Indie Life

Last week was my first week as an "official" author, with a book actually out there. And this week I'm going to use the Indie Life tagline as my theme.

"Because being Indie doesn't have to mean going it alone."

Many years ago I was a solitary writer. I was going to become an author "someday," but determined that I could and would achieve this goal alone.

I was invited to join a writers group and I turned them down. I was a solitary writer, and I didn't need a writers group. A few years later I was invited again (to the same group, if I remember correctly) and this time I joined just for the thrill of meeting other writers. And my education began. Apparently, while I was a solitary writer I was not a solitary editor. I started to be able to see past the euphoria of just putting words on paper.

I also learned how to edit, how to critique, how to give feedback. And I started blogging.

I was a solitary blogger. I didn't need readers, I was just in it for the writing. Duh. And again I say, Duh.

In the last few years I have learned that no writer is a solitary writer. No one can do this alone, and the amazing writing community (online and off) can help anyone's writing. Without the support of a writing community, Without A Voice would never have been published. Without my writing group, my critique partners and beta readers, the many bloggers and writing professionals who gleefully shovel their knowledge out into the cloud, I wouldn't be there yet. Not even close.

I'll go one step further--no writer becomes an author without readers. That being the case, I'm going to make one small change to the Indie Life tagline:

"Because being a writer doesn't have to mean going it alone." Thank goodness.


Note: for those of you who haven't heard, Dave Farland /Dave Wolverton's son Ben was in a serious accident. They're doing a book-bomb today to raise money for his care, since his family has no insurance. More info at http://helpwolverton.com



* * * * *

Without A Voice

Don’t put yourself on the grid. No credit cards, new name, new city. Few friends, no family. Connections of any kind are a risk.

Five years ago Mae left Justin in Orlando. Never again will she cower, wondering who he'll hurt next. She's done letting him punish her.

Now she has real friends, people she cares about, a life worth living. After years of relative peace she's gotten complacent, relaxed her guard. Somehow, he's found her.

There’s nowhere you can go.

Once she could have run and been certain Justin would leave those she loved alone. But he's changed. Justin is the whisper in the dark, a shadow on the street, the phantom no one sees.

You are mine. I will never stop.


For Kindle: Without A Voice
For Nook: Without A Voice
For other formats: Without A Voice


Lauren's webpage: The HalfWorld
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It's been a year

I've been blogging each week for over a year. I've been thinking about increasing the frequency to twice a week, but right now once a week seems quite sufficient. People are used to that schedule, and as I gain more followers (Thanks for following me!) the numbers are starting to go up on Monday. And since there are more people coming on Monday than are listed as followers, I know there are silent watchers out there.

Thanks to you as well!

BTW, I need to apologize for putting last week's blog up so late. I was involved in a family crisis and I thought the post had been scheduled. By the time I realized it hadn't posted, it was early afternoon.

And it has been a year. In the last year I've quit my job to work on my writing, started a blog, started a twitter account (@laurenritz1, although I haven't done much there--I don't have a cell phone) and a facebook account (Laurenritzthewriter, since there are so many other Lauren Ritz's out there) but I haven't really done much with that either.

I started designing a web page, did a monthly blog post for Writingsnippets and participated in all of our interviews there. I've completely edited three novels, finished (as in beginning-middle-and-end) four more. Working on editing a total of seven, and I have five unfinished that I'm actively writing.

I only started two new ones that I haven't finished, so that's progress...well, two new ones that have more than 20,000 words. I put the rest away and I refuse to touch them until I have some of the backlog taken care of. Maybe. Unless I get bored. I have a bad habit of starting new novels just because.

My "Writing year" actually started at the end of August, so that's nine months, but I wanted to combine my nine month progress report with the blog.

It has been a very hard, very busy year, and I've loved it.