When LIfe Interrupts Writing

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My guest today is award winning author, Pamela Thibodeaux. She’s sharing advice for writers. I think you’ll enjoy reading about her new anthology, Love in Season. Welcome, Pam.

Title: When Life Interrupts Writing, by Pamela Thibodeaux

As writers, we’re taught to schedule regular time to sit down and write, daily or at the very least, weekly. Major life changes such as long-term illness and/or death of a loved one can sap the creativity right out of a person.

What’s a writer to do?

If you’re unpublished or simply working on your latest WIP and the work is not under contract, then you can put it aside until the crisis is over. Promotional efforts for your published works can usually be rescheduled or if absolutely necessary, cancelled.

But what if you’re under contract with deadlines?

Talk about it!

Many long-term illnesses don’t start out that way. A cold turns into flu, flu to pneumonia, pneumonia to pleurisy, and so forth. If you’re under contract deadlines, contact your editor at the start of anything that may turn into a major life change before things get out of control. Now I’m not saying call your editor every time you or one of your loved ones get the sniffles. However, if what begins as something minor lingers and could fluctuate into a major illness, you need to let your editor know what is happening. Keep him or her informed throughout the period.

Staying in contact with those you’re committed to will help them reschedule their workload to the benefit of all involved.

What if the incident is unexpected or all-of-a-sudden?

Do your best to honor your contract but let your editor know what happened and if necessary, get an extension on your deadlines. In most instances, editors will go to bat for their authors and do everything within their power to reschedule their releases to compensate for times like these.

If the life changing incident happens to be the death of a loved one, especially someone in your immediate family (spouse, child, parent, sibling), the most important thing you can do for yourself and your writing is to take time to heal. Even if this means not writing for a while or writing something totally different, give yourself adequate time to recover from the shock and pain.

Your writing as well as mental, physical, emotional & spiritual wellbeing will be better for it.

Author Bio: Award-winning author, Pamela S. Thibodeaux is the Co-Founder and a lifetime member of Bayou Writers Group in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Multi-published in romantic fiction as well as creative non-fiction, her writing has been tagged as, “Inspirational with an Edge!” ™ and reviewed as “steamier and grittier than the typical Christian novel without decreasing the message.”

Links:

Website address: http://www.pamelathibodeaux.com  

Blog: http://pamswildroseblog.blogspot.com

Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/pamelasthibodeauxauthor

Twitter: http://twitter.com/psthib @psthib

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/pamelasthibodea/

Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/1jUVcdU

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamelasthibodeauxauthor/

GoodReads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1268453.Pamela_S_Thibodeaux

Look closely at the cover….

Recently I visited Animal Kingdom @ Walt Disney World in FL with my family and one of the most breathtaking sights is the Tree of Life / garden. Within the trunk of this huge tree are carvings of every kind of animal. You can view it from any angle and take a dozen different pictures and each time, see something more and/or different.

What does this have to do with a book cover? You ask.

Read on…..

I’ve always admired the covers Pelican Book Group creates for their titles and when I first received the cover for Love in Season, I thought – how sweet, but a closer look revealed a whole lot more than a couple on a bench in front of a lovely tree.

If you took a passing glance, look again….

What do you see?

Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter are all depicted within the leaves and branches of this tree!

It takes an amazing eye for detail to pick something like this for a book cover.  Thanks to Nicola Martinez for creating such a beautiful work of art for for my collection of romantic short stories centered around the four seasons and four love-oriented holidays!

*see photos of the Tree of Life/Garden Here: https://www.wdwinfo.com/Photos/AK-treeoflife/pages/DSC00093.htm

Fun Fact: For quite some time I wanted to put together a collection of short stories that centered around the 4 seasons and 4 holidays that focus on love and family (Valentine’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas). Since I already had several stories at PBG, I mentioned this idea to my editor, the amazing Nicola Martinez, and she loved it. I submitted two previously unpublished stories to round out the collection, along with those Pelican Book Group had already published, and viola! Love in Season was born.

Blurb: Anytime is the perfect time for love.

In this anthology, author Pamela S Thibodeaux brings together eight of her most beloved romance stories—one for each season plus four holidays that revolve around love and family.

Includes two brand new stories!

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