How to be Successful in Two Easy Steps

How to be successful in two easy steps.

1.      Work hard

2.      Be kind

Work hard. Make a plan. Work the plan. Make the plan the work. Commit to it for a specific time. Write down what you did and the results so you can measure if your plan is working. If it’s not, in time, create a new plan. I could talk a lot more about this, but I really want to talk about step 2. It’s the step most often forgotten and probably the most important. Remember the cliché, it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice? Turns out it’s really true.

A number of months ago I wrote a blog post with 5 writing tips. You can read that here. My first and most important tip was not to fight.

 “This is pretty basic, but it’s important to remember. If you’re like me, the perfect retort to a rude comment isn’t always at my tongue’s tip at the encounter. If you’re fuming and rummaging through your head trying to formulate the perfecting stinging comeback, you won’t be in tune with your story or characters. It’s impossible, for me at least, to feel in sync with my writing if I’m too busy mentally constructing closing arguments. I’m not advocating being a pansy, I’m just saying learn to be a peacemaker. It’ll help you be a better writer (and a nicer person.)”

The truth is the world not only helps those that help themselves, it also helps those who help others.

My friend volunteers on her homeowner’s landscape architectural committee. This means that she sits on a board with other volunteers and makes sure that the slopes and corners in the city look lovely. She has a number of allotted slopes and corners that she’s responsible for and a budget to keep them planted and pruned.

Unfortunately, a woman on the board likes to go behind her back, use her budget and pull her plants. And she’s not only adversarial on the sly—she’s openly hostile at the planning meetings.

And so my friend has a counter attack plan. Every time this woman says anything my friend plans on complimenting her before offering her own input. For example: “You have the most creative ideas—now what about the ivy?” Or, “I can tell you really put a lot of time and thought into the needs of those roses, have you considered geraniums?” You get the picture. It might not work, but it’s a whole lot easier to steal the budget from someone who is throwing you daggers than someone who’s complimenting your creative use of groundcover.

And if that doesn’t work—ask your writer friend to mention the landscape architectural committee control freak in her blog post that will be read hundreds of people, because everyone wants the nice guy to win.

It’s trite but true—you harvest what you plant. And it’s just as easy (probably easier) to plant seeds of kindness as it is plant contention.

And when you lose your temper—you lose.

There’s more than one way to be a loser. In my latest book, Losing Penny—Penny is a loser of a different sort. Cooking show diva, Penny Lee, loses fifty pounds, and gains a stalker. To avoid the attention of her most devoted follower, Penny concocts a plan: while pretending to take a culinary tour, traveling the world, collecting recipes and posting them on her blog, she hides at a remote beach house in Rose Arbor, Washington, where she spends the summer compiling her cookbook.

When English Literature professor Drake Islington is offered the chance to spend the summer at a remote beach house where he can write in peace he happily accepts, never dreaming that he is a pawn in a match making scheme. His encounter with Penny promises a delicious summer, until uninvited guests arrive forcing Penny and Drake to cook up a scheme of their own. When Drake’s mother, a stalker and a donkey named Gertrude join the mix, the town of Rose Arbor sizzles with another tale of romance and suspense.

And so, I’m kindly offering a smashwords coupon to anyone who would like to read and review Losing Penny. If you’re interested, please leave your e-mail address and I’ll send a coupon.

Anti-Vampire Stand

Not everyone wants to read about vampires.

Cheshire Cat Wisdom

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

 "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

 "I don't much care where--" said Alice.

 "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

 "--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.

 "Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

Lewis Caroll—Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

My dad once told me that the year I was born was the same year that they (my parents) bought the home where they would raise their family (and live for the rest of my mother’s life—and most likely my dad’s as well) and my dad started his own business. “Nothing,” he told me, “as ever been as sweet since.” This, then at age 42, was my dad’s moment.

Sometimes I wonder about my own moment, when it will come, and if it has passed. I know that it wasn’t in London, before I met my husband and I know it wasn’t in Connecticut before three of my children were born, although I really loved both of those chapters in my life.

In few months my babies will go to college, thus closing a chapter in my life and opening a new one. The Cheshire Cat tells us, “Every adventure requires a first step. Trite, but true, even here. “ My girls will start a new adventure and so will I. A friend said to me, “You transitioned so seamlessly into your writing (and away from parenthood.)” She meant it as a compliment, and it is, but the truth is—to continue with the sewing analogy—there has been nothing seamless about the transition. In fact, if my transition was a piece of fabric, I think it would be full of raggedy holes created by the absence of my children. And I would be torn and frayed by all the conflicting ideas—should I get a job? Volunteer? Go back to school? Take a class? Teach a class?

And my writing? Should I throw money into advertising? Should I go to conferences? Go on a book tour? Or should I do what I’ve been doing since I was about eight—what I love to do—and just write stories and hope that readers will find and enjoy my books to fill the raggedy holes my children left behind.

The Cheshire Cat tells us that, “The uninformed must improve their deficit, or die.” But the sad truth is we all die eventually, whether we improve our deficits or not. Death is not a debate, but the deficits are a choice. How we fill the holes is pretty much up to us. Even if we give that job to someone else, it’s still a decision, a choice, that we make. We can take the first step on our adventure—or we can just stay holy (and not in a good/monkish sort of way.)

Facebook Author Page

I created a facebook author page. I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. Kind of like Twitter. But I read that all successful authors must have one, so feel free to check it out. https://www.facebook.com/KristyTateNovelist?ref=hl

I hope you like it.

Although, most of my favorite authors did not have a facebook page. Would I rather live on a moor with the Bronte sisters? In an attic with Emily? With my brother, like Jane? (Dennis and Rob are rolling their eyes at the thought.) I guess every writer has her challenges and mine is social media...or really just social anything.

Giving and Living

“Every man gives his life for what he believes; every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, [and yet] they give up their lives to that little or nothing. One life is all we have, and we live it as we believe in living it, and then it’s gone. But to surrender what you are, and live without belief—that’s more terrible than dying—more terrible than dying young” Maxwell Anderson (Joan of Lorraine, act 2, interlude 3)

I was born late in my parents’ lives- the sixth child of a seventh and fifth child. I married a sixth child, who also happened to be born to parents who were babies in their families. What this means is that my siblings, my husband’s siblings, my cousins and my husbands extended family are older than me. And I’m no longer young.

It’s interesting to get to this stage when the effects of hard living become painfully obvious. Many people I know won’t live to age 60.

According to a “real age” test, I should live to be 102, but if I lost 15 pounds, I could prolong my life by 8 years. My children, who are always interested in my homemade desserts, assure me that it’s not worth it. (Is this because they are worried about their cookie supply drying up—or because no one wants to care for me at age 110?) I do know that I want to live a long and healthy life, but I have to wonder—if someday my life flashes before my eyes, won’t all the hours I’ve spent writing be a terrible bore to watch?

I’m writing a companion novel to Stealing Mercy. I’m telling the story of Rita, Trent’s missing cousin, tentatively titled Rescuing Rita. This started out as more of a business decision than a “what a great story” decision. I’ve never done this before—written something because I thought it a good marketing plan. I’m about 20,000 words in. Originally, I thought it would be a novella—and maybe it will be—but I could call a novella quits after 20,000 words, and the ending is still very far away.

I thought I was writing something fast, furious and fun, a lot of action, some kissing, and a sweet ending but today everything changed. The story that I thought would not have much to say suddenly became heavier. Rita has a message after all.

If, as the bible tells us, angels are above us are silent notes taking of our every action, my angels must certainly be bored watching me weave stories onto a computer screen and play countless games of spider solitaire. My apologies, angels. Please don’t give up on me. There is an important story here somewhere. Sometimes it just takes me a while to discover it.

(I love this video of a young Janice Ian and I love the pictures of the "more mature" Janice Ian. She's beautiful, not just because of her appearance, but because of what she has to say.)

I don't want to ride the milk train anymore
I'll go to bed at nine and waken with the dawn
And lunch at half past noon and dinner prompt at five
The comfort of a few old friends long past their prime
Pass the tea and sympathy for the good old days long gone
We'll drink a toast to those who most believe in what they've won
It's a long, long time 'til morning plays wasted on the dawn
And I'll not write another line, for my true love is gone
When the guests have gone, I'll tidy up the rooms
And turn the covers down, and gazing at the moon
Will pray to go quite mad and live in long ago
When you and I were one, so very long ago
Pass the tea and sympathy for the good old days long gone
We'll drink a toast to those who most believe in what they've won
It's a long, long time 'til morning plays wasted on the dawn
And I'll not write another line, for my true love is gone
When I have no dreams to give you anymore
I'll light a blazing fire and wait within the door
And throw my life away, "I wonder why?" they all will say
And now I lay me down to sleep, forever and a day
Pass the tea and sympathy, for the good old days are dead
Let's drink a toast to those who best survived the life they've led
It's a long, long time 'til morning, so build your fires high
Now I lay me down to sleep, forever by your side.

Janice Ian—Tea and Sympathy 

Publishing Losing Penny

Losing Penny! Available any day now. Here's the blurb I decided upon. Thanks for all the input.

A cooking show diva in hiding,

A literature professor writing genre fiction,

An admirer who wants more than the tasty morsels a cooking hostess is willing to share—

A dangerous recipe for romance in the town of Rose Arbor.

Cooking show diva, Penny Lee, loses fifty pounds, and gains a stalker. To avoid the attention of her most devoted follower, Penny concocts a plan: while pretending to take a culinary tour, traveling the world, collecting recipes and posting them on her blog, she hides at a remote beach house in Rose Arbor, Washington, where she spends the summer compiling her cookbook.

When English Literature professor Drake Islington is offered the chance to spend the summer at a remote beach house where he can write in peace he happily accepts, never dreaming that he is a pawn in a match making scheme. His encounter with Penny promises a  delicious summer, until uninvited guests arrive forcing Penny and Drake to cook up a scheme of their own. When Drake’s mother, a stalker and a donkey named Gertrude join the mix, the town of Rose Arbor sizzles with another tale of romance and suspense.

Blurb Help Wanted

Please tell me what you think.
Losing Penny--a chick-flick kind of romance

Penny Lee, a cooking show diva, is delighted when she loses fifty pounds, and horrified when she gains a stalker. To avoid the attention of her most devoted follower, Penny concocts a plan: while pretending to take a culinary tour, traveling the world, collecting recipes and posting them on her blog, she really hides at a remote beach house in Rose Arbor, Washington, where she intends to spend the summer compiling her cookbook.

Drake Islington, an English Literature professor is offered the chance to spend the summer at a remote beach house where he can write in peace, and he happily accepts, never dreaming that he is becoming a pawn in a match making scheme. But, Drake has his own game in play and secrets to hide.

When Penny and Drake collide and it’s a perfect recipe for a delicious summer until the arrival of Drake’s mom, Penny’s teenage crush, and a donkey named Gertrude. A stalker heats up the mix and the town of Rose Arbor brews another tale of romance and suspense.