Shannon Lawrence

New post up at my travel blog, The Autistic Klutzes Talk, Tips, & Travails: Whitby, An Introduction

It's time for the September Insecure Writer's Support Group! Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh , the IWSG is a monthly gathering where writers share their insecurities and support each other through them. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and put your blog on the linky list. First of all, Happy 15th Anniversary, IWSG! The co-hosts this month are: Kate Larkindale , SE White , JS Pailly , Olga Godim , and Natalie Aguirre . Be sure to drop by and say hi. The optional question this month is: Do you have a favorite character archetype you tend to gravitate toward in your writing? I don't think so, so I'm skipping the question this month. I guess I'll just pop right into this month's insecurity: funding on Kickstarter . I had an opportunity to jump in with a great group of people called Learnable Peers , all of whom are doing a fall Kickstarter in darker genres, which meant giving myself a crash course on everything Kickstarter. It also meant my husband, who...

Hi! It's time for the August Insecure Writer's Support Group! The IWSG was created by Alex J. Cavanaugh for writers to address their insecurities and lend support to their fellow writers. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and add your blog link to the list, then post the first Wednesday of every month. I'm co-hosting this month with deidre Knight , Liza , and Pat Garcia ! The optional question this month is: As a writer/author what is something you regret? Or something that you wish you'd done differently in your writing process? The only things I regret are the missed opportunities. I make it a rule to take on things that scare me and to learn and try new things, and I don't regret any of those things I've done. But I regret the times where I've been out of the writing world after various real world things, such as how long it took me to get back into the writing world when my dad died, or how I completely stepped out of it during my previou...

It's time for the July Insecure Writer's Support Group! Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh , the IWSG gives writers a place to air their insecurities and lend their support to others. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and put your blog on the linky list. This month's co-hosts are Rebecca Douglass , Ronel Janse van Vuuren , Cathrina Constantine , and Jacqui Murray . Be sure to stop by their blogs! The optional question this month is: Is there anything you'd like to see changed, added, and/or rearranged about the book publishing industry? I mean, probably a lot. It would be great if it got the kind of respect and treatment of the other arts. The gatekeeping. The imbalance. So on and so forth.  Do you have a word-count tracker that keeps a display of any sort? I wanted to be able to show novel word count and include it in my newsletters, but I'm not sure what's out there. I can track it on a spreadsheet, but I was hoping for something I input the word coun...

I'm late, but I'm here! The problem with working in finance is that things really hit in the last and first week of the month. It's the first Wednesday of June, which means it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh , the IWSG is a place where writers can come together to share their insecurities and support each other. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and your blog to the list. This month's co-hosts are Victoria Marie Lees , Sarah Foster , Natalie Aguirre , and C. Lee McKenzie . The optional question is: Do most of your story ideas come from one place (the news, dreams, etc.), or do they hit from all over the place? Mine definitely come from all over the place. The news, conversations, various media (movies, books, TV shows, podcasts), etc. I rarely get ideas from dreams, but I've worked through story issues I was having in them! It just takes one little spark, often a throwaway line or item, to get an id...

It's the first Wednesday of May, which means it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! The IWSG was created to bring writers together to share their insecurities and lend each other support. Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh , anyone can join. Simply click on his name and add your name to the linky list, then post the first Wednesday of each month. The co-hosts this month are Jenni Enzor , Jemima Pett , Jamie of Uniquely Maladjusted but Fun , and Kim Lajevardi . The optional question this month is: What was the most inspiring feedback you received from readers, including agents, editors, and beta readers? While I've had some really nice things said about my writing, in general, one of my favorite things is when I'm in an anthology with other authors and stories and my story gets called out as a favorite in reviews. To know one of my stories stuck out to someone feels great. I had a great time in the UK last month and fell even more deeply in love with the little...