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C. Lee McKenzie

Young Adult and Middle Grade Author

When Do You Need #IWSG?

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When do you need #IWSG? Anytime. But during a book launch it’s essential, so how lucky am I to have writers in my corner this very day when my next middle grade book, Sign of the Green Dragon is officially published.

Many of you have read and reviewed the story on Goodreads already, so I hope you’ll post your reviews on Amazon as well. No one else knows better than you how important those reviews are for writers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Question of the Month

This month’s question is interesting, and I look forward to reading the answers when I visit your blogs.

My very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer of fiction was called Bad Ass Attitude. While it’s published, it didn’t get to keep the title I wanted, and it came out as Sliding on the Edge. Here’s a bit about it:


A teenager who cuts herself.  A doomed horse. And a grandmother with guilty secrets.

Shawna has spent the first sixteen years of her life in Las Vegas and learned to handle anything from a Las Vegas hustle to skipping out on the rent. Scarred inside and out, she’s survived with a tough, hardened attitude. When her mother abandons her, with only a bus ticket and the name and number of stranger to call, this troubled, desperate teen finds herself on a California horse ranch with Kay Stone, the steely, youngish grandmother she’s never known. 

Kay overwhelms Shawna with rules and daily barn chores, and Shawna baffles Kay with her foul-mouthed anger and shrugging indifference to everything–except the maltreated horse on the ranch next door. But it’s worse than even Kay suspects: Shawna’s driven to cut herself by Monster, that strange voice inside her head. Kay fears that unless she helps this girl, she could lose her last living family member.

As this unlikely pair struggles to co-exist, will they overcome their suffering and transcend the past?

I write in two very different categories because I need variety or I go stale. What do you write? Are you insecure when you first put a book out into the world? Besides #IWSG what do you do to manage it?

IWSG Wednesday and UncommonYA Gives Sliding on the Edge a Shout Out

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ALEX CAVANAUGH
Visit more of the GROUP
Co-Host for Today
L.G. KELTNER
MELANIE SCHULZ
TRACY JO
Therese J. Borchard offers help to getting you over that Insecurity Hump. She’s the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes, and The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit, so I think I can point to her as an expert on these matters. Here’s one of her steps that I found particularly appealing and wanted to share with you on this Wednesday.
Consider it beautiful.
If you believe what Saint Augustine did, that the origin of “sin” is pride, then it’s easy to consider the opposite, humility, as a supreme virtue. And follow that logic to insecurity=vulnerability of spirit=humility. Borchard points out, “With insecurity, we admit that it’s not all about us, and that philosophy in this world of self-centeredness is quite lovely.”
Now that I’m thinking of insecurity as something positive I can move right along with my day. I’m co-hosting IWSG today and since this is my first co-host gig, I was a bit insecure about it. Now I think I see a halo just over my head.
The group called UNCOMMONYA is giving my first young adult novel a bit of a boost with what they call THE BLAST. So today is full of possibilities for all kinds of insecure moments. That’s why I was particularly happy when I found Borchard’s information.
Even my characters are INSECURE and, therefore, BEAUTIFUL!
“Though one may conquer a thousand times a thousand men in battle, yet he indeed is the noblest victor who conquers himself.”
How does this philosophy and the logic I’ve proposed sit with you? How do you deal with insecurity?

How To Write Books, Market Them and Not Go Mad

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TICK TOCK

For me sanity is all about scheduling and coffee/wine (depending on the time of day). Those are the only things holding this writer together. I’m not offering these solutions for everyone, just saying that so far these are working for me.

My Schedule for today:

04AM Drink Coffee and Write new book (just kidding about the book)
05AM Visit my Blogger Friends (not kidding) fb and Twitter
06AM Do Line Edits (serious business)
07AM Find more coffee. (absolutely necessary)
08AM See husband, get his plan for the day, eat something.
09AM Work on book (not kidding)
10AM Hike up some trail.
11AM Set plan for week.
12 PM Meet husband at designated place for lunch–this time of year that would be our deck.
01PM  Write
02PM Organize publicity for Library, posters and website, talk to sons on phone, make plans with friends for tomorrow.
03PM Check garden. Pick lettuce for dinner. Go to meeting for library.
04:30PM fb and more Twitter. 🙁
05PM Think about dinner. Consider wine, then write instead.
06PM Pour wine. Find husband and hand him marinated chicken for bar-b-que.
07PM Pour more wine. Toss the salad and feel smug. (planted it, grew it, harvested it).
08PM 30 minutes of a Netflix something, decafe and maybe something like a salted caramel treat.
09PM Kindle in bed, read someone else’s writing. Make notes for review.
10PM Face in pillow.

NOW FOR WEDNESDAY.

If you’ve followed me for a while,  you know I don’t usually blog on Wednesdays, except for the first Wednesday of each month. And this week is special in a couple of ways. I’m going to co-host the IWSG (Insecure Writers Group) while ALEX takes a well-deserved break. Oh, you might know it as I Was Searching for Gary. Please placate him and tell him you know the real meaning of IWSG. It makes him happy.

And, the UncommonYA group, which has some amazing authors, is going to BLAST me. That means, it’s going to feature Sliding on the Edge. That poor book needs a boosts if ever a book did, so, of course, I’ll blog on Wednesday with some glee.

The Write Club is underway.  Read. Vote. Enjoy!

SEE YOU WEDNESDAY!
What’s your schedule? Do have one? How’s that working. Do you IWSG much?  Hugs to my followers. UR Amazing and I appreciate y’all. (Is that the right spelling? People from the South, weigh in please)