Creative Life – Page 32 – Rebekah Lyn Books

The Feeding of a Writer

Ever since I first learned about the unconscious (or subconscious) mind in Psychology 101, I’ve been fascinated with what the mind under the mind can do. I came away with a simple concept that has worked for my whole life. I’m sure many religious people as well as scientists would find plenty to challenge but it works for me.

Like a video camera, the unconscious mind records every single thing we experience our whole lives. We then react to the present out of a vast store of memories. Concentrating on what is going on in the moment is a good antidote for this phenomena. We can change some of our reactions. We can also learn many ways to use the unconscious, instead of being used by it. We can store good things, such as the concepts of the Bible, we can think good thoughts, and we can pray. Those are the tools God has given us to manage our lives, and they are powerful. In fact, the unconscious must obey whatever our will or mind decides. That why believing in God and the good He puts in us is so vital.

So how can we use our unconscious to help in our writing? One way we probably know is to ask the unconscious to solve problems for us. Take a shortcut, though, and ask God what to do instead. Then either forget it or continue to thank him that the answer is on the way. Eventually a solution will come and it will be simple, true, and right, as praying enhances the process a hundredfold. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

I was having a hard time writing my blogs, filling out interview questions, getting ready for speaking engagements, and even organizing my files. I’d get up in the morning meaning to work on my novel, but by the time I did everything else — including emails, the day was over. In my frustration I prayed about how to use my time more satisfactorily.

My prayer has been answered. Now, I work as much and as diligently on the blogs, organization, etc. as possible for the first few days of the week. I like it, but still I reward myself. The unconscious likes rewards it likes everything positive. For the last days of the week, I get to work on Go West. That way I can focus on one thing at a time. Once I go back to the novel, ideas clamor to be heard. Then when I switch back to business, I get more ideas that I can accommodate. I stockpile them for later when a busy season comes along.

I further compartmentalize the writing time by using my journal first thing in the morning to think things out. When I do sit down at the computer, I set my stove’s timer for thirty minutes. My chiropractor told me not to sit for more than twenty at a time, but I negotiated for thirty. He said, “Only if you walk at least a mile a day.” I do. Because I’m absorbed I’m amazed every time the timer rings. When the day ends, I can’t believe I’ve worked two hours, three, four, without boredom, pressure, or procrastination. I’m on a roll and I love it.

Matthew 7:7.

What I learned from Rebekah Lyn’s Radio Interview

Rebekah Lyn, Onisha, and Pam have been getting the word out about Rebekah’s new book, Jessie. Yesterday Rebekah Lyn and Onisha came to my house because they wanted to use a land-phone in order to give an interview for Will Wilson’s Indie Book Show.

The three of us sat in the living room each watching our various timepieces and counting down to eleven a. m. when the phone rang. That was when I remembered to get Rebekah Lyn a glass of water. I was very quiet with the ice, and when our cat came in meowing I grabbed her and put her on the porch, so the audience wouldn’t be distracted.

We knew the interview would last about an hour which made us a bit nervous about our cordless phone, not knowing how long it would stay empowered.

Onisha took the first picture when Rebekah Lyn was settling in to the couch with the phone to her ear. She did look a picture with her shining, shoulder length auburn hair and sparkling blue eyes

The experience was a revelation to me, as I am yet to do my first telephone interview. I do have one coming up with another interviewer so I was all eyes and ears. Will Wilson will be also interview Janet Perez Eckles sometime after she returns from her mission trip to Bolivia.

Here’s a one-two-three of what I learned about a successful telephone interview.

You must have a phone with a reliable battery, a glass of water, maybe a friend or two, and a notebook with your previously recorded notes ready to hand.
Your notes will be your mainstay when the interviewer asks for answers to questions that take a bit of remembering – such as who have been some of your favorite authors over the years and why did you like them.
It would be a good idea to go to Will’s website or podcast and listen to some of his fine interviews, so that you will know in advance what types of questions he may ask. He will move on if he asks something you don’t know, but why not be ready for anything like the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America are?

A few days before the interview I received a list of Rebekah’s stops for the blog tour she has been doing. She has written a dozen blogs for various sites. I looked them over with great interest and excitement. I’ve heard her speak several times and she never bogs down or seems to be at a loss for words. There’s always something new, something she hasn’t said before. I asked how she does that when there are so many blogs and interviews and she told me that she does each one as a fresh interview, getting her notes down as early as possible in the process. When she comes to a question she has answered too many times, she simply digs a bit deeper into her own heart and mind to get new insights to share. What a wonderful idea!

Rebekah Lyn listens as well as she speaks,she’s a master at telephone conversations. Even when she agrees wholeheartedly, she doesn’t break in and validate – you hear not a word from her, but in her presence you might see an energetic nod or when waiting for more information a small shrug of the shoulders.Her voice is well-modulated and even, and always gracious,interested and energetic.

When the hour was up, we learned that the power on our cordless phone will last at least that long, which is a good thing to know. Onisha and I only heard Rebekah’s side of the conversation, so we are definitely clicking on Will’s podcast to hear the other side.

Be sure to visit Will Wilson’s Indie Book Show or subscribe to his podcasts .

A few minutes after the interview was over, Rebekah turned on her cell phone and received an email. It was a message from NASA telling her she got a spot and a press card as one of the social-media reporters for the one of the events celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. She will be tweeting live from Kennedy Space Center Follow her tweets on Monday @rebekahlyn1 or #NASAsocial.

To celebrate the release of Jessie, Rebekah is offering an eBook copy at 60% off the regular price.

The Hanger and the Flea

Jasmine, one of our cats, is at the vet and the other, Lily, is in Bill’s hanger with me. It’s his 12×16 foot private sanctuary. I usually don’t mess with it.

I’m sitting at a one person, plastic folding table with my wireless keyboard and mouse, as well as my precious thumb drive. We have wireless in the house, but our son-in-law who helps with our

computers has it protected. I’m going to my in-box now to see whether I can steal wireless from the house and use it in the hanger.

We’ll go back inside the house as soon as the new flea treatment dries. As it turns out Jasmine’s itchy skin is the result of her being allergic to the saliva of even one flea. Lily prowls, meowing, wanting to go HOME. Every time I look at her, I see spider-web fluff clinging to her whiskers.

Oh goody, I can access email. People have written to me! I’m not alone out here. Actually, the hanger is pleasant even though it’s full of model airplanes, parts, radios, even pictures of airplanes. It would make a great studio for painting or writing, maybe both. There’s no clear spot at any of the long worktables that surround the room—that’s why my folding table from the house is here. Bill has a sign that says, “A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind,” he believes it. There are four small windows—two in the back and two in the front with tiny blinds. I pick Lily up to let her see out the window. Naturally, she steps out of my hands and onto the sill. It’s only as wide as my little finger is long, but still, she fits her four paws onto it and crouches to sniff the fresh air coming through the screen. She can’t turn around or get up or down on her own, though. We’re going to be using the hanger once a month when the bug man cometh, so perhaps I’ll get cat window-shelves for out here.

I refused to believe we had fleas. We use the electronic insect repellers, and they work great, except for the occasional bug. The last few vets who looked for fleas on Jasmine didn’t find any, but her skingot so bad I tried a new vet, and when that vet combed, she found a flea. That’s when the pest control question came up. I hate chemicals, unless they’re saving someone’s life, but I love my cat, so pest control it is. When the bug man, as we call them in Florida, came out he walked through all the rooms intermittently shining a flashlight on his shoes and pant legs. I asked why he was doing that. He said in most houses fleas jump up. The last house, he said, had them springing up as if it were a Mexican fiesta. But he didn’t find any in our house. He searched the yard too — no fleas anywhere. But we signed up anyway, for one flea.

When I went back to get Jasmine in the afternoon, I learned that she has a bacterial infection and many allergies. In this week she’s been to the vet twice, boarded for enough hours to have to pay rent on her cage, has had a cortisone, an antibiotic, and comfortis, a once a month flea pill. This is an alternative/natural vet. I’m alternative/natural, but I suppose that sometimes you must compromise. I find that many times you have to compromise.

Except for dusting the windowsill, which was a dried ant cemetery, I didn’t change anything in the hanger, Could those have been termites, though, instead of ants? Bill’s going to have to have that shed fumigated. He’ll have to move everything off the floor—he’ll have to clean it. It was so good of him to let us use it, and now, we can use it more and more. I don’t think he’ll mind, do you?

I’ve Been Thinking About Procrastination

DiVoran at computer

I’ve been thinking about procrastination. I do it, do you?

Here are a few ideas I’ve started using that seem to help a lot.

If I write about my projects in my morning journal, I feel an urge to write more about them when I go to the computer.
My chiropractor says that for the sake of my back and neck I should not sit at my computer for more than twenty-minutes at a time. I bargained with him, saying, “How about thirty?”“Okay, says he, but only if you walk a mile or more every day.”

“Aha,” I said feeling boastful…”I do!”

When I started setting the timer on the stove in thirty-minute increments, I was able to immerse myself in the flow and found myself setting it time and again. Two hours can pass swiftly in that way, so that I have a feeling of accomplishment when I close shop at the end of the day. The same concepts apply to the thirty-first draft as for the first.

3. I usually write 500 word blogs. For that length, I can come up with a mini-story that is usually a satisfying read. Novel scenes can be done in the same way, but they sometimes need to be longer. To me, a scene is a change of characters, places or activities.

4. When it’s bedtime, I can ask my sub-conscious to work on a blog, a poem, or a novel scene during the night. In the morning, I can jot down some notes, and thus am I motivated and inspired to inch toward completion. I’ve written and published three novels so far and I’m now working on a couple more.

What do you do to cure procrastination, even temporarily? How do you keep yourself going? What makes writing easier and more enjoyable for you?

“Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. Yard by yard, life’s hard.” John Bytheway