Tag: Newsletter

MY NEXT MEMOIR

Published on by Aimee Eddy3 Comments

It’s been a little while since I worked on my next memoir, The Years After the Garage. With all the hard times going on in my life, I haven’t been in the right mind set to relive my past. Plus, I’m learning a new role at One Life Project and that has been exciting, scary, and a bit overwhelming. Today, Saturday the twenty-eighth, I had the day off from work and it happened to be when Pennwriters meet in person. I haven’t been to an in person meeting in months. So, I printed out chapter one of my memoir and took it to the group.

I arrived there a little before one o’clock. There were some people I knew and some people who were new to me. I have reworked chapter one a couple of times, trying to make sure this book could keep the readers interest if they had not read the first one. That involved giving some details about things that happened in the first book. Details like coffee break was a break that the guys at E.L. Eddy and Sons Garage took. The new people who never read the first book said the memoir worked well as a stand-alone book. Even those who read the first book agreed.

One woman asked if I should add my perspective from me as an adult looking back. I explained that would take my readers out of the story. A good memoir brings the readers into the story and allows them to live each part with the author. I want my readers to cry, to get mad, to feel sad, to laugh, and to rejoice with the teenage me. This shows the readers what it’s like to go through bullying and to slide into mental illness. If I put the adult me into it, then I take the readers out of the story.

Minor grammar errors were found in my chapter. It was suggested to cut the chapter into two chapters, but that would make one eight pages long and the other one four pages long. I’m not sure if I can have chapters in such different lengths. I may have to add to the four pages chapter. When I got home, I talked with another memoir writer and posted on We Love Memoirs Authors group on Facebook to ask about the chapter lengths. Once I figure out what to do, I will know if I need to add, and then I will work on that. By splitting chapters I went from six chapters to eight, putting me further along in my memoir.

My first book was about bullying and finding acceptance from family. The second book focuses on mental illness and the accomplishments I make despite being sick. It shows the pressure I put on myself to succeed. What helps me deal with the mental illness is my writing and woodburning. The bullying I face in this book is a little different than what I faced in grade school. Bullying comes in many forms such as gossip, physical abuse, destruction of personal objects, and being ignored. I’m not going to tell you which one of these I face in the next book.

One theme I want to make clear in this book is that even though a person has mental illness, he or she can still accomplish a lot in his or her life. Mental illness doesn’t mean you cannot fulfill your dreams or succeed at your goals. I achieved a lot while struggling with my illness. It did make things harder, and I put myself through hell to reach my goals, but I did it. This book will show that.

The good news is after this meeting I am inspired to keep working on my next memoir. I came home and split a couple chapters up and reworked some scenes. I wanted to get this book done in two years, but it’s already been a year since I started it. I can’t write every day like many authors do. I write when I’m emotionally strong enough and inspired. I do hope it won’t take me four years to write it like it did the first one.

If you want to keep updated monthly on what is going on with my writing and One Life Project, sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/iuzWqw and get a gift for signing up.

Writing is my way of healing from the past and dealing with my emotions. When I’m not working on a book, I’m journaling. Releasing my feelings and past in words helps me stay in the light of recovery.

SAINT DAVIDS CHRISTIAN WRITERS CONFERENCE

Published on by Aimee Eddy4 Comments

Writers may be born with the ability to write, but they are not born knowing how to make their writing great, how to market it, how to obtain followers, how to format their writing to be sent out to editors, and so on. To learn about the writing field, we writers must read books and go to workshops and conferences.

June 21 through 25, I attended Saint Davids Christian Writers’ Conference at Allegany college in Meadville, PA. We stayed in the college apartments and went to workshops most of the days. We also had fun things like the literary coffee house, where authors had three minutes to read a piece from their recently published works. There was the Great Saint Davids Auction, where attendees brought new and used stuff to be auctioned off. The money goes into the scholarship fund to benefit next year’s conferees. There was also an awards banquet where we got fancied up, ate a nice meal, and saw who won the different categories of the conference’s writing contest.

I got to reconnect with old friends and make new friends. Conferences are a great place to network with established authors, other authors, publishers, and editors. I did lots of networking with fellow authors and have lots of new support in my writing career.

I met one on one with a woman who taught a workshop on talking to groups in schools. I got lots of advice from her. Now I have an idea on how to take my talk about bullying to schools, and I also have lots of work to get there.

I learned I can get paid to talk at schools and that schools have grants to have speakers. I need to find ways to engage the children in my talks and have them participate. I also learned I need to put together a printable pamphlet about my experiences as a speaker, what I will talk about, a blurb about me, quotes from places I have already talked to, a book order sheet and some other things. I need to get the book, Sell Books and Get Paid Doing Author School Visits by Kim Norman. Over the summer I have lots of work to do.

One thing that I learned at the conference is I must have an email newsletter to gain followers and an email list. Followers will buy my book, tell others about me, and bring more subscribers to my newsletter. Building an email list is important because those are people you can send links to upcoming books or announce books that you may have coming out. The email list you build from your newsletter are fans of your writing and they can help build your following and help with your sales.

I thought maybe I could just get away with writing about my book in this blog, but it’s not enough. I do have a fear of writing a newsletter. I’m not very good at editing. That is part of my learning disability. All writers must have someone edit their writing, but I have a hard time even editing a letter. I don’t know grammar very well. I get confused with nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adverbs. I have tried over the years to learn more about grammar, but I still struggle. I have an author friend edit these blog posts before I post them.

When I came home from the conference, I spent hours trying to figure out how to use Mailchimp (a free program to build newsletters). I just got frustrated and confused. Today I will attend a zoom meeting on how to use Mailchimp, so hopefully I’ll make progress. It takes me time to learn new things. I must be shown several times. Luckily the workshop will be recorded, and I can refer to it.

Keep your eyes open for a place on this site to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a gift. Even though I have risen above the bullying I faced in school, I still fear failure and I worry what people will think of me. So be patient with me as I figure out this newsletter.

I also learned about building platforms. An author’s platform is a way to target audiences by making the author visible to the readers. This means becoming part of online groups, networking, becoming part of organizations that pertain to the subject you are writing about and building a website. I have a website, I’m a director for One Life Project, and I’m part of groups on social media. I learned how to improve my platform and how to become more noticed.

I learned so much that when I got home, I felt like my brain was overloaded and steam was coming out of my ears. I have been going through my notes a little bit at a time. I have lots of homework from the conference to do to improve my marketing of my book and myself as an author.

The best part about a Christian conference is the kindness and caring. I had an asthma attack walking to workshops. Several ladies came to check up on me, one lady drove me back to the apartments, my roommate brought me dinner, and the lady who took me back to the apartments drove me each day to the workshops and the buildings where we used. They prayed over me and showered me with kindness. I could see God working within each person to make the conference a wonderful experience.

The conference lifted me up and gave me a gentle push forward in my writing career. It will help me succeed with my goals and grow as a writer. It has helped me stand in the light of recovery with bigger goals and dreams.