Claire Collins | Bertram's Blog

Daughter Am I Blog Tour 2009 Update

October 26, 2009 — Pat Bertram

Day nine of the Daughter Am I blog tour, and I am still going strong. I actually went to bed before midnight last night, and I’m a bit more rested. Good thing — there is a lot going on today! First, check out “After the Writing Comes the Work.” Great discussion going on at that unscheduled tour stop, and a wonderful compliment about Daughter Am I.

Next, check out “How Best To Procrastinate” on Claire Collins’s blog. It was actually yesterday’s tour stop, but I kept finding other things to do and never got around to telling you about it. (Procrastination humor. Trite, but still amusing. I hope.)

Claire is a guest on my blog talking about “Welcome to the Business of Writing”, and the importance of a mission statement. Mine is: “It is my mission to become so well-known that a traditional publisher will offer me an obscenely large advance. I will turn down the advance because I’d like to show that there is value in being published by a small independent publisher, and because the resulting publicity could be worth more than the publishing contract.” Did you notice that it says nothing about writing? Hmmm.

One of these days I really do have to work on my poor stalled WIP. I’m thinking of doing WriMo — my own slimmed down version of NaNoWriMo. Instead of National Novel Writing Month, I might do simply a Writing Month. Perhaps try to write a sentence or two each day in November to get back into the habit of writing. I did sign up for NaBloWriMo (National Blog Writing Month) and NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). Since I’ve already contracted to do a blog post every day for the first three weeks in November because of my blog tour, all I need to do is to finish out the month and I win. Win what? you might ask. Nothing, of course. It’s the challenge that counts.

But I am digressing.

Today I am again visiting Joylene Nowell Butler in Cluculz, this time for an interview. I am at Untreed Reads talking about my Rites of Passage as an author. And I am trick-or-treating at the Second Wind blog.

This is turning into an international tour. I’m in Canada today and Wednesday, in Florida tomorrow, and in Australia on Thursday. In the middle of November, I’ll be in South Africa. You gotta love the Internet!

Today’s schedule recapped:

After the Writing Comes the Work
How Best to Procrastinate
Welcome to the Business of Writing
Interview at Cluculz
Rites of Passage
Trick or Treat! Let the Game Begin!

Have fun. I intend to.

Click here to buy Daughter Am I from Second Wind Publishing, LLC.

Click here to buy Daughter Am I from Amazon.

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Posted in blogging, books, internet, writing. Tags: blog tour, Claire Collins, Daughter Am I, Joylene Nowell Butler, NaBloPoMo, NaBloWriMo, NaNoWriMo, Untreed Reads. 4 Comments »

Welcome to the Business of Writing

October 25, 2009 — Pat Bertram

To celebrate the eighth day of the Daughter Am I blog tour, I am treating myself to a guest here on Bertram’s Blog. That means one less post I have to write. Oh, joy! While Claire Collins is guesting here, I will be at her blog talking about How Best to Procrastinate. When you get a moment, please visit Claire’s Blog and join in the fun.

Claire Collins is the author of Images of Betrayal and Fate and Destiny, both published by Second Wind Publishing. Claire says:

Welcome to the Business of Writing!

Wait! Don’t go anywhere. I’m not going to take your favorite hobby and turn it into work. Or maybe I am . . .

It depends on what you want to do with your writing. Are you writing as an outlet? Do you write to relieve stress? Maybe you keep a personal journal and write to document your life. Perhaps you write to shut up the voices in your head that scream until you tell their story. Some of you may already be highly successful authors or journalists.

No matter why you write, or where you are in your writing, at some point, you may want to adjust your mindset to look at writing as a business. When that first royalty check rolls in, you will be self-employed as a sole proprietor. To help you think of your writing as a business, I suggest you develop a mission statement for your writing.

A mission statement is defined as: a formal short written statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a sense of direction, and guide decision-making. It provides “the framework or context within which the company’s strategies are formulated.”

That’s pretty stiff. Simply put, a mission statement is a summary of how the company will conduct business and the purpose of the business.

Create a mission statement for yourself as an author, for your works of writing, or for your type of writing. If you aren’t an author or writer, create a personal mission statement. I give you permission to use your creative ingenuity to draft your mission statement.

I’ll even create one for myself to give you an idea. Oh, and don’t forget: Have fun!

Claire Collins: author – Mission Statement

“It is my mission as an author to weave tales that draw readers down an interesting path with twists and turns. I will entertain, educate, and create emotion with my words.”

Stop by Second Wind Publishing for a free ebook sampler or two. One sampler includes the first chapters of all Second Wind’s romances, the other sampler includes the first chapters of all Second Wind’s mystery, adventure, maitstream novels. The first chapter of A Spark of Heavenly, More Deaths Than One, and Daughter Am I are in the Mystery Sampler. The first chapter of Images of Betrayal and Fate and Destiny are in the Romance Sampler.

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Posted in blogging, books, writing. Tags: Claire Collins, Daughter Am I, Fate and Destiny, Images of Betrayal, mission statement, Mystery Sampler, Romance Sampler, Second Wind Publishing. 39 Comments »

Claire Made Me Do It

July 25, 2009 — Pat Bertram

I have a confession to make: I seldom leave comments on the blogs I visit. Mostly I don’t want to sound like an idiot (or a spammer) and say: Thanks for sharing, though sometimes that is exactly what I want to say — so many bloggers write fantastic and helpful articles. Occasionally I don’t understand the repartee going on in the comments, so I skulk away without leaving my mark. And all too often I don’t have the time to come up with something witty, clever, or even passably intelligent to write. Every task on the Internet takes way more time than it should, so I always seem to be scurrying from one link to another, one discussion to another, one blog to another.

And I don’t always respond to comments left on my own blog, either. Some bloggers respond to every single remark. Some don’t respond to any. I fall in the middle. It’s a question of hospitality. As the host, do I let the guest have the last word? Or do I acknowledge their comment with one of my own?

Last night I was discussing blogging with a fellow author at Second Wind Publishing, LLC, one who has developed a blog following in a very short span of time. How did she do it? By finding humorous blogs she liked and leaving a trail of comments back to her own. Truth be told, she was a bit appalled when I told her that I don’t leave comments, and she strongly urged me to go through my blogroll and visit each blog. So I did. Read the articles I hadn’t yet taken a look at. Left a comment everywhere I went.

If the comments aren’t intelligible, blame Claire. She made me do it.

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Posted in blogging, internet, life, writing. Tags: blog comments, Claire Collins, Second Wind Publishing. 32 Comments »

The Very First Book. The Very First Time.

September 10, 2008 — Pat Bertram

Claire Collins, author of Fate and Destiny and Images of Betrayal, writes across many genres. She loves reading when she gets the time around her family and her work schedule. Collins, my guest blogger, speaks of how it feels to hold your published book in your hands for the first time:

The very first book…

Years of hard work, my heart and soul translated into words on a page, open for the world to see. This is the leap of faith for a writer. A manuscript is a very private thing until I let that first person read it. After the first person, I allowed other eyes to see my words. With encouragement and tons of edits, my private world that I created is sent out into the world. I almost cried when it made its debut on Amazon. I hadn’t even seen a copy of the book yet and I couldn’t control myself. Before I even knew what I was doing, I was clicking the “Complete order” button with overnight shipping. I paid full price plus expedited shipping for a book that I would soon receive multiple copies of thanks to my publisher. My friends laughed at me sympathetically but they all nodded with understanding. Most of them would do the same thing.

I was at work when my skinny little box arrived from Amazon. My family could hardly contain themselves as they waited at the front door for me to come in the house. They presented the box to me like it was a priceless family heirloom, meant to be handled with care. I tore the box open and held my book in my hands. A tear slid from the corner of my eye, but I was laughing at the same time. Those were really my words on the pages I flipped through. That was my title, my photo, my blurbs. This was my book. My husband was downright giddy watching me hold my book. It was better than Christmas. He got the camera and took a picture of me holding my book. In the quiet evening after the excitement died down and the children wandered off, I sat looking at my book, flipping through the pages. What if people hated it? Then again, what if people loved it? Since I am a first time author with a small publisher, most people will never even see my book or know it exists. Maybe when I write the fiftieth novel, people will be clamoring to own these first novels. I don’t know what the future holds in terms of book sales. I only know that nothing will ever replace the feeling of opening the box and seeing the very first copy of my book.

Claire Collins’s books are available from Amazon and Second Wind Publishing.