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Writing Time Literally Going to the Dog

August 12, 2023 by in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as ,

We have a new puppy, so my free writing time is literally going to the dog right now.

So instead of writing some great blog post, I thought I’d share some cute pics of our puppy.

But first, being the historical writer that I am, I looked up the phrase, go to the dogs, just to make sure I had its meaning correct. And sure enough, the summary meaning is becoming ruined.

Although it was originally tied to bad food that wasn’t good for human consumption. For this post, I thought I would write a fun, cute article that basically says my writing time has been ruined. That I’m distracted by the dog. Hence, all my writing time is going to the dog.

Meet the new dog

So, without any further ado, let’s meet our new puppy, Ace.

Denise Colby new puppy named Ace which is where all her writing time is going

This is the first day we brought him home from a lab rescue group. About five months old, he’s super sweet and pretty easy going.

Writer Denise M. Colby with her new puppy Ace
Writer Denise M. Colby with the family’s new puppy

Of course the call came in the week of my son’s high school graduation, so things were pretty chaotic. But we had to go with the flow if we wanted to adopt him. My word this year is change, and although I knew there would be a lot of change this year, getting a puppy wasn’t on my radar! But he’s stolen our hearts and we love him.

Naming the Dog

Now, it took us about a week to name him. This is mostly our son’s dog, so he had some cool names he was coming up with. A huge 80’s music fan, Huey was at the top of the list, as well as Elo, and a few others. But what tipped the scales was when my other son threw out the name Ace. As in Batman’s dog Ace (from the Justice League cartoons). Being a batman fan, that one became the winner and thus our dog is named Ace.

photo of Ace the Bat-hound from the DC universe website justice league to illustrate why we chose the name Ace for our dog
This is Ace, the Bat-Hound from Justice League. Photo taken from the DC website

So of course, we had to have a photo shoot with my son wearing his Batman costume so we could introduce Ace to everyone on social media. We even found a dog toy with the logo on it. Such cute photos.

Why My Writing Time is Going to the Dog

We have had middle of the night wake-ups, and other puppy antics too. Like chewing. We can’t really leave him alone too much right now. Which makes it difficult to dive into my manuscript.

We are now in puppy training class, which also teaches us humans on how to behave with the dog. As you can see, we have our hands full. It won’t last forever, but this is what we’ve been doing this summer. I hope to show him periodically in my Author social media. So follow along on my instagram at denisem.colby I’ll leave you with this last pic so you can say awww.

Ace, Denise M. Colby's new dog, loves playing with balls. Denise M. Colby loves throwing the balls for him which takes away from her writing time
Ace loves playing with balls. And I love throwing balls for him, which takes away from writing, but gets me outside.

Denise Colby loves to write about her word of the year. Each word builds a new layer in her writing journey (and her life). In 2022, her word was Work. This year, her word is change.

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How To ReStart Writing After A Prolonged Break

July 12, 2023 by in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as , ,

How do you restart writing after taking a prolonged break? Do you jump in to a daily quota right away or start slowly one time a week working on your manuscript? Do you spend time reading what you wrote, first? Or, do you start writing a new scene to work with something fresh? Do you start a completely new project, or go back to the one you were working on before?

Blog banner titled how to restart writing, after taking a break by Denise M. Colby

I don’t think there is a wrong way to restart writing, but there may be ideas we can use to help us get back into strong habits right away. I’d love to hear what you’ve done. Share them in the comments below.

As I am writing this blog post, I’m facing this very thing, restarting writing. I took a few months off to enjoy my sons’ graduations (college in May, hs in June) which I wrote about in last month’s blog post, and now I’m ready to write and edit again. As I started working on a few scenes over the weekend, the time flies. And I need to it to be quiet around me, which is hard to do with everyone home. All of these thoughts made me realize I need a game plan. And I couldn’t remember what I did before.

One thing I’m truly thankful for is my critique group. With a possibility of a weekly submission, I have a built-in deadline to help me complete a task. This is a huge motivator to restart writing.

Next I need to figure out when everyone will not be home, or I need to go somewhere to write. I love my large monitor, but maybe getting out the house will be exactly the best approach.

Denise is writing a western historical series set in 1869 California. She’s in the middle of editing the first book in the series, a full-length novel as well as a fun rom-com novella, with a few side characters.

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A Season of Change

June 12, 2023 by in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby

I chose the word Change this year because I knew I would have a large season of change in my life. Well, here I am, right in the thick of it and I couldn’t be more excited.

See, my youngest is graduating high school this week. And my middle son graduated college a few weeks ago. We’ve been busy with lots of lasts. Choir and theater performances, award shows, academic awards, you name it, we’ve been at it. It’s been chaos, but it’s been all worth it.

quote by deepak chopra all great changes are preceded by chaos

The chaos of getting everything ready and organizing schedules. Trying to get from one place to another and everyone fed on the way. The crazy after the event to go home and prep for what comes the next day. Hurrying from one event to another, getting in line early to get good seats, then finally settling in those seats ready to cheer on your child and their friends. It’s only then, when the show starts and you see it all come together. And all the chaos has changed into something great!

Many people think of the word change, negatively. But I found one definition stating change is to replace something with something else, especially something of the same thing that is newer or better.

Sometimes our writing needs to go from chaos to great

There’s a lot of chaos in the sentences we write. We have more than one way we can portray a character or communicate a scene. And as we try different angles, chaos reigns. But if we stay with it, if we push through the chaos, we see great change. And that’s what we ultimately are striving for.

Embracing this season of change and hopefully the next

I’ve been all in for this season. Embracing every event and enjoying every minute. I’ve taken a break from writing, so that I could be available for my family. It’s shown me a fresh perspective and I’m living my word this year, which is exactly what I wanted.

I’m looking forward to the next few months though, when I should have a bit more time to look at the chaos in my writing again and focus my energies on changing it into something great.

Denise Colby loves to write about her word of the year. Each word builds a new layer in her writing journey (and her life). In 2022, her word was Work. This year, her word is change.

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The Brand Challenge; Adding Book Pages To Your Website

May 12, 2023 by in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as , , ,

I talked about a brand challenge a few months back to encourage you to try something new on your website to help you build content and SEO to support your brand. In this post I’m going to dive deeper with my suggestion to add book pages to your website.

Blog Header titled the Brand Challenge; Adding Book Pages to Your Website by Denise M. Colby

First, were you able to do anything on the list from the first brand challenge? I’d love to hear about it. Let me know in the comments below.

Whether you did or did not, let’s try again!

It doesn’t have to be a lot of something, just one thing. Sort of like taking a small bite of the elephant. You don’t need to eat the entire elephant at one time. Many successful websites were not built in one month. They started somewhere first. Then changed or added pages or content later.

Last post, I gave generalized ideas, including adding book pages on your website. For this post, I’m going to expand on this idea. 

What type of book pages do you have on your website?

Similar to a blog post, having a page that is focused on one main idea, allows you to use it as a link in other content. This isn’t usually something we think about when building our website pages. Deep linking is adding links that direct the reader to a specific page, not just the front page of your website. The faster they click to the content they want, the happier they will be.

Ideas for pages on your website include a series book page and individual book pages on each book you publish. You can add where to buy for that specific book on the page, but there’s so much other content that can be connected to these pages.

Where to deep-link your book and series pages for brand building

Create a social media post or a blog post on any of the content below and include a direct link to the book or series page it represents.

You can also add some of this content onto the book page itself to give additional context for your readers who choose to want to know more. It’s a way to connect with your readers or potential readers besides just the book.

Another option is to share research gathered for your stories. This could include research you weren’t able to add to your book but you’d like to share. Such when I learned about the first school-teacher who was trained from the school my heroine came from. So I wrote a blog post titled Harriet Bishop, First Public School Teacher in 1847

Frequent small steps add up over time

I know branding and dealing with your website can be challenging, I hope some of these ideas spark something for you to work with. Remember, your content doesn’t have to be perfect. It can even be something you decide to change later on. 

I encourage you to do one thing on this list above to help build your brand. It may not seem much. It may seem overwhelming, or underwhelming. But if you do one thing this month, and then another thing next month. Pretty soon, you’ll have many months of blog posts and content that you didn’t have before.

Sometimes we feel this urgency to hurry up that adds extra stress we don’t need as we are busy writing our next book. I’m hoping these ideas help propel you forward in your Author career. 

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Photo Journal of The New York City Library

April 12, 2023 by in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as , ,

On my recent trip to New York City, I made a purposeful stop at the main New York City Library.  I’ve heard great things about this library and it did not disappoint. As I walked around all three floors, I found myself trying to soak up all the rich history within the walls as quickly as possible. From the high ceilings and stone steps, to the large paintings in the walls, there was a lot to marvel over.

Beautiful Infrastructure

Public Rooms

The NYC Library hosts the famous Reading Room. The Reading room was only open to those working at the time (and thus we couldn’t see in person). But the room across the hall was open and you could sit at the large tables or walk around the perimeter and look at all the paintings. 

I now see that the Bill Glass Public Catalog Room is in front of the Rose Main Reading Room. Below is a picture of the Reading Room for reference (which I will have to make another trip back to see). Also included below are photos of the entrance to the Public Catalog Room, which was as far as we were allowed to go near.

Other highlights you will see as you walk around the 3rd floor include the Gutenberg Bible, large floor-to-ceiling paintings, and private room exhibits.

Outside the New York City Library

Built in 1906, this building is massive. From the Lion statues and the courtyard, to the park in the backside of the building, it’s quite a sight. If you want to learn more about how this building came to be, check out the history of the New York Public Library.

I thoroughly enjoyed our quick visit to this library. And I look forward to making a return trip some day. Thirty minutes is not enough time for anyone who is a bookworm to visit any library, let alone one as famous as the New York City Library.

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