IWSG - August 2026

 It's the first Wednesday of the month so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group!

Thanks so much to  Shannon Lawrence, Diedre Knight, Liza, and Pat Garcia for being our hosts this month.

This month's question is a good one!

As a writer/author what is something you regret? Or something that you wish you'd done differently in your writing process?

I'm not sure if it's really regret, but if I knew what I now know, I would have done things quite differently in terms of my writing career.  I'm not unhappy with what I've achieved, but I definitely think I made a few mistakes along the way.

My biggest mistake, I think, was not trying to get a new agent as soon as possible after mine left the business.  The world, and most particularly the publishing world has changed immensely in the 10 years or so since then, and my experience trying to get an agent now is very different to the one I would have had if I'd just jumped right back into the trenches then.

But, at the time I was kind of traumatized by how everything had happened and I didn't feel like I wanted to go through it all again.  So, I accepted a small press offer and went ahead with publishing my books that way.  And don't get me wrong.  I'm proud of those books.  I'm thrilled with the emails I get from readers whose lives I touched, and the reviews have been almost universally great for all of them.  I just can't help thinking they'd be better books and would sell better if they'd had the benefit of a bigger publisher.

Not to mention, I might have a better chance at getting an agent now if I didn't have six well-reviewed books with a very low sales figures (except one: my first published novel, An Unstill Life, has been an Amazon bestseller twice) to my resume.

But, it's too late to change anything now.  I made the decisions I made at the time for a reason, so now I have to live with them.  It doesn't stop me wondering where I might be now if I had taken a different path back then...  

What is something you regret about your author-life decisions?

Weekly Goals 3-8-26

 The next month or so are going to be crazy busy for me at work, so I'm trying not to set myself a bunch of unrealistic goals around anything else.  Between my main job and teaching 6 classes this week, I'll be lucky if I find the time to even do any critiques for my writing group.  Luckily I finished my beta read yesterday, so that's one more thing off my plate.

I will try to write a few pieces of flash fiction just to keep that part of me satisfied, but I'm not hopeful about getting to one every day.  Last week I managed one.

I figure things will settle down a little innate September or October and I'll be able to start thinking about writing again then.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 31-7-26

 

It's the end of the week so it's time to celebrate the small things!

It's the weekend!

It has been a busy week (again), so I'm looking forward to a little downtime.  Although, a little is what it will be.  I have a lot of chores to get through, a beta read to finish and I'm teaching on Sunday.  But at least it's a little different to everything I do at work during the week.  Except the teaching... I've been doing a lot of that.

Things are really ramping up at work with the new ticketing system and website needing to go live in about three weeks.  God.  Is it August already?  Yep.  Three weeks.  Ack!  That's really soon...

I don't think I'm going to get any writing done for a few more weeks.  With everything else going on, I don't see myself having the time to commit to anything other than the odd piece of flash fiction.  And even that is going to be a struggle to get to.  

I went to the dress rehearsal of the opera on Thursday night and really enjoyed it.  I don't usually like operas much, but I keep trying because I feel like they're something I should enjoy.  So I was pleased that I actually did like this one.  There were a lot of school kids n the audience at the dress rehearsal and they were very vocal which was fun.  I don't imagine the audience on opening night will be anything like as raucous.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: We Fell Apart

I've read a bunch of other books by this author, so when I found this one in the bargain bin at The Warehouse, I decided to give it a whirl.  

When Matilda gets a letter from the father she's never met, she jumps at the opportunity to visit him.  Her mother has recently moved to Mexico with a new lover, leaving Matilda behind with a former boyfriend.  With a few months before college starts, Matilda is searching for connection and this seems like an opportunity to finally connect with her father, a celebrated artist.

When she arrives on the island, she finds no father.  Apparently he left to sell a painting.  What she does find is Meer, a brother who is almost exactly the same age.  Meer is lovable as a puppy and Matilda finds herself instantly bonding with him.  Also living in the house are Brock, a former child-star battling addiction and seeking meaning in is post-Hollywood life, Tatum, a brooding, intense boy with a love of water, and June, Meer's mother who seems startled by Matilda's arrival and not at all welcoming.

Without her father,  Matilda tries to navigate life in this strange place while trying to find answers to her myriad questions.  But the more she discovers, the more secrets she stumbles upon.  And with each new secret, she becomes more and more certain that something weird is going on in the house.  And that everyone in it is lying.

I enjoyed this book.  The three boys Matilda finds at the house are well drawn and very distinct.  I did feel like June might have been a little over the top as the kind of wicked stepmother, but once the big reveal was ... revealed toward the end, her character made a lot more sense.

So, it you're a reader who likes twisted families with secrets, a touch of romance and wealthy people behaving badly, this might just be the book for you.

But don't just listen to me,  Here's the blurb:

The invitation arrives out of the blue.

In it, Matilda discovers a father she’s never met. Kingsley Cello is a visionary, a reclusive artist. And when he asks her to spend the summer at his seaside home, Hidden Beach, Matilda expects to find a part of herself she’s never fully understood.

Instead, she finds Meer, her long-lost, openhearted brother; Brock, a former child star battling demons; and brooding, wild Tatum, who just wants her to leave their crumbling sanctuary.

With Kingsley nowhere to be seen, Matilda must delve into the twisted heart of Hidden Beach to uncover the answers she’s desperately craving. But secrets run thicker than blood, and blood runs like seawater.

And everyone here is lying.

Weekly Goals 27-7-26

 I don't have a huge number of goals this week.  The weekend was predictably exhausting, so I'm sitting her on Monday morning struggling to even think about what the week ahead might bring.  I am taking the day off today, so hopefully by tomorrow I might have a better idea what's needed.

I'm doing a beta read for a friend, so I'm hoping to finish that this week.  Then I can turn my attention to the new book I may have accidentally started.  I'm really not sure what it is, or if it's anything yet, but I'm sure it will come to me.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 24-7-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

Well, sort of...  I don't really get a real weekend this week because we're playing a concert in Christchurch on Sunday afternoon, so I have to go down there on Saturday evening.   On the plus side, I'll have time to catch up with a friend who recently moved down there.

It's been as busy a week as I suspected it was going to be and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the amount to stuff I learned about our new system in just a few days.  Luckily I have a bit of time to practice before we get the live site, and then a couple of weeks to build everything on the live site and get things tidied up so they look the way I want them to look.  

No new rejections this week, which is good, I guess.  Although, with so many queries still outstanding, I'd rather know for sure they're passes than to keep waiting, just in case.

I'm hoping next week will be more manageable in terms of the workload, so I'm hoping to get caught up on some things.

I had a great idea for the opening lines of a new novel.  I just need to figure out the story to go with them...

What are you celebrating this week?

Weekly Goals 20-7-26

 I had a pretty quiet, restful weekend which is what I needed.  I started beta reading a book for a writing friend, but that was pretty much the extent of my writing work.

This week isn't going to be a good one for writing either since I have three days of all-day training sessions for using our new ticketing system, and concerts on Friday and Sunday.  It's going to be busy and exhausting.

As a result, my goals for the week are very small.  I plan to do a little more work on Rebecca's book where I can.  That's it for writing related stuff.

In life-related stuff, I just need to get through the week.  Trying to find time to do anything outside the training is going to be challenging, but I may just have to pull some late nights.  especially since I'm teaching at the gym during a few of the lunch breaks I've built into the schedule.

My son's band is playing on Thursday, and I really want to go, but I'm not sure if I'll be up to it after the three days of training and 4 classes I will have taught by then.  I guess we'll see.

What are your goals this week?