Today I'm welcoming Jaime Samms to my blog so.. take it away Jaime!
As an author, what scares me the most?
What if
this is the last great idea?
I
believe every writer thinks it. Not very many of us will ask it out loud,
though. That just makes the possibility too real.
You
always hear writers talking about their craft as something as fundamental to
life as breathing, more important than eating or sleeping. (Not more important
than caffeine, though. Don’t get me wrong. We do have our
priorities.) But we speak of our stories–our creations–as we speak of our
children. With pride, excitement, frustration, but ultimately, with love.
We love
what we do. We have pride in our creations. Writing is a part of our fibre,
DNA, spirit, soul.
When we
can’t do it, we go a little bit nuts. Someone once told me; for them,
not writing was the spiritual equivalent to a bad asthma attack. As
though their soul was fighting to take the next breath, to let go of the
trapped, stale air, but was, instead, suffocating under an invisible
weight.
The
weight was the weight of nothing: no words. No ideas.
And in
that moment of wondering if you’ll ever fill up again, who would dare to tempt
fate and ask, out loud: “What if? What if the last story was the last great
idea I ever have?” No one dares. Not even me, because I didn’t decide to write
this blog until I was once again (thankfully) in the spiritual free-fall of a
new idea.
For me,
the binding comes soon after I finish something. For a day or two, my mind
rests. I’m free of the guilty feeling of not putting words onto the page and I
revel in the pride of a job well done. I let myself feel good about not
writing. I enjoy the contentment of having completed a project.
Then it
begins. I start to feel the emptiness of “what next?” It isn’t that I don’t
want to think about what I will write next. I literally can’t. My mind shunts
away from looking for new ideas, like a trickster engineer in my
brain, continually switching my mental train to a new track for his own
enjoyment. It isn’t even that I want to hang onto the previous characters. They
have told me their story. I’ve written it down, and they are gone. Moved on. It
is me who is trapped on the endless loop of no ideas. The longer and more
intense the finished project was, the longer this stage lasts, but every time,
it lasts just long enough for panic to set in and I begin to think…”What if…”
You
would think by now, I should be able to recognize the pattern, and sometimes, I
catch on. Sometimes, it isn’t until I am finally well into the next project
that I can appreciate the break for what it was. A necessary part of the
process. Down time of the soul. Regeneration.
But
holy hell, is it scary when you’re in it.
So if
you love a writer, and one day, they look at you, their eyes half-wild and a
bit staring, their lips slack, just hug them and whisper in their ear “It isn’t
the last one. Don’t worry. You’ll have more stories to write. You’ll be okay.”
Trust
me on this. You’ll be their hero for recognizing their distress. You can’t fix
it, but you can help them not go off the deep end.
All about Jaime:
Jaime has been writing for various publishers since the fall of 2008, although she's been writing for herself far longer. Often asked why men; what’s so fascinating about writing stories about men falling in love, she's never come up with a clear answer. Just that these are the stories that she loves to read, so it seemed to make sense if she was going to write, they should also be the stories she wrote.
These days, you can find plenty of free reading on her website. She also writes for Freya’s Bower, Loveyoudivine Alterotica, Pink Petal Books, Dreamspinner Press and Total E-Bound.
Spare time, when it can be found rolled into a ball at the back of the dryer or cavorting with the dust bunnies in the corners, she's probably spending reading, drawing, gardening (weather permitting, of course, since she is Canadian!) or watching movies. Well. She has a day job or two, as well, and two kids, but thankfully, also a wonderful husband who shoulders more than his fair share of household and child care responsibilities.
She graduated some time ago from college with a Fine Arts diploma, with a major in textile arts, which basically qualifies her to draw pictures and create things with string and fabric. One always needs an official slip of paper to fall back on after all....
Jaime and Wild Child Publishing will be awarding a $10 Wild Child Publishing GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
Please follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better are your chances of winning. Jaime's tour dates can be found here: ttp://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/09/virtual-book-tour-as-advertised-by.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Advertised
by Jamie
Samms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Tyler’s life perked up when he met Jake. So what if long-time friend
Marty can’t stand him and his landlady has no use for his new beau. Tyler’s
determined not to see the dark side of his lover. It’s his own fault for
believing people don’t go around keeping secrets and lying.
Tyler should know better. He’s
an ad executive. He knows the packaging
is what sells, and Jake is quite a package.
His lover is no slouch when it comes to false advertising, either, and
when Tyler finds out the truth, it hurts.
Weathering Jake’s lies and secrets gets easier with the help of new
friends, Libby and Steven. In fact, Tyler figures that maybe a lot of things
would get easier with Steven.
Tyler should have known better.
Not even someone as seemingly perfect as Steven Jessop is completely as
advertised.
This time, though, Tyler has to make a decision. After all, sometimes,
even if what you see is not what you get, what Tyler’s uncovered in Steven
might just be what he’s always wanted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to Jaime for stopping by!
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