Here I am again, another week another blog. At the suggestion of one of my readers I was speaking with, I’m going to blog a little more about my ‘journey’ as a writer, specifically as it relates to my books. At first I was a little perplexed by the suggestion. The thing that sprung to mind was, “I’m not published yet, so what can I talk about?” Then, as we discussed it further I finally made the connection – sometimes it takes me a moment or two – I could blog about some of the subjects that are in my stories. I’m not sure IF you, my readers, will like it, but I’ll never know until I give it a try, so here it goes.
As part of my current book I needed to get a visual in my mind of a pink bathroom dated in and around the 1950’s. I googled images and WOW, talk about insanely ugly! The worst part, was realizing that our family home had once had a pink bathroom very similar. I had forgotten all about it. Over the period we lived in that house, that bathroom had undergone several renovations. It wasn’t until I saw the pink and black tiles online that I was quickly swept back into my childhood home. It was kind of fun. Another interesting tidbit I uncovered was a kind of unique Hollywood fact about a famous movie star as it relates to pink bathrooms. If it doesn’t get axed by the editing process, I slipped that little nugget into my book.
I also needed to do a little research into child sex abuse, as I, fortunately, never experienced it. I read through some truly graphic accounts of sexual abuse that, frankly, made me feel sick to my stomach. To learn about how the long term effect that kind of abuse has on the human psyche is almost beyond my comprehension. I’m not sure it’s a good thing, but I certainly feel better informed now about sexual abuse towards children. I even questioned myself if I wanted to write that element into the story. In the end I decided to keep it, unless my editor says otherwise.
That’s it for this week, tell me what you think? Do you want to hear about my process of writing? Or are there other things you’d like to hear from me? It’s so early in the Blog process; I really don’t have a style yet. I can change it anyway I want at this point – I don’t think I’ll offend anyone.
Now for this week’s inspirational quote:
We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what we’ll do, by finding out what we’ll not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
Samuel Smiles – A Scottish Author
Have a great week!
Tamara
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
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.
View all posts by Tamara Mercer
Tamara Mercer 