I lied.

It wasn’t on purpose. I suppose it was just a slip of my middle-aged mind. A year ago, I entered my first RWA chapter contest. When the coordinator called to tell me I finaled, I was the happiest camper you could ever have known. Finaling in the first contest I tried! Unfortunately, there was an error. It wasn’t caught until they posted the finalists. Seeing my name wasn’t on the list, I emailed the coordinator. The mistake was found, and I wasn’t a finalist after all.

To make up for the problem, the coordinator offered me a free entry this year. I have no recollection of actually sending it. Again, I blame middle age. But I evidently sent Faith of the Heart to them. She called last night to tell me it is a finalist. (Two for two with that story!!)

She was so nice. She started the conversation with, “I doubt you’ll believe me but…” We had a nice chat. It sure made a nice consolation prize for missing out on the Golden Heart hysteria. And I figured this was a great way to end my contesting career. You remember — the one I already thought I’d ended.

So, when all is said and done… I’m right back where I started.

The dog days of March are here.

Don’t lecture me that I’m thinking of the wrong season for having “dog days.” I mean exactly what I wrote. To a teacher, March brings seemingly neverending days of woe. Students start counting the days and then the hours until Spring Break. Not a day goes by that they don’t lament any work I throw their way. I’m really cruel. I expect them to work every school day, including the days before vacation. Don’t you feel sorry for them?

How does school affect my writing? Their anxiety for reaching their goal feeds my own, whips it into a near frenzy. I find myself thinking constantly about whether my own waiting will ever end.

Patience has never been my strong suit. (That is such a ridiculous understatement, I was laughing even as I typed it.) I’m driven to devote my whole heart and soul to anything I do. My writing is doubly so because it is the only thing I’ve ever done just for me. Not for my husband or my children or my parents or my students. For me. I’m proud of all of my stories, and I know in my heart they are good solid pieces of work. All I want is for some editor to feel the same way. Simple, huh?

Then there are the Golden Hearts to consider. According to the RWA website, calls to the finalists are scheduled for Tuesday. Odd because they’re usually on a weekend. But now I’ll be a basket case Tuesday, waiting for a call I know I’ll never receive. Not that I don’t have faith in my work. I just don’t think I will necessarily be lucky enough to hit all the right judges. If finaling in other contests is based not only on the strength of the work but on the luck of the draw for judges, the Golden Hearts are especially so. Many are untrained, and the variance of the scores never ceases to amaze me. So Tuesday will be agony. I wish the best of luck to all my chapter sisters who are entered, and I look forward to hearing that some of you are Golden Heart finalists!

Now I need to let go of my angst and focus that energy on the three stories churning through my mind. And perhaps over Spring Break, I can finish one or two of them.

And April is just around the corner.

You can teach an old dog a new trick.

With much thanks to my chapter sister Bethany Cole, I am previewing the trailer for Murphy’s Law. It’s still in the construction stage.

But I think it’s a good start.

I have a brand.

Writing now isn’t just about writing. There are probably hundreds of fantastic writers out there who have not a clue about how to market their product. I’m very lucky. I have a friend who is also well versed in the business end of the business. Kay Lockner from Author MBA taught a Snap Planning class for my local chapter of RWA. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I also learned that an author has to have something that tells editors what her writing represents.

One of the best ways to do this is to have a brand — a statement that identifies what an author’s work is all about. Seems easy, doesn’t it? Just come up with a wonderful phrase that sums up her work. I suppose it is easy for other writers. They write historicals or contemporaries or paranormals. I have a problem though. I’m a “shape-shifter.” When people ask me what type of romance I write, I usually reply, “All of the above.”

How could I develop a brand that would tell editors about the diversity of my stories? I finally decided to sit down, think about all my completed books and the ones I have in various stages of completion and figure out what they had in common. Kay’s worksheet full of adjectives to describe brands was a huge help. I narrowed it down to six terms. Then I played around with the arrangement of them until three popped out as perfect. Then I hit on the right combination of those terms. Voila! I had a brand that described everything from my paranormal series to my horse-racing trilogy to my lady-lit story to my historical. So what’s my brand?

Empowering, Old-fashioned Romance with Heart.

A million words?

If I’ve never mentioned it before, my local RWA chapter (INRWA) has a special “Quest.” Several of us have pledged to write a million words. The rationale is that a writer really hasn’t given her career a chance unless she has written at least a million words. Seems impossible, doesn’t it?

I joined two years ago, and every month since then, I report my new words to our loop. The lady who organized this and takes care of keeping track of our progress is Kay Lockner, one of the brilliant ladies behind AuthorMBA. She keeps our statistics and encourages us with these nice charts that we get to put stars on every time we write a thousand new words.

The reason I bring this up is because I am, evidently, fast approaching the half-million milestone. Wow. Finding out that I was getting so close was sobering. Have I really written that many words in two short years? I have! This achievement made me reflect on what I’ve achieved since I started writing.

I have finished seven manuscripts — albeit I am currently rewriting the first due to lack of skill the first time around. I have placed five of those in nine RWA chapter contests. I am now working on two new stories and the new dive into A Twist of Fate.

Whenever I get anxious over whether I’ll ever publish, I need to remind myself how far I’ve come in so short a time. I’ve learned so much, and I know I have more yet to learn. I should take some satisfaction in my achievements. I wish I was able to pat myself on the back and be happy with what I’ve done. But I’m not a person who can be happy looking back — I’m not even sure I know how to be content with past accomplishments. Instead, I’ll keep plowing right on ahead, hoping to eventually make that million word mark.

Complacency just isn’t in my nature.