Anna DeStefano’s Blog

I Write THOSE Books  launches today with my newbie and “publishing insider’s” view of NANOWRIMO. Check out the new column and give us your take (reader, writer, bemused, disinterested… ;o)

I’m full-on drafting Secret Legacy this month. I’ll also be excerpting The Firefighter’s Secret Baby some more (which is up on amazon now, in case you’d like to pre-order, though I don’t have the cover yet, pout…)

Oh, and my NYC Barnes and Noble booksigning was covered by Romantic Times in their December Issue. I’ll scan the page and pop a pic up here soon.

Plus, I’ll let you know when all prizes are in the mail, because I know you’re waiting paitently (tapping your toes, checking your mailboxes, grumbling, tearing up your copies of my books in frustration…).

I have new hunky guy photos to share from my New Jersy conference. Because a little hunky guy in your day is good for the soul…

And I’ll be working at the beach soon–so lots of lovely beach photos to come, too.

So, basically, I’ll be blog posting more in November, NANOWRIMOing in November, mailing prizes in November, hopefully finishing the draft of Secret Legacy in November, and contributing to PopSyndicate.com with I Write THOSE Books in November. Join me, won’t you!

I’ll be MIA until next week–stuff happens, and it’s happening all over the place here ;o) Good stuff, some other stuff, but it’s all happening at once. So, in the  mean time, check out my new column, I Write THOSE Books, over at Pop Syndicate.

I guest blogged for these fine folks a month or so ago, when Dark Legacy released. They were looking for someone inside the publishing industry to do something fun and entertaining for guests who like books and/or writers and wanted to know more. My bi-monthly posts will be fun and trendy and geared toward your thoughts and questions. So, check out my “howdy” that’s up today, let me know what you’d like to know more about (either here or there), then come back next Wednesday. I’m kicking things off with a cheeky nod toward November’s NANOWRIMO!

I Write Those Books–look for it every first and third Wednesday of the  month at the Book Addict blog.

Follow a summary of all I Write THOSE Books posts (yes, I’m employing the rule of three, saying my column name three times so you’ll never, EVER, forget it ;o) by saving this link to your Favorites!

Between projects, I clean. I nest. I sort and stack and organize and sift through old files and old ideas and basically drive myself crazy trying to create the perfect working environment I think I need so I can write free again after burning out on the last project…and there’s always a burn out phase. Just like there’s always a “before the writing” phase…

This time, I’ve spent as much energy outside of my house as possible, because I needed the energy in my home office to settle down–significantly–after my Dark Legacy release came at the same time as a book deadline for my Atlanta Heroes series (excerpts coming tomorrow for that story, promise!). I was a waste of space and air when October 1st hit, so I hit the road and visited with friends and explored my home town and drove up into the mountains (literally, because I’m only an hour from the North GA mountains and it’s fall and I couldn’t NOT feel some of that). And I came home between each trip/visit and STILL nested and sorted and cleaned…

I was digging for something, I realized. (more…)

You hear the question a lot, when you teach writing craft: Do you plan your books, or are you a “pantser?”

My answer is inevitibly: everyone plans. Some of us do it before we begin a draft, while others plan WHILE they draft. The pre-planners, if you will, approach the draft with a bit more purpose, while those “writing by the seats of their pants” find their purpose within the drafting process.

Either way, I teach the importance of:

1. Planning(my process is character-centered, while others who find story more organically by working through external plot first)

   Planning Workshop Handout

(more…)

I LOVE the Internet for all the wonderful things it makes accessible to my writing, reading, social and personal life. As a self-employed writer in a very solitary profession (commercial fiction and, when the job’s right, nonfiction), the Information Superhighway is a miracle that allows introverted, often-allergic-to-the-insanity-of-the-outside-world’s-manic-pace me to be a more well-rounded, reachable person. The writers and readers and colleagues and potential clients I can now network with WHILE I’m chained to my computer and work-in-progress is an amazing thing I never take for granted.

However…there are a few realities of my creative life (because I am first and foremost a publishing professional who makes a living trading on my passion to create) that I can never lose site of, no matter how essential the Internet is to my career and day-to-day business goals. I’m recording these realities and truths here, because writing truth down helps us remember what’s real. And there’s alwasy the hope that my ramblings might help other writers, readers and online friends who find themselves wondering if the “miraculous” things we now do online are sometimes interfering with our lives/work more than they’re improving them…

Truth 1:
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Just because the Internet makes contacting others possible around the clock, doesn’t mean focusing outside my physical “world” should be my first goal every time I turn on my computer/smart phone(yes, I have data line Internet now, wherever my iPhone’s 3G network will allow me). (more…)