Johnathan Rand Talks Writing

During Grand Rapids Comic Con 2015, we had the distinct privilege of meeting Johnathan Rand. I knew he was crazy and liked him immediately as he was insane enough to have a photo taken with the crazy authors of Booth 529. (He's the tall one to the left...with hair. Not the middle guy or the talented writer/illustrator to the far right.)

As he has been writing for a while, and has quite the collection of Youth Horror titles (my kids have all read him during their time in elementary school) that  take place in Michigan and other states of the U.S.A., I thought it might be interesting to hear what this fine gentleman has to say about the writing craft and the passion of reading and writing.

So, I give to you, Mr. Johnathan Rand.

*bows, cracks head on floor, collapses in a pile, passes out*

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CREATIVES HELP BOARD: When did you start writing? I started by being obsessed with filling the blank page. My downfall was wide-ruled 5 subject notebooks back in late elementary/early middle school.

JOHNATHAN RAND: I've always loved to write, ever since I realized I could put my imaginary worlds on paper and they would become 'real.' However, growing up, I never really saw myself as an author. I began going to school/college for Natural Resources Technology. At that time, I took a part-time job at a radio station and fell in love with it. Most importantly, I fell in love with the process of creating radio commercials, writing and producing them, along with news stories, sports, whatever. Although it was a bottom-of-the-barrel-paying job, I didn't care. I loved it, and in future years made a nice career out of writing, voicing, and producing radio commercials for agencies all around the country. In 1995, I began writing an adult fiction novel, and fell in love with the process. Of course, I didn't know what I was doing (and there could be a debate as to whether I know what I'm doing today!), but my love of writing and the creative process is undisputed.

CHB: When did you realize "Hey! It's fun to create!" Me... grew up with Heston and Eastwood movies, 1977 Star Wars viewing...then many strange dreams that I could only purge and regain my sanity by writing them down and trying to make some semblance of them.

JR: Yes! I think I saw some of those same movies. It wasn't until my first few years at the radio station that I truly realized I loved the process of becoming so involved in a project that time vanishes. Years later, when I started writing books, I marveled at the clock when I realized a couple of hours had disappeared. But I think I've always loved the creative process. When I was ten years old, I earned money tying trout flies for sporting goods stores, and I did this through high school. In my twenties, I taught myself how to make willow furniture . . . another wonderful creative outlet. I love the challenge(s) that creativity invokes, and enjoy finding the focus.

CHB: Did you want to be a writer, or was it all by chance? Alien abduction? Spurned from law school?

JR: When I was young, I had a voracious appetite for books and reading anything. Comics, scary stuff, the back of a cereal box. In middle school, I would hike up to Rochette's Party Store in Grayling and use part of my lunch money to buy the Detroit News or Free Press. I think there must've been a few times when I thought of being an author, writing books for a living, but it wasn't anything I took seriously. I did wonder from time to time what it would be like to create one of those wonderful stories that I discovered in the covers of my favorite books, but the idea of writing such a volume of work, such an enormous amount of material, was very daunting. It wasn't until much later in life that I realized the creative process is a slow one, step by painstaking step. I fell in love with the creation of radio commercials, and when I started writing books, I realized there was no turning back. It was just a logical progression in the creative path.

CHB: Thoughts on getting your work 'out there' or 'recognized':

JR: First of all, why are you even doing this? Why do you want to be a writer? And don't tell me it's because you "love to write." If you love to write, then write. Case closed, you're done. Simple.

No, the fact is this: you want to earn money from your writing. Nobody wants to say it, because they don't want to be perceived as "selling out," or "greedy." Well, you'd better get your priorities straight before you embark upon this "career." And it's a tough one. Just walk in to any bookstore and look at your competition. There's more competition in the field of writing than any I've ever seen.

Another question to ask yourself: "What is it that I'm not willing to do?" Wait! Stop right there. You've already shot yourself in the foot. You've read some great science fiction or fantasy or horror or whatever when you were growing up, and you've written what you think is a pretty good book. Well, so has everyone else. Doesn't make you special, doesn't make you different. Doesn't mean you're going to earn a nickel from what you've written. You've jumped into the same ocean that everyone else has, and now you're trying to be...different?

Don't jump into that ocean. Find your own pond or lake or river, a place where you can be unique and different. Find what others aren't doing, and do it. And work your butt off. Find your own uniqueness, and find your own unique way to market it. Keep at it, and never stop. If you're going to be a successful writer, you're going to have to also be a successful marketer and successful businessperson. There is no other way around it.

CHB: When do you write? Is there a BEST TIME for you personally? What is your writing routine/ritual?

JR: There was a time when I would write wherever and whenever I could. However, over the past four years or so, I've gotten into the habit of getting up right around 3 AM or so. Of course, this requires hitting the sack around 8 PM, so I really don't have an exotic, party lifestyle. But each morning, regardless where I am in the country, I am writing by 3:30 AM. The first thing I write is my
journal, and this is done with pen and ink and a classic quill pen. I do this to slow down my thoughts and my mind, and turn the process into more of a tempered, controlled, quiet art. When I am journaling, I'm not concerned with output, and I'm certainly not concerned with plot, narrative, style, whatever. No one is going to read this stuff, anyway, and it's very liberating. Addictive, in fact. I usually write in this fashion for 90 minutes or so before getting down to stories that I'm working on. Typically, I write four or five books at a time, so I jump back and forth, perhaps focusing a little bit more on the one that's pressing, the one that will be released next. When I am writing novels, I typically use my computer, as it is much faster (obviously!) than pen and ink.

CHB: Are you a plotter or a pantster?

JR: Plotting: in most cases, I almost always know how my story is going to end. Yes, I do create outlines/story maps, especially with the books I write in the Michigan Chillers and American Chillers. I do this in a storyboard fashion, and I rewrite the outline over and over until I'm happy with it. Then, when I sit down to write, most, if not all, of the plot problems have already been resolved. It becomes a matter of connecting the dots, following the roadmap I've already created. Naturally, I'll
get some different ideas from time to time and take a few detours, but having a destination assures that I'm going to reach it. Of course, I'm aware that there are many authors who feel that outlines are not only unnecessary but detrimental to the creative process, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King among them. But for me, knowing where I'm going is a guarantee that I will get there. Sure, the story might not turn out as I had hoped, but it will at least be finished.

One more note on that: I write short stories at the proverbial drop of a hat, and in most cases these are not plotted. They are simply walks in the woods, little adventures that I embark upon. Sometimes I'm surprised, sometimes not. But was short stories, I really don't care if the story is good, or even if I finish the story. They are just little journeys, short exploratory travels. I would dare say that most of my short stories aren't very good, and that's just fine with me. I will keep the bad ones under wraps and share the ones that I like.

AUTHOR BIO

Johnathan Rand has authored more than 90 books since the year 2000, with nearly 6 million copies in print. His series include the incredibly popular AMERICAN CHILLERS, MICHIGAN CHILLERS, FREDDIE FERNORTNER, FEARLESS FIRST GRADER, and THE ADVENTURE CLUB. He's also co-authored a novel for teens entitled PANDEMIA. Under his pen name of Christopher Knight, he's the author of six adult novels, included the psychological thriller entitled BESTSELLER, which was made into a movie in 2014. When not traveling, Rand lives in northern Michigan with his wife and three dogs. He is also the only author in the world to have a store that sells only his works: CHILLERMANIA is located in Indian River, Michigan and is open year round and receives over 25,000 visitors annually. He loves his wife, their three dogs, and coffee. He despises the publishing industry and stays as far away from it as he can.

AUTHOR LINKS
www.americanchillers.com
www.facebook.com/johnathan.rand.9

Writing is a Curse…Sometimes

By Peter Welmerink, Mr. Procrastinator

I consider myself a write. Not necessary a good writer. Not a good writer mainly because I often don’t drill down and sit down and get the job as I should. I have projects and a million story ideas, but I am my own worst enemy when it comes to plopping myself down and putting words on page.

Now it is not a worry that when I do sit down I won’t be able to CREATE, to write, to vomit words upon the blank page. No, it is not that. I have been writing for many many many years, and being (thankfully) published for many compared to the many-many-many of actually writing.

So what holds me back from buckling down and getting the job done. Geesh! How many short stories and novels would I potentially have out in the public’s hands if I actually had sat down and banged out words consistently, constantly, in a timely manner?

I try not to think about it because I think it would be totally depressing and counterproductive to my writer’s work continuity.

Yeah, yeah. I am a regular job. I have a wife and kids, have a day job, have aging parents I continuously keep tabs on. I do like to get out there and breathe, stick my face out into the cool fresh air and take a breath.

And within all those important items and peoples and activities above, I know there is time to write, to create.

I get up during the week at roughly 530am. Pull the dishes from the dishwasher. Get the coffee going for my wife and I. Put a pan on with water to make my typical oatmeal breakfast. Pet the cats, crack a window open so they can be tormented by the rabbits outside in the front bushes.

But then why don’t I sit down, and hammer down, hooking up the box cars loaded with stories on the word train?

Do I fear getting going and where the story will take me? Afraid to get the characters within moving, get the plot line moving again, getting the whole thing rolling again? Do I fear I will write it, get the whole thing done and then be stymied by what to do next…even when I know there are ideas aplenty to splash across the blank open page?

Thing is, I get excited about the concept of sitting down and continuing the story, but then sit down and suddenly it is like I am stuck in cement.

How does one get over this? How does one plop into cement but then bust out and GET TO IT?

Simple. Really. Just like the Nike motto. JUST DO IT.

Like anything in life, like an item in the house your wife wants fixed and has been hounding you for a while to get done, you just need to JUST DO IT.

Just sit your ass down, open that file, put fingers to keyboard and start writing. Or if you a writing that first draft on ye olde wood pulp paper, just grab that pen or pencil, put the writing end to paper and JUST DO IT.

Like getting that task done the wife has been on you about, and when you do it (or at least try your best to get it done and then the damn faucet still leaks), you WILL feel accomplishment and contentness (not a word. Whatever.) that you JUST DID IT and DID SOMETHING.

I try to target at least 350 words a day. Not much. Not what Stephen King suggests, but you know what? It is something. And something is better than nothing and it still is progressing that story in your head and getting it that one step closer to completion.

Sit down and write. Just do it.

JETTIE NECOLE: Five Things Learned Writing THE VAULT

By darkheroicfantasy

Imagine an underground vault, empty, awaiting two hundred ticket holders of the finest intellect and genetic disposition to arrive. Designed to enforce a stable society to exist within its own rules, the vault is salvation for the wealthy. When a surprise nuclear attack threatens the United States, the vault's residents are driven underground to begin life anew, but one secret addition to the roster could make the entire system unravel. This is the world seventeen year old Olivia Parker finds herself locked inside, and she's not supposed to be there! Quickly she must learn and conform to the rules of this new society or face severe punishment. Surrounded by strangers, she's torn between trusting the man who forced her inside the vault or the genius who created it. If she's going to survive, she won't be able to do it alone.

The Vault: Upper Young Adult/New Adult Romance, Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopia

THE VAULT is a fast-paced novel that follows a seventeen-year-old girl's coming of age tale in an apocalyptic scenario where among the ruins of a shattered society love and hope endure.

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1. How to publish 101, doing it on your own.

I'd already written two unpublished novels, but I'd not taken the time to do anything about it. This book was my launching pad for figuring out the HOW’s and WHAT’s in getting my book out there, the indie way. So this would be my ticket to the other side. Everything from registering my work with the copyright office, buying an ISBN, formatting for e-book vs. print myself, to understanding why the heck my spine keeps moving. It was a big old adventure that had a lot of ups and difficult downs. In the end, I'd say I came out a graduate of the indie know-hows.

2. Doing it clean and pristine.

I published The Vault initially for a short period of two months. During my first promotion, I hit the top 100 and in three days gave away over 10,000 copies. That was my goal. When I got some harsh reviews on grammar, I realized I'd made a mistake and pulled it off for a re-edit. Not that my book was bad, I'm just a perfectionist and I couldn't deal with the knowledge of my book not being the best it could be.

Working with a professional editor for three months, who questions your motives and your sentence structure is a good thing. I've never been the queen of grammar. Actually, I'm terrified of the red pen. I'm a secretive person and sharing my work with someone is a vulnerable feeling, especially when tearing it apart is the entire purpose of the relationship. So, actually considering someone else's point of view was a learning process that made me a better writer. I noticed a big difference afterward. No more hits on my grammar and more attention to the plot.

When you're selling a brand it needs to be the best it can be.

3. Sometimes a character can surprise the author.

I think my favorite part about writing The Vault was minor characters come out of nowhere and take control, wanting their story to be told. Then, when editing comes into play, you realize their personal story doesn't even touch the page. Sometimes readers pick up on this in the smallest way and you find yourself writing a character who becomes bigger than the main character. I had a 60-year-old man write me before I did my re-edit and he said he was so touched by my story he cried. Okay. That's pretty big. Wow. So when I went back through with my re-edits, I made sure to be careful with those characters because people were already fond of them.

4. The end of the world is always happening.

One of the reasons I wanted to write this story was I'd always had a fascination with the World War II Era. The invasion of Baghdad was being televised live. I think it hit me then, that it could happen, a war to end wars. I'm sure every war brings forth such thoughts. The World War II Era and how Americans bought underground fallout shelters had been proof of that—the fear of attack reaching American soil seemed so far out there, but then 9/11 and the invasion of Baghdad happened. And so my ideas began to form and I thought it would make a great film or even a reality television show. The WHAT IF went down on my list of many ideas. About eight years later, I decided to write it as a novel instead. I began researching and people were still building underground shelters, they'd never stopped.

5. Writing is fun.

When I was writing The Vault, I did it because it was fun. Each scene was chosen because that's where I wanted to see my characters go. Not because I was following a formula or thought, "Hey this is what sells." I don't care what the trend is. I care about what is exciting for my characters, because that's exciting for me. [And if it is exciting and fun for you, it will probably be the same for the reader I have found.--PJW]

I also didn't allow others to sway my opinion on how I wanted to tell my story. I don't care if someone thinks Olivia is too naive, Gavin is too much of an alpha male, or there should be more death and gore. To me, this was a journey through the eyes of innocence. Keep reading because the dark side is coming, you just have to wait for it. When I get to it, that'll be fun too.

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Author Bio:

Jettie Necole was born and raised in Kentucky, she spent most of her time daydreaming, taking photos, shooting movies, reading and watching Star Trek and Highlander. Having a passion for the art of storytelling and the dynamics of film production, she earned a bachelor's degree in Film & Television from the University of Texas at Austin, during which she wrote, directed, and edited her own films. After graduation she moved to Los Angeles where she worked in the Film and Television industry. Currently she lives in Kentucky with her husband and their fluffy Goldendoodle named Oliver.

Links to THE VAULT

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

iTunes

Smashwords

Author Links

Jettie Necole website

Amazon: Author Page

Facebook: Author Page

Goodreads: Author Page

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Selah Janel: Five Things I Learned Writing OLDE SCHOOL

by darkheroicfantasy

Kingdom City has moved into the modern era. Run by a lord mayor and city council (though still under the influence of the High King of The Land), it proudly embraces a blend of progress and tradition. Trolls, ogres, and other Folk walk the streets with humans, but are more likely to be entrepreneurs than cause trouble. Princesses still want to be rescued, but they now frequent online dating services to encourage lords, royals, and politicians to win their favor. The old stories are around, but everyone knows they’re just fodder for the next movie franchise. Everyone knows there’s no such thing as magic. It’s all old superstition and harmless tradition.

Bookish, timid, and more likely to carry a laptop than a weapon, Paddlelump Stonemonger is quickly coming to wish he’d never put a toll bridge over Crescent Ravine. While his success has brought him lots of gold, it’s also brought him unwanted attention from the Lord Mayor. Adding to his frustration, Padd’s oldest friends give him a hard time when his new maid seems inept at best and conniving at worst. When a shepherd warns Paddlelump of strange noises coming from Thadd Forest, he doesn’t think much of it. Unfortunately for him, the history of his land goes back further than anyone can imagine. Before long he’ll realize that he should have paid attention to the old tales and carried a club.

Darkness threatens to overwhelm not only Paddlelump, but the entire realm. With a little luck, a strange bird, a feisty waitress, and some sturdy friends, maybe, just maybe, Padd will survive to eat another meal at Trip Trap’s diner. It’s enough to make the troll want to crawl under his bridge, if he can manage to keep it out of the clutches of greedy politicians.




1.World building in any form is soul-consuming, especially if you are a passionate, detail-oriented, perfectionist. 

I’d been used to the headaches of urban fantasy world building and somehow I had it in my head that coming up with this whole new realm from scratch would be so much easier because I was inventing all the rules.

This was a stupid, idiotic thought and I don’t know what evil gremlin whispered that into my ear one night, but it is LIES. ALL LIES.

No matter what, world building is going to eat you alive, especially with the first book of a series. You’re never going to please everyone. Some people want only a little detail, others want everything down to the fungus under your lead character’s toenails. Finding a good way of figuring out what goes in and how to put it in without a massive info dump was trial by fire for me. This was the first time I’d ever attempted anything so big, and because I like things to be tight and immersive, I condemned myself to utter agony because I am an overachiever. I will not go into how many edits I did to make sure certain characters’ dialects stayed true through the books and didn’t bleed over into other age brackets or types of characters. Not only did I have to set rules for the technology but also the politics, the mythology behind the politics, a somewhat reasonable backstory for the lead character, and a whole mythos for magical entities that weren’t supposed to exist. Plus I made it even more fun by making sure that certain characters never spoke in contractions, certain characters only used certain terms, and since it was a fairy tale world I wanted their vocabulary for objects that might be in our world to stay true to theirs (ie spectacles instead of glasses, mechanical quills instead of pens).

It didn’t matter how many notes I took. It didn’t matter how much sense I thought I was making at any given time. I had to revamp whole chunks of things nine thousand times and pray that things still were realistic for the world, but weren’t going to punch anyone in the face with all the detail-ness.

This. Was. A. Nightmare. I am still recovering and my brain may never fully stop screaming at me for all this.

2. Creating my own slang was AWESOME. 

On the flip side, developing a pop culture world for Kingdom City was hilarious and kept me laughing. I love that they have their own horror franchises. I love that they have their own dating sites. The thing I love most though is the slang. Whether it’s the standard ‘By Fate!’ or ‘Spindles and briars!’ or reference to Snow White’s frilly knickers and poisoned corset, I absolutely love those bits. ‘Bluebeard’s Balls,’ may be my pride and joy. When I was younger and watching The Tenth Kingdom on television, I was enamored by all the weird phrases the trolls would yell out, and I was determined to pay backhanded tribute in this series (and there may have been a weird, healthy sense of competition with The Tenth Kingdom phrase ‘suck an elf’, as well). I was writing some scene with Ippick and was struggling for an appropriate curse that would make sense. My hands just started typing and when I read the screen I just died. I don’t know why that phrase is so hilarious to me, but I love it. If I only become known for adding to the troll curse word pantheon, then I will absolutely be proud of that.

3. It is amazing how many horror elements are close to fairy tale elements. 

No, seriously. I don’t know at what point I realized this, but I’m fairly convinced that many versions of Cinderella must have worshiped eldergods. We’re talking ladies who talked to trees, who talked to dead animals, who made bargains with dead animals, who tossed stuff around that grew into barricades that their adversaries couldn’t cross. I don’t care what realm or universe you’re from, that is either sparkly and magical or creepy as all get out. Plus, the stepsisters were willing to mutilate their feet for love, there are conditional bargains with magical entities, there are elements of cannibalism in some of the stories…the genres line up way too well to not play with that. You don’t even have to get into the obvious “well fairy tales are violent” argument. There are so many other elements that, in the right mindset, read like Lovecraft.  I may have turned things on their heads, but I stand by it and now you will never convince me that some of those ladies weren’t secret cultists of some sort.

4. It is amazing what my publisher lets me get away with. 

I fully went in thinking I was going to have to defend a lot of the more unconventional scenes. If anything, all I had to do was tighten things up so they played out a little easier.  I had been dreading trying to explain things like why this little bird might be this ancient entity but it also talked like an eloquent, archaic pervert…segments like a particular diner scene that start in one direction and just exploded into something else, not to mention all the little side comments from Ippick. The story turns on a dime multiple times, revealing more and more layers, and I wasn’t sure if the press would go for it once they actually saw what it was. Plus there was all the slang innuendo, antiquated that’s what she said jokes, odd pop culture references, and characters that change allegiances like they change clothes. I shouldn’t have worried. Seventh Star fully embraced the book and offered nothing but encouragement. I really started writing this because it was what I wanted to read. I was entertaining myself, actually laughing out loud while writing some scenes. I’m pleased that pretty much all of those elements got to stay and that people have embraced them. Of course, knowing that they’re behind me just means I’m going to have to try harder to needle them…

I’m also learning that I’m very comfortable writing ridiculous male characters who say whatever they want. Ippick and Clyde are two of the easiest characters for me to write and I gleefully enable them. I’m not sure what this says about me, but maybe I’ll have more thoughts on this by book 2.

5. “Silly things” or “guilty pleasures,” when used well, can rock a book. 

I will admit that the editing process for this was overwhelming on top of all my cohesive world building. This taught me that I will never be ashamed for all the chocolate I eat when I get to a point like that if it keeps me from bludgeoning myself with my laptop. Seriously, many bags of chocolate chips never saw a cookie because of this book and I have no regrets about it.

Also, I do get a lot of eye rolls for my PBS addiction and my tendency to watch every British comedy or drama on the station. These shows saved my mind so hard in some ways. I had wanted Kingdom City to sound “different” and, honestly, the thought of fantasy characters talking with mid-American slang just didn’t work for me. I’m not saying my dialects are all that great or should be seen as tribute to Doc Martin, Sherlock, As Time Goes By, or Call the Midwife, but I think listening to different accents, dialects, and slang over and over helped me develop the sound of Kingdom City. Please do not hunt me down, British people. I mean it as a compliment, truly.

Likewise, I think my geeky love of pop culture helped flesh out the world somewhat. My love of Jim Henson’s fantasy films and shows gave me courage to develop the world. He attacked Dark Crystal, The Storyteller, and Labyrinth with such a passion, turning them into full-bodied worlds…if I hadn’t had that example growing up, I don’t know that I’d be remotely willing to try to shoot as large as I did for world building Kingdom City. A childhood of growing up exploring fairy tales of all sorts gave me a much better background to work with than if I had tried to go in and purposefully write a “fairy tale story.” I usually never work with any kind of character reference or avatar, but I definitely had some unexpected voice references for Clyde and Paddlelump that freed up my stressed mind to really dive into those characters, have some fun, and make them who they were supposed to be.

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Selah Janel has been blessed with a giant imagination since she was little and convinced that fairies lived in the nearby state park or vampires hid in the abandoned barns outside of town. The many people around her that supported her love of reading and curiosity probably made it worse. Her e-books The Other Man, Holly and Ivy, and Mooner are published through Mocha Memoirs Press. Lost in the Shadows, a collection of short stories celebrating the edges of ideas and the spaces between genres was co-written with S.H. Roddey. Her work has also been included in The MacGuffin, The Realm Beyond, Stories for Children Magazine, The Big Bad: an Anthology of Evil, The Grotesquerie, and Thunder on the Battlefield. Olde School is the first book in her new series, The Kingdom City Chronicles, and is published through Seventh Star Press. She likes her music to rock, her vampires lethal, her fairies to play mind games, and her princesses to hold their own.

Blog – http://www.selahjanel.wordpress.com

Facebook author page – http://www.facebook.com/authorSJ

Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/SelahJanel

Amazon Author Page - http://www.amazon.com/Selah-Janel/e/B0074DKC9K

Goodreads -  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5622096.Selah_Janel

Interview in MAHLE NORTH AMERICA COMPANY NEWS MAGAZINE

As part of MAHLE INDUSTRY, they put out a company "newspaper" every quarter. Each facility picks an employee to interview and show what they do outside of work, hobbies, etc.

I was chosen for the April issue.

The interview article is below: (As found on the back cover of the magazine. How cool is that?!)

Sticking To It, Staying On It

I don't know about any of you other writers, but the hardest part of my "writing day" is 1. getting to that ending, that END OF STORY, and 2. rummaging back through the final piece and editing/proofreading it, trying to polish it to the best of my biased ability.

I finished up a little over 19k word Fantasy short story end of June. The publisher I was submitting it to, well, their deadline was June 30th. As I wasn't going to JUST SEND it to the publisher without doing a re-read and some polishing first, I humbled requested from the publisher a little more time. I would not typically do this. This is not a good practice, and I am sure most publishers when they say THAT'S IT, that's it. But as everyone is human (hopefully LOL), sometimes you just have to go a little crazy and ASK. The worst they can say is NO, right? The best thing they can say is YES...NOW GETTER DONE!!

I was lucky enough to already have worked with this particular editor/publisher, asked nicely for a bit more time, and fortunately they granted me an extension to get my work piece into them.

As the 4th of July holiday came into play, and I did things with the family (a mini-vacation time), and then had to go out on the road the following week (back to work), it took me about two weeks to complete the re-reading and editing/proofing of my short story. I finally sent the publisher the piece, stating again I know I was behind the eight ball, and if they took it this late in the submission deadline game, I am thankful, and if not, again, I thanked them for the opportunity.

As I have recently submitted the work piece, I have not gotten a response yet either YAY or NAY to submitting it late, or if it just won't work for their publication.

I am not the best editor when it comes to my own work. The story is in my head. I can see it, feel it, smell it, taste it...and I put all that hopefully successfully down on paper I get a pretty good idea by its ending on what might have to be gone back to and smoothed out, what kinks might have to be worked out. Being perfectly grammatically correct, yeah, I try to smooth out all that as much as possible also before I consider the piece submittable. As mentioned, I do as much as I can to make it a polished piece, but a set of fresh eyes (normally an editor outside my meager self) always help as I admit to not sleeping with my Strunck & White religiously.

What I am saying here is, when you are GETTING IT DONE, stay positive, stay focused. If you need to have a bit more time to complete your masterpiece, sometimes, if you are really committed to getting something to that particular publisher, communicate, correspond with them. Like I said, the worst they can say is NOPE. SORRY. You should also give them a solid target date if you are going to be late.

Get through that final polishing stage. Stick to it. Get it done, even if you have to read bits and pieces throughout your busy day. (I will read through and edit my material, then highlight with red font the last paragraph I left off on so it is easy to come back to later.)

Feel free to give me your comments on FINISHING THE JOB and the EDITING PROCESS.

If anyone ever tells me writing doesn't take work...