Novel Quest #5: A Loss of Sanity & Cookie Madness

A Loss of Sanity & Cookie Madness

We need to review what it costs to write a book. Hence, my title for this entry to my novel quest series is A Loss of Sanity & Cookie Madness.

It has been a while since my last post, but as you must know, I'm often busy writing. Currently it is my new novel in progress, The Bastard Sorceress. I have also been promoting my new novel, The Bardess of Rhulon, on social media. Plus I have a day job, a patient husband, and two petulant cats. Needless to say, my time is spread thin. This is the life of a writer. Our current culture does not allow us to fall off the grid like Hemingway, live in a dump, drink coffee in a cafe, and type out a manuscript on an old typewriter. Life is not so simple. We are all poor of course, unless we are lucky enough to have an income from other sources which allows us a luxury to write whenever, wherever.
In reality, most of us do not.

So we must contend with the slings and arrows of everyday life as we work very hard in this complicated publishing industry, not only complete our novels, (which for me, is the easy part), but deal with the reality of submissions, rejections, agent hunting, tracking social media and promoting, and other frustrating aspects of this job.

So to appease my madness, I eat cookies and drink coffee. I push on and keep going. You must, because no one is going to do it for you. It is maddening. Being good, or even a great writer, is not enough in this business. There are so many other factors blockading success I cannot even list them. But you suck it up and deal. You keep going, because writing is what matters. My novels matter. And screw anyone who says anything different.

So be brave and write, and remember when you lose your mind, there are always chocolate chip cookies and lattes to ease the pain.

More to come. In the meantime, read more fantasy!

Best,

Verna McKinnon