Working Wednesday: Back in the Saddle

Hey everyone!

As I mentioned in the recent Memorable Monday post, I'm back from my blogging break, and resuming with not only my regular blogging schedule, but work on my new adult, paranormal romance.

But before I get onto that, an update about how my job at CQP is going, and a little bit of cross promotion. 

Over the summer I was offered a promotion at CQP. So now, in addition to my social media management duties, I'm in charge of web curation - i.e. making sure guest posts, and the weekly column by Irving Podolsky goes up correctly, complete with images etc. - and organizing review and blog tours for our titles. 

I'm really loving the new duties. Handling web curation just makes my social media duties all that easier, as I'm not waiting on others for links etc. and working with the authors, helping them organize blog tours, is nothing but a pleasure. Everyone I have contact with is so friendly, and it brings me so much joy helping other authors get their work out there.

CQP have a lot of big things coming up in the next couple of months, including the launch of their anthologies Primetime and After Dark; which I CANNOT wait to share the details about when everything is finalized. 

And I'd like to invite anyone who is interested in what CQP are doing to join us to, by either signing up for our reviewer and blog tour host mailing list, or signing up for our monthly newsletter which contains exclusive details about releases, contests and giveaways. 

So, as I mentioned, over the summer I took some time off. When I wasn't doing my CQP work, I was hanging out with my boys - more about that on Friday - and not thinking about my novel(s).

I'm SO glad I took a break.

Before the break, I was very unfocused, and unsure what I wanted to be doing. I was starting to fall out of love with my paranormal romance, because I always find editing the hardest part, and I was questioning what I wanted to be as a writer.

Part of that was inspired by my sense that I haven't done enough. In the eighteen months I've been blogging and taking my writing more seriously, I haven't published ANYTHING. Yet people who started out around the same time as me are on their third or forth novels. Added to that was the pile of novels I've shelved for the time being.

I was really feeling like I needed to get something out by the end of the year, and was toying with the idea of self-publishing an old, shelved, contemporary romance as a serialization online. 

That led to a lot of confused thoughts, with me wondering if I should be writing PNR at all, or if my focus should be on contemporary.

After lots of back-and-forth and a little bit of time redeveloping my contemporary romance, Hubby had some words of wisdom for me. He said, I shouldn't be rushing to get a book out this year, just for the sake of getting a book out, because the quality will suffer. When I publish something, it should be the best I can make it at the time. 

He's so right.

My first published book has to mean something, because this is what the literary world will base their initial opinions of me on. 

So, what do I want to known as?

Well, my blog title says it all, doesn't it? Clare Dugmore Writes Romance with a Twist. While I love romantic plots, and my stories always contain them, for me to be happy as a writer, I have to also appease my supernatural loving side. The world of paranormal and fantasy creatures fascinates me, and I'm happier when I'm writing about those things.

So, yeah, it took me the whole of the summer to figure out I should continue what I'm doing! LOL Typical, eh?

But the time away, and the chance to be introspective, was what I needed to fall in love with my PNR again. I've recently picked it up, and gotten back into editing what I've written so far. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say.

So now the kids are back at school, I'm trying to get back into the habit of working on my novel every day, with the intention of finishing it in a timely manner, but also finishing it to the best of my abilities, so that it represents me well.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes ....

Thanks for listening to me ramble. Knowing you guys are here to listen to my thoughts, and maybe offer a comment, means a lot to me. And I cannot wait to get caught up with your blogs again, and see what everyone else has been doing over the summer.

And if you're so inclined  please check out The Life and Loves of Clare Dugmore, on Friday to see what I've been up to with the family.