Silencing the inner critic

Anyone who's a writer knows what I'm talking about. Once you've learned to edit your own work, it's hard to turn that part of your brain off when you pick up someone else's. There's hardly been a time in the past few years that I haven't had the urge to take my red pen to the paperback in my hand. Not necessarily because I found a glaring error (though there have been more than a few of those) but because I would have written it differently. For a long time it took the fun out of reading for me, until I learned to stuff that inner critic into a mental box and enjoy reading like I used to before I started writing. The same thing can hold true for our own writing--if we let it, that critic can lead to slowed progress, self-doubt, and the dreaded writer's block. We have to learn to turn off the critical thinking and do what we set out to do from the beginning. Just write. The first draft doesn't have to be perfect. Neither does the second draft, or the third, or however many come in between the conception and the finished product. The only one that needs to be spit-shined and polished is the one that's being submitted to editors and agents. You have to give yourself permission to write less-than-perfect paragraphs the first time around. The draft is just a roadmap. When you revise, you follow the course you set for yourself, and this is where your ideas become a story. Lis:)

Print books, upcoming books, and the aging process

The sun is finally shining after a few days of cool, drizzly weather...again. I spent the whole morning reorganizing my office space, but I got outside with the kids this afternoon to play a little football. Now it's back to work for a couple hours. And then I have to wash the floor and give the dog a bath. It never ends. I turned 30 last week. It doesn't bother me, not in the traditional sense of being afraid to age, but the older I get the older my kids get. Sometimes I'd just like to freeze them at the age they are now--or even turn back time to when they were a little younger. My oldest starts middle school in the fall, and my baby is going to be 9 in November. It won't be long before they're moving out of the house and heading off to college. I guess I just want a little more time with them before they realize mom isn't as cool as they thought. Some exciting news~~Two of my books are now available in print. Dark Promises book 1: Midnight, and Dirty Pictures. Make sure to check for them at Borders and Waldenbooks, and also at Amazon.com, Bn.com, and Ellora's Cave's eBay web store. Dark Promises book 2: Demonic Obsession should be available in print sometime in August. Some more exciting news~~I just finished writing the 5th (and final, finally ) book in the Dark Promises series. I don't have a release date for Tarnished yet, but I'll post as soon as I know anything. Also upcoming are two books from Cerridwen Press. Grave Silence is a dark romantic suspense and Nothing Personal is a chick lit/romantic comedy. Both of them are pretty special to me--Grave Silence is a book I've been working on polishing for 2 years, and Nothing Personal was a finalist in Lori Foster's novella contest a few years back. That's it for now. Have a great week, everyone! Elisa