Author: lleachie

I am an associate professor of human services at a regional Midwestern university. I am also a writer of fantasy and romance, hoping to get traditionally published. I have one husband and am owned by four cats.

If I get published

If I ever get a book published traditionally (my optimistic friends say “when”, not “if”), it will change my life in many ways. 

The money won’t be a big change — according to Derek Murphy, the average amount an author earns is the advance, which is $10k, or $8k after the agent gets their cut.  

I will have to hire an entertainment lawyer to look over the contract and see if there are any potential hitches. 

I will have to sign a contract, after which my rights to my book will be curtailed for a period of time.

I will have to consider promoting my book, which will include travel. I would likely do this in the summer, which means I will have to schedule around internship visits.

I will have to step up my social media game. I haven’t done that yet because I have nothing really to promote except this blog. 

I’ve probably forgotten something.

Sometimes it seems more work than it’s worth, but it’s worth it to me. So I keep trying, keep improving, keep pushing myself.

Moving on to the next edit

Gaia’s Hands is a done book. I will probably send it out for queries after the first of the year. For now, I want it to rest on my computer and I want to not be obsessed with it for a while.

Now to move on to edit Whose Hearts are Mountains. I don’t have a lot to go by, as my dev editor is on leave. But what I have is daunting — not enough action in the beginning. I thought I had enough action in the beginning, but now I have to figure out how to put in more. 

I used to be horrible in receiving criticism. Now I’m humble and take it with the belief that it will make my writing better. I’ve learned a lot, and I’m always learning more. 

I hope it’s making me better. I hope it’s making me good enough to be published. 

Not doing that again.

I’m still done with NaNo. And my brain is fried. 

Five hours a day editing seemed really rational while I was doing it, but I feel like half the month has passed without me really noticing.  (It’s only one third of the month.) I’ve managed to get all my “work-work” done during that time period, strangely enough.

I’ve promised to continue doing NaNo, but only two hours a day. Maybe. If I can manage it. 

Now back to final read of Gaia’s Hands, which has turned out to be far, far better than it was on first writing.

50K!

I just made my 50k words for NaNoWriMo (actually 50 hours, as I was rebelling this year by editing) in 10 days. That’s 5 hours a day, which means I wasn’t doing much of anything else but writing in my spare time. 

It was insane. On the other hand, I think I have Gaia’s Hands to the point where, after a friend reads it, I could publish it. I think I learned a lot about editing. And focus. And feeling braindead at the end of a day.

I will finish a read-through on it, and then, I will probably start on Whose Hearts are Mountains. Only 2 hours a day, though. And it’s going to take a lot more work, because it has structural problems in the first third. 

Time to pass out now.

NaNo day 5

25 hours (25K words) on NaNo. I’m very lucky I have the time to do this (aided greatly by the fact that I don’t watch tv and I have an excellent attention span.) I wish I could find those excellent graphics that NaNo offered us!

The hard part comes ahead — so far the path to revision (including adding material) has been easy, with some of my best writing happening. Now I know things that are going to happen but not quite what to do there. Wish me luck!

Third Day NaNo

Yesterday I was at 20 hours, equivalent to 20k words. I also got schooled on how I really should proofread better, because a submission of mine had a wrong name at least once in the 1000 words.


I’m still getting more rejections and wondering if it’s me or the stories. And if it’s remediable. I’m getting inspired by editing since I’m seeing possibilities opening up with Gaia’s Hands.


😒 Wait. I have emojis! I just discovered this!