Of Fasting and Feasting by Sonia G Medeiros

Today is LLC Friday and I am a guest at Marcia Richard’s blog, where I talk about a fear that sometimes keeps us from doing what we're supposed to be doing: the fear of missing out or the FOMO.

I am thrilled to have as my guest, fiction writer, Sonia G. Medeiros. Please join me in welcoming Sonia.

Prayer

For many folk, the next several weeks will be spent in preparation for Easter with a season called Lent. Lent is a time of penance, sacrifice, preparation and spiritual renewal. The Lenten fasting prepares the body and spirit for the tribulations ahead and for the joys, the celebration and feasting.

(If you're struggling with that whole sacrifice bit, check out Jenny Hansen's solution to sinning.)

While our family observes Lent for religious reasons, I also admire the practical reasons for such a season of preparation. As our world grows ever more complex and fast-paced, we can easily lose sight of what's important and skid wildly out of balance.


This is especially true when we decided to follow a big dream or goal. The moment we open ourselves to it, the distractions, obligations and activities seek us out ruthlessly. Before we know it, our fledgling hopes can be buried. Our friends and family call us out for not paying attention to them and our work volume (in the home and/or out of it) seems to quadruple.

Buried Alive

It's enough to make anyone want to curl up in a fetal position nursing a bottle of whiskey and snorting pure sugar.

On the other hand, we can get so caught up in our dreams and goals we let everything else begin to slip.

Either way, it's the whiskey and sugar again.

But every once in a while, we need to step back and look at our lives, our dreams and our goals. Along with all the good stuff, the dreck builds up. We need to clear it out.

The dreck is all the things we do without a lot of thought. The things that we can't say "no" too, like those obligations that aren't essential but are so sweetly asked of us (and sometimes not so sweetly). The myriad ways we waste our time on activities that don't really do anything for us (*cough* playing Plants v Zombies or watching a Netflix marathon *cough*). While a little of all of this is good, too much is...too much.

Fasting from the dreck resets our inner compass, our sense of priorities and balance. Without that reset, the abundant times feel less like celebration and feasting and more like drowing...in whiskey and sugar.

This year, along with my usual Lenten rituals, I vow to take a good look at my life, schedule, dreams, work and goals. And I vow to remove as much of the dreck as possible. To streamline my priorities and to engage in those "extra" activities here and there but not to let them swamp me.

Perduta or Lost

Yeah, I've done this all before, the clearing of the dreck and the resetting of priorities. No matter how good our intentions or how hard we work, the dreck creeps up. But that's why Lent comes around every year. We human-type folks (no offense intended to those of us who may not be human...or entirely human ;)) need regular tune-ups.

How do you balance your dreams, goals and priorities? Do you set regular times to clear the dreck?

Sonia G. Medeiros is a writer of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. She's the author of more than a dozen short stories and flash fiction pieces, blogs at WordPress, and is working on her first novel, a dark fantasy. When she's not wandering along the tangled paths of her wild imagination, she wrangles home life with one fabulous husband, two amazing, homeschooled children, three dogs, one frog and two cats who battle each other for world domination.

Guest Post: Sonia G. Medeiros

Today is LLC Friday and I have the pleasure of hosting fellow writer, and LLC member, Sonia G. Medeiros. Sonia is all set to address a topic that many readers and authors have strong opinions about: the pricing of books. Both sides probably will agree on this: It should be a fair price. But, then again, it's all a matter of definitions.

What's It Worth to You?

Recently, I read a blog post by author Roni Loren on why a good story should be worth more than a cheeseburger. And it was just one of those posts that made me stop and think. A lot. I found myself questioning my knee-jerk response and considering not only the issue discussed in the post (the pricing of ebooks and how we value an author's work) but also how the way we value another author's work reflects on how we value our work.

Check it out, guys. These pellets are on sale. Cheap!

First of all, Roni made the point that we're willing to shell out for fast food, delivery pizza, a movie, etc without much thought but we often grind to a halt when it comes to shelling out the same amount for a book. Why should a book we'll enjoy for hours if not days be worth less than a pizza that will likely be gone in under an hour (unless you count the time the extra calories will spend stored on our butts and/or spare tires)?

My first response was something like "heck, I only have so many dollars in the budget and I just can't justify spending $10-20 bucks on a book." I don't go to the theater all that often, preferring to wait for the DVD until I just have to see it on the big screen. We also try to limit our eating out. Buuut...I'll spend $10-20 bucks on a pizza with less anxiety than buying a book at the same price.

Okay, okay...some of that reaction is because a book is generally just for me while the pizza is for my whole family. But still...am I saying the author's work is not worth a pizza? And what does that mean for how I value my work? Is that why I'm willing to shunt aside my writing for things around the house that really could be put off or at least balanced with the writing time?

And, when it comes to ebooks, especially self-pubbed, I find that grousing about price really kicks in. Suddenly, over $4.99 for fiction ($9.99 for reference/writing craft books) feels expensive.

Whoah!

Really? Expensive?

And obviously I'm not the only one. There seems to be a huge push for cheap or even free entertainment to the point where people are giving bad reviews for price point. Hmmm...all is not quite right with the thinking here.

If people tend to equate the price of something with its inherent value, what are we saying about a writer's work when we're only willing to pay $0.99 for a novel? A novel represents considerably more work than a dollar cheeseburger.

And, if writers accept that mindset, how will we perceive our work? Will we give our writing the respect it deserves? Treat it like an art or like a cheeseburger thrown together in a fast food joint?

I know there's other factors involved in buying a book. The VP of awesome, author Kristen Lamb explains that books are a high consideration purchase. Choosing a book tends to be emotionally driven, especially for those who do not consider themselves avid readers (that and some avid readers don't want to go bankrupt buying all the books they want to read). With ebooks, there's also the understanding that they don't incur nearly the same costs to produce as print books. And self-published books allow the author to take a much bigger cut of the profits than traditionally published books.

But if we go along with the push for cheap books are we setting the bar too low? Allowing market conditions to develop that force new writers to sell their work for bargain basement prices? Are we promoting the idea that a book is barely worth the price of a cheeseburger, no matter how excellent the story?

I'm not entirely sure where I sit on the issue. I do know that I'm thinking about it more now. What does it mean when I tell myself that $6 ebook is "too expensive" and look for the $3 one instead? What am I saying about the butt-numbing hours I spend working on my manuscript-in-progress? And asking questions is always the first step to finding the answers.

What do you think about the price of books and how it reflects on the value of the author's work? Do you find yourself looking for cheap deals or turned off by them? Do you value your work as a writer or do you consider it something of a guilty pleasure?

Sonia G Medeiros is a writer of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. She's the author of more than a dozen short stories and flash fiction pieces, blogs at WordPress, and is working on her first novel, a dark fantasy. When she's not wandering along the tangled paths of her wild imagination, she wrangles home life with one fabulous husband, two amazing, homeschooled children, three dogs, one frog and two cats who battle each other for world domination. Visit Sonia's blog and follow her on twitter.

More Wishbone Than Backbone? Guest Post by Jess Witkins

It's still Friday, right? It's late, but it's still Friday. Due to technical difficulties over at The Life List Club headquarters, I'm posting Jess's column in the evening. You can blame me. But I'm thrilled to have Jess as my guest. Before I give Jess the floor let me say that Jess Witkins and I are members of the Life List Club and that you may want to consider joining. The basic qualifications are that you operate a blog and love the craft of writing.

I was over at LLC member, Sonia G. Medeiro's blog earlier today and tried to be inspirational and wrote about embracing your life's journey. Enough from me, I'm turning things over to Jess:

More Wishbone Than Backbone?

Hello Life List Club! Today I want to talk to you about your backbone. You know that knobby thing that runs up and down your spine. Well, if you’re not sure where it’s located, this song might help:

All together now! The hip bone’s connected to the backbone! Ok, you’re right, I didn’t steal Gary’s blog to make you all sing. I do want to talk about backbone though, and more than just that thing your Chiropractor cracks after you work a 10 hour day of holiday retail. Just me? Moving along...

The Life List Club was formed with the goal in mind to support one another in our life list plans. Many of my goals centered around writing, so I’ve been blogging regularly three times a week, learning about the craft and social media by taking courses online, and partnering in critique groups to get feedback on my book. Two classes I’m taking are taught by author and social media expert for writers, Kristen Lamb. In one of her recent lessons she talked about taking initiative towards the goals we want to achieve. For me, that goal is being a writer. Your goal could be meeting new people, traveling somewhere you’ve never been to, trying a new food at least once a week, keeping up with an exercise plan, or watching all 500+ youtube videos of cute kittens doing ridiculous things. It is so good to have goals.

When Kristen talked about starting out in her writing career, she admitted she had a hard time completing her word count goal. Writing for long hours and producing well-written text was a developed skill for her. Before she could be successful, she had to admit she had “more wishbone than backbone.”

The Backbone to See It Through
I think all of us reach a point where we feel we’re doing the best we can, but we wish we were doing more. I know I do almost everyday, but I’m self deprecating and over-analytical, which I say adds to my natural charm. ;) The point is, we do take initiative to make change in our lives, and any goal we try to succeed at requires work. Steps that helped me improve my goal progress are time management, such as focusing my hours at work more so I could leave relatively on time and allow for more writing to happen. I also set realistic goals. If we make a wishbone kinda list, we won’t have the backbone to see it through. Make your goals attainable, while still moving forward. And most importantly, take action! Why are action movies so entertaining? Because things happen!!! It’s called an action plan for a reason. Sure, you could make a dramatic plan; I suggest framing it and sprinkling it with fairy dust then cracking a wishbone for extra good luck. You could make a horror plan, carving out your goal list with a chainsaw, but you might amputate a body part and then you’ve just gone and bled all over your goal list. Ew, gross!

So you see, having a backbone is better than relying on a wishbone. And, you’ve always got one with you, no digging around in a greasy dead bird pulling veins off and pushing itty bitty organs out of the way, washing and drying the thing, ruining your good towel and then waking up your roommate to snap the damn thing necessary! *I’m a visual learner!*

Now tell me, have you let your wishbone take over backbone? What is it you want to accomplish? What do you know about yourself that will help you achieve your goals and what opportunity do you have to move yourself forward more?

Bio:  Jess Witkins claims the title Perseverance Expert.  She grew up in a small Wisconsin town as the much younger youngest sibling of four, she’s witnessed the paranormal, jumped out of a plane, worked in retail, traveled to exotic locations like Italy, Ireland, and Shipshewana, Indiana, and she’s eaten bologna and lived to tell about it!  She deals with it all and writes about it!  Come along on her midwest adventures; Witkins promises to keep it honest and entertaining.  Go ahead, SUBSCRIBE, you know you want to. Follow Jess Witkins on Twitter:  @jesswitkins