Writers are a funny breed.
Virtually every other art form has a million approaches, and no one seems to question this.
Perhaps it's because writing requires some degree of education, and holding a reader's attention for possibly many hours to read an entire book involves creating more fascination than a 45-second TikTok video of a hot young chick swallowing whipped cream.
Whatever it is, writers seem to always want to be right about what writing well requires (note my audacious use of an adverb there).
Check back regularly as I reveal how I not only do not have "imposter syndrome," but consider myself to be a bit of an unrecognized genius.
Can you even imagine a woman writing about the quest to find a man of means as part of her personal journey now?
Back in the early 19th century--when Jane Austen wrote most of her now-iconic novels about impecunious young women of good breeding but dire prospects--this was a reality for the gentry class. If you were a woman, who you married framed most of your life, and it was a decision not to be made lightly for that reason.
If you could happen to find a really rich landowner who was also hot, slightly edgy, and a tad vulnerable beneath his dour exterior (Mr. Darcy), well--why not? And if he fell in love with you despite himself having far better financial prospects (because even rich men had to think about the astronomical expenses of maintaining an enormous, drafty estate and manor), so much the better.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Now we are swimming in stories about equity and diversity that have about as much romantic jjzzzjj as a Walmart greeter.
As with almost anything else, literature has had its soul sucked out by the DEI movement. I attended an online authors' conference today where a publisher spoke with glee about an upcoming book about a transgender kid. Is there really a big audience for this? Are plain ol' straight kids who know what sex they are even allowed to celebrate that reality anymore? I wonder.
I grew up reading great literary fiction like Dickens, Tolstoy, and Harper Lee. Life was certainly not easy in the times these authors wrote about, but they managed to portray it with some kind of dramatic elan that made it delicious to read.
Now authors would be told to refer to poverty as "experiencing financial insecurity," which just doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.
Looking for love? You are "emotionally underserved." Beautiful? "Visually privileged." A bastard? "Born into nuclear insecurity."
DEI is killing the fucking English language, and if authors don't push back, who will save it? I implore writers everywhere to reclaim language like a buried treasure, polish it up and put it back on display, before the linguistic Titanic on which we are all sailing hits its last iceberg.
One that even climate change won't save.
It was around this time last year--in the devastating wake of Oct. 7, 2023--that I made the decisive decision to delete all my social media accounts.
Facebook was long gone for me by then, after being dissed by some "friends" going back to 2017. But I had 3,000+ followers on just-turned-X and a small IG account. A really small IG account lol.
Obviously, X was the one that theoretically could have been detrimental to leave. And to be fair, in my four years on there at that time, I had made some amazing writer world connections.
But the antisemitism and just plain stupidity were giving me hives. Mind you, I used to post a LOT. Probably five or six times a day at times. I thought I would feel more withdrawal than I did.
It turns out, I didn't and continue not to miss it at all. As a former news editor, I never got my news from sm anyway.
But the really hilarious part was how my author website hits SOARED after I disappeared. I have no idea why. Some months I've had 300+ site visitors, which for zero advertising is pretty crazy.
Are they all at Langley or the DoD? After pulling up hundreds of declassed State and Agency memos for my about-to-be-published historical fiction geopolitical thriller, I have often wondered what lists I must now be on.
On top of which, when you are researching the dark arts of wet working for a Cold War novel, you have to, um, do some digging that might not sound right out of context.
I remember doing one on how deep you'd have to plunge a knife into the victim's neck for near-instant death, and what you'd have to hit to boot. That shit wouldn't look good in a court of law lol. I better live a super clean life, eh?
There's an old joke among novelists that you should be careful when you talk to us cause you might show up in a future story. It's true, we sock away all kinds of information. It's almost like we're operatives, except we write with what we find out about people.
And for anyone contemplating leaving sm, I say, just do it. Elon may be selling it some day anyway, now that's he's all toasty with the new/old prez-to-be.
I have my own marketing campaign mapped out starting Spring of 2025. No, I have no fucking budget, that's for sissies! You just have to do it and pray lol.
The first draft of my professionally formatted geopolitical thriller has arrived.
I'm not going to say a shit ton of eye-aching review doesn't lie ahead---but the whole process seems less daunting than for my first novel five long years ago.
Life is funny. It turns out that the more you do something, the easier it gets (except root canals, not those).
I remember the incredible overwhelm with my first novel--which I only handled because I had a lovely mentor with much more experience helping me out. Now, it's just me, myself and my formatting company--the same one I used before.
It turns out it's like riding a bicycle--you really do kind of remember how to do it.
In case you are interested, the cover art is done--but not the spine or back cover. We can't do the spine until the formatting is completed, because that tells you exactly how thick your paperback and hardcover will be. Yes, of course, there's an ebook.
No, there's not an audio version...yet. That may come down the road. When you're paying for everything yourself...well let's hope P+ picks up my story. That also requires an entertainment attorney with connections...more cha-ching. Nothing in life is free.
The point is...this book is going to be on Amazon before February 2025 wraps up. The formatting company being in a civilized former Brit colony, they take a lavish three-week break over the holidays.
On the other hand, they have no Thanksgiving, weee! I hope to be at least 80% put to bed before the holidays anyway.
Why haven't I done a title and cover reveal yet, you ask? It's like showing a guy your boobs over hors d'oeuvres...a little anticipation is good for both boys and and readers. You shall have to wait until we are ready to sell.
BTW, the dictionary on here was unaware of what an "oeuvre" is lol. Peasants. Same as how the AI reader on Word says VIZcount, making me want to tear my own ears off. I know we're the colonies, but for fuck's sake, learn how to pronounce the titles in the peers of the realm.
VIE-count is how it's pronounced, of course. Now in French, it would be VEE-comt, but that's why we have wars.
In Britain, a viscount is below an earl and above a baron. Meaning it's pretty hoity-toity. (Which, I kid you not, the dictionary here wants to make "hoist-toity"--yeah this AI thing is bangin').
Unfuckingbelievable.
Miranda Armstadt
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