Archives: bayou writers club

Stay in the Write

Hi there, how’s your 2017 going so far? We had a rough start in my hometown, some nasty tornadoes ripped through the area pretty good. Thankfully no one has died due to the bad weather though.

I’m hard at work on finishing up the dystopian novel, book one of an intended trilogy. I’ve gotten feedback from a good friend and writing buddy, and I’ve decided to make some revisions. I’ve been working on this one for a while now (since 2012), and at times I wonder if I’ll ever get finished. I’m heartened though that whenever I make adjustments, the story seems to pull a little bit tighter together, so it still feels good when I look at the whole picture.

I’ve got a short story submitted to the Wundor Editions Short Fiction 2017 Contest in jolly old England. Wish me luck! I’ll find out if I won by late March.

The Bayou Writers Club has resumed their meetings for 2017. Lisa, our organizer, is doing her part to make sure everyone not only has incentives to write, but also specified goals to work for. I think it helps people who may have considered writing for years but never sat down to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to do the work and get it done. It’s not easy, for sure. I compare it a little to the exercise mentality. You know how so many people (perhaps even yourself) say after New Years: “I’m gonna get to the gym this year and get in shape!” Then, what happens? I have a gym membership myself, so I can see it – a lot of people go in January, but a few months into the year (if that), people drop off.

Motivation is good, motivation is important. But persistence is the key. Keep yourself to it. Imagine the finished work. Think of why you’re doing it: to be published, make money, or just to get something out there. I go back and forth on why I write. At the end of the day, I care about the story, and sharing it. Of course, I wouldn’t turn down the chance to make gobs of money, but I still enjoy making the story work, and hopefully interesting to other people.

Ok, that’s my piece for now. Stay in touch!

Moving Write Along

Hello again, I hope things are going well for you, wherever you are. The weather over here has gotten progressively warmer in recent days. Fortunately the evenings and mornings are still on the cool side for now. I’m sure that will be ending soon. At least the garden stuff is growing more now these days – just wish the grass wasn’t growing as quick 🙂 #honeydolist

Anyway, sharing some exciting news from me in the writing realm. I have indie published my novel Leave from Absence last month, and it is now available on Amazon.com in Kindle format! The print copy will be available shortly. I’m super excited about this, as this book has been several years in the making. I believe I started this one roughly as far back as 2012. It has seen several rewrites and a few critiques, and has weathered much. I’m very happy with finally being able to share it with you, and I hope you enjoy it. It’s a story from the heart.

In addition to releasing Leave from Absence, I’ve been hard at work revising my dystopian manuscript.  I plan on having this one ready to pitch by mid 2017.  Right now I’m retooling it, and tightening it up.  Feels like the story is there, just trying to smooth out the bumps.  Also, I have some short stories in the works that I hope to be getting out in the next several months, so be sure and stay tuned for that one!

On my last post on this blog, I mentioned writing goals.  I’m glad to say I’ve been able to reach a few of them, and even surpass one.  Here’s a recap of my goals for 2016, and where I stand with them:

• Get to 700 followers on my twitter account,@tanis2112 I’m up to 718 followers and counting.  If you’re on twitter, look me up!
• Write four blog posts over the year [counting this one? maybe ] This one is halfway there.  Two on the year by early April 🙂
• Either self publish or query my general fic manuscript (title forthcoming… I like surprises lol) Done!  Off and running with the Kindle version, print version forthcoming!
• Complete two short stories and submit them either to contests or for consideration to be Kindle Singles  In the works currently.  Need to revise, so that’s on my to-do list.  
• Make significant progress on my sci-fi manuscript (title forthcoming… see above about surprises) Also in progress.  

I understand several members of the Bayou Writers Club recently attended the Jambalaya Writers Conference presented by the Terrebonne Parish Library system in Houma, LA.  I’m looking forward to catching up with them on this and will pass along any tidbits I hear on this.  I’m hoping to work in attending writer conventions at some point in my future, if nothing else I want to attend the Writers Digest convention in New York when it’s time to pitch my dystopian manuscript, but that’s still a bit in the future.

Anyway, that’s my piece for now.  I hope you are keeping busy, being creating and just enjoying life wherever you’re at.  All the best to you!

Happy writing!

Writing Goals!

Greetings, I hope your 2016 is going ok so far.  We’ve sure had a bumpy start, with all these iconic musicians and actors leaving us so early in the year.  Hopefully we won’t have much more bad news for awhile.

My writers group Bayou Writers Club held their first meeting of 2016, and it was suggested of the members that we come up with writing resolutions.  Ya know, kind of like New Year’s Resolutions but writing related?  Typically I’ve shied away from these and New Year’s Resolutions in general, because I just haven’t had a lot of luck with them in the past.

However…

I’ve also done pretty well with goals for myself, so I’m opting to think of these more as “goals” than “resolutions”, since aren’t resolutions kind of apt for being broken?  Gym workout resolutions, anyone??

So, I figured I’d put my writing goals for 2016 here so you can see them and I can come back and update you throughout the year on my progress.  Now some of these have to do specifically with writing, but not all of them do.  Some are for more of the complimentary stuff for writing, like getting twitter followers or (ahem) blog posts.  Ok, here we go, in no particular order:

Paul’s 2016 Writing Goals:

• Get to 700 followers on my twitter account, @tanis2112
• Write four blog posts over the year [counting this one? maybe 😉 ]
• Either self publish or query my general fic manuscript (title forthcoming… I like surprises lol)
• Complete two short stories and submit them either to contests or for consideration to be Kindle Singles
• Make significant progress on my sci-fi manuscript (title forthcoming… see above about surprises)

So that’s it!  I’m trying not to go too far with these, so I have goals that are reasonably attainable, but not TOO easy.  Wish me luck!

Happy writing!