I made it…week three

Posted on by Tamara Mercer

Hello Everyone (presumptive of me to suggest there is anyone)

Another week has gone by and I’m back writing my blog. It’s been a quick week, as here in the province where I live (British Columbia) we celebrated Family Day this past Monday.  Family Day is observed in some of the Canadian provinces and is a holiday that celebrates the importance of families and family life.  I don’t have a large family; my husband and I and our collection of four-legged critters. I did enjoy volunteering at our local Community Hall for a Meet Your Neighbours afternoon tea.  It’s always nice to give back a little to the community you live in.

You might remember from last week’s blog that I was wrestling with the idea of a format for my blog.  I’m no closer to an answer to my dilemma; however, as you will read further down, I am doing one thing right by writing what I feel – from the heart.

On another note, and not at all related to writing, I have been busily preparing for an upcoming workshop my friend Sam Shields and I are hosting this coming weekend.  This is the second in our series of workshops on Manifesting Abundance in 2018, which involves some meditating with my horses, tarot card reading and building personal vision boards. It’s lots of fun.  As much as I love doing the workshops, the lead up can be stressful and hectic at times, especially in the final days!

To keep me somewhat focused on writing I have been binge listening to Joanna Penn’s podcasts – www.creativepenn.com.   I always find Joanna’s guests to be very interesting.  I listen to a lot of podcasts by authors and writers about -publishing podcasts, and I certainly have my core group that I like.  The latest episode I listened to, (twice actually) was episode number three hundred and sixty.  In this interview, Joanna spoke with Steven Spatz, who is the President of BookBaby.com. BookBaby provides self-publishing services and book distribution for independent authors.  Not only do I like the services BookBaby provides, but I also liked some of Steven’s takes on the state of the nation, so to speak.

And there’s been more news breaking in recent days… Apple is getting back into the e-book fight with Amazon with a revamp of iBooks to Books with audiobooks, and Walmart has struck a deal with Rakuten, who owns Kobo, a Canadian company, that will see co-branded Walmart/Kobo e-reading devices, e-books, and audiobooks sold through the Walmart website and stores.  This, in my very humble opinion, will be beneficial for both authors and readers.  I am eager to see how this plays out over the next year or so.

As a wrap up to this week’s blog, one topic that Joanna mentioned on that same podcast was the importance of authors curating their brand and sharing personal thoughts on your blog, website, Facebook, twitter accounts and more.  She acknowledged it is hard for some authors, but putting a face out there so that your readers know you’re a real person and not just an avatar could make the difference between someone willing to spend that extra dollar on your product over another.  After hearing that, I think I can put a big check mark next to being a real person.

Okay time to wrap up, have a great week and if you like what you have read or have any comments, let me know.  In the meantime here is my favourite quote for the week.

“A word after a word after a word is power.”
–Margaret Atwood

Tamara

 

Published by Tamara Mercer

Okay, off the top I want to declare I was once a ‘corporate cog in the wheel’; in fact, I was that cog for over 27 years, and miserable for most of the time. In 2006, my entire department was outsourced. Happy to have been kicked to the curb, I turned my attention to what I was going to do next. Not surprising, I entered the world of self-employment that lead to several mediocre, haphazard positions; including a home renovation business, several direct marketing forays into the health and wellness world and finally two failed attempts at selling horse related products. In between, I had to take jobs at the local box stores to make ends meet. I was tired of following the beat of society’s drum. Feeling defeated and dejected, I stepped back to look at my life and asked myself, “what do I truly want?” I decided I needed the ‘free spirit’ inside of me to flourish. Of course, I also needed to make some money. After all life is not free. About this same time, a good friend was starting to experience some success as a writer. She and I had always spoken about writing, and she had taken the daring leap to becoming a full-time writer a few years earlier. As the author of a successful series, her success was now inspiring me to consider a dream I’d always had, but kept quiet inside me. With her encouragement, I decided to find more time for writing. The answer had surfaced, “I want to be an writer!” That was a few years ago. Where am I now? Well, I’m not a best selling author – yet. I spend as much time as I can writing when I’m not busy at home or working. My husband and I own a small ranch that’s also home to horses, dogs and a feisty barn cat. We don’t have children, of the traditional variety, so we give all our love to the four-legged kids. Horses are a big part of my life. They are the calm that keep me centered on this earth. Fortunately, I’ve managed to develop a small business working with horses so, while I eventually want to write full-time, at least I’m much happier at work now versus those unrewarding days as a cog. As far as developing as a writer, I’ve written a few horse-related articles, and a short essay, about one of my own horses, was published in an anthology. Currently, I have three books in the works. While my writing doesn’t revolve around horses, there’s always one or more horses layered into my stories. I get a lot of writing ideas and tips by listening to podcasts. I think I might actually be a podcast junkie! I am fascinated by the entire writing industry and how it is evolving.

6 thoughts on “I made it…week three”

  3. Great blog, Tammy, I really like the quote at the end. An excellent quote for writers – “A word after a word after a word is power.”
    –Margaret Atwood

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    1. Thanks Jim for reading my blog and the positive feedback. I’ve always liked inspirational quotes. I’m looking at one on the wall of my office now, “Always be the leading lady of you own life” – Audrey Hepburn.

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