Thursday, September 20, 2012

MAYHEM!! (and the calm goodness that follows)



Wow! What a year it has been since I last posted on this blog! Too much to mention, but let's have a quick rundown, shall we? Buckle up:



1. New full-time gig as a Communications Advisor at a global zinc mining company. Huh. Never thought I'd work at a zinc mine, but it's fun, creative work.

2. And that's where I met the man I married some 12 days ago. I laid eyes on him in July and we were dating by September. He proposed via a "collaborative kidnapping" that involved my family, friends and coworkers building a scheme for months to trick me into taking a long weekend off work to Highlands, NC for Valentine's Day. I never looked back.




3. We sustained a year-long, long distance relationship, driving between Knoxville and Nashville, building our family of four boys and one spoiled cat.

4. My son and I moved (enough said).

5. THE WEDDING PLANNING!! Oh dear god, why doesn't someone TELL you about the wedding planning? At the end there I honestly thought about just throwing boxes of antique bells throw a window (destruction through defenestration), shredding custom napkins and collapsing into a screaming shivering puddle. But now.

6. THE WEDDING. Did I enjoy it? Sure. Do I remember it? Hell no.


Dashing groom Steve (left), myself and Mark Lee, my dear friend who performed the ceremony (and was it a performance!) 



I didn't wear the Converse during the ceremony, but the came on immediately after!

7. THE HONEYMOON. Did I enjoy it? You bet your sweet ass I did. Do I remember it? Absolutely, and I took a few hundred Facebook friends on the ride with us via my ole friend Instagram.


He's funny in Charleston, SC

Taking a break at a Chippewa Park cafe (that's where Forrest Gump sat on his bench!)

Sunset on Hilton Head Island

Rooftop Bar at our Hotel in Charleston - the historic Vendue Inn in the French Quarter

Sweet little stop on the way to Parris Island

Tybee Island scrawling

Good times with our favorite little shrimp



But something incredible was taking shape in the midst of my own personal madness (AKA: THE WEDDING), a gathering force of remarkable, creative, quirky and industrious women who have a vision of changing how writers reach readers and readers, in turn, access quality, compelling writing in new and creative ways.

I’m part of Indie-Visible: Literary Justice for All, a powerhouse collective of  independent writers joining resources to deliver quality books to the masses without pushing our work through a big house. We work with top notch editors, illustrators, graphic designers, and PR gurus, keeping all aspects of industry-related work within our ever growing family of freelancers, supporting a thriving community of entrepreneurs. We are real people, with a real desire to have real careers as best-selling authors. We’re reinventing publishing so that it works for us, and for our readers.

And we are continually evolving, with new approaches to putting quality literary material in the hands of readers every day.




This is an exciting time to be a writer ready for publication or a freelance professional who helps writers work the magic of dreaming a book into being. The tools are all here—from digital methods of reading, to viral ways of sharing—and writers are getting savvy about bringing this content directly to their readers.

If you are an idie-published writer who is interested in what we're doing, check us out. If you would like to work with us, check us out. If you like news about indie publishing, writing, reading or just fun, thought-provoking blogs, book reviews and industry news, check us out. If you like broccoli or ostriches or hang-gliding over volcanoes, you might want to cruise to a few other sites first, but then yeah, check us out. We'll be up and running next week, and I'll be sure to let ya'll know.

In the meantime, stay tuned. I'm rising from the fog of the last year and the swirling chaos that was wedding planning and family-joining, and I'm back in business, babies.