THE Key Ingredient for Longevity as an Author
Laura Drake Blog
by Laura Drake
4M ago
It’s not natural ability. Many bestselling authors didn’t start with that. Not skill. You can work and study until you learn it. Not even stubbornness (though that helps). Writing is wonderful. But breaking into authorship, whether you choose indie, small press or NY, is an endeavor that will tear you up, break you down, and has killed the love of writing for many. Suffice it to say…it ain’t easy. From the outside, it looks like a blast. This is what it looks like to others:  You spend your days playing with characters and the story in your head. By the end, you’re published to the sound ..read more
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A New Book!
Laura Drake Blog
by Laura Drake
5M ago
This is a book of my heart. I’ve started, stopped and changed it four or five times. When I completed my last contract, I picked it up again and finished it. Turned it in to my agent, who thought it would be a very hard sell in the current state of world affairs…that readers wouldn’t want sad right now. Well, I’m 69 years old in a couple weeks – I don’t have time to wait, because you can’t enjoy being published posthumously (at least I think you can’t), so I’m self-publishing it. Meet For Roger:   Joan Merritt lives a charmed life. Happily married to her soulmate, she delights in followi ..read more
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Writer Blinders
Laura Drake Blog
by Laura Drake
5M ago
You’ve seen the blinders that racehorses wear to keep them focused on their own race, and not what’s going on around them, right? Well, writers need them too. Significant others, children, day jobs, Netflix, the internet, chores! We all lead gloriously busy lives, and it’s not easy to get ten minutes of uninterrupted time. But that’s what you need for creating, so what’s a writer to do? I hear it all the time, and this may be the biggest writer’s lament – no time, no focus. I’m retired now, but I started writing when I still had a teenager at home. Believe me, I had all of the above, and stil ..read more
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Amos
Laura Drake Blog
by Laura Drake
5M ago
Was at an informal writer’s get-together a while back, and we did a writing exercise. Had to finish the sentence, ‘I wish I’d never met’. This is fun! Take any topic and write for five minutes. You might surprise yourself! AMOS I wish I never met… Amos. My life was fine. I mean, it sucked, but that was usual, so it was fine. I don’t like change. Might as well tell you that right off. See, I’m alone since Betsy up and died on me, seven years ago. They say I’m lucky to live to ninety, but they’re not, so what the hell do they know?  I was content, watching tv all day, even though daytime t ..read more
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One Perfect Line
Laura Drake Blog
by Laura Drake
5M ago
I’ve said it before – I love words. I love how they swirl together into sentences to form beautiful, horrible or sensual images. I also love my Kindle. I use it almost exclusively, and one of the main reasons is the ability to highlight. When I read an amazing sentence (or two), I highlight them and can refer to them whenever I’d like. By the way, there’s an easier way to access your highlights. Just go to: https://read.amazon.com/kp/notebook. When I need inspiration, I refer to them. Here are only a few of my stash. Know that there are MANY more. You can probably guess my favorite authors fro ..read more
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How to Survive Today’s Market
Laura Drake Blog
by Laura Drake
5M ago
A writer friend alerted me to an article recently, 10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing. Go ahead and read it – we’ll wait. Okay, if you know anything about my books, you know I won’t leave you in a sad place, so read on. A bit discouraging? I’d say yes, and no. Would we all love to be NYT bestsellers with every book? Laugh on the way to the bank (does anyone go to an actual  bank anymore?) Be able to quit the day job and sit home writing all day, churning out those bestsellers? Every single one of us. But that’s a lightning strike: rare, spectacular and impossible to predict (even for ..read more
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Painting with Words
Laura Drake Blog
by Laura Drake
5M ago
  One of the many joys I get from writing is in choosing words. To me, they all have shades, from the lightest ivory to the darkest black, and choosing just the right shade to portray the emotion that I’m going for is a hobby. Like a pastel painter, I play and blend until I have the exact meaning I want. To explain how I do it, this is from a book I just turned in to my agent – It’s a woman, after her husband got an ALS diagnosis. This was a key scene; the emotion had to be real and raw. So first, I closed my eyes and sat with it—imagined what I’d feel if I found out my husband had 3-6 m ..read more
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Publication is a Loooong Road
Laura Drake Blog
by Laura Drake
5M ago
I just realized this morning that it’s been ten years since I got my agent; nine years since I sold. It seems a lot longer. Now, times have changed with self-publishing becoming mainstream, but for those who are contemplating selling to New York, it hasn’t gotten any easier. I wrote my first book in 2008. I began it to get the story out of my head, but by the time I finished, my goal was to hold a book in my hand with my name on it. But that meant I needed an agent. I joined a fantastic chapter of RWA (Romance Writers of America), and learned a lot from published authors, sharing their wisdom ..read more
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A Different Resolution
Laura Drake Blog
by Laura Drake
5M ago
  I’m sure this is just one of the zillions of blogs about resolutions, intentions and ‘word for the year’ posts you’ll see this week, but read on – this one is different, I promise. I’m 68 years on the planet, so I’ve made a bunch of resolutions. Mostly revolve around weight. But guess what? I’ve still got what I started with, along with a shit-ton of tax, shipping and handling. I’ve done the ‘word for the year’ thing, too. If you’d asked me what my ‘word’ was in March, I couldn’t have told you. Why? Because intentions are like posting a ribbon supporting a cause on Facebook…if that’s a ..read more
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Happy Holidays!
Laura Drake Blog
by Laura Drake
5M ago
From my house to yours, Happy Holidays!   The post Happy Holidays! appeared first on Laura Drake ..read more
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