modernization of a classic, would you choose to riff on the characters, as Franky does, or to update the plot?

 

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Scapegoats, girded loins and other weird idioms from the Bible

The other day, my teen daughter heard Alanis Morissette's "You Ought to Know" and got rather confused by a line in the lyrics.

Image by svklimkin on morgeufile.com

"Is she really singing about a cross-eyed bear? Am I hearing that wrong?"

I explained to her that the lyric is "the cross I bear," alluding to Jesus' crucifixion and his teachings prior to it about following his example of living self-sacrificially. This is a kid raised going to church weekly and attends Christian school. So if that allusion whipped right by her, chances are, there are plenty of folks without and even with a Judeo-Christian faith background who don't quite get a number of English idioms that are allusions to Bible stories.

Allusions are complex as literary devices go. An allusion is meant to bring an entire story and its context to bear on a present situation. Therefore, as I explain each, I'll note not only what a phrase typically signifies, but also the context from which the words are taken.

Am I my brother's keeper?

What it means: Not really my problem. I'm not going to take responsibility.

What it alludes to: Genesis 4:1-16
God likes Abel's sacrifice of lamb better than his brother Cain's first fruits offering. Cain gets so envious that he kills Abel. When God asks, "Where is your brother?" Cain's playing-dumb response is, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain hoped to evade responsibility and punishment, but he got both, in spades.

Beat swords into ploughshares

What it means: A picture of perfect peace, when weapons aren't needed, and the metal would best be put to use making farm equipment, leading to plenty of food for all.

What it alludes to: Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3
These verses are nearly identical in describing a time when humanity is living peacefully under God's leadership: "He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore" (Micah 4:3 NIV). Folks are so much at peace that weapons are obsolete--a waste of good metal that could be put to better use. Without the weapons, folks don't even train for battle. They have better things to do, like keep agriculture humming along.

Cross to bear

What it means: A difficulty that requires walking a path of suffering; a situation that requires "dying to self" or putting aside one's desires, demands and rights.

To be clear, in popular understanding, the former meaning is more prominent, though it is theologically an incorrect interpretation. The latter meaning more accurately reflect what the Matthew 16 verses mean--radical humility, not masochism of Stoicism. Christian teaching on suffering is more accurately reflected in a "thorn in the flesh" (see below).

What it alludes to: John 19:16-18; Matthew 16:24-26
Two contexts here: first, Jesus' own crucifixion, in which he was made to carry the wood beams on which he would be executed. It's a picture of carrying the means of your death, of extreme self-sacrifice. Second, Jesus taught his disciples that being his followers meant having a similar willingness to  be selfless and to obey God instead of following one's self-serving, throw-others-under-the-bus desire to be first.

Forbidden fruit

What it means: a tempting, bad / wrong thing

What it alludes to: Genesis 2:15-3:24
God gave Adam and Eve and entire garden of food to eat, except for the fruit of one tree, but the cunning serpent convinced them to eat anyway. Breaking that simple rule lost them the privilege of being in the garden and brought pain and curses.

Gird up your loins

What it means: Get ready to fight or do a difficult task.

What it alludes to: Job 40:7, Jeremiah 1:17, Ephesians 6:14, I Peter 1:13
In a culture that wore long, flowing tunics, it was difficult to get anywhere fast with all that fabric flapping around you. "Girding" meant gathering and securing the extra cloth in a girth or belt, and the "loins," or lower torso, would thus be wrapped up, enabling freer leg movement.

Here's a helpful image of the process:

Image by Ted Slampyak (http://jazzagecomics.storenvy.com//)

Good Samaritan

What it means: a complete stranger who cares for someone in need or danger

What it alludes to: Luke 10:25-37
When Jesus says the second greatest commandment is "love your neighbor as yourself," a listener asks "But who is my neighbor?"

He goes on to tell the parable--a fictional teaching story--of a man who gets robbed and beaten and left for dead. Two of his countrymen pass him by, doing nothing (probably not wanting the inconvenience of becoming ritually impure from possibly touching a dead body.) A third guy comes by -- someone from Samaria, land of half-breeds who practice a divergent form of Judaism -- and he helps. And not just a little. The Samaritan cleans the victim's wounds, gives him a ride on his donkey, takes him to a nearby inn, then pays for his care.

Jesus uses the story to teach that loving neighbor isn't about deciding who's part of the in group or out group, it's about showing the care you'd want to receive when you see someone in need--even weirdos, outsiders, and enemies.

Out of the mouths of babes

What it means: Wise words coming from a young person.

What it alludes to: Psalm 8:2, Matthew 21:16
"From the mouth of infants and nursing babes
You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease." (Psalm 8:2)

Jesus refers to the verse when, following the events of Palm Sunday, the religious leaders are angry that kids are following him around, yelling "Hosanna to the Son of David!" He's making the harsh point that God has given this insight about his identity, and that the temple leaders are, therefore, in enmity with God if they dislike these words.

Pearls before swine

What it means: Know your audience, and be discerning. If a group won't be inclined to value the very good thing you're offering, better to not waste it.

What it alludes to: Matthew 7:6
As part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns his listeners: "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."

Dogs in the Bible are scavenger beasts that do gross things like eat dead bodies; swine/pigs are paralleled here, and likewise "unclean." Similarly, a parallel is being drawn between "what is sacred" and pearls. This verse is part of the section that teaches "do not judge lest you be judged." So it's a counterbalance--don't condemn others, but do be discerning.

Salt of the earth

What it means: A truly good person who embodies loving God and neighbor. A solid citizen who does good and influences others to do the same.

What it alludes to: Matthew 5:13
"You are the salt of the earth," Jesus tells his listeners in this Sermon on the Mount word-picture of being a positive influence. Salt was used in this era to preserve perishable foods (salted meats, pickled vegetables), and as a flavoring. The verse also warns against "losing saltiness"--failing to be a positive force who keeps decay (especially moral decay) at bay.

Scapegoat

What it means: An innocent forced to take on someone else's guilt

What it alludes to: Leviticus 16: 20-22
As part of the original rituals of Yom Kippur / Day of Atonement, a live goat ritually had all the sins (deliberate wrongdoing) and trespasses (straying) of the people prayed onto it by the high priest. It was then set loose to wander in the wilderness. It is a picture of evil being removed through substitution--an innocent one carrying another's guilt.

Thorn in the flesh

What it means: Chronic infirmity, annoyance or trouble, especially that cements your sense of limitation and keeps you humble.

What it alludes to: II Corinthians 12:7-9
In his epistles, St. Paul refers a number of times to a problem with his eyesight that hindered his ability to keep up one important part of his church-building enterprise--sending letters to congregations to train and encourage them. He realized it was more than an annoyance--it was teaching him to not become arrogant about his success spreading Christianity. (There are other theories and interpretations of what St. Paul's "thorn" might have been,)

Writing is on the wall / Handwriting on the wall

What it means: Judgement is imminent / the bad ending is obvious

What it alludes to: Daniel 5
Babylonian King Belshazzar threw a big banquet using sacred vessels looted from the temple in Jerusalem. A hand appeared and wrote a cryptic message on the wall: "Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin." No one could figure out what it meant, so the prophet Daniel was brought in, and he told them the specific judgment about to befall this bad king. The very next day, the prophecy came true.

Were these terms familiar to you? Which one(s) surprised you most?

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Call for questions: how can an editor on call help you?

The new school year has begun, which always feels to me like a time for me to start new things, or in this case, restart old things.

Back in 2009, one of my critique group friends called with an urgent punctuation question. It was something pretty simple about quotes within quotes. This got me wondering if any of my blog followers have burning questions about some matter of grammar, usage, or style.

From there, I started a little series called Editor-on-call, in which I answer your burning questions. It has been a long time since I put out a call for more questions, so I thought I'd do so again. I want to keep this blog relevant and a helpful resource for you, dear readers.

Perhaps first you'd like to know what topics I've already covered. There are quite a few, as it happens, though this hardly exhausts all the concerns I hear come up at my critique group and in the author collaborative I belong to.

• Help! Critique partners bash my use of dialect
• Tips for using numbers in fiction.
• Mine! Help with possessives
• Why so tense? Tips for handling verb tenses
• Three bad babble habits and how to fix them: conquering run-ons
• Funky favorites and how to spell them: quick primer on whoa, voilá, psych, trawl, ado, copacetic
• No lie: why we misuse lay--getting a handle on lie vs. lay
• It's your day to master tricky possessives: tips on possessive pronouns
• Don a cap if you're proper: tips for when to capitalize nouns
• Bored with / by / of gaffes: correct idiomatic use of bored
• And then...derailment at conjunction junction: using then as a conjunction when it's really an adverb (and other grammar checker issues).
• Semi-serious punctuation help: using semicolons (and why I hate them)
• Tempting titles: tips on titling your fiction
• If I were you: using subjunctive mood to express wishes and hypotheticals
• Editor-on-call: misplaced modifiers--tips on improving clarity with word order.
• Editor-on-call: tips for critiquing an overwriter
• Overwrtiting (part 1): What is overwriting?
• Overwriting (part 2): Diction
• Overwriting (part 3): Babbling
• Overwriting (part 4): Tangents

Tell me, readers, what burning questions do you have about grammar, punctuation, or fiction writing problems you don't know how to fix?

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Make marketing graphics on a shoestring

I was fortunate to land a job early in my career that required me to learn graphic design. Between the professional seminars, how-to books, a very kind colleague who taught me all his best tricks, and a grad school class, I got to a level of basic competence. The more newsletters and magazine spreads and brochures I designed, the more my skills improved.

All that to say, even words people can learn some of the basics of design. You don't need an art degree to attempt to create marketing graphics (though seminars and how-to books are a good idea, so you understand composition, balance and the like).

These days, you don't even need the pricey software I learned on (Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator). There are a number of freeware solutions that will enable you to create very attractive designs. They aren't as powerful as the pricey design products, but they also aren't nearly as complicated to learn (I'm looking at you, Photoshop).

Photo editing

GIMP is a great, basic photo editor, available free, that allows you to not only resize images, but also tweak the colors and use layer masks--one of Photoshop's most powerful tools. Check out GIMP's tutorials page for instructions on using some of these more advanced options. Because it is open-source software, there are lots of cool plug-ins you can get from third parties to make the software even more powerful. Check out the 20 best free GIMP plug ins to start.

Layout

Canva is my new favorite toy. This powerful web-based design platform has lots of free design elements, premade designs, and great, easy-to-use tools to make quick marketing graphics.

Once you login--you can do so easily by linking with a Facebook or Google account--pick the type of element you want--a blog graphic, social media post (Twitter-friendly designs are under this heading), card, poster, etc. This will create a live working area in the correct size for your needs.

From there, you can select one of their premade designs, or you can assemble something freestyle. The amazing thing is that EVERYTHING is editable. It's kind of crazy. You can upload your own photos, pull them into the live area and resize them, flip them, turn them on a jaunty angle. The backgrounds come with textures and colors, but these are editable too. You can change the colors, even the opacity.

You can layer in shapes and text. And wow do they offer a lot of very cool pre-make text elements that are, once again, editable (made larger and smaller, different color, different typeface). Pick the shape that will work well with your message, then simply change the pre-made text to your words, and edit any other attribute as needed. Let me give you a couple examples, from my fairly quick and easy noodling efforts:

This is a standard Twitter-post size. I used one of Canva's free photos, expanding it until it was the right width--the program automatically cropped it to fit in the live area. I dropped in "heading" text element on the left, then changed the typeface to "Emily's Candy" (is that not a great font name?) and played with the color mixer until I had a nice crimson that reflected the raspberries. The black text is the standard "subheading" type, 

This design uses an uploaded image I got from the free image site, morguefile.com. The text graphic is a pre-made that I edited by adding my own text and changing the color of the border to echo the apple. The #1linewed (one line Wednesday, a weekly Twitter party for writers) theme this week was "school," so I had fun doing themed thank you graphics.

This is perhaps the most complex design I've attempted so far. I got the 3D book covers using the free 3D cover designer available from Adazing (warning--you will get a lot of e-mail ads from them in exchange for the free design). Each of these I uploaded. Because they have some white around them to accommodate the drop shadow, I stuck with a white background. The text elements are, top to bottom, subheading, body text, and heading. Only the heading text did I significantly edit, changing to a brush-syle typeface and tweaking the color. I now know how to fine-tune my color choices more, so I will likely do some revisions to this ad for my book series.

It's easy to do permutations of a design by making a copy on an additional page, change an element or two and see which you like better. When you're ready to post the image elsewhere, use the share button, or download. If you have permutations and want to download only one, click "options" in the download menu, and pick just the page you want. 

Anyway, That's a little taste of some of the fun things you can do to jazz up your blog posts, Twitter posts, or Facebook posts. Follow me on Twitter @LaurelGarver to see what new experiments I dream up.

Have I convinced you to try out some of these tools? Do you enjoy design or find it intimidating?

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From Small Pub to Self-Pub: Rising Again from a Small Press's Ashes

with guest author Dusty Crabtree

Phoenix art by Laura

I know a number of author friends who were delighted to publish with a small publisher that felt like family. But in today's publishing climate, it's tougher than ever for small publishers to survive. So what do you do when your cozy family in the publishing world decides to close its doors? If rights revert to you, you might decide to go the route of today's guest. I asked her to share her experiences with that starting over process with an existing book. Take it away, Dusty...



Thank you for hosting me again, Laurel! Last time I was here it was for the one-year anniversary tour for Shadow Eyes. Now, here we are three years later releasing it again.

(Be sure to enter the rafflecopter at the bottom of the post for a chance to win a print copy of Shadow Eyes and a $50 gift card to Amazon!)

Shadow Eyes, my YA urban fantasy, was first released in 2012 by Musa Publishing. Being a young, small publishing company, Musa closed in 2015 as so many small publishing companies are forced to do. After a lot of thought and advice-seeking, I decided to self-publish it this time. A lot of reasons went into this.

1. I didn’t want to wait anymore. Publishing through a traditional publishing company takes time! There’s waiting to get accepted by a publisher, waiting to sign a contract, waiting to get assigned an editor, waiting to get all the edits done on your part, waiting for the company to finish their edits, waiting on the cover art, and then finally waiting for the release date (they often have a long line ahead of you). Self-publishing is much faster, and having gone through it all before, I really just wanted to get Shadow Eyes back out there as fast as I could. I have a sequel waiting in the wings for goodness’ sake! Let’s get this show on the road!

2. I was tired of searching and getting rejected. That may sound shallow or childish, but come on, who likes getting rejected. And, believe me, I know rejection by publishing companies is normal and not to take it personally. I went through a lot of them the first time around before Musa picked it up. Many of the rejections were most likely by companies who didn’t even look at the book because they didn’t have time or space for new authors. Most others have certain tastes and a certain market they are trying to sell to, and my book just didn’t fit.

I didn’t take it personally. But it still got old. When doors kept slamming in my face, I didn’t doubt myself or wallow in self-pity. I got frustrated and discouraged. I kept seeing the light at the end of the tunnel grow dimmer and dimmer as the end kept getting farther and farther away. I started to feel like I’d exhausted all possible options, and what would I do then?

That’s when I realized there was another door. A door that wouldn’t slam in my face. Sure, the world beyond that door was new and scary, and I was sure to be met with opposition and possibly judgement. But it was an open door nonetheless. And it gave me a breath of fresh air.

3. My genre and content has a unique and specific market. Most traditional publishers don’t want a book with a limited market, so if yours doesn’t seem like it would appeal to a wide audience, they won’t want to take a chance on you. This is probably what influenced my decision the most. After talking to a trusted author/editor about it, I realized that what she said about my genre and content was true. It is unique. And that’s okay!

In fact, I'm proud to not fit their traditional, mainstream, please everyone and cater to everyone mold! My books will find an audience that will love them for what they are -- bold, unapologetic, unique, spiritual and morally grounded, yet too edgy to fit a Christian mold either. I will find my audience without a publishing company’s help. Thank you.

4. Self-publishing gets you more profit for the same amount of time promoting. True, you may not have quite as much reach as you would with a publishing company, but you will make much more profit. Also, I found that with a small publishing company, I was doing most of my promoting anyway. They helped out with what they could – gathering a few reviews from me, helping their authors cross-promote, giving us ideas, hosting tours, etc. But much of the promoting fell on me. So that much isn’t very different now.

5. I learned to view self-publishing in a different light and swallowed my pride. It’s no lie. Many people in the book community have a prejudice against self-published books. They view these books as “not good enough” to get picked up by a traditional publisher. Like a lot of prejudices, there is some foundation for this. The truth of the matter is anyone can self-publish. Sure it takes some research and asking a lot of questions, but anyone can do it. The book doesn’t have to be professionally edited, and the author doesn’t have to be any good. The thought is that if a book is traditionally published, at least it’s been screened by someone out there who deemed it as worthy enough to be in the book market.

But here’s another truth. Just because a book hasn’t been screened, doesn’t mean it’s not any good. Now, I do still think books need to be professionally edited because even the best writers are blind to their own limitations. We all need an outsider who knows what they’re doing to help us with what we can’t see. But if it has been edited, who’s to say it’s not just as good as a traditionally published book?

I just had to get out of that prejudiced mindset, swallow my pride, and simply be secure and confident in my work, knowing it’s just as professional and worthy as any other book out there, with or without the “self-published.”

Closing thoughts – I will say that going through the traditional publishing process the first time was extremely valuable! I learned so much that I believe will help me be successful this time around. The connections I made, the lessons I learned, and the ideas I gleaned have all been very helpful. Plus, having been traditionally published at least once does help give you some credibility amidst the sea of self-publishers out there.

So, if you’re looking to publish your first book, I recommend at least attempting to go the traditional route first. After that, it’s totally up to you and what you feel is best. Just don’t let fear or your own prejudice get in the way of your decision.

About the Author

Dusty Crabtree loves a good story, but she also loves young people. These two loves are evident in all parts of her life. She has been a high school English teacher since 2006 and a creative writing teacher since 2014. She's also been a youth sponsor at her local church for as long as she’s been teaching. She feels very blessed with the amazing opportunities she has to develop meaningful relationships with teens on a daily basis. With her love of reading in the mix, becoming an author of young adult books was just a natural development of those two passions in her life. She lives with her husband, Clayton, in Yukon, Oklahoma, where they often serve their community as foster parents.

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About Shadow Eyes

Iris thought she could ignore the shadows…until they came after everyone she loved.

Seventeen-year- old Iris Kohl has been able to see both dark and light figures ever since a tragic incident three years ago. The problem is, no one else seems to see them, and even worse…the dark figures terrorize humans, but Iris is powerless to stop them.

Although she’s learned to deal with watching shadows harass everyone around her, Iris is soon forced to question everything she thinks she knows about her world and herself. Her sanity, strength, and will power are tested to the limits by not only the shadows, but also a handsome new teacher whose presence scares away shadows, a new friend with an awe-inspiriting aura, and a mysterious, alluring new student whom Iris has a hard time resisting despite already having a boyfriend. As the shadows invade and terrorize her own life and family, Iris must ultimately accept the guidance of an angel to revisit the most horrific event of her life and become the hero she was meant to be.

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To see other posts on this tour and to increase your chances of winning, visit Dusty’s blog for the schedule with links as they are posted. 

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