Thursday, June 4, 2009

All right....any requests?

I need to post here again, and I am drawing a blank on topics. I'm contemplating writing about what "being published" means (more than having a book in print), professional jealousy (how to keep it from destroying you, and even how to make it help you), and... I either have too many things to say or nothing at all.

Any requests? Any questions? Feel free to post in the comments and I'll see if I can come up with a post about it!!

6 comments:

Alexis Walker said...

I have tons of questions, but that would be selfish so here is a couple:
1)Do authors like yourself, who have a significant number of books out, hire a publicist? If so, what is it exactly that a publicist does for you?
2)How do you juggle multiple publishing houses? Not in regards to getting the books written, but on the relationship side? Do you keep it to one genre or sub-genre per each house? Does one of them ever try to get you exclusively? How does that all work?

Laura said...

You obviously did a lot of research into Asperger's syndrome for "The Madness of Lord Ian McKenzie" -- I recognized it because the son of one of my friends also has it.

But Lord Ian isn't just a bunch of symptoms, which he could have been in some writers' hands. That leads me to wonder how you go about creating a character. Do you sit down before writing a book and write profiles of each character and how he or she would react to certain situations?

Evangeline Holland said...

The professional jealousy post sounds good. I'd like to hear about how you dealt with being in that in-between status--you know, you're not a new aspiring author, but you're not published yet, yet you feel on the cusp of it.

Jennifer Ashley/ Allyson James / Ashley Gardner said...

All good requests. Let me mull. Feel free to toss out others.

Being on the cusp (of getting published)? It drove me crazy!! I knew all the beginning stuff, and I was almost, almost there, but not quite. Very hard to keep up the optimism.

Erin Quinn said...

Hi Jennifer, I thought I left this comment last night, but apparently I didn't. How about how you are able come up with so many great ideas and turn them into books with such skill and speed. It takes me FOREVER to flesh out an idea enough to even think of it in terms of a book, but you just make it look it effortless. Is there a process or is it a gift (I know you're going to say gift, but praying it's a process I can learn, lol)

Congratulations on the success of Lord Ian--you deserve it girl!

Jennifer Ashley/ Allyson James / Ashley Gardner said...

Thank you. These are all really good. Give me a day or two to think about it, then I'll do a post.

Erin: I'm tempted to say "It's a gift--and a curse" because I've been watching too much Monk. But it really is a process. I brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm and think about nothing else. Hence the dirty house. TG my dh likes to grocery shop.