Thank you to Felicia Sue Lynn for nominating me for the Encouraging Thunder Award! Please check out her lovely blog about “books and whatnot” 🙂 She is also taking part in #NaNoWriMo at the moment, so be sure to give her some words of encouragement to keep writing!
Although how long it takes me to accept/do them might suggest otherwise, I honestly do appreciate being nominated/tagged. It’s so nice when other bloggers think of you.
Rules:
- Thank the person who nominated you.
- Post the Encouraging Thunder logo.
- Talk about your purpose in blogging.
- Nominate others for the award.
Why I blog:
Initially this blog was something for me to do after I finished writing my first novel, Art and Soul (hence the name of the blog!). I still wanted to write, but I didn’t want to start on a second novel straight away. And I wanted someway of connecting with other writers and readers while I was submitting my novel to literary agents. Basically, I needed a distraction! 🙂 And maybe, one day, I might be able to use the blog to tell you all I’m getting published… *sigh*
I’ve been amazed by blogging. Mostly by how friendly and supportive the community is. All you seem to hear about in the media are trolls and other unpleasant characters lurking under the virtual bridges of the internet. But I’ve been lucky enough to “meet” some genuinely lovely people. You’re all funny, creative, witty and eloquent.
And I’ve also been surprised by just how much I enjoy blogging and that I’m still doing it! I wasn’t sure how long I would stick with it. I might have to scale back the amount I post if I ever want to finish my second novel, but I wouldn’t stop entirely. Besides, blogging is a great excuse for searching through Dr Who images… 😉
Nominations:
I’ve tried hard not to nominate anyone who has already accepted/been nominated for this award. So apologies in advance to:
Sarah @ The Country Bookworm
Tori @ Book Dreamer
if you’ve already done this one. Feel free to ignore the nomination! 🙂 But, if you have time, it would be great to hear more about why you blog.
Thanks again to Felicia Sue Lynn for nominating me!
I never knew you had written a novel. Likes the David Tennant bit. ☺
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Any excuse for Dr Who references and I’m there! 🙂 Novel still unpublished. Trying traditional route first and will self-publish happily if that doesn’t work out.
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Im planning the other way round. How did your first book do? Ill have to look it up now.
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It’s still not published. I’ve been submitting to agents (only rejections and silence so far). If I still have silence in the New Year I’ll be sending it to an editor to make it as good as it can get before submitting to the few online imprints that take direct submissions (luckily there are a few of those for “women’s fiction”). If that results in more rejections and silence, I’ll self-publish. I like the idea of self-publishing very much (particularly all the control), but as someone with no experience in publishing and not a lot of time to do all the necessary research, it would be nice to have the support of an expert at the start. 🙂
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There are probably people here that could help and advise you. I hope it does well and I’ll happily plug it for you.
It must feel good to have finished it even if it’s not published yet.
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I had no idea you’d written a book, I’ll have to have a look! 🙂 Or do I understand correctly that you haven’t published it yet?
I agree, the writing community on here is lovely and I’ve met some wonderful people, too! You don’t need an excuse to search for Dr Who images, just do it anyway :3
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Everyone has been so welcoming and supportive.
Not published yet 🙂 I’m submitting to agents but at the moment I only have a pile of “no” and silence (I prefer the rejections).
I like the idea of self-publishing, particularly the control. But if I go that route I’ll want to do a lot of research so I don’t make a hash of it! Plus, I’d like to have an almost finished second book first, so I can put “liked this book, there’s another coming soon!” at the back of the first one and dedicate real time to promoting the first one.
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I’m sorry you only got rejections so far. Did you get an editor for your book? Have you asked people to read it for you to check for any plot holes and consistency? If not I’d recommend both 🙂 Agents get a lot of submissions every day so having everything polished and sound helps a lot! 🙂 Good luck with it, I’ve got my fingers crossed!!
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Go Claire! 😀 Very well-deserved. Your blog always cheers me up. And I can totally relate to needing a distraction while waiting to hear back from agents, ha ha.
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Thank you! I had two more rejections last week. But then I prefer the polite rejection messages to the silence and not knowing.
Blogging is a brilliant distraction 🙂
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Sorry to hear about the rejections! Keep going! I had a couple last week too, boo, ha ha. I agree, a polite rejection is much better than radio silence. That’s the worst. Thank goodness for blogging! 😉
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