It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.
My awesome co-hosts for the September 1 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, T. Powell Coltrin @Journaling Woman, Natalie Aguirre, Karen Lynn, and C. Lee McKenzie!
September 1 question - How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?
Success to me was just having a book published. Holding it in my hands and watching people read and enjoy it was success.
Since that first book, there have been several others (and audio books), some hitting the top of the charts on Amazon, and providing royalty checks that did indeed pay the mortgage. Plus the reviews and readers reaching out for more. Opportunities to be in multiple anthologies. Not to mention being able to start the IWSG!
But it all comes back to that first book. That was success. All else has been bonus!
Today is the deadline for the IWSG Anthology Contest! Sweet romance – first love. Get your entries in by midnight EST tonight!
The next #IWSGPit Twitter pitch event is January 26, 2022!
See the IWSG site for details, hashtags, and more.
New Releases!
Small Forgotten Moments by Annalisa Crawford
Is Zenna a muse, a sleep-deprived apparition, or something much more sinister?
Suffering long-term amnesia, artist Jo Mckye is ready to start a fresh, new project after the success of her debut exhibition. But the fictional subject of the collection, Zenna, won’t let go so easily. Infiltrating Jo’s dreams—and increasingly, her waking hours—Zenna is fast becoming a dangerous obsession.
Jo is confident the answers lie at her childhood home, an idyllic Cornish village on the south-east coast; she just doesn’t know why. Only when she walks into the sea and almost drowns does the past start to unravel.
Universal purchase links HERE
One Year On Broadway: Finding Ourselves Between the Sand and the Sea by Kathryn McKendry
A true story of forbidden love, adventure, and letting go
How do you know when it’s time to close one chapter of your life and begin a new one? To let go of the past, open your heart, and trust in a new beginning?
At first we said, “no.” We knew it was ridiculous.
And yet something in our hearts led us back to the Island.
Having no idea where it would lead, my husband and I took a leap of faith and became co-producers of the Broadway Revival of Once On This Island, the musical that had given us so much.
Even if it failed, we would have a great story to tell.
We ended up with so much more.
Find it on Amazon
The Cure by Patricia Josephine aka Patricia Lynne
Every human in the world becomes a zombie when they die. But Erin refuses to accept the world as it is now. She’s heard about a cure locked away in a lab in Upper Michigan, and she plans on retrieving it. To do so, she needs a zombie. Not just any zombie, though.
Zee is Erin’s link to the lab. His connection to the living world is her bargaining chip. But only if she can teach him to control his mindless impulses.
Can a zombie be trained? Or will Erin be Zee’s next meal and become a zombie herself? The fate of humanity rests in her hands.
Universal purchase link HERE
Add on Goodreads
Fractured Princess by Debra Renee Byrd
Jonnie is the last princess of the Crystal Bearers, once a powerful people. When she was a baby, the metal army destroyed what was left of them, and now it is hunting her. Her watchmen keep her just out of the metal army’s reach, but she has spent her seventeen years running and hiding. Instead of standing by while her watchmen keep risking their lives for her, she decides to learn how to fight alongside them.
On the journey to hone her skills, long hidden secrets about her people reveal a connection between the Crystal Bearers and the metal army that only fuels Jonnie's will to defeat it. But the more she learns about her own powers, the more she realizes she may be responsible for the metal army – and the destruction of her people.
Find it on Amazon
Fractured Princess by Debra Renee Byrd
Jonnie is the last princess of the Crystal Bearers, once a powerful people. When she was a baby, the metal army destroyed what was left of them, and now it is hunting her. Her watchmen keep her just out of the metal army’s reach, but she has spent her seventeen years running and hiding. Instead of standing by while her watchmen keep risking their lives for her, she decides to learn how to fight alongside them.
On the journey to hone her skills, long hidden secrets about her people reveal a connection between the Crystal Bearers and the metal army that only fuels Jonnie's will to defeat it. But the more she learns about her own powers, the more she realizes she may be responsible for the metal army – and the destruction of her people.
Find it on Amazon
September Movie Preview
Here are the upcoming theatrical releases for September. As always, descriptions courtesy of the IMDB. Snark provided by me.
3 –
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Shang-Chi, the master of unarmed weaponry based Kung Fu, is forced to confront his past after being drawn into the Ten Rings organization.
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Stars: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Michelle Yeoh
When One Ring isn’t enough to rule them all...
17 –
Cry Macho
A one-time rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder takes a job to bring a man's young son home and away from his alcoholic mom. On their journey, the horseman finds redemption through teaching the boy what it means to be a good man.
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam, Fernanda Urrejola, Brytnee Ratledge
Finally - a movie where Eastwood teaches Millennials how to be men…
What is success to you as a writer? Will you have something ready for #IWSGPit? Picking up more books? Either movie catch your eye? Don’t forget – last day to enter the IWSG Anthology Contest!
Next Monday is Labor Day and I will be offline. Come back the following Monday for a slew of movie reviews and more!
Next Monday is Labor Day and I will be offline. Come back the following Monday for a slew of movie reviews and more!
