Finding Our Happy Place

The Tia Dani team survived November and has emerged from our turkey coma to find an entire new set of circumstances. It just goes to show you how fast your world can change in the writing industry. We gave our first workshop on ‘Team Writing’ and were pleasantly surprised at how well it went. The turnout for our workshop exceeded our expectations and we spoke with confidence and excitement about how we write together. We left the class with renewed energy and story ideas buzzing in our brains. We couldn’t wait to get together and put our ideas down on paper.

But then we received news that saddened our hearts and briefly took the wind from our sails. The publisher we dearly love and planned to submit our next story to closed their doors. Our time spent with Sapphire Blue Publishing has been wonderful and we wish them all the best. However, now Tia Dani has two books that are homeless and nowhere to send our almost finished story.

This has created a new project for us that we hadn’t planned on at this time. So, as we move into the holiday season, not to mention amid our decorating and shopping, we have to research publishers. We are asking ourselves, do we want to find another small press or do we take a look at self publishing? There are certainly plenty of options out there, but which is best for our needs?

Over the next few weeks we’ll take a good hard look at our options and hopefully make a good decision -- at least one that works well for us. We’ve heard of authors making thousands of dollars on one book that they have self-published and we’ve heard stories of authors that are published with a small press making the same. We certainly have never made much money yet, but sometimes, it’s not all about the money. Oh sure money is good, and you bet we’d be glad to get it, but it’s exciting just to have readers compliment our work and tell us how much they enjoy reading our stories.

Anyway, for now, we’ll enjoy the holidays, the food, the family and good friends. In our spare time we’ll do some more research and keep on writing. Because that’s what we do. We are storytellers. And as far as the rest of it, remember when one door closes another door opens. Maybe behind the next door we will find our pot of gold. Or, at least, a happy place we will love to be.

Enjoy your holidays in whatever way you celebrate. We will see you next year!