I’m happy to share my book trailer for my debut novel, The Very Good Best Friend. Hope you enjoy.
The book is available for pre-order now at your favourite bookstore!
Categories
Book Trailer Fun!
Categories
Fraser Valley Writer
Being a writer in the Fraser Valley informs my creativity, but that’s not because I have a large writerly community here or, really, any community at all. While there are opportunities for writers to meet and discuss work where I live, I have a hard time participating because of everything else I do, including working, taking care of kids, keeping my home clean, grocery shopping, and the list goes on.
It makes me wonder. What does it mean to be a writer in the Fraser Valley? When I was younger and lived in Metro Vancouver, I met up with lots of writers, attended readings, and felt generally quite connected. Since those days, my life has changed very much. The changes occurred slowly, but now as I look back I see all those changes amounted in a substantial shift in who I am. Moving, children, living through a pandemic, and a general change in how my free time is being spent—it has all contributed to my current existence and understanding of being a writer in this moment of my life.
After many years living in the Fraser Valley, I’ve noticed that elements of the lifestyle and environment have crept into my work.
This is most true with my current work-in-progress, a novel about a woman who survives something catastrophic in her rural home. I won’t get into more details than that as I am deep into the initial drafting stage.
When the initial seeds of an idea rooted in my mind, it was clear that the setting of this work would most resemble in some ways the Fraser Valley. While the actual setting of the book is not the Fraser Valley, I find myself describing elements of the natural environment here as element of setting in this new work. I’ve enjoyed taking the time to add descriptive details to my work that is fresh, relevant and personal to my own life.
I’m excited to see how the first draft will go. There is a lot to go, as I’m only half way through. More to come on this…
Categories
Tips for Indie Writers
The term “indie” author means different things to different people. In this post, I’m thinking of indie author as someone who publishes with smaller, independent presses, otherwise known as indie presses.
Last week I prepared a few graphics for social media to share the cover of my debut novel, The Very Good Best Friend. It was an exciting moment to post this cover, which I adore, and to share a few words about the premise of the book with my followers, who are mostly friends, family, and people who know me personally.
The experience got me reflecting about my journey as a writer who has had the opportunity and good fortune to publish with independent presses in Canada.
Here is what I’ve learned so far about writing as an indie author:
#1: Write (and Edit!) the Weird Thing
My first poetry collection, Desire Path, took many years to write. By the time it was published, I felt like I had been working on those poems for close to a decade. I’m not sure if it was quite that long, but the poems felt like they were a part of me. This is to say that I spent a lot of time with that work. Poems from this collection were with me during different seasons of my life and, yet, I still felt energized by them as I crafted and refined them into a collection. I wasn’t writing what I thought someone should write, I was writing what I wanted to write. In Desire Path, I wrote about my specific experience in a specific community in British Columbia. When I read the poems now, I can still remember parts of my old neighbourhood and my old life, the things I saw, the places I visited, and how I interpreted the environment. As a reader, I like learning about other people’s neighbourhoods in this way. In fact when I travel I will seek out a very local or regional literary book, just to know what the poets are saying about the place (because it’s always much more interesting than any generic tourist pamphlet).
I was lucky to connect with a publisher that regularly publishes local perspectives on place and experience called Talon Books. Independent publishers are vital for their work bringing local and regional culture to a broader audience.
So write the weird thing. Pursue the project that excites and fuels you as a writer and a thinker, as a storyteller, because you will be spending more with those words, in that world time than you realize.
#2: Develop Your Publicity Chops
DIY Publicist? It’s not the first hat you think you’ll need to wear when you become an author, but it doesn’t hurt to start framing your writing through a publicity and marketing lens. In fact, once you have your manuscript in a solid place (don’t rush this and share it with beta readers if you can for feedback), the process of explaining and positioning your work begins and, honestly, it never really ends.
There are several key aspects of publishing with indie presses that will require you to start thinking like your own publicist. The first being your query letter. This is a one-page document that serves as your pitch to the editor where the intention is to pique their interest so they will read your sample pages and ask to see your full manuscript. A key component of the query letter is sharing your book’s hook. A hook grabs a reader’s attention, compelling them to flip page after page. Maybe you have known what your hook is from the moment you hit the keyboard or maybe you need time to really hone in on what it is. Think it through, as the essence of this hook will serve you as you develop and refine your publicity strategy.
Below is an example from my debut novel:
Carolyn sets out on a harrowing journey to rescue her best friend from an abandoned, desolate mall in the countryside, only to uncover deeper and darker secrets hidden within its decaying walls.
One-line description of The Very Good Best Friend
Once you have a signed contract with an indie press, one of the first things they will often send you is an “author questionnaire.” This questionnaire is your opportunity to share details about your biography, your platforms, and your book with your publisher. The content you share in this questionnaire is important and serves as the basis for many aspects of your book like cover copy, descriptions, marketing approach, etc. Take the time to fill it out as best you can, but don’t feel bad about not having a huge platform or many industry connections. We all have to start somewhere!
#3: Bet On Yourself
Indie authors need to bet on themselves. What this looks like is different for everyone. To me, it means finding time to write even though every part of my life is drastically pulling me in the opposite direction. By giving myself the consistency and space for my writing practice, by prioritizing writing, I am betting on myself. Over the last few years, I’ve had a mind shift in how I think about writing. It’s not a hobby. It’s my business. No, I don’t make much money from this business, but I have come to treat it like my business because it’s how I keep myself accountable. I invest in my business by giving it time. I research my business by reading books and following what’s being published. I plan my business by giving myself reasonable deadlines to get my writing projects finished and sticking to them as much as I can. I define my goals to keep my practice on track. No one can do this, but me.
Betting on yourself is more than just believing in yourself, it’s about understanding that no one can do it for you. It’s about understanding that going from initial idea to finished manuscript is not easy, but you will see it through because you need to.
#4: Take Time to Celebrate Your Wins
Writing is solitary work. It can take a long time to draft and re-draft and draft and re-draft a work. Taking the time to celebrate a milestone is a good habit. It doesn’t have to be a big celebrationg, maybe it’s a walk in your favourite space or a coffee at your local.
#5: Support Indie Presses and Indie Authors
Buy and read books from fellow indie authors to support them and the presses that publish them. Beautiful stores and fantastic stories, it’s a wonderful combination.
Categories
Summer Reading
Summer is for catching up on reading. There is something about reading outside in the sun or under a tree that is so lovely.
I finished Heather Dixon’s Burlington recently. It explored a mother’s social pressures to fit in. After just finishing a year full of pick ups and drop offs, I enjoyed this one.
Another book I’m reading also explores motherhood. Adrienne Gruber’s debut collection of essays, Monsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes is a fasinating read about parenting and caring, and living and surviving. I’m almost halfway though and have found Gruber’s writing has resonated with me. I’m looking forward to finishing this one soon.
Categories
The Public Library
There are so many reasons why writers love public libraries. For as long as I can remember, I’ve regularly visited a local library once or twice a week, and one of the reasons why is because I’ve always lived within close walking distance to one. That wasn’t intentional, but it’s the lucky way it turned out.
As a writer, I read a lot. I buy books to support writers, publishers, and booksellers, but I also borrow many titles across multiple genres and formats (hello audiobooks!) from the library. When I was starting down the path of writing my own book of poetry, one of the first things I did was borrow stacks and stacks of poetry books from the library to see how what those poets did. I studied many things when I read such as:
- How is the writing flowing from beginning to end?
- What keeps the momentum going?
- How is the writer exploring place?
My first book, Desire Path, was a book that centred around my life through my experiences of suburban space. In a way, it was a bildungsroman because it started with a poem reflecting on where I was born and ended with a long poem about my first pregancy.
While I did not write a poem about libraries in this book, I very well could have and I like to think that my experiences as a regular library user are quietly working in the background of the poems. All the times I borrowed a book, learning from those poets, this is somehow reflected in my work.
When my book was published and I found my own slender title among the poetry stack in the library, well, it was good feeling and a special moment.
Categories
On Summer Writing Projects
I love spring and fall, but there is something about summer and, even, winter that urges me to dive into a writing project with earnestness. Maybe it has something to do with the extreme weather common to both these seasons now and July is looking like it will shape up to be a hot month in the Fraser Valley.
In June I submitted edited versions of manuscripts to the publishers of both my upcoming books. It felt good. Both projects took years to write and edit, and both projects were started in the summer. It could be the heat of the summer that inspires me or maybe it’s the fact that the year is half-way through that fills me with the urgency needed to commit to a project consistently.
This summer I am working through the first revision of a new novel project. I started writing the first draft the summer of 2022 thinking that I could have it finished by December 2022, but it ended up taking me until December 2023 with everything going on in my life.
And here I am in the summer of 2024 starting down the path of the first major revision. Instead of being disappointed by how long it has taken me, I’m choosing to see the time away from the work as being helpful. And while I have probably forgotten a few of the aspects I had planned to address in the first revision while I was writing it, that’s probably okay.
There is something both gratifying and overwhelming about approaching a second draft. I have one novel project that I didn’t pursue past the initial messy draft. When I look at the file on my computer, I marvel that I even completed a full draft of that story. I wrote it during my first maternity leave. And while it holds a special place in my heart, there is only so much time I can give to my writing so I need to be working on projects that I truly love. I liked the old book, but didn’t feel I had the energy to give it all the work it needed. It was good practice.
This new revision project, on the other hand, I hope I can get through it this summer. My first novel took eight drafts to get to the shape I was happy with. And there is always more to do on a project, but there comes a time when I need to let it go to make space for a new one.
How I Approach the Second Draft
In the first big revision, i.e. my second draft, I approach it the following way:
- Take time away
- Print out a copy
- Read the copy first, taking notes on overarching themes and big plotholes but doing minimal page edits
- Do a ruthless hardcopy edit (i.e. strike A LOT out)
- Translate the edits to a new document and generate new writing
Then take another break and maybe start on something else, like an outline for my next project.
I’m curious to see how many edits it will take me this time…
Categories
Pursuing Complication
The ideas that served as the foundation for my first novel came to me in glimpses. It started with glimpse of something that intrigued me, something I wouldn’t forget, and then later a glimpse of something else would haunt me. Sometimes they were actions. Sometimes traits. Other times I saw a place. Suddenly I had layers. Layers I could hold on to and complicate. Over time I found myself thinking about these images and feelings and places and about how they connected, if at all. Soon I thought I had an idea for a novel, and it turns out I did.
If only it was so simple and romantic. Daydreamer starts thinking more detailed about her regular daydreams, opens laptop and out comes a story in short hour-long writing sprints. This was not how it went for me.
Writers often talk about how to get that first draft of a novel. The idea being that if an aspiring writer can concentrate enough to get all the words on paper then the hard part is done. While I agree that getting the first draft on paper takes dedication, the subsequent drafts are even harder. Writing is about making decisions. Each draft is about validating those decisions or reworking those decisions into something different. For The Very Good Best Friend, I wrote at least eight full drafts and that doesn’t include the substantive editing process happening now with my publisher, Now or Never Publishing.
When I think about the state of my first draft and what the story has become over the last four years, well, it’s completely different. Interestingly, those foundational glimpses I first experienced that inspired me to tell this story and then used to layer my initial ideas together are all still there, but I needed to make them sharper. I wrote, rewrote, cut, and wrote, rewrote, and cut so many chapters that the small book has a million ghosts embedded in it.
Writing the first draft, even with the help of a high-level outline, felt like walking down into a dark, cluttered basement with only the dim light of my phone to illuminate where I was. I couldn’t see beyond my nose. I wasn’t sure if what I was seeing was actually what I thought I was seeing. Everything was hazy, nothing fully formed or looking right. This is all to say I had no idea what the heck I was doing and why on earth I had attempted to do something that. Write a novel? Me?
Regardless of how challenging it was, I gave myself the permission to pursue it, despite how complicated and exhilerating the process was. I feel good about that.
My Writing Takeaways
I’ve been thinking about the process I went through and thought I’d share a few takeaways I will remember as I approach future projects. Here they are:
- Make an outline: I know there are brilliant people out there who can “pants” it, but I am not that way. The direction is helpful even if I end up changing it down the line.
- Set word count goals: Mine are always a little ambitious for the time I have, but it gives me something to strive for and keeps me on track. And when I do hit the goal, which is more often than not, it feels great.
- Give yourself a break: As noted above, I like to have writing goals, but I found that when I really didn’t have the energy to write, I still urged myself to do it. This resulted in writing that was mostly entirely chopped. If only I had used that time better! Listen to your body.
- When the draft is done, put it away: This is a common tip from established writers, but one that can feel ambiguous when you’re just starting out. How much time? I’d say at LEAST a month or two after each draft, if you can. This allows you to come back to your work as a reader and not the person who just spent every free moment they had trying to tell the story. Giving myself time away was invaluable when it came from the editing process.
Ahead of Mothers Day, I’ve been thinking about what it takes to be a caregiver and writer, not to mention a worker and all the other roles we assume over our lifetimes. There’s always lots of talk about the sacrifices that women make when they work and parent. There’s the never ending load of attempting to make the seemingly impossible possible. I understand this and I live this.
It’s a whole other level when it comes to being a parent and a creative person because for most people the time to pursue creative projects takes place outside of regular work hours and when you are a parent those outside of regular work hours are reserved for time with family, who you love more than anything. So when do you get time to dedicate to your passions? To your dreams? The math doesn’t add up favourably for anyone.
This month I have been proofreading the galley of my first novel, The Very Good Best Friend. I started writing it in August 2020, when I suppose a lot of people began writing their “one day” novels because it felt like it was now or never, the world showed us how fast it could change. Seven complete rewrites and several years later, and I’m here, now, with a book that will be printed and in the world next spring. I’m proud of myself for pursuing my dream, but it wasn’t easy. I’m also charmed by the fact that Now or Never Publishing were the folks who took it on!
There were definitely days where I wondered if working on a novel was worth the sacrifice of time. Since it’s not published yet, I guess I don’t know! My hope, as any writer’s hope is when they create something, is that I’ll find readers who will resonate with the themes of the book. More on those themes later.
An odd thing happens when pursuing a dream and then achieving it. I have an urge to do it all over again. For people who need to write, who love to read, who want to be in worlds of words, the process never ends. I don’t think it means the struggle of how to manage and spend time gets any easier. Who knows, maybe one day.
I have been a writer for as long as I can remember, and while I may not be one of those writers who can remember the first book they wrote at five years old about bunnies, I have many memories of working away on my craft through stories, poems, essays, even a couple of monologues. As I got older and a little more confident in the quality of what I was writing, I began submitting some of my work to creative writing journals, local and national. It was a thrill to get that first acceptance. I still remember it: a flash fiction piece. From there, I published in many journals, but I was hesitant to pursue anything longer, anything that could be considered a “book.”
It wasn’t until my daughter was born that I really got serious about writing. Suddenly time didn’t seem like this endless thing, but something finite. Looking back now, taking the plunge to write longer, more focused pieces of writing while in the thralls of first-time motherhood seems very naive, but I’ve always had an all-in kind of attitude.
Give and Take: Motherhood and Creative Practice
Recently I recieved my contributor copy for an anthology called Give & Take: Motherhood and Creative Practice. The collection “explores the diverse ways contemporary artists navigate the unique tensions of motherhood in all its varied stages.” I have a short essay called “On Maternity Leave” in the section of the book called “Motherhood and the Experience of Time.” I was thrilled when I read that section title. I felt like the editors, Tara Carpenter Estrada, Katie Palfreyman, and Hilary Wolfley, displayed a level of insight in the curation of this collection that is such a gift to a writer. In the preface to the section, they included the following analysis of my essay: In “On Maternity Leave,” writer Taryn Hubbard describes how becoming a parent constricted her sense of time…Paradoxically, as some aspects of time compressed for Hubbard, others expanded” (140).
In my essay “On Maternity Leave,” I’m sharing my experience being on maternity and trying to balance a writing life and ultimately feeling insecure about it.
Here are two of my favourite exerpts:
Before I had children, I thought of time differently. Life seemed long, I felt like there would be time to get my ideas together, to produce something I was proud of, to master my craft. I figured it would happen “some day,” that I had the time to get there in my own way. When my daughter was born, those loose ideas of time went out the window. My life was finite. I had mouths to feed, butts to wipe, cookie crumbs to vacuum. I had a sleep schedule and a grocery list. Swimming lessons and ballet. I awoke in the middle of the night on urgent rescue missions because beloved stuffed animals had rolled onto the floor and my daughter wouldn’t stop crying until reunited. My life as a mother, a partner, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a worker, and a community member was finite. Every single aspect of my life took time, sometimes a lot of it. Embodying all those roles alongside being a writer who also actually produced things and attempted to get published? Well, I just wasn’t so sure of all that once I became a mother.
“On Maternity Leave” in Give and Take: Motherhood and Creative Practice.
Later on in the essay, I share a special moment between my daughter and I.
A week ago, my daughter in one of her usual campaigns to draw out bedtime asked me if I “would be the best writer ever.” I was stunned. I asked her to repeat herself; surely, she wasn’t asking me about something like writing, about my writing, about me? So she said it again, and this time I gently pulled her into a hug and I felt a rush of unexpected tears leak down my cheeks. Her comment touched my heart. No, I wouldn’t be the best writer ever, but maybe, with her encouragement, I could write. I could think. I could create. I would write because I had stories to tell and I’d carve out the time away from family to do it. Time for myself. Time for my thoughts. She brushed her teeth and went to bed after a few stories, not understanding how much her comment meant to me. I don’t mention it to her again, but I think about it often.
“On Maternity Leave” in Give and Take: Motherhood and Creative Practice.
I was grateful to receive my contributor copy of the anthology and to have the chance to relive this time in my life. The collection is full of incredible work by writers exploring all angles of motherwood and creativity, from interviews, to essays, to artworks, to poetry. It’s intimate and authentic, immediate and necessary. I recommend checking it out.