I am well aware this blog is supposed to be about my journey with self-publishing and what happens after an author decides to take matters into their own hands and put their work out there for the world to see. This blog will be about that but I wouldn't be a blogger if I didn't include my own life and the details which happen from day to day.
I am leaving for France to see my friends for a little more than a month on 29th of May and will return back to the States on the 3rd of July. What does this have to do with my novella? Well, it is one of the reasons why the second part from The Beautiful People series, The Hook Up: Book Two, won't be released until I return.
France has always held a special place in my heart. I first traveled to this gorgeous country in July of 2010 and met my first French pen-friend. Although nothing panned out, not even our friendship, France inevitably left its mark (perhaps it also has something to do with my paternal grandfather being three quarter's French origin and having a French last name until I married the man who is now my ex-husband).
I visited yet again in December of 2010 thanks to joining http://www.couchsurging.org/. The two week trip was much too short but I truly felt like it was an eye-opener. Not only was I there during some of the worst snow-storms in French history but the weather was definitely a side-story and not the main one.
I look forward to visiting France this summer when the weather will be nicer (although technically, summer doesn't start until the 21st of June and well over three weeks into my trip). I would love to visit a few other places while I am there but more than that, it is a great sense of freedom and a world view bigger than the United States which leads me to travel. My latest novel, DeGeneration, also takes place almost exclusively in France so it reminds me of landmarks and allows me to be more in tune with what I am writing about.
If I had the money and the means, I would definitely apply for the Compétences et Talents visa, which allows a three-year length stay in France if you have business, a project or work of art that will benefit both France and your native country. I think it would be a tremendous experience to live abroad. I also have an issue with wanderlust anyway as I have resided both in the United Kingdom (Manchester) and Sweden (Stockholm). Every time I have lived abroad, I have learned something new about myself, the world and others in general. If I could give any person advice on how to grow as a person, the number one nugget would be to simply travel.
In the meantime, I will have to live vicariously through trip reports on Tripadvisor's France forum, and the best blogging sites that give me the low down on what is going on over there....
Other than that, I have linked my blog to my author's page on Amazon.com and I will try to post here at least three to four times a week.
If I have learned anything, it is there's a lot of legwork involved when one decides to publish and put their work out there for everyone to see. I am awaiting my proof from CreateSpace so I can read through it and make sure the novella is ready to be released in paperback form and I have to constantly try to promote myself and my work; otherwise how will people know it exists at all?
I have to give a huge thanks to all my friends and frenemies alike on Facebook who must be forever rolling their eyes at all the self-promotion I do. I have also gotten my sister involved as she knows various professional writers, including a professor, who will review my work and decide whether it is good enough to be given a shout-out on her live journal page.
Wow... this is the world of an author and not even a professional one but I have a feeling this is going to be a very crazy summer... ;-)
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