Clearing space for growth

and two special discounts!

Deep-ish thoughts

Writing requires so much humility.

And by humility, I don’t mean the false definition, putting yourself down or being a doormat. Real humility is much harder: staring one’s gifts and faults in the eye and accepting the tension between them. But even getting to that point, we have to clear away so many distractions and lies to reach a true understanding of those gifts and faults.

When we do get to that point…well, that’s when we can tell the best stories.

I grappled with this as I finished revisions on Love in the Eternal City. I’d like to think of myself as an easy author to work with, because I spend most of my time in the editing and publishing world. But I found myself, like every author, clinging to what I had created and struggling to let go enough to see how my story could be better.

I swear I think I had to go through the five stages of grief for my original plan of Act 3, which was ridiculous because I’d slapped it together knowing that it was super rough and needed help. I got bristly and defensive and fussy, and finally had to step back and remember that this is my debut novel, for Pete’s sake. OF COURSE IT’S NOT PERFECT.

And then inspiration struck. I knew how to fix Act 3, and it didn’t require rewriting the whole dang thing. It only took a few tweaks here and there, an altered scene and a much more logical rationale for the big final event.

I had to connect to humility before I could be creative. But I did and I was and it’s done! Really truly done! Revised, proofread, and very near to being sent to the printer! Eep!

On that note…

I’m waiting for the book to appear on Amazon and Goodreads, but I’ll just remind you that it’s ready for preorder at Chrism Press! And Chrism is offering a preorder discount: use the code LEC15 for 15% off through August 1!

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What’s coming next?

I have two current works in progress now that I’m done with Love in the Eternal City. The sequel, Love in the Glass City, is due next, but The Sapphire Crown, my royal romantasy, seems to want to come out. I’m giving it some attention, and I’ll tell you more about it in a future email.

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Newsletter Exclusive: Shop Discount!

One of my fun ongoing side-quests at the moment is designing merch for my new author store. I have just a few designs so far, but I’m excited to start playing with some more!

Just for the next two weeks, in order to test out the products and sale process, I’m opening the shop just to newsletter subscribers. Everything is priced almost at cost, and I would love to hear back what you think of the items! I have more designs in the works, of course, but I couldn’t wait to get something out into the world. After the two weeks of test run, all products will go up to their final price, and the shop will go public.

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Last but not least…

In my editor’s role, I was pleased to talk about Kevin Vost’s book Scrupulosity on Dr. Mario Sacasa’s Always Hope podcast.

And BoldJourney invited me to share some thoughts on writer’s block. You can find that at this link.

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That’s all for now!

Rebecca W. Martin