Anna Chastain's Blog

Like many self-pubbed authors out there, writing is not my full-time job. It is what I do in those spare moments, weekends, and school breaks, when the characters in my brain insist on being let out, even if it's just to say one quick thing. And though I work hard to make time for it, because I love it and I need it, there are times in my life when kids and husband and work come first and before you know it, it's been a month and all those WIPs I've got saved on my hard drive have more dust on them than my shelf of chotchkes. I tell myself I just need to get such and such done, get through this week, get to Sunday where no one has soccer or dance or dental appointments and I can dust off that niggling story and get lost for an entire afternoon. Then I get there and it's good. Or it's not that good sometimes, but still so good. And I remember, I don't have to keep up with those who are putting out books every few months, who are so good at the social media part. I'm doing all this because it's a need, the desire to write, to tell stories, and I've already done more with the books I've written than I really ever expected I could.

I typed The End yesterday on my most recent work in progress, My Kind of Crazy. It took me a year to write this one and I felt like I struggled to get this one out. I can't pinpoint exactly why (sometimes I worried I was too many years removed to write from a 23-year-old's point of view, ha!), but now that it's done, I feel such a sense of peace. For anyone who writes, or maybe it's just me, it's like having people live in your head for a period of time. Their stories are what I think about as I fall asleep and doing pretty much everything. Anyway, Cash and Sadie's story had me stumped for a while, I wasn't sure what direction their lives would go...but after writing out that Epilogue and typing The End yesterday, I can truly say that their story is complete and I am so happy with it. So keep an eye out because next, I'll be pushing that Publish button...

Until today, I hadn't written for weeks. Because, you know, insecurities and self doubt, and all. Dangerous stuff, people, dangerous stuff. But I read. Like, loads. I read through the guilt of not writing (yes, I feel guilty when I avoid my works in progress). Then today, I reread what I had done so far in my latest book, and...I liked it. As much as I'd like it to be so, writing is not my full time profession; I have a consuming full time job, as well as a family, so writing can be difficult to get to, anyway. But when insecurity rears its ugly, nasty head, it's just that much worse. But when I reread the words I'd already gotten down, I felt good. I liked the words. So, yeah, it takes me longer to write a book (I've written two in the last year and a half), and yeah, I stop to read other books while I'm in the middle of writing one, but I think that's okay. I think it's okay if I take a breather and get my head together and soak up some other good words while I try and put my own together. I guess my point of all this rambling is, how do we get through the insecurities of it?

Why is it so hard for me to pick a book to read? I have an endless TBR, like many folks, and I have faith that I will eventually get to every book on said TBR, even though I just keep adding to it (I'm an optimist). So why, oh why, do I struggle to decide which book to read next? It is a decision I often take far too seriously. Am I alone here? Is there some logic that I'm lacking when it comes to this? Help!

So, I think maybe this year is the year I learn how to add GIF's to my posts and reviews and stuff. And by this year, I mean 2015 cause, hello, this year's practically over. Embarking on this whole self-publishing adventure has sent my tech-savviness into a tailspin. I've always enjoyed electronics, love my iPhone, love my laptop, love my kindle, and can maneuver around through them all easily.
Since publishing my first book, however, I've learned how to create book covers and .mobi and epub files, upload docs and pics, overlay text, copy and paste all kinds of things, not to mention all that social media business (I am a total Twitter failure, though I try). So, yeah, I think that leaves me with GIFs, right? I mean, every time I see one of those things, I think, that's so cool!
Bottom line, I've learned a crap-ton about myself and the tech-world in ways I couldn't have imagined when I decided I wanted to write book.

Yeah, what the title says. Writing a blog is not something I ever saw blipping on my radar, but I'm taking a detour out of my comfort zone. As if pouring my heart and soul into two novels wasn't enough, right? That's the crux of being an Indie writer, I suppose. You must build a social media empire. That's something I read on Twitter, by the way. I mean, isn't writing the most perfect outlet for all us socially awkward folk? But I have a lot of thoughts that never leave my head, so I figure I'll release them into the bloggers universe and let them go. Maybe someone will read my ramblings and then..? Who knows?

Hello, my name is Anna, and I write a blog.