July has come has come and gone. I had big plans for July, but most of them were not fulfilled. And then I ended the month flat on my back so sick I couldn’t even read. Four horrible, blurry days of boneless misery. I’m a fidgeter, so my husband says he knew when I was starting to come back to life because my fingers and toes started wiggling and tapping again.
The brightest point of the month was the annual summer visit from my son Daniel Lewis and “daughter-in-law” Sarah Chavez, both professors at Marshall University in West Virginia. We always have a good visit with them. On one afternoon, we visited the Nonini Winery—said to be haunted. It’s been owned by the same family since it was founded in 1936, and I loved the old photos and documents displayed in the tasting room. I enjoyed the wine and, yes, it was a little spooky standing among those massive, old redwood aging tanks.
The second brightest point was the release of my latest novel, High Tea & Flip-Flops. Unfortunately, launch day was one of my sickest. The early reviews are good. Readers are laughing, which is a relief because it’s my first romantic comedy novel. Of course I hope for more reviews, even a couple of negative ones—especially if the reviewer complains about too much s-e-x and bad language, since I hear those complaints tend to sell more books! 🙂
High Tea & Flip-Flops is available for Kindle at Amazon worldwide as well as in paperback at Amazon and other online stores and by special order at your local bookshop. (Amazon.ca is slow adding the paperback, but it’s coming.) If you’d like to help me spread the word on Facebook or Twitter, please click this link, choose the appropriate image, and copy or save it. When you share it, please remember to add the link: author.to/LindaCassidyLewis in your post or tweet. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
So, that’s the everything part of this post.
The nothing part concerns my writing. No progress. I haven’t added a word to the first draft of my next novel. Oh, I think about it. I open the file and read parts of it. I stare at the Scrivener screen for a while. Then I hit exit. It feels odd not to be writing every day. It feels scary, to be honest. What if I never write again?
The odd thing is that it’s not this particular story I’m struggling with. The plot outline is complete. I’ve visualized the rest of the scenes. I believe it’s a story worth telling. The problem is not in that manuscript.
The problem is in me. I’ve had a blow to the confidence in my writing (concerning another manuscript) and haven’t been able to get beyond it. That seems silly when I have a new book out that readers are praising, doesn’t it? Or maybe it doesn’t. I’m as confounded by the writer’s mind as anyone.
I hope your July was fabulous and your August is off to a wonderful start!
Linda Cassidy Lewis 
Ah, phooey, just get back to it. You’re a good writer. Just write anything and go back later and edit. (seat of the pants in the seat of the chair)
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Thank you, Susan. 🙂 Maybe my head will clear this month and I’ll see the way out.
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Congratulations on your latest publication!! Sorry to hear you have been sick. It has been so hot here in Spain I haven´t done much of anything. So my writing is lagging behind. I am sure I will get back into it soon. Will your book be available on Kobo later?
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Sorry, Darlene. Amazon is the publisher of the e-book version, so they only publish it for Kindle. 😦
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Congratulations on your new book. I read the reviews and I have to agree, they’re fabulous!
Re: the mind numbing pain of a confidence breaker. I just got a manuscript back that I thought was good to go. After the critique, not so much. I hear you on not being able to move from one ms. to another–it makes you feel like you can’t write ANYTHING. Look, just take a deep breath, relax and work on whatever you want to work on. Put the “bad” manuscript aside for now. And leave it there. Don’t even think about it. It’s only going to make you sick to your stomach. If it takes you five years to get back to it, then so be it.
However, just remember, that confidence breaker was just one person’s opinion. Someone else might truly love it. This business is soooooo subjective. You have to remember that.
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Thank you, Anne. 🙂 Sounds like we had the same experience. And yes, it was only one person’s experience — two non-writing readers loved it. But you’re right, I need to keep trying to work. One of those times, everything will click back into place.
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I agree, time is going fast. Congrats on your new release and so wonderful when people get what we do!
No matter what we tell ourselves the writer’s ego is fragile. So many writers struggle with that, myself included. Some days it doesn’t take much to discourage us. Hang in there. I’m sure things will improve as you work on your manuscript.
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Yes, Laura, it’s incredibly hard to put your work out there. I can’t quite believe any writer who says they don’t let negative feedback bother them at all. But I am hanging in there, and I’ve actually written a bit this week. 🙂
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Linda, I’ve had time when it hasn’t bothered me. I can shut myself off, but then for some reason it just hits the wrong way on the wrong day.
Glad you’ve written some this week! Really, a writer will always turn back to the page. We can’t help ourselves.
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I will try to remember to believe YOU if you ever say criticism doesn’t bother you. 🙂 I’ve learned to shut myself off pretty well when it comes to reviews, though.
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