Testarossa Book

TESTAROSSA, and to a smaller extent, I, have been getting some attention lately. The book was mentioned on a local Southern California site called Yo! Venice. I did a cable access interview recently with Joan Quinn on her show The Joan Quinn Profiles. I did a blog interview on a romance readers’ site called Love. Romance. Passion not long ago. This is a good thing, right? I Google myself a lot—more than I’d care to admit, and frankly I’m stunned that I’m admitting it here—to see how the latest reviews for the book are looking, or if those blog interviews I submitted last month are up yet.

I’m terribly distracted.

I’m trying to get the sequel to Testarossa finished. Now, mind you, the thing is done. It’s been written. But, like any first draft, it has its problems. At first, I believed the way to solve those problems was to begin again. This has become crazy-making, so now I’m simply trying to improve upon what I’ve already done, but it’s not good enough. I’m a better writer than I was when I wrote Testarossa, and now, I’m never good enough. It’s not good enough.

I’m incredibly distracted.

I’m reviewing crime and mystery novels for Suspense Magazine. The folks at Suspense are very good about deadlines—I don’t have one. But I don’t want to sit on a book that the author knows is being read for review—and that I received for free—too long. I submitted Testarossa to them for review months ago, and they’ve yet to post one, so I know how it feels. People—authors—are busy, so I’m not worried, nor am I complaining.

I’m painfully distracted.

I paid good money to have this website built, and I know that in order to drive people to the site, and therefore make sales and get the word out about Testarossa, I must blog. I read other blogs, so I know that others are doing what they need to do to drive people to their sites. They are in the top echelons of blogging, they are the kings and queens of blogdom. They are doing it right; they are getting the word out; they are constantly at it. I can name them off the top of my head, these crime fiction writers, these mystery novelists. I follow them. I comment on their blog posts. I know who they are.

I’m horrendously distracted.

I long to take off, get in the car and drive up to the central California coast, rent that house on the beach in Cambria, and write. And I know that if I voiced that need, it would be met. I have a wonderful, supportive family. But I’d miss out. I’d miss the kids’ baseball games, I’d miss spending time with my husband, who’s been insanely distracted himself lately, I’d miss the very distractions I’m longing to get away from.

Will all this go away if I take a step back, regroup, go with the distractions for a while? Will I lose momentum if I don’t keep up with getting the word out? Will my agent punt me out of her life if I take any longer with this next book?

See? I’m a little distracted.

I’d love to hear about your distractions, and how you cope. Writers, I know you have them. Maybe your distractions will distract me from mine, and then perhaps I can focus again.

Tags: author, blog, crime fiction, crime novel, Joan Quinn Profiles, mystery book, reviews, sequel, writing, Yo! Venice

This entry was posted on Friday, December 10th, 2010 at 9:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.