Hitting the Redo Button and Starting Over

A few days ago, I posted this picture on my Instagram feed. Part showing off my pretty blue fingernails and part teasing people as I show where I'm at in the process of retyping Farmer's Daughter.

And then one of my followers there (thank you James!) asked me what I was reading and I was struck by the revelation that I talk and write and post with too many assumptions.

Not everyone knows I'm an independent author who has published two books. So I thought I'd take a few moments and introduce myself.

Hi. I'm Robin.

I'm an Indie Author.

In 2013 I hit publish for my first novel through Amazon KDP. A few years later, I hit publish for the 2nd novel.

I did NOT know what I was doing. I should have been blogging and tweeting and building a fan base before I ever hit that button.

I can't undo that. But in a way, I AM hitting the REDO button. I took my two books off the market for valid reasons...I missed too many continuity mistakes. So while I'm fixing those blunders, I'm also going to fix the social media marketing thing.

I'm going to do a few more posts about my books subject matter. If you've already read version one, please bear with me and share my posts so others can be brought into a universe you already love.

I've also been Twittering more. It's a decent place for me to go when I need a break from the intensity of what I'm writing. Some of my characters struggles are very real to me and I've written a few anxiety attack scene which honestly has triggered my own. More about that another day. Twitter also lets me see what some of my favorite writers and actors are up to...I've had two tweets liked by verified accounts just recently!! Nothing cheers this fangirl up more!!

Dude, Dax Shephard...like, seriously!
If you don't know who he is, you're missing out! lol

Thanks to a wonderful woman Glitter on Instagram who has started posting her vids there, I've decided to give that a try too. I absolutely love her. Probably because she's daring enough to be herself in a world which kinda looks down on overweight people enjoying life. I haven't figured out how to share a link for my YouTube channel, but maybe I'll have it figured out by Monday when I'm scheduling this to be posted. All of my other links for my social media accounts are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr.

Wish me luck as I hit REDO and plow on ahead!

Much love!

The 6 Word Challenge by Robin Janney

One of the things I've been doing since I've been feeling better, is getting back into my social media accounts.  Everything from Twitter to Facebook to Google+ and one of the things I've really begun to enjoy are the 6 words challenges from a woman I follow on Twitter.

Kelsye is someone I've never met, and I honestly have no idea how I came to follow her.  We have 41 twitter contacts in common, more people I've never met but have stumbled upon throughout my social networking.  She's a writer and a publisher and one of the things she tweets are the challenges to write a story in #6words or less.

Not easy, but it's a challenge I enjoy.  I've read some of the other attempts on the posts, and know I'm not the only one!  I also know my attempts aren't always the best, but it's all about trying and stretching those creative muscles.

One of her challenges recently made me stop and reflect a little longer than usual.  Especially since I read it backwards!  I think it was supposed to be advice that my 12 year old self would give me today, instead I read it as advice I'd give her!

Either way, it's good advice.

At 12-ish, I had more thing on my mind than the future really.  I had a sick father.

He was in the hospital for abdominal surgery.  A year and a half before this, he had appendicitis and that surgery created too much scar tissue for his body to handle.  Of course, every surgery he endured had the same risks.  That particular summer, he underwent 3 surgery in the matter of a few weeks...and during one of those surgeries, he had a stroke and our lives changed forever.

Aside from the normal affects of a stroke, my father also ended up with a permanent tracheotomy.  The doctor was worried about him being on life support for longer than a week, so they cut into his trachea.  And back to that scar tissue issue...they were never able to take it back out.  The one time they tried, scar tissue started squeezing his trachea shut...it was like an hour glass shape.  He ended up being flown to Philadelphia for laser surgery, lost 2 inches of his trachea.  I remember his electronic speaker voice more than I do his natural voice.

What I would tell my 12 year old self is to keep plugging along.  Which she did, obviously - I mean, I'm still here.  I'd tell her to hang on to those dreams, they might not turn out the way she was expecting, but a girl has to have something to hope for - Don't lose that focus.  I'd tell her to keep writing and not worry so much about whether it's good or not.  Writing is something that gets better with practice, just like most of life.  I'd tell her not to worry about the boys, there's only one that matters and he won't come along until you're over 30.  As aggravating as Mr Janney can be sometimes (hello, he's a man!) he's worth the wait.

And what I would think she'd tell me, is: Don't be afraid to live, because life is short and uncertain.  You can be watching your favorite television show as a family one night, and the next morning...everything changes.  Take care of yourself, because you want to be able to enjoy living life.

All that from a 6 words challenge!  And they are challenging!  How do you tell a story in 6 words or less?  It's a test of our creativity.

Here are two that I found and responded to today.  I read 'lost boy' and immediately thought of Peter Pan and Neverland.  So my response was "Found Neverland, but not Peter Pan".

The other one is a very timely one considered much of the upper east coast is blanketed in snow.  Not me.  I'm just enough north and west of the storm that I never even saw a flurry.  As much as I hate driving in snow, I was really rather disappointed that we didn't get hit with the storm.  I mean, it was a weekend storm and I didn't really have to go anywhere.

But when I read the challenge, my memory went back to school days when snow days were much nicer...no school and you got to play all day!  So my 6 word story was "I didn't do my homework" which I think I may have done a time or two in High School when we knew the night before that school was canceled.  Of course, the next night I always regretted it because I still had to do my homework!

I always wait until after I've written and tweeted my own short story to expand Kelsye's tweet to read other responses.  It's quite the treat to read what others have imagined, and by waiting, it's not influencing my own thought process.  If I don't see anything from her when I open Twitter, I'll even go directly to her profile and look for them.

Probably one of my biggest 'flaws' as a writer is being too verbose.  There is a time and a place for many words, and a time to be brief and concise.  The trick is learning when those times are.  And like I'd tell my 12 year old self, practice makes perfect.

So readers, how would you respond to these 6 word challenges?  What do you think your 12 year old self would advise you to do?   What story would you write about a lost boy or a snow day?  How about a lost boy on a snow day? "Took my sled too far." is my attempt for that last one.

Until next time, I'm back to working on book #3 and trying to decide whether I have too many female antagonists.  That worries me a little, but that's a post for another time!

The Ever Present Online Presence by Robin Janney

One thing all the experts agree on, is for an Indie Author to be successful, an online presence is needed.

And it only makes sense because the world we live in is no longer limited to our physical domain.  As well as the fact that much of our self publication is in electronic format.

Which leaves me with some choices to make at the end of this month.  At least in regards to how I use Facebook.

Quite recently, someone we know impersonated my husband on Facebook trying to get me to think he was trying to cheat on me.  It caused many hours of grief before I saw through to the truth.  While I do feel bad for doubting Mr. Janney, it was a convincing piece of evidence - until I started picking it apart.  I won't go into depth, but it was a definite fake, too many errors.  There are a few times when it's not always good to look at the 'big picture', sometimes you really do need to focus on the details.  It just goes to show that while a picture may be worth a thousand words...those words aren't necessarily the truth.

Because of this, my husband has been thinking of deleting the app from his phone.  He's not much into sharing anything other than funny videos, or cars.  But it has caused me to reconsider how I use Facebook myself.  It's the easiest way for me to be social, and by easiest I mean the most comfortable.  There are no physical crowds to deal with, like at a party.  It is easier to keep in touch with long distance relatives.  I also like to take pictures, a lot, and share them.

Do I really wanna know?

However, there are many different forms of social media.  Places where I could potentially do these things just as well, if not better.  I do have an Instagram account, and a Tumblr, where I could post my pictures.  I'm also on Tsu, which is by far a much more positive experience than anything I've ever encountered on Facebook, probably because it's an "Invite Only" social media.  I have some great friends and family who are great, but if you've ever commented on a page's thread for an article or a meme, the chances of you getting bitten by a troll is way high.  I haven't run into that there yet.

I really am not sure what I am going to do, just that I've been thinking about changing how I do social Media as an individual and as an Author.  There are no easy answers, but I'll figure something out.