Rachael

Aime Austin is the author of the Casey Cort Crime Fiction Series. Casey is almost always in trouble. Aime’s full time job? Rescuing her. Good thing Aime’s got experience. She practiced family and criminal law in Cleveland, Ohio for several years—so she has the skills for the job.  When Aime isn’t rescuing Casey from herself, she’s raising her son or traveling between Budapest and Los Angeles.

How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you’ll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing. 

Transcript

Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing. 

Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode 164 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. So pleased you’re here with me today. I am talking to Aime Austin on avoiding head hopping in fiction, and you’re going to love this episode. She was truly inspiring to me, and I swear to God, when we got done talking, I Googled Homeless Things in Budapest. So, you’re going to really enjoy this episode.

So hold tight for that. A little update about what’s going on around here. Well, those mini podcasts have kind of been helping, keeping you apprised. Ya’ll already know perhaps that my dog died, which sucks. It is Thursday as I record this, and she died on Saturday. And I’m just not over it. I’m just not over looking down at the ground and she’s not there to step over. She’s just the dog of my heart. So that happened. What else has happened? Oh, since the last time I actually posted an interview podcast has been a couple of weeks. I did my money episode, a couple of mini episodes, and, in between that time, I went out to Seton Hill and taught fiction in their MFA program for popular fiction, which is just the best program around. I did that but between traveling and dog loss and I left on January 1^st, I really feel like my year just started this last Monday. Everyone else kind of started with their goals and I didn’t, I was just working. I was, I was in Pittsburgh for nine days and then came home and hit the ground running with the dog. And then, so she died on Saturday and on Monday, I guess I had grieved enough on Saturday night and Sunday to allow me to get to the page on Monday. Which was helpful. Sometimes I believe that when you’re in grief, work can really help. And sometimes you just can’t work. Depends on the level of grief, that kind of grief, who it was, that kind of thing. But I found that I was able to not only work but to plan, a new, like a, a look ahead. 

So I wanted to mention, I haven’t mentioned it in a while, but Adrienne Bell, who is a friend of mine, you might know her from the podcast, The Misfits Guide to Writing Indie Romance. She is doing a challenge this year called, “Write Hella Words” and I love this challenge. She’s got a ton of people doing it, https://www.writehellawords.com/ You can go sign up. It’s a Slack channel, basically where you post your goal for the year in writing words and then you come back and you remain accountable. It is not too late to join my friends. It is still January. You could join in February or March and say what you wanted to get done for the rest of the year. I did my numbers and my goal is my, I would like to write 450 thousand words in 2020, it’s almost a half a million. I think that Adrienne is going for a half a million as well. Mine isn’t quite up that high. What I am doing is something a little bit new, and I don’t think I’ve talked about it on this podcast. I’m pulling back a little bit and I’m giving myself a little bit more space and grace in doing this job because honestly, if I write a book in four months, three months, to write it and one month to revise, that is a great pace for me. And of course there’ll be more revisions down the road with my editor or whatever. But that’s a really great pace. I am not going to beat myself up for that and make myself work faster. 

Joanna Penn, I think once said, when she realized that she just couldn’t keep up with the pace that a lot of people are trying to write books at, it allowed her to step back and say, that’s not my pace. And I am stepping back and saying a book every two months, a book every three months is not my pace. I’m obviously not performing at that level. So what does it really look like? And this is what it really looks like for 2020. 20 days a month, which gives me weekends off, or it gives me days off in the month and I’ll make up for them on weekends if I need to. So for 20 days, every month, 1500 words of new fiction, that is less than I usually push myself to do. I usually push myself to do between two and four. Sometimes when I write 4,000 words in a day, I don’t write for the next two days because I feel depleted. 1500 words on the other hand is pretty darn easy for me. I write and write and write, and you know, half an hour, 45 minutes, I look over and go, Oh! I hit it. Great. I’m done. I’m done with new fiction for the day, and what that means is contract a new fiction. So the thriller that I’m writing under contract. That always feels pretty workaday, that kind of word, that kind of, those kinds of words. So what I’m adding is an element that I stole from an interview that is coming up, I think next week from two artists. One of them said that he introduced play back into his, into his work day, and I am incorporating play. I’m having about an hour or about a thousand words, whichever comes first of play every day. And what it means is I sit down and I write whatever I want. If it’s fiction, not likely to be fiction, but if it’s fiction, I write it. If it is, it’s usually creative nonfiction, so far, just, you know. Journaling, but a little bit expanded, into the essay format and is, which is the one I love to write the best, and it’s just been such a joy. I write my 1500 words first, and then I write my thousand words of play, and while I’m writing my 1500 words first, I’m looking forward to the play that’s coming up. So that’s really, really been working for me. So I’m going to do that cycle. Or three months at a time, and then spend one month revising whatever it is that I have.

So basically, I’ve got three, four months’ cycles in 2020, all told for the kind of contracted fiction that I sell that’ll look like 270,000 new words in 2020. If I maintain that really doable pace, with a stretch goal of 180,000 words of play words for a total of 450 new words. The main goal though is that 270,000 words of new fiction, which is three books in a year. That is awesome for me. That’s a pace I used to be at. I’d like to be at it again. So, www.writehellawords.com if you’d like to sign up and get on the Slack channel is really great and I would love to encourage you to do that. 

Okay. Another thing to remind you about, if you haven’t heard about it, I think this is only the second time I mentioned it on the podcast. Probably will be the last time I mentioned it on the podcast. Because both sections are almost full, but I am teaching 90 Days to Done, in which you write your novel or your memoir. Both are constructed the same way in 90 days with me. It is an intensive masterclass, you and 11 other people. It gets really tight, really bonded, and people finish their books. I have a quote from a student from that class, “Rachael pushed us hard.” Let me start that over. “Rachel pushed us to write hard and fast and inspired so many of us to get out of a scared bubble and simply get the words on the page. I am truly inspired by her and all she was able to teach me. I feel so much more confident about my writing skills and they will only continue to get better from here with all the tools she’s provided. Thanks to her, I remember why I love and have a need for writing in my life.” And I love that. So if you’re interested in 90 Days to Done, which runs February, March, April, you can go to www.rachaelherron.com/90daystodone. 90 is the word. The rest is spelled out. Sorry. 90 is the number. The rest is spelled out, 90 days to done. And I’m also doing a section of my 90-day revision, which is super exciting. You bring your book that you have written or at least written, most of, as long as it’s 80-90% done, you can do this, but it has to be pretty close. Otherwise I would not sign up for this. That’s at www.rachaelherron.com/revision and in this class we actually do revise whole books. We learn how to do that first major scary revision, which a lot of writer’s balk at, and here is a testimonial from a student, “Revision was an impossibly scary mountain before I took this class. Now I know my way up that mountain as if I’d been raised on it. This class will teach you how to not only look at your book from the 30,000-foot level, but will help you get the work done on the ground. I started and finished my huge revision in her class, and now I’m querying agents.” Super exciting. So if you’re interested in that, www.rachaelherron.com/revision. I’ve got one class in the one spot in the 90 Days to Done, and I’ve got three or four left in the revision class. So if you’re interested, go join that. And I also, speaking of awesome things and awesome people have a few shout outs for Patreon subscribers who signed up over the last few weeks where I’ve been talking about other things. Thank you to Andrew Mueller, Amanda Gibson, Kate Creek, Michelle Reed. Deb Syenes, that’s how I’m going to say it. Thank you, Deb! Barbara Cann and Lori Ninkhelser. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you all of you who support me over at Patreon, it means the world. You get those essays to read, which I love writing. You can always look at www.patreon.com/rachael.

And now let’s get into the interview with Aime Austin. You’re going to love it so much as much as I did. I’m sure. Enjoy. I wish you very happy writing this week, my friends, and don’t forget to play. Don’t forget to have fun. It’s astonishing to me that this is my job and I get to do it. And I still sometimes forget about play. I still forget to enjoy what I’m doing. So reminding myself of that and going out to look for it and finding it, has really been wonderful. If you’re not enjoying what you’re writing, take a break from it. Do something completely different. There is a part of writing, of course, that is difficult and it’s not enjoyable, and that happens many, many, many days. But if you’re burning out and you really need a break, take a break. Don’t push yourself through that, often push yourself through it, but if you’re really feeling burned out, take a break, do some play, or just add some extra play. Add 15 minutes of play at the end of your session. It’s really working for me. So, happy writing my friends! 

Hey, how’s your writing going? Do you swing from word to word like the sentence monkey you are in the enchanted book jungle? or is writing a slog? Maybe you’re not even writing. Let me suggest this. The stronger your resistance is to doing something, the more important it is for you to do. You need a community, and I have one for you. Join my ongoing Tuesday morning writing group from 5:00 to 7:00 AM Pacific standard time. We get together and we write together each week for two hours, and we spend most of that time really writing. Yes, that’s hella early for you, west coast Americans much easier for you, Europeans. But you can do it. You write with company, you get to talk to your peers about what you’re working on, and having that kind of support is invaluable. Go to www.rachaelherron.com/Tuesday  for more information. 

Rachael Herron: [00:12:02] Well, I could not be more pleased to welcome to the show today, Amie Austin. Hello, Amie!

Aime Austin: [00:12:06] Hey, how are you? Glad to be here.

Rachael Herron: [00:12:08] I’m so glad to see you. This is great. Let me give you a little bit of bio. Aime Austin is the author of the Casey Cort crime fiction series. Casey is almost always in trouble. Aime’s fulltime job, rescuing her. Good thing Aime’s got experience. She practiced family and criminal law in Cleveland, Ohio for several years. So she has the skills for the job. When Amie isn’t rescuing Casey from herself, she’s raising her son or traveling between Budapest and Los Angeles. So I have to ask about that. Budapest. How did that, how did that get started? 

Aime Austin: [00:12:38] So for years, to be quite honest, I was looking for like a place for refuge to hang out and I went to a lot of cities and actually went to Budapest by mistake because I made a, I made a geographical error. I was supposed to be in Vienna, but I was like, oh, I was in Prague and I thought, oh, I want a three-hour treatment. Because at the time my son was two, and then I went to go pay the train tickets. I look at it and it was six hours, and I was like, oh, I picked the wrong city. But you know, at that point I was like, all right, well, whatever. And so I got on the train and I got off and I was like, Oh my God, I’m home. Like this is the place I’ve been looking for.

Rachael Herron: [00:13:15] That’s amazing. 

Aime Austin: [00:13:16] So I went back four months later and bought an apartment. 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:19] What do you love about it? 

Aime Austin: [00:13:21] Oh my god. So I’m from New York city, so it’s like New York in the 70s. So if that’s your jam, that would be –

Rachael Herron: [00:13:27] Oh, that sounds, awesome!

Aime Austin: [00:13:29] – beautiful old buildings. The food is exactly the food I grew up with, like heavy Eastern European food, which I love. Bakeries on every corner with like really hardy pastries with lard and butter, which I love. So all of that old buildings, great architecture. Like, so where I live in Budapest, it actually looks like the street I grew up on Brooklyn. So it’s just ‘cause I can’t, you can’t go back. And I live in Los Angeles and that’s certainly different. It’s beautiful architecture, beautiful museums. There’s 150 museums, more or less. And so I go to a different one every day. I walk around, they take pictures, I go to, I can go to the puppet shows with my kid, but I can also go to the ballet in theater. And so all of that, I love public transportation. 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:13] Oh my God, that sounds amazing. My wife and I have been maybe looking around for another place to go. I have a New Zealand citizenship, so that’s kind of our, our ticket out. But, but what’s the cost of living like there?

Aime Austin: [00:13:25] So it’s very low. So Eastern Europe, so it was on the other side of the iron curtain. So even though they’re a capitalist country now, I think the per capita income, I want to say is about 13,000 euros per person per year. So everything is about at that scale. So low local bread is maybe 80 cents. 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:41] Now, how do you, I’m sorry that I’m just, this is not where the podcast was going to go, but I’m fascinated. How, how do they accept Americans? Like what’s the visa look like there? 

Aime Austin: [00:14:52] So I had to apply so it wasn’t good. So I overstayed, you know, you’re not supposed to overstay. Overstayed in a friend of mine. So there’s an, Lisa Marie Rice, who’s an author who lives in Italy. She writes thrillers as well. At some point, we were in Los Angeles together and she was like, so how are you staying? She’s like, do you have a visa? And I was like, no, I don’t have a visa. And she was like, you can’t just overstay. And I was like, I’m an American. I can overstay anything. And so she was like, what I think I need you to do is you need to apply for residency. And I was like, Oh, that’s a good idea. So I actually went back and I looked it up, and it’s just a lot of forms. I mean, if I was in the EU or any other country except for US or China, it would be easier. But I am where I am. So I filled out a lot of forms, a lot of forms. I had an interview and I had to get like clearance that I was not a criminal, both here and there and a lot of stuff, but I have permanent residency, which includes health insurance and all of that. So now I know, I know that’s what I do, and that’s what I do when I go. I get all my healthcare, 

Rachael Herron: [00:15:56] That’s what I want to go to New Zealand for, its freaking healthcare.

Aime Austin: [00:15:59] So I stay, so I no longer overstay. So I can stay more than 90 days. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:06] That is so cool. All right. You just added a city to my list to investigate. Thank you very much. It’s blowing my mind.

Aime Austin: [00:16:10] I highly, highly recommend it. I mean, it’s beautiful and if I’m there, I would be happy to show you around.

Rachael Herron: [00:16:14] Okay, if you’re there, I’m gonna go then.

 Aime Austin: [00:16:15] And I know many authors there. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:19] I did not expect to go there. That is so cool. Let’s go to writing process ‘cause I know that you write a lot, and you have written under different pendings, which we will not bring up here. But what is your process writing process look like? How do you get the word step? 

Aime Austin: [00:16:34] So it’s really mundane and boring to be quite honest. So I get up every morning and I don’t like to write in the mornings, but after having a child, I found out that I had to write in the morning. So I used to write. Okay, I used to write like in the afternoon, so I’d go to exercise and I eat, and then I would like sit around and I’d write between one and eight and then I had a child and there’s an author I know her name was Lynmarc, actually Harlequin romances. So I was crying to her when he was about two and I was like, what am I going to do? I’m never going to write a book again. And she was like, so when you enroll him in nursery, you’re going write in the morning. And I was like, I don’t understand what you said. It doesn’t compute. I’m confused. So she said, you’re going to write in the morning, or you’re going to write no more books? And so, yeah. 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:23] That’s a good friend to put it to you straight, you know.

Aime Austin: [00:17:26] I know, and it was hard, and I was like over coffee, I’m crying. Probably also emotional and nursing. So I mean, a lot of stuff happening. But I left. So I write in the morning so as soon as I drop my son off at school, I write. I write 1600 words a day. Sometimes it takes 90 minutes. We could have two if I didn’t have an appointment. Sometimes it takes six hours. It’s done. Yeah. If it gets done and when I get hit word, usually 1601, I closed the computer and quit. 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:53] I love the East side because nobody else does that. I do that. Like if my goal is a thousand or 2000, 2001 I’m done. I can be in the middle of a sentence. Just. I know where It’s just that. Done.

Aime Austin: [00:17:59] I know. And then you can walk away. Yup.

Rachael Herron: [00:18:02] They’ll say, well, I hit a roll and I just got another 5,000 I’m like, I don’t understand you. No, 

Aime Austin: [00:18:08] Never, most have written on a day is 2200 and that’s a role. So…

Rachael Herron: [00:18:13] That is awesome! That’s really good to hear. 

Aime Austin: [00:18:15] But in order to do it, to be prolific, I just have to do it every day. And if I don’t do it every day, I’m going to be quite honest, I forget. So, I mean, it’s, that’s hard. I don’t know what to say. Like I live with, I live with Keith, she embodies me, but I’m honest. I just forget. So I went to Hawaii for Thanksgiving with my son. We went to go see volcanoes and I didn’t write for five days because I always have these plans. I dragged the laptop everywhere, but then he was having fun, and we have to eat and time difference and mixing. I knew it was on the point back sleeping, so, yeah, over the Pacific Ocean. So I didn’t write at all. So I started, God, I landed at midnight. It was horrible. But I started Sunday and I’ve written four days, but it’s, it’s on a roll now 

Rachael Herron: [00:19:05] Yeah so it’s you to get back on the, back on the train. So you write on the weekends too? Is that right? 

Aime Austin: [00:19:08] Yes, because I can’t, I forgot the thread of the story. So because I quit, its word 1601, if I don’t get up the next day, I honestly, then I’m like, what was I, what was, what was going to happen next? I have no idea and I don’t quack, so I need to, I need to move forward. 

Rachael Herron: [00:19:24] You need to be inside the story. That is fantastic. I love that. What is your biggest challenge when it comes to writing? 

Aime Austin: [00:19:30] Sitting down to write? So I have, I’m going to be honest, 2 weeks ago, my housekeeper came to my house and she looks at me and she goes, there’s nothing to clean. And I was like –

Rachael Herron: [00:19:41] That has never happened in my house. 

Aime Austin: [00:19:42] So it’s actually a mess right now. I don’t know. There’s no, there’s going to be chips and salsa on the floor, but that’s not me. So I, I think two weeks ago I found myself cleaning based sports. Then the week before there’s moths that fly in, because I live in California. So the entryway is an arch, but you know the door, I have a door. So, but between the arch and the door, there’s steps and all this stuff, and there’s moths and then I thought I should get a broom. And then I got a mop. And so that’s really clean. Today, like who’s down the mats in the back of the house. So I mean, I have, it’s really hard to- I organize my pens. I organize my pencils. 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:18] But you get it done. You still get the work done. 

Aime Austin: [00:20:22] No, but sometimes it’s really hard to just sit down. So I think I texted a friend of mine of the day and I go, okay, it’s five to noon and I dropped my kid off at 8:30. It’s five to noon, I have exactly 2 hours and 40 minutes. Let me just send you this last text about, I dunno, release strategy whatever we were talking about, I said, but then I gotta get off cause I’m actually going to write now. But I mean, so some days it takes a long time to just. You know my brain to settle enough to spit down and write. But – 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:50] I really, really understand that. 

Aime Austin: [00:20:52] I will say this. So this week actually, I had the great pleasure of meeting George de Kaye. 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:56] Wow!

Aime Austin: [00:20:57] I know. So he write, he wrote a graphic novel called, oh my god, I – 

Rachael Herron: [00:21:02] Yeah 

Aime Austin: [00:21:03] This thing called enemy 

Rachael Herron: [00:21:04] It’s getting so much great prods.

Aime Austin: [00:21:05] So he came to my son’s school to speak, which was fantastic. So, you know, I’m going to go at one in the afternoon. But I was like, I have to get the words done before one in the afternoon. And surprisingly, I was able to sit down and do it. Well before that, I was at noon and I was like, it’s all done. Let me get dressed and go out. So it can get done obviously when there’s time pressure, but to be honest, some days it’s just hard and I don’t have a good reason as to why it’s hard. It’s just hard. 

Rachael Herron: [00:21:34] I love hearing you say it because it’s something that I’m always battling to and I don’t know why. What is your biggest joy when it comes to writing? 

Aime Austin: [00:21:41] Readers?

Rachael Herron: [00:21:42] Yeah

Aime Austin: [00:21:43] So I love, emails and so I get, I get a lot of emails and because of the topics I write about are a bit, I don’t know. I read about foster care and sex trafficking and child molestation and –

Rachael Herron: [00:21:55] Big stuffs.

Aime Austin: [00:21:56] Happy topic. I do get a lot of sort of really great emails with people who are like, I experienced this and I want to share this with you. So, I want to say it’s a joy, but it’s a joy to know that you touch people in that way and they send you these long, I just got an email from an 80 something year old man in Wales who was like, I know. I don’t know. I’m like, where’d you find this book? But whatever. And he was talking about how he had worked in the foster care program in Wales and like how it worked in the greater UK, but he was so happy to read about a book that talked about those topics because it’s something that normally that doesn’t get addressed. And he told me his whole life history.

Rachael Herron: [00:22:30] Oh my God… 

Aime Austin: [00:22:31] Its just really sort of fascinating to get those sort of emails. And then I got one from another man, and I don’t, mostly men or women, I mean, readers are women, but I think the men may email more. It was so funny. He’s like, I read your book in tears, and he would say tears. He’s like, water may have leaked out of my eyes. And I was like, it’s okay to say that you cried. Somebody died in a book. And I usually don’t. People usually, don’t die in my books, to be quite honest. And so what, somebody did die. And he was like, Oh, I didn’t expect any sign. It was hard and all of this. And I was like, okay. But I do enjoy the, the fact that people get it, ‘cause you know, it’s a very isolating experience. I mean, I’m here by myself spinning in my chair and organizing my pens. So it’s a nice note that beyond that somebody actually, you know, gets what I’m doing. 

Rachael Herron: [00:23:18] I also write about some, some grave topics, and I get some of those emails and I’m always, I always feel number one, really honored to get that, but I also feel like really obligated to send back a very thoughtful email instead of just like, you know, usually I just dash off emails and those I really feel like I need to take time and process and respond to because they don’t, they’re not writing, they’re not writing 400 emails a day like we are, you know, that’s really special to them. 

Aime Austin: [00:23:46] Right. So, and I do, although I curb it now because I don’t necessarily know what to say. Like I, in another, I wrote about an affair and it was women’s fiction about an affair. And somebody was like, Oh, I had a similar thing happened to me. And I thought, I don’t have the capacity to respond to this. So usually now, because I used to respond more, I used to; I’m really thankful that you’re reading. I really like, I’m very happy to share your experience because I am.

Rachael Herron: [00:24:15] That’s lovely. I think, and I always thank them for, for honoring me with that share.

Aime Austin: [00:24:22] Right. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:23] Hopefully that works. I always feel so inadequate in that, 

Aime Austin: [00:24:25] So do I, but the alternative response, which is what my friends say to their readers and on lighter books is, “Hey, did you read an Amazon review?

Rachael Herron: [00:24:32] Exactly! And you can’t say it on those.

Aime Austin: [00:24:34] I can’t say that. So, I was – ‘cause the pressure is like, you just can’t say. And I was like, no 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:39] Definitely not 

Aime Austin: [00:24:39] No way, inappropriate. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:40] Yeah. I’m sorry about your foster care experience. Please write a review. 

Aime Austin: [00:24:46] That’s a different group of readers. And so I do have a couple of super fans that I love. So I hired a new assistant years and year ago when she was reading the emails and she was like, Oh, she’s like, do you remember the super fans? I’m like, I’m well aware of the super fan, and they write reviews, and so we have a different kind of conversation. 

Rachael Herron: [00:25:01] I love super fans. Can you share a craft tip of any sort with us? 

Aime Austin: [00:25:08] I will say this. The one thing I learned, I was actually, I did a library talk. I love, okay. I love the mission of libraries. I deeply believe in them. So I went to what’s called the Hyde Park Memorial library, is one of the – a hundred branches of the Los Angeles public library, and somebody asked me this last week, and I really thought about it a little bit. I think the thing that I learned, was actually, and this is not a tip for everyone, it’s a tip for me. I had a head hopping problem. 

Rachael Herron: [00:25:32] Oh yeah. Can you explain what that means for people who might not know what that means. 

Aime Austin: [00:25:35] Right, so a scene happened and both characters or one character knows what the other one’s thinking without having said without clearly having that information ‘cause they’re not mind readers. And it was a veal problem for me because I was trying to do more than one POV in a chapter. So the thing that I, the greatest tip that I’ve learned is I only have one POV character per chapter. I just, it just makes it so much easier for storytelling purposes because I used to think, Oh, I don’t know what he’s thinking. I went out there, there’s like five people in a room and I want to know what they’re all thinking. And it got too complicated, and I could never, even with an editor, you know, hanging with a hammer over my head, I could not untangle that, mentally. And I was like, so I sort of looking at books that I, that I enjoyed and I realized that, like Elizabeth George, who’s a, she wrote.

That’s what I want to write, like that kind of social commentary, but whatever. One day they’ll be her, but she, she only uses one POV and I was like, Oh, I can just pull back. Like I don’t have to, everybody doesn’t have to have everything right away. 

Rachael Herron: [00:26:46] And sometimes I think it might make those story better because, because we don’t know what everybody’s thinking because those are secrets. And that adds up to tension.

Aime Austin: [00:26:53] Yes. So it’s the best thing I ever did when I, I wrote two books, not like that. And by the time I got to actually three, and I could guess, I rewrote one, but by the time I got to book four, I was like, okay, this is already going to save me a bunch of time. 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:08] Oh, Yay! I love that. 

Aime Austin: [00:27:10] It’s easier now because I’ve done it for a lot of books.

Rachael Herron: [00:27:13] Yeah. Yeah. So what thing in your life affects your writing in a surprising way? 

Aime Austin: [00:27:22] Well. So many things affect writings. The first thing was having a child for some reason I thought, so I wrote three or four books before I had a child and I wrote one when I was pregnant. I still read that book. It’s the under color of lots of second or third Casey Cort book. And I still read it and go, I don’t really remember this. 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:42] Oh my God. 

Aime Austin: [00:27:43] Yeah. Because I was also. I had to paint and have baseboards and nesting and doing all the things like that. So I think that is one of the things that affected me the most. I didn’t realize, how I didn’t realize a lot. I didn’t realize I was going to have to change how I write. I didn’t realize that it was going to influence my writing at all because I thought, well, I feel like I’m the same person, but obviously I have been changed. And people say to you. So I think a little bit more, especially when I talk about some of the stuff like now, like look, I’m ready now is a continuation of the sex trafficking story from four books ago and some of the people under age, and I really think about that a lot in terms of like having a child. And I thought it’s devastating. 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:26] That changes everything. 

Aime Austin: [00:28:28] Yeah, I know it’s not as distant as it was before, I think is what I want to say. 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:33] Yeah. I, I’ve had several books where, you know, kids die and I know that if I had a kid, I don’t have children, and if I did, I’m sure that I wouldn’t be able to write those books anymore.

Aime Austin: [00:28:42] Yes. No children will die in my books. 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:43] Yeah, 

Aime Austin: [00:28:45] So bad things may happen to them, but nobody dies. And I really struggle with it because I look at them, I know their characters, but I look at them and I think all your life, this trauma has really affected your life so much, and how are you going to recover? And actually I get those emails from writers, especially one character. They’re like two. They’re like, what happened to Stephanie? What happened to Olivia? And I’m like, I’m sorry. And I may resolve it one day, ‘cause I have a list of characters that are like, I don’t wanna say unresolved, but like hanging threads. I have a very big board on the wall with like the 50 people who are still in play. And so sometimes I think about them. 

Rachael Herron: [00:29:22] That’s smart.

Aime Austin: [00:29:23] They’re recovering from their trauma. That’s what they’re doing. 

Rachael Herron: [00:29:26] Hopefully they’re in therapy. What is the best book that you’ve read recently and why did you love it? 

Aime Austin: [00:29:34] Okay, so I’m an evangelist about this book. 

Rachael Herron: [00:29:36] Oh, yay. I love books. 

Aime Austin: [00:29:40] So, it’s called 101 essays that will change the way you think. By a woman named Brianna, she pronounced it Wiest, W, I, E, S, T.  I, I had to drive in a way. I had to drive to a show on the beach.

Rachael Herron: [00:29:55] And so that 2 days at that.

Aime Austin: [00:29:56] There’s no, Yeah. I mean I, I live like four miles or five miles from the beach, but there’s no highway between where I am and there. So, and my friend was having an art show, so I did, I’m going to go, cause that’s important to me. So I’m trying that took like an hour there and now I’m back. I started it as an audio book and it was like the most fascinating thing I ever read because it talks about emotional intelligence and like being, I know.

Rachael Herron: [00:30:24] I’m so excited. 

Aime Austin: [00:30:25] People as a reflection of like you and your relationship with people and how it’s a reflection of what you and how things you love and people that you love about yourself. So I love smart women and artists that the things that you did that you just like about people and things we can’t see in yourself.

Rachael Herron: [00:30:40] I hate that. I hate that. And I know it’s true. 

Aime Austin: [00:30:43] So I went. So I drove. And so I listened to the book once and then, I had to drive to Palm Springs, for a school event. And so I listened to it again and then I ordered it cause I’m like, I gotta read this. And so it’s on my nightstand with a highlighter and every night it’s a hundred, every night I like to read an essay. And sort of think about it, but it really is, it’s made me think a lot more about people, relationships and how people perceive others and perceive themselves. 

Rachael Herron: [00:31:06] Oh my gosh. I have been really, really all about recently untangling stories that we tell ourselves, about ourselves. So I’m literally just going to go one click that 

Aime Austin: [00:31:16] It’s the best I can’t, I can’t. It’s so brilliant and beautiful and wonderful.

Rachael Herron: [00:31:22] Thank you so, so much. That’s why I love asking this question. Speaking of books, tell us about a little bit about where you can be found, and about Casey Cort, and maybe where she is in the series and all of that.

Aime Austin: [00:31:34] So Casey, so Casey is, I’m going to be honest with Casey is an underdog.

Rachael Herron: [00:31:40] Oh, love an underdog. 

Aime Austin: [00:31:42] She came out of law school. She crossed, a very influential family or two, and was unable to get a job. So she’s self-employed. She hung out a shingle and she practices law. She is always on the verge of bankruptcy. It’s not going well. Although she just got a new car and book. She had a car that wouldn’t, every time she turned it off like the motor would shutter with the car wouldn’t quite turn off. 

Rachael Herron: [00:32:07] I used to have that car. I remember that car. 

Aime Austin: [00:32:11] So she has this, she’s got a new car. Her parents like they’d realize how bad it was for her and so they just bought her a new car. So that’s very exciting. But she, it doesn’t help. It’s actually, I’m writing about this right now because. So it looks, do they go up? Did you have a new car? She’s like, well, they bought it for me, so I don’t have a payment, but they don’t have any more money either. So still where I was, I haven’t paid for a car, but I’m still broke. Right. So anyway, there’s seven books in this series. The seventh, eighth, well I’m writing about eighth, the seventh book just came out. It’s called No Child Left Behind. It’s actually about her father. So her father was 11^th born child. So during WW2, Hitler had a more called a program. I don’t know. That’s not a right word, where they wanted to raise the next generation of area in children. And so when they discovered the, and this is still actually a problem in Europe right now, when women were not having babies at a rapid enough rate, despite incentives, they kidnapped children from all over Eastern Europe. So you get Slavia, Poland. 

Rachael Herron: [00:33:14] I did not know that. 

Aime Austin: [00:33:16] My God. So I, It was a research rabbit hole, two years, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of children they kidnapped them. And often if the children, and they forced them to speak German and not forget, I guess their native language. So Casey had been working on adoption cases where father was having all these problems and she’s like, what’s the problem? Helping people like do international adoption and aren’t I a great person? So he finally revealed to her that he was 11^th born baby. And so he went back to Poland to find, to try to find his original family. 

Rachael Herron: [00:33:48] I have got goose bumps all over me. I have to read this. Another one plague that’s gonna happen.

Aime Austin: [00:33:52] So it’s, so it’s a little frolic and detour cause she’s in Cleveland, usually battling cases. But he was so, I wouldn’t say passionate lots about her adoption practice. And she was like, this is the way to make money. And I’m not in criminal court. I’m not in juvenile court and people not having trauma. I’m bringing happy endings to people. And he’s like, adoption is not always a happy ending. So I know. So that’s where we are. So that book seven came out. Oh my God, I should know the date. I don’t know. In November. November was a good month. I was traveling, so I feel like I’ve lost November. 

Rachael Herron: [00:34:26] Right, right. 

Aime Austin: [00:34:28] So that is the latest one. And then the one I’m working on now is Double Jeopardy. So I have a, there is a bad guy in my book who has a sex trafficking ring and in book four it booms mostly about the woman who was trafficked to this woman girl. She was 14, 15 at the time. I know. I know. And she was never caught because he wasn’t really good operations, 

Rachael Herron: [00:34:53] So I hope he’s going to get caught this time. Don’t tell us. Did you say you don’t know? 

Aime Austin: [00:35:39] I don’t know. And she’s like, so what happens to him? I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know. 

Rachael Herron: [00:35:10] Don’t you love pot lunches with friends? And then you could do that – 

Aime Austin: [00:35:14] I do. 

Rachael Herron: [00:35:15] And then you could do that and then you could do that. 

Aime Austin: [00:35:16] I know. And trust me, she solves a problem that actually than my son named the dog in the book. I needed the name of a dog for as like a side character, and he’s like, the dogs’ name you call him Moro. And I was like, like Morro Bay, California? And he’s licking. I’m like, they live in Cleveland. He was like, well, then you have to come up with a story for why the dog is named Moro. 

Rachael Herron: [00:35:33] That’s so cute. Let’s just talk about your son for a minute. He set up your like space that you’re sitting in and he’s going to write a business and he’s gonna write a business plan for you after this.

Aime Austin: [00:35:44] Yes, a marketing plan 

Rachael Herron: [00:35:45] And he’s nine.

Aime Austin: [00:35:46] Yes.

Rachael Herron: [00:35:47] He sounds awesome. Please send him to my house. I would like to- I would like to engage in his services. 

Aime Austin: [00:35:52] So he leaves food on the floor, but he does write marketing plans to float things by him. And they’re like, we, so we have this conversation that goes, so, so what does your son think? And I was like, Oh, I’ll go ask him. And then I tell him, we haven’t, you know, Facebook group. And they’re like, we just do it. He says, do it. He said, because I think he watches like all that YouTube stuff that I don’t quite understand, but they’re really brilliant marketers. 

Rachael Herron: [00:36:18] Oh my god.

Aime Austin: [00:36:19] And so I think he’s, I know. 

Rachael Herron: [00:36:20] And he is not over 10 and has the same kind of information.

Aime Austin: [00:36:23] But I’m not going to watch like nine hours of Youtube, ‘cause I don’t have nine hours. I’d never had a book. But he comes in with that information. Like the other day he was doing something and he’s like, well, how come you’re not drinking with the mug with your name on it? And I was like, I know right. I know. 

Rachael Herron: [00:36:41] Wow. Yes. I am advertising a cafe in Paris, you know, not myself. That is freaking genius. Tell him thank you for that little tip. I’d like to have him on my show now. 

Aime Austin: [00:36:55] He would talk your ear off for four hours and you’d never be able to get him off. I’m quite honest.

Rachael Herron: [00:37:00] And where can we find you online?

Aime Austin: [00:37:02] So, so I will be honest. So my, my main writing name is Sylvie Fox, which is backwards. 

Rachael Herron: [00:37:11] No, it’s actually, they swap this somewhere. I can read it. Yeah. 

Aime Austin: [00:37:15] Oh, I can’t cause mine is backwards. And so I read this Aime Austin, and she’s www.aimeaustin.com It’s actually my grandmother’s name. 

Rachael Herron: [00:37:25] Oh, beautiful.

Aime Austin: [00:37:26] So to honor her, I was like, why can’t you be alive? And I was like, ‘cause she was born in 1906. No. So, but so he passes my name Aime Austin. I used to write crime fiction under Sylvie Fox and my readers did not enjoy it. And so when I split the names, I got a lot of thank you for my script. Thank goodness. Because now I know which book is which, and I personally did the covers are to get them enough, but that’s a different conversation. So, I’m actually on Instagram the most lately cause I can’t, like, 

Rachael Herron: [00:38:02] I know Instagram is the only place I only place I go now.

Aime Austin: [00:38:05] Because all happy. 

Rachael Herron: [00:38:06] Yeah. Yes, yes. 

Aime Austin: [00:38:08] It’s pretty pictures and all happy. So it’s www.instagram.com/sylviefox on Instagram and actually you can see all my travel pictures, so I travel a lot to Hawaii then before the Houston and Crystal Beach, Texas. And then before that it’s Budapest. 

Rachael Herron: [00:38:21] I want to see the Budapest. 

Aime Austin: [00:38:22] Before that, I don’t know where I was, maybe London, Italy, somewhere. Half computer, more travel, but she’s on Twitter, it’s www.caseycort.com/twitter  And then, but I don’t treat much under her cause I just don’t have the time. And Casey doesn’t have that much to say. She said a lot of political things from the case side to back down from that. And then, www.aimeaustin.com is where all the books are.

Rachael Herron: [00:38:49] Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. It is such a delight to talk to you. You were talking at the end of the day and I feel revitalized and like I want to go write now and I never do that in the evening. Never. And I probably won’t, but I feel like I could, after talking to you.

Aime Austin: [00:39:07] That’s great! I’m gonna go and have dinner.

Rachael Herron: [00:39:09] Actually, I’m just gonna reheat from last night, so thanks. Thanks me. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so, so very much.

Aime Austin: [00:39:15] Thank you so much for having me.

Rachael Herron: [00:39:16] I will be following everything you do, so all right. Have a good night!

Aime Austin: [00:39:20] You too. 

Rachael Herron: [00:39:21] Bye. 

Rachael Herron: [00:39:22] Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.

Just how do you start to think about revising your book? And what if you’re being carried away with shiny new thoughts every time you turn around? Here’s what to do! 

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron, and this is a bonus episode brought to you directly by my $5 Patreons. If you’d like me to be your mini coach for less than a large mocha Frappuccino, you can join too at www.patreon.com/rachael

Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode 163 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. This is a bonus mini episode answering your questions that you ask. 

[00:00:25] So, let’s jump right in. Let’s not, dwell on the fact that the dog of my heart died on Saturday. I am struggling with that, but I have managed to get the words done anyway, and I don’t know how so, yeah, that’s a good thing. And thanks for those of you who read the blog post and reached out, and it’s been very, very kind and nice of you.

[00:00:47] A couple of things also, before I get into the questions, I’ve had a tremendous response as I always do to the, what I made last year and how I made it. Talking about money, I did want to mention that, of course, you probably already know this and you thought about this, but that was gross. And I have a hell of a lot of write-offs. I have the retreat, I have conferences, I have part of the house because, I work here. We have the interest on the house. I take home a lot less than that. I will update you on what my net intake was for 2019, after I do taxs and after I know that. So just wanted to mention that.

[00:01:26] Okay. Let’s get to some questions. I’ve got two good ones today. Stacy says, I finished my first draft in NaNo and took the month of December off; I’m going to break in here. And just say, Stacy! You did it! You finish your first draft in November. Is that not amazing? In NaNoWriMo, Congratulations. I hope that you are truly celebrating still. I know we’re well into January, you should still be dancing and hooping that up.; I’m going on.; Now, I’m signed up to do your 90 days to revision course. Yay! So excited and nervous. I’m reading through my manuscript now and taking notes on the big issues I need to fix. Good God, there’s a lot all in caps. Any suggestions on what to do until the course starts? Am I on the right track? Thanks!

[00:02:12] Yes. And I want to address everyone who might be listening to this and not, not just you, Stacy. So we make it useful for everybody. But what you’re doing is exactly right. Taking a read through your manuscript, getting that overview of what the book kind of looks like to you. But this is what I want to say to you and to everybody else listening who has a revision that needs to be done and that is a lot of you because revision is a very scary beast. Don’t overthink it too much. And I know that sounds frustrating to hear, but until you have a plan of action and you write down on a piece of paper that you’re going to spend an hour a day, three times a week, working on this revision until you have your plan of action of what to start on and how to start on it. You don’t have to worry too much about the little picture stuff right now. Don’t spend any time at all. Copy editing any sentence, ‘cause who knows if those sentences will end up back in the manuscript. Really the best thing you can do, the best way to spend your time right now is kind of dreaming. Doing that awake dreaming, doing that, lying in bed, going to sleep dreaming, asking yourself the questions like, why don’t I feel comfortable with these particular scenes? Why do I feel like it drags here? I don’t I really understand that character the way that I want to understand them, and these are not questions you need to write down in your car. These are questions that will come up to you. Our brains are really incredible computers. They’re incredible machines. They understand story structure on a really deep level. When you’re doing a revision, basically you are bringing a story into a structure that resonates with the reader. It gives them the, the predictable story structure with tons of surprise. They don’t understand why they need something to shift at the midpoint, but they do, and you provide it to them. If you don’t understand story structure, if you’re listening to this, there are tons of story structure books out there. I really love “Larry Brooks’ “Story Engineering”. That’s the one I recommend the most. So that’s what you’re doing in revision. But your brain already knows these things, even if you can’t put words to them. So at this point, while you’re still kind of looking over the book and thinking about the revision that has to happen, let yourself play. I always bring it back to post it. So you know that have a pack of posts it in your purse, in your backpack, anywhere. Every time you get a tiny little idea, write it down. 100% you will not remember it. If you are out on the trail and you have a great idea that might work in this book, you need to write it down. Take a note in your phone. You won’t remember it. I would say 9 out of 10 times when I tried to remember something just in my old little brain pan, it falls right out. So, at this point when you’re planning on approaching revision, just kind of play with it in your brain, and that is all the work you need to do until you sit down on day one and start to revise using whatever plan you like. So that’s it. That’s just have fun, Stacy. That’s what I’m saying. Just have fun thinking, don’t work too hard. It’s all good. You could not work at all from this day forward until the class starts and you would be just fine. 

[00:05:40] Mariah, my friend Mariah asks, “Do you have tips for how to deal with shiny new object syndrome? Oh shiny new object syndrome is so real. Jessica Abel calls it the slutty new idea and slutty new idea – not to slut shame ‘cause sluts are awesome. Uh, I used to be one. Wow. I can’t believe I just said that out loud on radio. It’s not the radio, it’s the podcast. We are in the 2020s now. Anyway, back on track for the shiny, let’s just call it the shiny new object syndrome. They are so shiny, and for me, I get shiny new object syndrome. At two different times. I get it when I’m between projects and it seems like every single thing I hear could be a story. So everything is glimmering. Every news article I see, which is not very many to be a fit, to be honest. Every article I read in people magazine on the airplane. Every little story that someone tells, I think that could be a book. That could be a book, that could be a book. And for me, again, comes down to postage. I try to trap these on post-its or notes in my phone. I just use, Trello on my phone to capture those things. And I don’t really give any of those shiny new objects while I’m in between projects. I don’t really give them a lot of room in my head because I know that this is my process and this is a lot of people’s process, that you’re just kind of bouncing things around in your head and the shiniest one is going to stick. The shiniest one is going to hold up its hand and you know, wave at you from the waves making you come out to save it. That’s kind of the fun element of the shiny new object syndrome. The other time that I am probably you, Mariah, have it are when we are in the middle of the doldrums of writing a book. I just watched the documentary maiden on Netflix and it was a wonderful, it was about the first all women vote race around the world. The, what’s it called? The Whitbread, I think it was, and there’s this, these agonizing parts where they hit the doldrums where the wind goes out, if there’s no wind to catch your sails, you’ll drift for days and even weeks and in writing books sometimes a lot longer than that. But it really happens to us and when we’re in the doldrums or when we are kind of losing the passion that we had, because that is a natural part of writing books, then everything starts to look shiny. And I do have for myself, you can capture it any way you want. But I have an Evernote file called ideas, and after I’ve done my words for the day on the, dull, old objects as, which isn’t the shiny new object. But if after I’ve done my words on the dull, old object, I will let myself go in and poke at it and kind of play with it and think about the characters, think about what could be happening, think about what the conflict is. And the thing is, they’re always genius books compared to the one you’re writing. When we think about a book, when we are projecting into the future about a book, that book always looks wonderful because we haven’t gotten our hands in yet. We haven’t mucked it up and we are firmly in the process of mucking up a first draft or screwing up a revision, the first big revision or screwing up the third or fourth or fifth smaller revision that you’re doing and that doesn’t feel good. 

[00:09:12] Human beings are trying to avoid suffering. That’s what we’re, this is what we’re all doing on a minute to minute, day by day basis. Every human being, every, I think every living thing is trying to avoid suffering. And when you’re, when you’re in the doldrums of a book, when you’re anywhere from like 25% to 75% of a book, that whole middle section a for me is not comfortable. So I’m always trying to avoid it. A good way to avoid that is by being attracted to those shiny new objects, and we all face it. So give them a place where they are safe, where you can put them, and they know that they don’t have to come knocking on the back door of your brain at three in the morning. They’re safe in an Evernote or in a notebook or wherever you keep those kinds of ideas. Give them that honor. So that they don’t keep bothering you and just try to finish the work in front of you. I know I can say that at it as if it is easy. It is not easy. And the fact that we’re all trying, I think it’s really, really amazing. 

[00:10:13] So thank you for those two questions, ladies. I really appreciate it. Just a quick note about the classes. I do have 90 days to done, open right now. I think I only have one more spot on 90 days to done. So if you are interested in writing your book, either from first word to last word or from somewhere where you got stuck in the middle to the last word,  that is https://rachaelherron.com/90daystodone. And, I do have a few spots left in the revision class, that is http://rachaelherron.com/revision. I’m pretty sure that’s where it is, but sign up for those really quickly if you want them, we start on February 1^st. And that’s obviously three-month course, 90 days, and people really finish their books in there. They really do their revisions and it is so fun. And Stacy, I’m really looking forward to working with you. So that is our mini podcast. I’m going to stop recording and maybe go lie on the couch and cry. 

I do have to say though, that Clara. Dog of my heart. You can see, you can see her rachaelherron.com/blog/ you’ll see the post I made about her. She was my heart and I’m so lonely and blue and sad. I’ve still got two dogs of course, but, but Clara was my girl. But I have to say, I just came home from like doing 1000 errands and I opened the door and my house – my house smelled as sweet as it did when I left. Clara was a big, stinky border collie. No matter how much I washed her, she, she, her glands just secreted that border collie undercoat sent. And I’m thinking, that’s one nice thing about losing her. Ooh, I’m going to cry. But we have to think of those things, right? So missing her, hope that you are doing well and we’ll talk soon my friends. 

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.

Rachael talks about not only how much she made in 2019, but how authors need to be thinking about their finances, and gives recommendations on how to start today to fix your financial situation. 

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

[00:00:15] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode 162 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. So pleased that you’re here today as I do my annual finances talk, finances for writers. It is January 9th, 2020 as I record this and I am always really excited to do this particular episode because I believe in transparency in writers’ income, that does not mean that you have to tell everyone what you make. But my commitment to transparency means that I need to tell you how much I make because I, that’s something I promised to do in the past, and I’ve done it in the earlier years of this show. The first episode is all about what I made the year before. So that’s what we’re talking about today. So I’m doing a little bit of a bait and switch on you this time.

[00:01:08] I’m going to give you a very quick and dirty rundown of the finances for authors workshop that Sophie Littlefield and I have presented in many different places, including this last week at Seton Hill. If you watch on the YouTube, you can see that I’m in a hotel room. I’m still in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. We’re leaving today. But I thought while all of this is still fresh in my mind, we just taught the class two days ago. I will do literally like a 20-minute rundown, hopefully no more than that. And then I’ll tell you what I made. You can absolutely scroll forward. I won’t be able to tell. But, this is kind of the things that I really, really believe about money.

[00:01:47] And I am by no means a financial expert. In fact, I am a financial failure in a lot of different ways, which is why Sophie and I teach this class. We kind of did everything the hard way before we figured out what money was and what it meant to us and how to handle it as, people who take care of ourselves and our loved ones in our lives financially. So just, I’m going to just going to jump right into it and this is going to be fun. I want to talk real quickly about, what we have control and what we don’t have control of as authors. I know a lot of you have the dream of moving from a day job to full time writing, and that’s why I want to share this with you because a lot of these things are the things that you have to think about before making that jump. If you are in the lucky and privileged position of being able to write and not worrying about the money that you bring in, you do not have to listen to a word of this. Skip on over. If you’ve got your retirement settled and taken care of, skip to the end or skip to the next episode. That might work too. But if you have any concerns about these things, keep on listening. So in writerlandia, there are some things that are true. Our income, unfortunately, is unpredictable. We cannot know from year to year what we will make, and if you got three huge traditional deals, six figure deals three years in a row, one book not earning out puts you back to the model where you get paid $2,500 for a book. If you can sell one, that is in the traditional side.

[00:03:32] Well on the self-publishing side, income is also unpredictable. Algorithms are always changing. We’ve seen a massive shift of income that authors are able to make now that it really is a pay to play landscape. It used to be that also bought on Amazons’ page that showed what people bought that liked your book. That was a really good way of organic reach of finding a new audience that is less and less available as sponsored products are pushed up in Amazon. So now you have to take out ads to be discoverable. If you’re starting, if you don’t have a mailing list, even if you do have a mailing list, these are things we have to consider. So we never know when Amazon or Kobo or Google, any of them are going to change their royalty scheme. None of us have signed contracts with them that say, we will always give you 70% of net if your book is between 2.99 and 9.99. We never made that bargain with them, like we do with a traditional deal. 

[00:04:31] Traditional deal, you signed something, they signed something, this is what you will get paid. Granted, it is a much lower percentage of what you will ever get self-publishing. Well, not ever what you will get now, self-publishing, but self-publishing rules can change. We have no control over that. Our income is inconsistent. It does not come on the first of the month and the 15th of the month. I can go months where I make not enough to get by, and then I’ll have some big five figure months, which for me are really big, but that has to tide me over for those lean months. So, it’s inconsistent. I never know when I’m going to get a $4,000 check or a $2 and 50 cent check.

[00:05:15] All money is welcome. I would like to say I love money. Money loves me. I bring it to me. All of those mantras that we say.  And this is really something I’ve been thinking about a lot this year in particular. Money is not evil. Money is just a symbol of energy. It, symbolizes the work that I put into something. The work that you put into something, the work that others put into actual things. If you want this widget, you must be able to pay money which you have earned with your energy to purchase something that someone else has made with their energy. And that’s all it is, is this, energy being transferred back and forth. And it, thinking of it like this has really helped me get over some of the guilty feelings that I have for wanting it or collecting it or feeling like I’m not worthy of it or feeling like I’m not collecting enough of it. So, knowing that income is inconsistent and we don’t know where it comes from. All of the time when our writers, it comes really inconsistent dribs and drabs helps us remember that we have to have knowledge of what is in our bank accounts and how that works. Other things about writing Monet’s, authors may often rely on day jobs or other income, and that includes your partner who’s helping you. That is a fantastic thing. I left from my day job and I am so glad that I did. That was almost four years ago, but having the day job for the 10 years that I was working both jobs was what allowed me to make the jump. So day jobs are fabulous in America. They’re really important to for your health insurance. If my wife lost her job, which is how I’m insured. And wasn’t able to find one quick enough, I’d jumped right back into the job market because, this particular body often needs things surgically examined. So I need health insurance. I’m one of those people. So, we may really rely on day jobs. We might have multiple writing income sources, which is what I’m going to talk about later when I talk about my income. I made more than six figures this year. But less than a quart- well, we’ll probably did or, let me do math. That’s what a quarter of it was actually from books. So hang on for that multiple writing income sources. We have to, this is another fact of being an author, we have to pay and track our own expenses. That’s our responsibility. We owe quarterly taxes and self-employment tax. So not only are you taxed at your tax rate, but you’re also taxed the additional 15% self-employment tax, which in the United States of America is what is true.

[00:07:59] So when I take home a check for $10,000, I don’t keep $10,000. I keep less of it than I would if I were working for a company. And the documentation of that is our responsibility. So, understanding your own situation is key. The thing about talking about money, if you’re driving in your car and your stomach is tight, that’s what I want to talk to you about. The things that keep us in place around money are fear, inertia, and shame. And for me, the mixture of fear about my finances and the shame that I’ve had in the past about my finances kept me in inertia. I didn’t really understand how money worked and we were in a hell of a lot of debt, which is something that was very, very shameful to me. And it is something that in the U S and other places is incredibly filled with shame. And that’s what I want to encourage you right now is that this is a no shame zone. You can email me privately. And tell me what you’re ashamed of in your, in your finances. You can tell anyone that you want, but you know, in this world of Brene Brown that we live in now, we know that shame when spoken aloud, and met with empathy cannot continue to exist. That is how we get rid of shame. We speak it. And so that’s what I like to do when I’m talking about money. But you do have to understand your current situation, and that is one of the most difficult things to do. I believe it takes bravery, it takes courage. And when we are talking about money, that is something that is very hard to find. When I finally sat down to really address our debt, I cried and cried and cried and cried. I don’t remember how I got the courage to do it honestly, because I thought we were in a place of such shame that we would never recover. We were losing, this was back in 2008 or so when the financial world had collapsed. I had had a condo. We had leveraged the condo to buy house. I had fallen prey to all of the funny money that was out there. I had balloon mortgages; I didn’t know what that meant. It was the time when banks were doing really shady things. I should never, on my salary have been able to do that. Ever. It should never happen. But because there were businesses that were willing to give me that money, I got that money. We ended up losing the condo after a year of trying to short sell it. And this was back in the day when no one short sold or the people were just starting to, and no one foreclosed. This was right in the days of the beginning of the crisis. So no one was talking about it. And I was so deeply mired in shame. We tried to short sell that condo. Unsuccessfully, no one would buy it for that loss. For a year. And that whole year I was putting everything on a credit card, like the mortgage that we couldn’t afford because we’re paying the mortgage on our house. So we got deeply mired in a lot more debt. And the day that I had to sit down and look at all of this, and ask for help was one of the darkest days of my life, and one of the scariest days. And I just like to put that out there that. It is very, very, very, very hard. But you must understand your current situation. And if that means that your partner has been taking care of these kind of bills and knows where all the money is, it is incumbent upon you to talk to your partner and sit down and say, where are we healthy? If we are completely unhealthy, where are we unhealthy? What do we lack? What is our debt and how can we start to dig out of it?

[00:11:46] That only comes from conversation. It can’t come from hope. I had lived in hope with my head buried under the sand for many years as an adult. So, you need to understand your assets, what you have in the bank, your debts, all of them, including your mortgage, your student debt, all those things that we think of as good debt, there’s still debt. And student loans, I would argue are not good debt, but we can come back to that. You need to understand your retirement savings. Something which is very difficult to understand sometimes. You need to understand as a writer, your income trend and projection. Look at the last few years, what have you made? What can you hope to make in the upcoming years, knowing that it is unstable? You need to understand your upcoming and potential expenses, something that I never understood at all. I am a Pollyanna. I always hoped that the money would be there and it normally wasn’t because I didn’t know how to save for it. And that sounds super boring, and changing that has been one of the most exciting things in my life. You need to understand if you have a rainy day fund, and if you don’t, how to make one. Also, are you adequately insured? Are your dependents provided for? You have to understand your personal advantages and your personal limitations. I know that I like looking at money and my wife does not like looking at money, so I keep her informed of where it all is and what we’re doing with it. But her, one of her limitations is she just can’t, it stresses her out too much. So I get to do that, but I do that, making sure that she knows what I’m doing. Does that make sense? I’m just flipping through the slides here. So debts, it is time to be honest with yourself about debts and call a friend if you need to. Get someone over to your house to do it with you. Things like, like I said, mortgage and car loans, all of those things count. What I did was I had decided to call MMI. Can’t remember what stands for M M I, and it is a nonprofit consumer credit consolidation service. It does not make money. There are a bunch of them that do make money and those are predatory. This one, I think charged me $35 a month. They got a bunch of my credit card bills down. When I called them to ask for help, I thought I owed $20,000 on our credit cards. It turns out that we owed more than 40,000. That is what my brain had said. Even though every month I wrote up the minimum payment for these things, my brain would not allow me to add them up correctly. And I just remember sobbing through that phone call and the woman on the other end of the line was able to consolidate our credit cards. We went from paying $1,800 a month in credit card, minimum payment to $800 a month. Instead of taking the 26 years, it would’ve paid, it would’ve taken to pay them all off, it took four- it took four years of that work. They were done and gone, and that was one of the happiest days of my life when that was paid off. For me, a consumer credit consolidation nonprofit firm helped me so much. It’s helped a bunch of people that I know and love in my life. I recommend MMI, but do your own due diligence research, obviously. Look at your student loans. Mine. Were you serious? I had deferred like a dummy for many years, not being able to pay rent in the Bay area and pay my student loans, so I defer, defer, deferred. For many years, I had borrowed 40,000. I got a good job. I started paying them $350 a month. Every month, I paid them for seven years, $350 a month. It might be the right math. It might not be the right math. But I know that when I finally looked to see how much I’d paid them, I had paid them $27,000, you know, including much of, most of that was interest. I had paid them $27,000 of a $40,000 loan, and I owed them $50,000. I owed them more than I had started out because of all those years of deferment deferral, which made me so mad. All of our money went to paying that off next. This was after we had worked on paying down and off a tax bill that my wife had had from a previous life of hers where she owed $25,000 so if you’re doing the math, 25,000 plus 40,000 plus 50,000 of student debt equals $115,000 that we were in debt. The time that I was doing all of this, my mother had just died. We had just lost the condo and Lala lost her job. We had no money. We had no money to deal with these things. So I had to, and it was one of the most painful times in my life. But it took this direct look to start working on it. And on the positive side, while Lala was very unemployed for – under-employed for three years, she would attempt sometimes, but this was during the tech meltdown. I’m in the Bay area, so she was not able to get jobs. We actually ended up saving more than we did when we had two jobs because we went so frugal and we were so careful with our money. So it absolutely can be done. It’s something to think about is retirement savings. This is something that, I’m only starting to think about at 47 years old. Oh, this was another mistake in buying my first condo. I cashed out my only big 401k, although it’s, you know, through the government, so it’s called something else. But, for – So that was smart. So I really didn’t have retirement savings and I really honestly, barely do. I am in the, in the constant process of building those up now. Now that I know that in 20 years I don’t really want to retire. I never want to retire from writing, but I want Lala to be able to stop working. I want myself to take a year off if I want to from writing a book or I can’t imagine that, but I want to be in a place of financial independence. You’ve heard me talk about this over on the Writers with Jay, where I have money in a bank that is working for me rather than me working so hard for my money. And so I’m really interested in the fire movement, financial independence movement. I have no idea how to do that because we just don’t make enough in the Bay area to put away enough to get there quickly. But I’m always thinking creatively about these things. Should we move? Should we, should I get a job? Should we do any of these things? So I’m, I’m always thinking about retirement savings. Lala is maxed out in her 401k so she brings home not that much money because all of it is going as much of it as we can put is going into retirement. So that is something I’m proud of. I fully fund my own SEP IRA, my self-employment IRA, every year. 

[00:18:23] So we had to learn about these things and think about them. If these words don’t make any sense to you, don’t worry about them right now. What I recommend is you buy, “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” It’s a terrible title, and he admits it to, by Ramit Sethi. It is an amazing book. I had kind of learned all the principles in his book over my last eight or so years of learning about finances and learning what money is. But he puts them all into one place, and I got so much out of it reading it this year, so that is highly recommended. Okay. What next do I want to talk about? I want to recommend; You Need a Budget. It’s called YNAB.com, https://www.youneedabudget.com and it is life changing. If you’ve never heard me talk about it before, it is the app. It’s a pay per month app, which you know I dislike, but it is absolutely worth it. It is like mentor or quicken or any of the budgeting apps, although it doesn’t work like a budget. Budgets have never worked for me because it didn’t matter what was in my budget. I spent what I spent, and so YNAB has this unique way of you look at your money. You give every dollar that you have today, a job. If, later this afternoon you spent something that changes those dollars’ jobs, then you move them around on their spreadsheet. Where would, where will this next $5 go? What? Where does it belong? It is what finally taught me at about 39 or 40 years old, what money was, I was so clueless. I understood where money was. I understood it intellectually. That I needed to spend less than I took in, but I didn’t know what that looked like amortized over a year. And I also didn’t want to know, I was very much the ostrich head in the sand, which apparently I don’t think they actually do. I read somewhere or they- anyway. YNAB changed my life. It changed – it has changed the life of so many people that I have told about it, that I still hear regularly back from people who tell me, I heard about it from you eight years ago. We are now out of debt. We are now building for this. It is how we got out of debt. When people ask me how we got out of debt, number one, I was writing on top of working full time and I was working like a hundred hours a week. But, that was hard. But, that aside, every bit of writing money, if I didn’t buy myself a pair of blue shoes, which is my fancy luxury, it was going towards debt. So I had that. And that’s the wonderful thing about writing as a side hustle. You can put that toward a debt. You can move that money there. So, but though the number one thing that got us out of debt was YNAB, was me finally understanding, how it worked and how much we needed to have around for everyday expenses. I always thought that if we had a couple thousand dollars in the bank, we’d be okay. And suddenly there was no money in the bank because that’s not enough. When you’re looking at car repairs, a vet bills, roof repair, the money is just gone so quickly and it just, it is amazing. I can’t, if I can tell you one thing to do, get YNAB. And the second thing is read Ramit Sethi’s book, “I Will Teach You to Be Rich”. The only other thing I want to share with you is, if you want to make more money or save more money, there are only two ways to do it. You can cut your spending or increase what you make. Those are the only two ways. Luckily, as writers, we have that ability to learn our craft and hone our skills so that eventually you can sell what is in your brain to other people and they will pay you for it and you can create money from the inside of your brain, and I just didn’t think that that is the most exciting thing. 

[00:22:15] Also, I would like to say a couple more things. Number one, you need an emergency fund. I wanted to have six months’ worth of emergency savings in the bank before I quit. I didn’t, I only had four months. I jumped a little bit early because of a family illness. But knowing that we have an emergency fund to me is key to sleeping at night. And the other thing is, and bear with me here. Your debt is an emergency, it is not unacceptable thing, and you might get mad at me for that and you might unsubscribe to this podcast. And God knows I held that for decades, decades, because I bought into this society that we have that says debt is okay. I do believe debt is okay in terms of a home mortgage, although that could even be argued a little bit. But we will not. But debt is an emergency and it should be the number one thing you are working toward to get rid of. If you ever want to be a writer, who supports herself on her own writing. If you want to be able to be flexible and nimble and move, if you want to or go to Jamaica if you want to, you have to get rid of the debt and that does mean cutting expenses. It means lifestyle modifications, canceling those subscriptions. Why do you need Hulu if you should be writing? I’m going to argue for Netflix because Netflix is Madame. But it also can be long-term radical changes. It can be moving, selling your house, taking in a roommate, selling your car, and going down to one car in your family, consolidating your debt, negotiating with the IRS. These are big things that will give you more income, more money left over to throw at your debt. And I want to just say I, you know, don’t believe in the whole latte idea where you should cut out all that lattes. You should have a couple of luxuries that make you happy. Those are the small things in life, but I don’t think you should buy a latte today if you are still paying off a latte from three years ago on your credit card, that is now costs you $32. Right? So really think of debt as an emergency. As a person who wants to be a writer, I think that is necessary. If you are in a different position and you don’t want to be a writer and debt is comfortable to you, absolutely you do you. But try to hear mama Rachael’s voice in you, in your head at some point saying, debt is an emergency. How can I get out of this? How can I use my brain to make a little bit of extra money on the side to throw towards that debt? Okay, so you listen through my lecture, you came out of it, you are not dead of shame. I guarantee you that if you email me about your shame around money or about your debt, I have heard higher numbers than yours. Someday I’m going to have to give a prize to somebody who breaks the number. That I’ve already heard that someone is in debt. And I will do that at some point. And I want to say that I absolutely know that I am sitting in a place of extreme privilege. I am published. I’m multi-published, I get to talk to you from the place of a person who has paid off her family’s debt.

 [00:25:28] And I am so grateful and I am so happy. And I understand that that might be hard to hear, or you might be angry at me and saying things like, I can’t do that because of this, and you are right. You know your situation much better than the only situation I know is my own. But if you can sit down, and look honestly at your income versus expenses, that’s where it starts. And again, there’s no shame. You haven’t been doing this wrong. You’re not a bad person. We are not taught this stuff. We learn calculus in high school and in college, which has never done me any good. Honest to freaking God. I have never used calculus in my life, but if they had given me a semester’s worth of how money works instead of econ, which I absolutely could not handle, my life would be different. Your life would be different. What if we had known about compounding interest and really known about it? Like put in $100, and we’ve been watching it grow since we were 19 years old. We would be different people. So no shame. You’re not bad. Your money is not you. It has nothing to do with who you are as a human being. It is simply a marker of energy that we get to manipulate. And I would love to hear about your story. Come over to www.howdoyouwrite.net has been having problems, so just shoot me an email at www.rachaelherron.com, but you have to spell it right and I would love to hear about that. 

[00:27:08] So now you made it all the way through the radically synopsized class of finances for authors. Now I’m going to tell you what I made and how I made it in 2019 the last year of the teens. So I’m going to start from the lowest and then go to the highest of all the things that I made. From magazines, I think I only want wrote one article last year, which is weird, but I made $300. From speaking to people, I made $675. From my online class, which is How to Stop Stalling and Write Your Novel, maybe I think it’s called, I made $975 I’ve completely passive income because I’d basically forget that is out there. You can always get to it on my website, www.rachaelherron.com, I think it’s only like $19. I should probably raise that price. From query fixing, I charge it $100 to fix queries. I did 10 of them for $1,000. On audio books, painful, painful. I made $1,475, and considering that I have spent more than $10,000 on narrators over the years. Going to take me a lot of time to earn that back. Those one, two, three, four, five things, they are the lowest things that I made last year. Add up only to $4,425 just $4,425. So I have to think about whether these things are worth it. Do I want to put more time into recording audio books? I don’t know. Do I want to continue to do query fixes? Honestly, yes. Because those are quick and easy and fun for me. Do I want to continue speaking? Maybe not, unless I make more money. Do I want to spend more time on magazine writing? I don’t know. There was only out up to $4,000 total, but you know it’s worth $4,000 that I got to put in the bank and use. So, the bigger things are coaching. I made $9,500. Patreon, I made $26,500. And let’s just talk about Patreon for a moment. I write essays about creativity and living my life over on Patreon. Basically, I am paying myself an advance to write a collection of essays. I have two collections of essays, which I desperately need to revise and either get my agent to sell or put out there, but I’ve already paid myself these advances for these books. Any other money that comes in is just extra, so that’s fantastic. For the retreat, the Venice retreat. This one requires explanation. I made $27,000 but $20,000 of that is expense. It goes to the hotel, to all of the excursions that we took, all of that. So I brought in people’s money at $27,000, but I only made $7,000 from it, but that’s still net so that needs to be remembered. That is something I have forgotten in past years, in fact, I forgot it for the last two years. I thought 2019, thought 2018 was the first time I wrote six figures. I actually broke it in 2017 also because I forgot to add that money in. So this is my third year as a six figure author, which is shocking to me because I, it’s just shocking and amazing, and I don’t even do money well enough to know that right off the top of my head. So now I know that. So I made $7,000 net from the retreat. And books, I know this is what you’re listening for. I made only $42,500 that I’m saying only in quotation marks because that’s a hell of a lot of money, especially that I didn’t do really any marketing whatsoever. That was $19,500 from traditional, and those were mostly new contract, new contracts because I think I only made… I probably made, let me, I can just add it up right here in my head, I made less than $500 on royalties. So let’s say $500 on royalties from books that have earned out traditionally, $19,000 in new contracts, traditional, and I made $23,000 in self-publishing. Organic reach, no advertising. I could do better with that if I did more ads, which is what I’m going to be working on this year, hopefully. So a total of $42,500 for books, which is fantastic! Teaching, I made $49,000. So that is where the majority of my money came from this year. Mostly from schools, Stanford, Berkeley, and from my online stuff to total, total get ready for it; I- it’s freaking me out, is $158,925 let’s round that up to $159,000. That’s incredible. Like I could not believe that number when I said, if you’re watching on the YouTube, you know that my face is crazy lit up and, and honestly, you guys, I want to make more, I want to make more and put it towards my retirement. I want to make more and put it towards Lala’s retirement particularly. That’s what makes me excited is, the thought that someday she might not have to go to the day job, which she likes, but she doesn’t love and she spends two hours or three hours a day commuting. What if she didn’t have to do that? So, in order of making money, I made my most money from teaching. Teaching-writing. And second, I made it from books and third, I made it from Patreon. 

[00:32:40] Those are my three greatest chunks, and they’re pretty, pretty close to each other, so that’s fantastic. This is something I wanted to point out though when we’re talking about multiple streams of income, I track all my income. On a, a completely unremarkable Excel spreadsheet that I just list who paid me, what they paid me on, what it was for, with the little code so I can sort it at the end of the year and tell you this story. I made 324 – I got 324 different payments last year, and these ranged from literally a dollar 50 for two payments of some book, to 10 and $15,000 paychecks, right? 324 of those different payments that averages out to 27 payments a month. Somebody was paying me about 27 times a month, and the average of each payment was $490. So I really like knowing that there are so many different little dribs and drabs of money coming in, and it adds up to 159 freaking thousand dollars a year for which I am so grateful and I hope that me talking about this gives you hope. 

[00:33:55] I hope that me talking about this doesn’t make you feel like you can’t do this, but rather makes you feel like you can do something like this. You can’t do this. You cannot do what I’m doing. No one can do what I’m doing. I cannot do what Jay Thorne is doing. Jay cannot do what I am doing. You get to do what you can do, and I’m really concentrating in 2020 on doing the things that I love. Doing the things that are fun for me. Doing this podcast is fun for me. Doing my writing most of the time is fun for me. I want to do things that make me happy and bring me money. There’s that. There’s that, place where they co-habit and that’s where I want to live my life. I’ve, I’ve talked about it with Jay on the other show, but I really love Denise Duffield-Thomas’ book, Chillpreneur, it’s really about being an entrepreneur and doing what you love. A little bit of woo-woo, but just enough for me and a lot of common sense about in entrepreneurship. I’m not talking about your day job. Your day job is what it is. You might hate it. You might love it. You might hate parts of it. You can’t some parts of your day job, unfortunately. Usually, if you can do it, but in your side hustle, if you are not full time author yet and you want to be one; In your side hustle, just do what you’ve love. Also, experiment with things that you think you might not love because teaching honestly was never something I really, really wanted to do, and it has turned out to be the thing I love doing almost the most. So think about that. Be creative. Be willing to try things. And if you don’t ever want to be a full time author, this podcast is just as applicable to you. Still think about your finances though. Think about your retirement. The chances are very likely that you know a lot more about money than I do, and that you are financially comfortable and that you understand where your retirement slash pension are coming from.

[00:35:52] And I applaud you, and I hope you don’t mind me laying all of my dirt out on the line, but this is the podcast I would’ve wanted to hear when I was starting out, or, you know, I’d want to hear it this year too. So this is why I make it. I hope that it was in some way helpful to you. I hope that you can hear in my voice how grateful I am that I live this life, that I get to do this, that people pay me for the things that are in my brain and for sharing that that with them either was my words in a book or with teaching where I’m doing the same thing. I’m pulling stuff out of my head and sharing it. So, and you are part of that community. If you’re listening to me right now and you’ve gotten this far, I thank you for being here and for being part of my world. And I hope that you, if you do want to share any of your financial stuff with me, come over to; try to find the website at www.howdoyouwrite.net maybe you just fix yourself the URL, something I got to work on. Or just email me @Rachael at www.rachaelherron.com or tweet me at twitter.com/RachaelHerron. I would love to hear from you. And, yeah, that’s all. I wish you a very happy new year and may all your money dreams, you know, screw money dreams. May all your dreams come true this year. 

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.

Rachael shares her personal opinions on what happened with the RWA implosion, and what has to happen next. 

Mentioned: https://twitter.com/RomancingNope/status/1211025913128902657

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron, and this is a bonus episode brought to you directly by my $5 Patreons. If you’d like me to be your mini coach for less than a large mocha Frappuccino, you can join too at www.patreon.com/rachael 

Well, hello writers. Welcome to episode number 161 of, “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. This is a bonus mini episode, and this is being recorded on the last day of the decade, December 31st, 2020 and I am coming to you on this day because, the first episode of the year, I always do my yearly Roundup of what I made, and I just do not have the time to do that. So I want to get this, um, podcast out.

I will not get the yearly Roundup out until next week because tomorrow on the first, I am going away for eight days to Seton Hill, which is a fantastic master’s program in commercial fiction, and I’m going to be teaching there. So that’s going to be wonderful. But I won’t have time to do that podcast for a little while.

So I wanted to hold you over with this mini podcast in which I normally answer patreons’ questions. I’ve got some patreons questions, they’re all queued up, but much more important for me today is to talk about the romance writers of America implosion. And I wanted to tell you how I feel about it if you were involved at all, um, and you listened to me, there are, there’s a great chance that you already feel like me. If you have seen reference to this RWA debacle online, uh, you might be aware of it also. But what it means to me, is this: romance writers of America is the organization to whom I credit my success in many, many ways. I learned more from being with them for the first two years of my writing career, then I did get my master’s degree about the business and the craft of writing. Um, it’s mostly women, there are some men, but the people in that community know absolutely everything about writing. They really do. They’re 95% of them, I swear to God, are lawyers. They, uh, know from the top to the bottom what the publishing industry looked like.

When I came in to RWA, it was, we were still mostly in the traditional world. In fact, there were no people self-publishing at that point, except, you know. You know, your uncle, um, that guy was still self-publishing, but back then it was not a viable time to do that this – I came in in 2008. It was just starting, I believe the, uh, Kindle came out that year, so yeah. This was just on the horizon. And in that, in the last 11 years that I’ve been with the organization, um, RWA was pretty standoffish towards self-publishing for a while, and then it realized, oh, yes, of course, this is the way of the future. So now it balances both, um, my best friends in the world, literally have come from RWA. I don’t even write romance anymore, and you know me. I talk really passionately about this organization and how it can help people. I’m active in the organization. I’m on our local board of the San Francisco, uh, area, RWA. Everything I’m going to say on this show is not said from a position of me being on the board. It is me speaking as a writer independently of what our board says or thinks, uh, what happened was, I’m going to try to nutshell it as much as I can. Um, there is a, an awesome writer named Courtney Milan who, um, said something disparaging about another writer’s older book, I think came out sometime in the 90s. She called it a big racist mess. Um, a fucking racist mess.

I think that was what it was. The writer in question, and an editor sent a letter of complaint to the ethics committee at RWA. RWA at that point, I believe, should have looked at the complaint and said, well, what the, Courtney didn’t violate any of these things that they’re saying she violated, except perhaps the one that says, we should be friendly and get along with everybody. And, uh, my belief is it shouldn’t have been read that way. One is allowed in one social media, always to say what one wants. RWA doesn’t police that, or at least they never have up until now. Um, so they, Courtney Milan as an anti-racist activist has done amazing things for RWA. She has worked at the national level, uh, she was the head of the ethics committee. Instead of asking her to recuse herself, they called her and asked her to resign. Uh, which she did so that they could have a conversation over this ethics complaint. They then did not use anybody on the standing ethics committee. They did not tell them there was going to be a new ethics inquiry. They appointed a secret ethics committee, uh, and heard this complaint, that ethics committee recommended to the RWA national board that Courtney, uh, be suspended from RWA for a year, uh, be censured and, um, not issue that she not be able to hold any position of leadership, uh, for the rest of her life in RWA.

This was a terrible thing to do. Uh, but it was voted in by the board. It was 10 to 5 with one abstention, and Courtney was alerted to the fact that she was no longer, she was suspended. She could not act in a supervisor committee, um, position of any kind. And this was spilled on Twitter. Uh, there was no secrecy around it. Courtney had already asked if she could talk about it. Um. And it was, uh, brought to light on December 23rd, and the entire internet basically blew up. It erupted. Everyone has talked about it, the New York times, Nora. Um, it’s literally everywhere. People have been telling me about it. I am actually, I’ve been off of all social media except the Instagram for probably six or eight months, much happier for it. Um, but my wife told me that morning, she says, I think there’s something really bad happening in RWA. And I said, poopoo, whatever, or something, I’m sure there’s something that it can’t be that bad. And I looked and I was like, oh, this is that bad. I do not think that anything they did was right about this. Basically what they did was they said with this decision that they are protecting the feelings of nice white women, and if you speak out against racism in any way, you are then ejected from RWA. So the marginalized writer is not safe, the nice white lady is safe. That has been a problem with RWA forever.

Um, and apparently it, they’re doubling down on it. They’re not doubling down on it. They are quadrupling. They are hundred times-ing down on it. Uh, I am a member of San Francisco area, RWA, we were one of 30 of the 115, I believe, RWA groups that called immediately for the, um, resignation of the president, the president-elect, and the executive director. The president who’s actually in our chapter and is an active anti-racist. Um, she does a great job with diversity, equity and inclusion. However, she was the figurehead at the helm, and she stepped down immediately because that’s what anybody in their sane right mind would do in this position. Um, basically when this level of racism has risen to the top, it’s time to kind of start over. You have to get rid of those people. Uh. What I didn’t say was that that decision was immediate, that the decision that they made about Courtney was immediately rescinded later that day, as RWA said at first, that there was a gap between practice and policy. Later, days later, they officially said that actually what they did was they rescinded the decision about Courtney and reinstated all her rights, uh, as a response to the, as they called it, the backlash, not the reaction, but they call it the backlash.

Um. It just makes me so angry. It makes me so angry that my little fist clench. So anyway, uh, president-elect became president. It is Damon Suede. Um, I personally have never met Damon Suede, I’ve heard him on lots of podcasts. I actually voted for him for president elect. Uh, I thought having a gay man on the roaster would be awesome. Uh, it turns out he’s a cretin and a creep and lies a lot. There are so many things you can read, but what I’ll do is hover at www.howdoyouwrite.net. I’ll put the link of a blogger who’s been keeping track of everything as it goes. So if you really want to get deep in the tea on this, you can go to that link and look at everything. Um, read all the things that Damon Suede has or hasn’t done, has or hasn’t said, um, with, with proof over there. So that, that is something interesting to read. He’s not a nice guy and he’s refusing to step down. So the organization, is imploding even more on the day that this happened, uh, the eight authors of color who were on the board, we had finally gotten an incredibly wonderful, diverse, inclusive national board.

Those women stepped down. They said, we do not feel safe in this organization anymore. They stepped down. And so we are left with, yesterday we had, um, three people. We had the president elect the treasurer, I believe and the executive director, and three remaining board members. That is six leading this national organization. They all need to go. In my opinion, all of them need to go. We need to, the only way that I think RWA could rise from the dead, um, is it, it became an organization that is actively hostile to people who create an unsafe environment for their marginalized members. We cannot be a place that provides a safe and respectful environment to racists period. Uh, so I am to the point where if I’m, I have said to my board president and to people around me that if Damon Suede doesn’t go, if we do not start from the ground up, um, I’m out of the organization, which absolutely breaks my heart. RWA has been everything. I have loved it so much. I am so heartbroken and I’m so angry that this has happened, that this has gone this far. So I know I’m, I’m barely marginalized. I’m a sis white woman who happens to be gay. Um, my troubles ain’t nothing like the authors of color and what they face and the fact that we have now made them feel even more unsafe in a place that already felt unsafe to them for historical reasons, uh, is absolute bullshit. So I am furious. I will not be a part of an organization like that. Um, today, instead of hearing that Damon and Carol Ritter, the executive director stepped down. Instead, we heard that they, um, put in board members. These of course, are not elected at this point, and our by-laws say that the president elect can appoint them in case of this kind of emergency. So he is now appointed people who other people are speculating are his people. He is known to do that. Uh, so there, uh, those, there are four new members that way I cannot imagine it would say yes to him who would want to step in in this time. Um, I said something really crappy yesterday that, you know, in the, in these ashes, we will rise a truly inclusive board and the entire internet said you had one.

They all quit because of what happened. So, I do encourage you to do your own reading, your own digging. This is not, and what I don’t want you to do is saying, oh, the romance writers, those ladies, they’re up to some catty stuff. No, this is absolutely the biggest trade organization in publishing. These are the women who run publishing. They sell the most books out of any other genre in the world. Uh, RWA is a $3 million organization who has a lot of money to do a lot of things with. And as chapters, if they decide to disaffiliate, um, they’re one we’re all wondering if we disaffiliate do we have to send you all our money, our prudent reserve, um, of our members’ money.

So there’s all this, there’s so much talk. So much speculation, so much panic and so much anger. And I just really wanted to be very clear on where I stand. I stand for Courtney. Um, it was a racist cluster fuck, that should never have happened. The ethics committee has been passed many racially charged complaints, most of which have never, well, I am exaggerating, some of which have never risen past the, the office staff. Uh, this one about Courtney seems to have been a malicious attempt at a coup. I know it sounds like a lot, but the more you read, oh, um, and it’s not acceptable. And I’m devastated. And that is my position. That is my personal position. So that’s where I am. 

That is not the most cheerful update on the last day of the year, but for, for a really cheerful update, I will tell you that I ran my numbers yesterday and this year I made $158,000 hot damn, almost $159,000 hot damn. So I will be on the next episode, breaking down what I made, how I made it, what it feels like, how much of that is write offs, if I can, if I can guess toward that. Um, I always really enjoy doing that show. So that will be coming up next. But honestly it might be nine or 10 days. I just don’t think I’m going to have time with all my travel to get that episode out by next week. So, I will keep you posted. It will be the very first episode of the new decade though. So I just wanted to say a big thanks to you for being here with me at “How do you Write?” for this past year or years, if you’ve been around a while, it means the world to me, and thanks for listening to me talk about RWA. I think it is really important and relevant to anyone who is in the writing industry at this time. To know that not only the bad actors are still there, they’re still trying to do it the way they’ve always done it, and there’s a lot of people fighting for that not to be allowed. And I am on the side of not allowing systemic racism to stand inside our industry.

So I hope you feel the same way and I wish you a very Happy New Year. I hope that wherever you are, if you’re celebrating tonight, um, you’re fine, and you’re safe and I look forward to writing with you in the new decade to come, which for me, as I record this is in like three and a half hours, I think. I don’t know what time it is. Anyway, Happy New Year to all of you and thank you again so much. 

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.

Rachael talks about how she uses her tarot decks to uncover her own subconscious knowledge, and how you can, too

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron, and this is a bonus episode brought to you directly by my $5 Patreons. If you’d like me to be your mini coach for less than a large mocha Frappuccino, you can join too at www.patreon.com/rachael 

Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode number 160 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. This is a bonus mini podcasts, and I’m recording this on December 26th it is the only episode of the podcast that will come out this week because I’m trying to take a little bit of downtime during this holiday week because everybody else around me is too, so I’ve still got work to do that I’ve been doing, but I’m trying to spend a little bit more time lying down, reading books. 

But I didn’t want to miss sending out an episode of a podcast, so I decided to answer this question from Mary, and her question is a fascinating one. At the risk of potentially losing listeners. Um, try and keep an open mind on this one. Uh, it’s going to be a little, woo-woo friends, strap in, hold on. Here we go. Mary asks, “You’ve mentioned working with the Tarot in your writing. Can you spend a couple of minutes on what that process looks like? I know not everyone’s process will be the same, but I’m looking for suggestions on how to start working with a tarot in my own writing.” Okay. So Tarot, some people have already clicked off their radio. Uh, I am not a witch, nor do I play one on TV. I think of witches and Wiccans and exactly the same way that I think of priests and pastors and Buddhist nuns, and, um, any kind of authority figure in a spiritual practice. I am not an authority figure in any spiritual practice, but I will confess to you that I do believe that there is some, um, unifying spirit or force in this universe in which we live that sometimes gives us, pushes in the right direction. I kind of, don’t laugh, think about it like the force in the Star Wars movies. Um, don’t know what it is, but sometimes you can feel it.

You know that you should do X and when you are trying to live as well and as, um, ethically and morally sound helping others as well as yourself, then, uh, we can drop into that intuition and listen to what our own guts say. Basically the force is, the force for me is located in my gut. If I am doing right, I know it. If I am doing wrong, it just feels sick and think this green feeling in my body and not a good green, like a sick green. Uh, I know it’s wrong. And that’s, um, my definition of spirituality. You probably have a much better and more clear definition of that. I’m kind of an agnostic with a, a spiritual bent basically. But I really like tarot cards. I believe that they are, I’ve, I’ve been working with them for probably a year and a half. I believe there a really direct way to get to our subconscious in a very union way. Uh, when you look at the archetypes that are in every civilization and every community, um that have been projected throughout the ages, the tarot cards are just another depiction of that. And when we ask a question, and we are presented with a picture, our brains make a connection between the question and the picture. And it’s a way to hear our intuition talking. In a way that sometimes we can’t quite get to just by sitting at a desk and thinking.

So Mary, I thought that the best way for me to do this would be actually to do a little drawing here and tell you how I’m doing it. So, um, this week as so many weeks, I’m shuffling the cards right now. Um, I have been struggling with getting to the page, which is 100% normal for me. And this week is fine, it’s holiday week. Next week will not be fine. Um, but I’d like to ask them, I’d like to ask this, this particular taro deck, which is the everyday, which, which is really kind of just, uh, adorable. It’s an adorable deck. Um, uh, why am I having trouble getting to the page and I’m just going to for, pick a card? Um. Okay. It is the two of wands, which is, um, wands are about creativity and fire kind of like the fire element. Um, twos are about decisions. It, this is displaying to me that it is possible that I’m having a problem deciding between options, and I absolutely am. I have two options in front of me right now that I am being pushed and pulled to work on both of them. And I don’t know what to do. So what I do when I don’t know what to do is I kind of freeze. I don’t do anything. I just read books and, and do all of my other work and not writing.

Um, you heard me talk about this. So this is a very literal card for me to draw. Um, uh, and the two of wands is also to me, and it’s all about how you interpret the cards. You can get all these books to help you and stuff, but you can also just look at the card and say, how does this make you feel? Um, this card makes me feel potentiality. It makes me feel excitement that something is beginning. Um, it’s still early on in a process. It makes me feel confident that I will make the right choice and that the choices ahead of me are good. And that is what I feel. And I didn’t know if I could have articulated that as well before I drew this card. Um, I’m having a problem getting to the page because I am overwhelmed by the excellent choices that I have. And if you had drawn the same card with the same question, your brain and your intuition might’ve given you a very different story. I’m using the symbolism on the card and what the card is, um, referring to in terms of its number and it’s a suit basically. Um, that would have been exactly right for you because your intuition, your, at the back of your brain is putting together those answers. Um, but if you’re using it in terms of fiction, um, let’s see, I’m going to ask a question about my character, Jillian, and this is something I’ve been struggling to answer. I’ve been working, I’ve been struggling with her character arc and the reason why she doesn’t connect with other women well, why doesn’t she connect with other women well? This book is kind of about connection between a woman and their friendships. So, I kind of have her backstory, I kind of know what it’s about and I haven’t, I haven’t tried this, so let’s, um, draw a random card. Why doesn’t Jillian connect well with other women? I got the Hierophant, which I do not know if I’m pronouncing correctly. It might be Hereford. The Hierophant in this particular deck is symbolized by a beautiful yoga teacher in a class. I just lost six more listeners by saying that, um. So why she’s not connecting, and this is, this could be very, very true for Jillian. Jillian is a doctor, the Hierophant is all about, um, systems of power and learning and teaching. And Jillian has kind of felt like she is high in her own estimation and does have a hard time, um, connecting people to people who are not within the rigid system of the, of medicine that she is in. So I can read it as either she, it might be good for Jillian to realize that, to let down some or regard. Um, I can also read this card as she needs more – she needs more teaching, she needs to learn more about how to be a friend, and perhaps she needs to be looking for a mentor in friendship. Um, which this yoga teacher on this particular card would symbolize. A lot of times this is the Pope card. Um, but this really, uh, patriarchal and this deck dispensed with that patriarchal. Nonsense. Um. So perhaps she needs to look for a teacher and that is really resonating with me as I say it, because the woman in the book that she connects with the most that she wants to be taught by how to be a good friend is spoiler alert, of course, the bad guy. Um, so just playing with those ideas, playing with that card. It didn’t, it didn’t tell me how to write the next scene. Um, but it could, it could do that. Let’s try that. Um, I actually don’t know what my next scene is going to be, but it probably has to be something about Jillian soon to be ex-husband. How should I write the scene? This card, you guys, I’m doing this off the tab and this may not work at all, but I believe it will. Um, how should this next scene go? I hold 10 of ones. Um, which is about burdens, which is about carrying heavy objects and feeling overwhelmed. Uh, at this point, I, you basically with Taro, you’re, you’re examining, it’s aligning to your subconscious, your unconscious, and you get to decide how you feel about this. Um, Jillian is going to be feeling very burdened. Very overwhelmed by everything that is happening around her. But I also kind of read myself in this. I’m, I’m feeling a little bit overwhelmed and burdened by everything that I need to, you know, do in this book in order to make it a really good one, because somebody already bought it and I need to make it good. So I’m kind of feeling both of those things and I’m feeling relief at saying those words out loud and having it be okay. Um, so I hope that helps a little bit about how I use the tarot cards. They don’t, um, they don’t always direct me in exactly what’s going to happen next. Uh, but if I was to be literal about this particular draw, yes, I would have Jillian try to manage a lot of things and fail at doing so um, or feel like she is going to fail at doing so. So it actually could feed into a scene, but perhaps it’s really talking to me about my emotions and about how I need to maybe manage some of the other burdens that I’m carrying around.

So it’s super fun. What I’m saying is, it’s super fun to play with. And you heard me answering, um, or explaining what the cards meant. And that is only because I’ve spent some time working with them. I, there’s so many books out there to help you learn how to do it. But I think, um, the ultimate guide to tarot card meanings is probably the best that I know, um, by Bridget Esslemont. Um, she’s really, really wonderful. She’s an Australian. She has a great podcast. If you’re interested in, um, just kind of learning about tarot and what the cards mean and how to do things, um, you get to create your meaning from this, I’d recommend her podcast, I’d recommend her book. Bridgette Esslemont, E.S.S. E.L.M.O.N.T. 

And thank you so much for the question, Mary. That was super fun and I hope that you all are having a wonderful move out of 2019 and into 2020 next week I will be doing my annual tradition of talking about how much I made and the year before and how I made it, where those streams of income came from. So I will be doing that next week, I’ll look forward to talking to you then. I hope that you are getting some writing done and we’ll talk soon my friends. 

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process. Get to writing my friends.