Later on today I’ll be posting an interview with Jessica as well–check it out here!
How to Deal With the Emotional Challenges of Being an Author (or Just a Human Being)
I think we are all aware of the some of the obstacles that can challenge a writer. Short on time? Yep, that has happened to me. Writer’s block? Been there… done that. Computer crashes? Yes, and it’s devastating. We give advice on how to overcome these sort of situations. Schedule time in your day to write. Just write, even if it’s crap, just write. Eventually you’ll get over the block. Back up! Back up! Back up your work!
But what about when these things happen to you and you find yourself stuck, disappointed and overwhelmed…so much so you can’t even put pen to paper, so-to-speak. I’m speaking from experience here. Board Stiff was published in July 2013 and Board Approved was published in August 2013. I started drafting Board Indiscretion that fall with hopes of submitting in early 2014. I did some self-editing one day and the next morning when I went to open the document on my thumb drive, I got nothing. Nada! Zip! Zero! Zilch! The thumb drive had crapped out and I had lost all of my edits on the draft and despite being told numerous times to back everything up, I hadn’t backed up my edited version yet.
I was devastated and defeated. You spend so much quality time trying to create a great story and then it’s gone and it’s part of your own doing. I didn’t just have writer’s block. My frustration with myself was this insurmountable wall sitting in front of me keeping me from writing. I didn’t write for a few months. Nothing. I couldn’t even pull out the rough draft of the story and attempt to edit it again. I was completely deflated.
I wasn’t the first author to have had a computer crash with no back up. It wasn’t really the physical reality of that that threw me for the loop. No. I had the thumb drive out to a retrieval/recovery company within days. It took them two months to recover everything on the drive, but they did. Thank God! What derailed me was the emotional aspect of the loss, the frustration and disappointment with myself. And this sort of thing can come from any aspect of your life…not just a broken thumb drive.
I had to have a heartfelt talk with myself. I determined that other aspects of my life were also contributing to my frustrations and I needed to find a way to alleviate the stress that was eating at me. I had self-imposed writing deadlines, which were sucking the joy out of one of the passions – writing – that fueled my soul. I erased all my deadlines for the time being. I took up Bikram yoga and found those ninety minutes of 104 degrees to be cleansing of my mind, my soul and my body. I forgave myself. Yes, I know it seems silly, but I was angry with myself for not backing up those files and putting myself behind on my ridiculous “schedule.” Giving that forgiveness was freeing. Within a few days, I saw a post for an anthology submission dealing with an office romance and a story started flowing through my mind. For the first time in months, the adrenaline for creating some characters pumped through me. I became invigorated and sat down to craft my story. For a few weeks, I wrote and wrote. The submission guidelines required maximum of ten thousand words and I well surpassed that…I had thirty-seven thousand words. I couldn’t believe it but it felt so good.
In life, we get weighed down by all sorts of things. Life can hand out some crazy obstacles that, in turn, affect our emotional wellbeing. We need to remember to tend to those emotional issues just as much as the physical ones if we want to overcome or push beyond those obstacles. I eventually had Board Indiscretion returned to me and now it’s published and on a book blog tour. And that story I started drafting during my distraught phase is in the revision stage (which I’ve backed up :)) and should be to a publisher in early 2015! We can’t always control the things that come into our lives, but we can attempt to control how we let them control us!
Happy Holidays!
Author bio:
I am a born and raised small town Ohio girl, who moved to the Sunshine State after graduating from college. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English. What college major could possibly be better than one that requires you to read novels and write about them! After spending a year traveling, I attended law school and use that knowledge wisely.
In the journey of life, became a wife and a mother of three children. So, life is always an adventure.
I love to read and write… obviously! I’m a huge sports fan, especially college football and the Ohio State Buckeyes! Go Steelers! Go Rays! Go Lightning! I LOVE to travel… LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to travel. And I love sharing my love to travel with my children. Did I say I love to travel? I love to drink coffee in the morning and tea at night! I love a good glass of wine, especially if it comes from a bottle made by the FOOLS wine club… yep, I’m a founding member of that crazy group! ☺ I love hanging out with my family and my friends! Music makes me happy. I’m a mix between country girl and city chic. But I love nothing more than putting on my jean shorts, tank top, cowboy boots and hat and watching Tim McGraw or Eric Church belt it out! I’m a sucker for a cowboy hat!
Author Links:
Website
Facebook
Twitter: @JessicaJayne13
Pinterest
Goodreads
Title: Board Indiscretion
Author: Jessica Jayne
Release Date: November 28, 2014
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Blurb:
Mark Olson isn’t just known for owning his three large care dealerships. He’s also known as a player, at least since his divorce. For a while, he believes he is satisfied as a member of Advantage Insurance Company’s board of directors and bedding a different woman every weekend. That is until someone decided to call his bluff.
Suzannah McCormick is the sweet girl working hard as the executive assistant to Advantage’s CEO. But underneath her saccharine southern charm is a vixen-in-waiting. She’s never been with a man that tapped into that side of her, but she set her sights on Mark Olson with high hopes.
Mark doesn’t realize his single status and his heart are in jeopardy.
Excerpt:
Since his divorce, he’d convinced himself that remaining single was what he wanted. It made things less complicated for his two pre-teen daughters. Shit! It made things less complicated for himself. But that lifestyle could also be quite lonely.
That’s where Suzie came in and complicated the hell out of his life. She was the executive assistant to the CEO of Advantage Insurance Company, Michael Herron, and well… Mark was a member of Advantage’s board of directors, had been for several years. He loved his position on the board. Aside from the small amount of prestige it carried, he’d made great friends with the other members, particularly the two younger board members—John Dorsey and Greg Snow. A relationship with Suzie could compromise his position on the board and with the members, but truth be told, he also loved his most recent position between her legs.
If only the situation was different.
A familiar giggle wafted in from the direction of the dance floor. The delicate sound stirred his cock to life. It stiffened against his black trousers instantly. After several weeks of clandestine meetings involving dirty talk and hard fucks, he’d know that giggle anywhere. He’d heard it many times afterwards when they lay tangled in each other’s limbs. Turning his head in the direction of the dance floor, anger heated his face and his hands clenched into fists on the bar top at the sight he witnessed.
Sandwiched between two guys that he’d now refer to as dickheads, danced the woman that wreaked havoc on his single life status. Her little black dress clung to her trim frame, emphasizing her small, but very perky breasts and showing off her figure that could easily grace the cover of any fashion magazine. Her legs stretched for miles and her creamy white skin contrasted nicely against the jet black of her dress. Flinging her silky blonde hair over her shoulder and down her back, her pink Pursecase carrying her iPhone dangled from her wrist as her hips gyrated against her two dance partners. The taller man dancing behind her slipped his hand over her hip and rested it over her low belly as he rubbed what Mark was sure to be a rock hard erection against Suzie’s ass.
What the fuck is she doing?
First, she never came to the Beach Club. Never. In all his regular visits to this club over the last couple of years, he had yet to see her in here once. Not once! Second, she was practically dry-humping two guys in the middle of the dance floor. That wasn’t her typical style.
Suzie was one of those beautiful women that appeared to have the girl-next-door innocence. She didn’t dress too provocatively. She was sexy, but in that way that was just natural. Her bubbly Southern charm won over all the men on the board of directors and Mark speculated it would win over anyone. He flirted with her, teasing her on board days to get a rise out of her. There’d always been a twinkle of mischief in her eyes when he flirted with her that would leave him questioning whether he knew her at all.
At last quarter’s board meeting, she left him dumbfounded when she responded to his flirtation with a proposition. After mulling it over for a bit, which actually had turned out to be a couple weeks, he called her bluff. He asked her over to his place for cocktails and she showed up. What he learned was that there was a lot more to Suzannah McCormick than met the eye. The rest was history.
Throwing back the last remnants of his whiskey, he stood from his stool, tossed some cash on the bar, and turned toward the dance floor. He wrestled with what his next move should be.