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#IWSG September 2018: What’s your publishing path? #amwriting #amreading

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Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click the image to learn more or sign up.

Hi there everyone. Guess what. I’m co-hosting today. Yay! Or Wish me luck, whichever you prefer. Be sure to stop by and say hi to my fellow co-hosts today: T. Powell Coltrin, M.J. Fifield, and Tara Tyler!

Optional Monthly Question: What publishing path are you considering/did you take, and why?

I tried traditional publishing but just couldn’t deal with the negotiating aspect of the process. I do, however, believe that if I’d had a better publisher the process would not have felt so restrictive. Many of my traditionally published friends have great relationships with their publishers. I’m a self-publisher at heart, but that doesn’t mean I’m against traditional publishing or won’t ever try it. In fact, I plan on submitting to the IWSG contest. Even if I don’t make the cut, I’ll be proud of myself for making the effort to actually submit my work.

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Last month, I started the habit of mentioning the member spotlight from the IWSG newsletter, so imagine my surprise when it turned out to be me this time around. Thank you IWSG. I’m so honored and grateful to be part of this community.

Be sure to stop by the IWSG blog today because we are announcing the judges for the IWSG Anthology Contest. I, for one, am very excited about this, especially since I think I might actually enter this one. In fact, I’m seeking at least two more beta-readers for the story I’ve been working on. It’s a YA historical-fantasy romance based on the Golden or White Stag mythology. If you’d like to beta read this short story, please visit my contact page and tell me why? (I’m asking for feedback by September 15th.)

Another honor that blew me away last month was that I won the Encouragement Award for the first WEP-IWSG Challenge. The winner and runner-up stories were amazing, and all the other stories offered good-quality entertainment. The next Write…Edit…Publish Challenge will be in October; theme- Déjà vu or Voodoo! I’m so ready for this. Check out my August story by clicking the image below.

Over at A Small Gang of Authors, I’ve taken on the role of co-manager. We issued our first-ever group magazine, which I think turned out great. Kudos to Erika M. Szabo for putting that together… Today, I’m finishing my blog series on words and their meanings in the English language. Oh, and we’re hosting our first-ever micro flash-fiction contest. Click the image below to learn more.

Takes you to Facebook.com

The IWSG Book Club book for August/September is: The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr. I guess I need to head to the library for this one. Haven’t picked it up yet, but I’m eager to. Memoirs have really begun to fascinate me lately.

I’ve put together a reader’s scavenger hunt, from September 7-9, and would love it if you’d give it a try. This is a real scavenger hunt. I’m using Rafflecopter to record the results, but this is not an online like and follow campaign. Its 50+ fun and bookish tasks for book lovers to complete and share online, such as taking selfies in front of their favorite bookstore or reading an excerpt from their current read, etc… The prize is a $50 gift card of choice plus $50 worth of bookish swag. Open to U.S. and Canada.

The whole point of this scavenger hunt is to make readers aware of my Lit Carnivale dream and have fun. That’s it.

Even though I can’t win, I’ll be posting my own task entries into the challenge, simply because I think it’ll be fun. Will you join me?

Follow the FB event to receive a reminder.

Now, on to the personal updates.

Well now, that was quite a bit, so I’ll keep this short.

Most teachers in the U.S. have headed back to school by now, and I’m not with them. This is the first year, in ten years, I won’t be working in a school. I think I’ll be okay, though. With my new job, I still get to work with the kids I love.

I have been writing up a storm. I just finished a piece I’m reluctant to release because it’s controversial and may make some people mad. Not sure what to do. I’m really proud of it, but not ready to face all the cyber-bullies.

I’m struggling a bit with my illustration, but I’m still doing it, so that’s something.

I just barely made it back to YouTube with this VIDEO, but it’s not quite BookTube worthy. The Carnie Loves Books Challenge should fix that this weekend.

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What’s your publishing path?

Are you entering the IWSG Anthology Contest?

Wanna beta-read my story?

Wanna try my scavenger hunt?

Any advice on publishing controversial topics?

The writing life comes with highs and lows. I’m blessed to be having a bunch of highs right now. I want to encourage you to stick with it and wait for your highs to come. They are on the way.

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s other co-hosts:
T. Powell Coltrin,
M.J. Fifield, and
Tara Tyler R !

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #54).

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
IWSG

#IWSG January 2015: New Year, New Beginning

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Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click the image to learn more or sign up.

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UPDATE TO POST: I forgot I was supposed to be introducing myself. I don’t have any fancy or flowery words to throw together right now, but here I am.

I’m Toi. Married almost 10 years to my best friend and hopelessly devoted to my family in general. I write fiction, mostly sci-fi and paranormal, but I’m dabbling in romance and fantasy. I’m a geek who loves movies, comics books, vinyl records, tea, and chocolate.

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Well it’s that time again to offer up encouragement or seek some out. I’ll just go ahead and jump right into this spiel and try to keep it brief. 2014 was not a good year for me at all.

Don’t get me wrong, of course there were some good, happy, exciting, and wonderful moments. I’m blessed in so many ways, but I’ve never been so happy to see a new year like I was this year. While I won’t list all the reasons why last year wasn’t good for me, I’ll throw out the top three.

1. My sister-in-law battled and then lost her battle with cancer. Aside from the fact that she’s gone and I miss her, going through that whole process altered plans for my personal life as well as plans for my book. I had a tough choice to make and decided to put family before my book and I have no regrets, but I miss her and can’t get back all those opportunities I forfeited.

2. Constant and harsh personal illnesses both physical and mental. I battled a lot this past year, more than I ever want to again. I want 2015 to be a much healthier year.

3. Technical issues. After the ordeal of transferring my blog to self-hosting, the fun didn’t stop there. I suffered constant technical issues all year until my computer finally crashed in December.

But that was then and this is now. I am slowly getting back on my feet and looking to the future.

One more thing to add to the list, which may actually be a blessing, is the fact that I ended my contract with my publisher. I don’t even feel like dealing with the severity of that, but at least it was an amicable split. At this point I’m just going to create a new cover, since I don’t have the rights to the other, and just self-publish. I think that’s what I really wanted anyway. I like to be in control and never should have let someone else do something I’d rather do myself.

So, looking ahead, I’m putting off releasing my romance novel until later in the year and focusing on the sequel to my Eternal Curse Series. Also, I have a short story featured in a recently released anthology about time travel. Please check it out if you are interested.

I hope I didn’t bum you out too much and hope that you could sense a note of positivity in here somewhere. What are your plans for 2015? 

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Elizabeth Seckman,
Lisa Buie-Collard,
Chrys Fey, and
Michelle Wallace!

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #122).

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords