To Win At Life

I've been thinking a lot about winning at life.

 
Not in the "I win at life" standpoint, but that inner competitive urge that rears its ugly head whenever someone has a major life event, like getting married, having babies, etc. Or when I find out that certain people might have new girlfriends.

I've talked a lot about how I'm purposefully "out of the game" as it were dating-wise. Besides the fact that I'm planning a cross-country move in the next 4-12 months (and a cross-country book tour!), I don't want to be with someone because I'm desperate to be with anyone. That usually results in bad coupling decisions.

So I'm consciously uncoupled, but that doesn't mean I'm perfectly okay with that decision. Sometimes, especially when everyone else seems to be "moving on" with their lives, I wonder, "Should I be moving on with my life, too?" (read: Should I reinstall Tinder and get back out in the dating world?).

The healthy, non-desperate path-to-happiness is to be okay in my own skin without needing anyone else to make me happy. If I happen upon a person that shares my life goals and supports me, then that's great. The knocked-into-my-head path to happiness is to find me a man to take care of me and pump a couple babies into me. 

Path A is completely within my control: I can choose to write and be happy with whatever life comes my way.

Path B puts my happiness in the hands of someone else - and turns me into a man-hunting psycho-bitch who goes through men like tissues.

I really want to be the first person.

I still wrestle with changing my own perceptions about what "winning" at life is. For twenty-seven years, "winning" was one thing: Get married and have babies. That was the way to hit the life-jackpot, and I was sprinting as fast as I could to it. Because I had to do it before everyone else, because that was the only way to "win" at life.

The problem with that is that life is never that simple. Millions of people get married and then get divorced. Fertility isn't always a certainty either - and once it comes there's a million different things that could go wrong. Even if I were to "win" at life, life isn't a single moment - it's a collection of millions of moments. There's no one goal - and we all die in the end.

That's why it's so important to live in the moment, to find happiness in the every day and in the life that I have at this moment. And instead of waiting for someone else to "deliver" that happiness, it's much more satisfying to create it myself.

And that, my friends, is how you win at life.

Look at my cover letter. LOOK AT IT!

So remember like a year (read: a month) ago when I said I was going to submit my book to a real publisher, then you never heard anything else about it?

Yeah, that's cause I kind of dropped the ball on that one.

But ball has been picked up! I'm furiously working on my cover letter, synopsis, and, as soon as I get my edits back from my amazing editor, Bexter, I will be able to ship off the entire package to the publisher behind door #1: Tor/Forge

I've submitted to these bubbas before, way back when I was a wee ickle thing in college, which was nearly 10 YEARS AGO (*ded*). Razia as a novel has matured incredibly - as I have matured incredibly since 19-20 years old. But I actually feel really, really strongly that things are actually starting to fall into place. Namely because my cover letter just...spoke to me.

Here it is, as it stands right now:

Dear Publisher Person (I have a real header, but don't want to paste it here)

We are all living double lives – some as secret novel-writers, others as secret space-pirate bounty hunters. Dr. Lyssa Peate is the latter – by “day,” a scientist charged with discovering and selling distant planets, by “night,” a bounty hunter playing a fast-paced and deeply competitive piracy game. She would love nothing more than to leave behind the name, past, and fate of Lyssa Peate in favor of the strong and stoic Razia; unfortunately, she’s kind of having a hard time doing that right now. For all of her spunk, analytical brain, and drive to be the best, she’s still a girl. And “girls aren’t pirates.”

Double Life is the first of a five book series, a completed 78,000 word novel in the science fiction/young adult genre. Much like the Hunger Games and Divergent series, it features a strong female lead, resonating with the Sheryl Sandberg-led girls of the #banbossy generation. Like the Harry Potter series, the pirate world is complex and detailed, tied together with a Facebook-like pirate intraweb, where the latest dastardly deeds are broadcast like status updates. Razia locates her quarry by pouring over tables of financial transaction history, where hidden pirate names littered in the search results like Easter eggs. Smart readers will be able to play bounty hunter, pouring over the book to see if they can find bounties themselves. The first book of the series will be published via Smashwords (independent publisher) in June 2014.

As an author and media professional, my experience encompasses both Department of Defense strategic communications, as well as television production (including a stint at the BBC). Even before publication, I have already laid the groundwork for an effective media campaign, incorporating Facebook, Twitter, and blog posts to engage my audience. The communications strategy will shift once the book is available for publication, offering incentives for sharing content and driving traffic to the different outlets. More involved communication – including events at comic book conventions, media interviews, and even a J.K. Rowling-type engaging website where users can engage in pirate games – could be part of the strategy as more books are published.

Thank you for your consideration,

S. Usher Evans

Would you keep reading?

I also have my synopsis, but I can't post that here 'cause it has SPOOOOOILERSSSSS, obvs. 'cause it's about the whole book. I am having issues with it, because, obvs. it's a 78k word book, and it's really hard to condense that into 3-10 pages. I'm trying to figure out which small details to add, which to take out - finding, as usual, that small details early in the book have big impacts later in the story. Right now, I'm smack in the middle of about 6 pages total, but I'm just worried that it's not detailed enough, and doesn't get to the heart of the book I'm trying to sell.

Speaking of amazing people five paragraphs ago, I got my first feedback from one of my 3 editors. The following is some choice feedback from her:

"I'm enjoying myself immensely"

"It's so much FUN"

"I'm very interested in what happens next"

"I've found a few typos and one inconsistency." Whoops, I mean, my writing is totes perfect all the time no problems here. ;)

I about peed myself with joy.

If one person likes it, then others will as well. I'm not smoking crack here, which is always my #1 worry with my writing. I know I have fun, all alone in my house, reading and re-reading my work, but I never know if anyone else will share my joy.

Speaking of joy - I am making my book available for pre-order in 1 month and 1 day. Which means that I will be an official published novelist in 2 months and 1 day.

Holy shit.

 

What the hell am I supposed to do now?

So my book got shipped off to my fantastic "editors" (also known as close friends who offered to read it and give opinions).

And now....I guess I have to do all of that stuff I've been putting off since I got really focused on the book?

I took out my garbage(s) and worked on my grad school paper. Went for a (shitty) run. Yet, I am still anxiously waiting word from my three readers as to their opinions of the book..

I want you to know, three people who have my manuscript in their inboxes, that I am resisting the urge to pester you every three seconds with asking if you've read it yet. I know you have lives and you are doing a big favor, so I'm not going to pester you about it. If you get to it, you get to it. If you don't, you don't.

But....

...

Did you start reading it yet?

I always go through this writing hangover period after I finish a project. I've been so focused on it for weeks and weeks and weeks, and now I've got energy and nothing to do with it. Sure, I could work on Book 2, and have, buttttttttt....

I'm so anxious about what they think. And I'm starting to panic that I fail as a writer and I will never be able to quit my job and become a novelist full time and....blargh. 

Yeah, I know. Sorry for the spazoid post.

A Few Days Down...

"It's a take out weekend
It's a fake out smile and pretend
If nobody sees you cry
You can say it was raining outside

And all that you want
Is a few days down
All that you need
Is a little time to drown
It's to be expected
With all the weight you carry 'round
All that you want is a few days down."
- Mandy Moore, "Few Days Down"

I am not an impulsive person by nature. I don't go out and spend tons of money, I don't buy expensive purchases. In fact, I struggle with buying things I actually need (read: expensive face washes that keep my acne at bay). But today (yesterday, 'cause I'm not posting this until tomorrow), I made an INCREDIBLE impluse buy.

I bought a ticket to go home. TOMORROW (today!)

OMG!

Going home for me is a big deal because a) it's Florida and there is snow on the ground where I am right now, and b) it recharges my soul in ways nothing else can. I've had a pretty shitty week, and I can't shake this funk that has settled over my head. I was bitching to my Pookie (best friend) and she commented lightly that I should come home and run the McGuire's 5k prediction run with her. And my immediate reaction was, "let me see."

Well tickets were over $600. Not to mention my normal dog sitter charged over $500 for a weekend. So my initial judgment was, "no way, you can't spend that kind of money." Then I bravely contacted a former gentlemen caller who happened to own his own dog walking business and asked him how much to watch the kiddos for a weekend. His price was significantly lower.

So I took a deep breath, and, shaking, I did it.

Fun story - my parents don't know that I'm coming. HEE! (They do by the time this post goes live, as I've got it scheduled mwahaha).

This has literally turned my entire LIFE around, and I'm so excited I can't even stand it. I finished all of my homework early, am knocking out task after task at work with a SMILE on my face, and I even want to get home and finish working on Razia tonight so I can have something to read on the plane. I expect this weekend to be full of day drinking, laughter, and enjoyment. And even though I'm only home for less than 72 hours, I think this is exactly what I need to bring me back to life.

And all thanks to my Pookie! Love you girl!

Hello....!

Hi friends - both imaginary and real. Thanks for stopping by!

For those of you who don't know me, my name is S. Usher Evans, and I am an author of many novel series. Most of which remain firmly fixed in the ol' noggin, but slowly but surely, they are being leaked out onto my iPad for mostly my enjoyment. But, after reading them over and over, I kind of feel like they're pretty good. Thus, I've decided to publish some of them for (hopefully) your enjoyment :)

The first book to be published is the first of a 4 (maybe 5 or 6) book series about a fun girl named Razia - or Lyssa, depending on where she is. Razia wants to be the best bounty hunter in the universe. The only problem is that nobody will give her a break, and she's relegated to capturing petty purse snatchers and other peons. To make ends meet, she works in the "family" profession as a Deep Space Explorer. As if that wasn't bad enough, she's also trying to keep two steps ahead of her slimy boss, Dr. Pymus, who's interested in getting his hands on the work of her disappeared father's work on Leveman's Vortex, a gargantuan black hole thought to be the home of a divine "Great Creator."

 

The delicate balance between her two worlds is upended when Dr. Pymus forces her to take on an intern. This intern, her younger brother Vel, becomes an asset when a case of mistaken identity causes the police to think Razia the pirate has taken a hostage. Lauded by the pirates by this, Razia is finally given the leeway to hunt freely...except that Vel shows up, demanding that she fulfill the obligations of her internship. Unable to shake him, Vel joins Lyssa as she maneuvers the complicated underworld of space piracy while still trying to keep ahead of Dr. Pymus, and all the while trying to escape the shadow of her father's work.

...

Sounds like a fun time, right?

 

Okay, so maybe you need to read it. Which you will be able to on.....

 

June 12th.

 

Yep, June 12th. Barring any surprises from Smashwords, Book 1 of the Razia series will be available in your favorite e-bookstore (iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Noble). If this great experiment works, maybe you could get a physical copy.

 

What am I hoping to gain from this experiment? Not much. I'm doing this more to say that I did it than to become J.K. Rowling. But you know, a nice house in Scotland would be nice.

 

So what can you expect from me here on out? Depending on interest, maybe some excerpts from the book, maybe some social media contests, maybe nothing. Completely up to you, my imaginary friends. The fact that I have publicly announced the fact that I am a writer to people I actually know is a huge first step for me. Not to get all squishy on you or anything....

 

 

 

And on that note, stay tuned, friends :)