Happy New Year 2024! What's In Store for Escape With a Writer?

 

Happy 2024!!

I, for one, am happy to turn the page on the calendar to a whole New Year and hope for many great opportunities to come my way! 

This past year has seen too much heartache and a crazy rollercoaster ride in both my personal and career lives:

• ·       I left a relationship and job that were not working and moved across Canada with 2 cats and my worldly possessions - in a new car I hoped I wouldn’t have to buy but love.
• ·       I published All That Shimmers in May 2024, and was part of 3 Aconite Café Anthologies where I created a new character named Dash Allman, a beach bum PI who adores the late Jimmy Buffett.
• ·       I was thrilled when the publisher I’d worked with for 10 years suggested I train with her and take over publisher duties since she turned 80 last year. After getting every password she used and access to EVERYTHING, as well as getting my own business cards proclaiming me Associate Publisher…she first suggested I get a part-time job. A month later, after getting a part-time job, she told me to get a full-time job and that she had never offered me a job. 
• ·      I began plans to build my own publishing imprint to release my newest books on my own terms and control. Lucky for me, I have some great self-published authors who were thrilled to give advice and help me out.
• ·       Thing One – my oldest – had a friend create a logo that I LOVE!
• ·       I already had a name thanks to my blog:  Escape With a Writer.
• ·       I had a book in a shelf that I’ve been editing and having Beta readers help out with so I can launch it February 14, 2024. Personally, Valentine’s Day hasn’t meant much for me in a very long time. I’m bringing back the love!
• ·       My contract with my current publisher ends at the end of April 2024. Where things go from there, we’ll see.

The short version of it all, is that I’m taking back my life and creating the career I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid. Reaching for the stars! Whether that takes me to new heights, or crashes and burns, remains to be seen.

Either way, I’m focusing on doing what I love.

I hope you spend 2024 doing the same - Following your passions!

Lots more to come!!

Diane Bator

https://www.dianebator.ca/

Join my newsletter @ https://dianebator.substack.com/

The Drama Llama Escaped December 9! Did you get your copy?

 

About the Coral Turtle

This painting was created in one of my art courses. The turtle came from Cuba years ago and is one of my favourite pieces. It was a gift from an aunt. My art teacher was skeptical when I showed her what I wanted to paint but I did it anyway. (I'm just a little bit headstrong some days!) It's one of my favourite pieces.

People tell you not to get attached to your work. I guess that makes it easier to sell it and do things that you wouldn't normally do without getting frustrated in trying to be "perfect." That's why I paint and write. The Universe will lead you to create. The work you create can be edited or tinkered with until you've had enough of it. I read a quote somewhere that a writer sent a book to be published to "kill it" - to get it out of their grasp and resist the urge to tinker and play with it anymore. I've reached that point several times and submitted two of my novels repeatedly.

Does that mean my novels are bad? No. I have people read them who love them.
Does that mean I need to give up? No. I need to keep putting them out there and hope to reach the right person.
Does that mean I can't be frustrated? Hell no! I get as frustrated as anyone. But life goes on.
You get a rejection, you keep submitting.
I imagine once I my file box with rejections I might think differently and self-publish.
That seems to be how a lot of writers lately "get published". Not all of them should be. I read a prime example of that the other day.

Let me be clear: Self-publishing is not an evil thing but for heaven's sake people, if you are going to do it yourself EDIT, EDIT, EDIT!!! Get ten other people who know about good writing to read it and tell you if it's a good novel - not just a good story. Any one can tell a good story. Not everyone can make it readable.
That's why God created Editors!

Keep Creating!