Tag: author life

Deadlines and Distractions

Keeping My Eye on the Prize for Book Launch Day

As I look at my over-filled calendar that’s chock-full of obligations, fun events and outings, to even doctor appointments, I realize I’m just a little over ten weeks away from book launch day. Time surely flies.

The surprising thing is, I’m not very nervous. I think I’ve given myself plenty of lee-way in the off chance that something holds up the project. Publishing can be tricky when there are so many wheels in motion. So many people to rely on to do their part. I’ve been fairly lucky thus far that all of my team, that I’ve had to assemble in order to get this book out, has been on the ball and quick to address their role.

In case you missed what book I’m speaking of, I’ve written a new novel called, Wildflower. It is set to release on July 8th, and I feel that excitement of a new mother all over again, giving birth to a precious gem that’s been twenty-two months in gestation.

The cover design came out better than I could have dreamed! And with the interior being formatted now for both the print version as well as ebook, I’m just waiting for the final product so I can review it.

But I tend to get distracted and unsure of what to do next. With all the deadlines I have for each step to be completed, sometimes I can get overwhelmed with the checklist. The marketing is the most cumbersome. From social media posts, to making videos, creating cards, and bookmarks, to lining up interviews with influencers, book groups, bookstores, and podcasters…it seems endless. Do I hire a PR person? Do I continue to do it myself? For now, I’m doing ok, but self-publishing is a lot.

My most recent endeavor has been to pull together pictures to create a book trailer. Yes, that’s a thing. Like watching a movie trailer, seeing a book trailer can give people a better idea as to what the book is about. A visual aid to pique their interest. Something that eats up a lot of my time but will last forever, and I can use it again and again. Still, it gets exhausting, and once you are on the internet merry-go-round, looking for usable photos, time slips through your fingers faster than a slippery bar of soap. Time management hasn’t always been my greatest strength either.

So the good news is, I am on track, I’m feeling great, and spring is here! This is my favorite time of year and I am the most energized during spring. It’s glorious to get up early at sunrise, breathe deeply in that dewy grass outside with a steamy cup of coffee, and listen to the music of the birds showing off for one another.

I hope you are getting just as excited for my new book as I am. Wildflower is the story of Charlie Kane, a girl living in Sebastopol, California, and her evolution to becoming a woman, struggling to find her worth in a world of turmoil and chronic dissappointment. It’s about mothers and daughters, about addiction and redemption, and forbidden love and romance. It’s about stopping at nothing to build a life when it seems everything wants to tear you down. A heroes journey of sorts. Heroine, actually. And the book will take you from Northern California, to the busy cities around Los Angeles, New York, and other travel destinations as well. I’m thrilled to share it.

Wishing you all a lovely spring full of joy and adventure. Don’t forget to tell your friends about Wildflower, (and maybe this blog), so more people will be enticed to grab my book once it is available. I’m also working on getting it ready for pre-orders. More on that to come.

All the best ~ Patti

I’m Totally Booked!

Daily Struggles in an Author’s Life

Gearing up for another book launch after five years is like learning how to ride a bike all over again. I swear, time is flying faster than a double espresso induced teenager. It’s hard to keep up.

Publishing is changing all the time, and attempting to stay current is like buying a new Apple phone. Ten minutes after you buy it, they’ve already come out with a new version. In order to be even remotely competitive you have to read, listen to, and watch videos on publishing on the daily. This is no lie.

When I decided to self-publish my next novel it wasn’t that I sold out, or chickened out on the traditional publishing route. Actually, quite frankly, I’m not young enough to wait around to get my books out into the world in the time frame trad-pub takes! I’m freakin’ 56 years old now and have more stories in me than I can possibly publish in the amount of time I have left on this planet. Sometimes, you gotta take matters into your own hands.

So, as my editor is making the last passes through my latest novel, I fill my days with tearing apart and doing a huge edit to my previous novel. This is happening simultaneously while I work three days a week at the bookstore, and fit band rehearsals in there somewhere between conversing with my family, and reading from my never ending TBR pile. Oh yeah…And treating and healing from a busted foot. That’s what you get when you are always on the move.

Not that I’m complaining. I’m certainly not doing that! Because as I told the ultra-cool students today at Career Day, where I presented over at one of our local high schools, when you are an author, you are the boss. You get to make your own hours, and there is no one to blame if shit doesn’t get done but YOU! I have full creative license and power to do whatever the hell I want, and yet…I still manage to over book myself, become drained from too many responsibilities, and struggle to get even the smallest damn thing done that I really want to do.

That’s called time management issues!

I admit, I completely struggle from time managment issues. And again, there is nobody to blame but me. I either get started too late, or I start early and become distracted, or I have too many irons in the fire and underestimate how long each task I commit to will take. Basically, I need a 36 hour day, or an extra day in the week. Why couldn’t God rest on the 8th day? That would have been good, don’t you think?

But the good news is I finally am going to release another novel. My book, WILDFLOWER, will release later this summer of 2025, (actual date coming soon), and I’m super excited because I met with the book cover designer this week. This, and the fact the editor is nearly done with it, makes it real. My excitement is nearly at the boiling point where I could bubble over the rim and gush everywhere at any moment.

As you might have guessed though, just releasing the book is only the beginning. I have to market it from there…FOREVER! Ha! If I want to sell books, I have to keep reminding folks that I have one out there for sale. And my backlist will hopefully benefit from marketing the current one too, (and so on, and so on…) but let me tell ya, it’s a lot of work.

So much so, that I’m telling you RIGHT NOW, I really need you to tell all your friends, (and family members, bank tellers, your hair dresser, and their dog), that they need to buy my book WILDFLOWER as soon as it’s out. Get them excited for it! Make them so anxious to get their copy that they worry they could miss out on the next greatest thing that could possibly happen since Post-it Notes, and home delivery office supplies.

I want to thank you in advance for this kind gesture of sharing with everyone you know about my upcoming book. As I sit here in my office typing away, I am filled with gratitude for all those that have shown me support over the years. You know, it isn’t easy getting started in midlife, doing what you really wanted to be doing in your younger years, but somehow that makes it sweeter. I believe in Divine Timing, and when everything aligns just right, magic happens. I also know we can ASK, BELIEVE, & RECEIVE. There is much to look forward to.

Watch for future blog posts about WILDFLOWER, and you can follow me on Instagram at @pattidiener or on Facebook at my author page at Patti Diener. I appreciate you all so much.

*Pictures of me are mine and laptop picture supplied by pexels.com.

Jumping Into the Deep End

Back in the Querying Saddle Again

It’s like being a kid with all your friends casually treading water with smiles on their faces, daring you to take the plunge. The water’s fine, they say. But what they don’t tell you is the water, although it sparkles and looks enticingly refreshing, can be shocking and icy. It’s sink or swim baby! And if you want to play with them in the deep end, you better figure it out quick. There are other people lined up, waiting on the diving board for their turn and their place in the pool.

Ok, so maybe that analogy isn’t the best, but it does feel like that when you are a writer trying to break into traditional publishing. I’ve written five books so far and only published the second one, and that by self-publishing. I didn’t want my friends and dare I say… fans, to wait for my book, After the Fire, to be picked up in the trad-pub world, so I did it myself. It was really well recieved, (thanks to you loyal people who have stuck it out with me from the beginning), but I really want a team behind me. I’m ready to dive in.

With my book, The Clock Tower of Maple Creek, not being picked up after several attempts for representation, I set it aside to write something new. Back in September of 2023, I started Wildflower, and finished it this early spring of 2024. Since then I have done three rounds of edits and shared several chapters with my fantastic writing group, The Kick-Ass Women Writers. I wrote and tore apart to rewrite my query three different times and finally landed on the current one I’m sending out to select agents. You just never know for sure if the query will resonate with the person you are trying to connect with. It’s always a gamble, and like I said, there are already a lot of kids in the proverbial pool.

I’ll share with you the meat of my query so you can get an idea of what my book is about. I’m in love with my characters and dream of them often. Yes, they are real to me. Does that make me crazy? Well aren’t all writers a tad insane? Below is the sample without the salutations or closing bio.

What happens when the handsome guy you met over the summer ends up being your substitute English teacher? Charlie Kane finds out as she struggles with the agony of forbidden love, the heartbreak of a broken family, and dreams of one day leaving it all behind to pursue a life as a professional artist.

The summer leading up to her senior year in high school, seventeen-year-old Charlie Kane’s life is in shambles. An intellectual outcast with an unfavorable reputation, she has nowhere to turn, living in poverty with her addictive mother, in their small northern California town.

Twenty-four-year-old Jack Connors has just left a dead-end job in Los Angeles and is house and dog sitting for his uncle in Sebastopol, California, trying to decide his next career move when he meets a beautiful, if somewhat unruly girl on the street.

Although the two have instant chemistry, neither learns much about the other. Then worlds collide on Charlie’s first day of her senior year when she walks into her English class and comes face to face with the tall and gorgeous stranger…and he’s the teacher.

Inspired by the 1972 song, “Wildflower”, by Skylark, The Police hit, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”, and the mother-daughter relationship of Cloud and Tully from Kristin Hannah’s, Firefly Lane, Wildflower, is edited at 100K words and told in dual POV. This book will appeal to female fans of Colleen Hoover, Jojo Moyes, or Josie Silver.

So wish me luck on this querying journey I’m embarking upon once again. In the meanwhile, I’ll be writing with the hubby on his children’s book he’s making and learning more about the picture book industry. That’s what’s happening in my world. Thanks for stopping by.

Sending you all much love. Xoxo ~ Patti D.

*Swimming pool photo and girl with tattoo are courtesy of pexels.com. Others are mine / Patti Diener