Launch Pad Publishing

Happy to introduce you to another friend from the Working Writers Club, mystery author, Joan K. Maize, here to share a little of the writer's life with you.

THE WRITER’S LIFE WITH AUTHOR J. K. MAZE

     My writing day begins with tasks connected with writing, but with no actual words put to paper for a story. The first thing I do is to go to my three email addresses, two with Comcast and one with gmail. I originally set the gmail for all the RWA groups I belong to, Kiss of Death, Lethaladies, HHRWcritters, chicklitwritersrwa, elementsofrwa and Outreach International. This address is also for the various classes I take. The first Comcast email address is for miscellaneous personal messages, social networking, the judging of contests, and various promotional connections such as WWC. These two addresses have since become somewhat interchangeable and I get many each day, at times in thehundreds.

    The third email address is for a genre I recently started writing for, the fantasy paranormal, written under the name Jaye Leyel.

    When I get through the ever-expanding list of emails (real quick a week ago when I accidentally deleted everything), I then go to the Lethaladies messages in my gmail. This is the critique group for the Kiss of Death chapter and, inaddition to posting chapters and doing crits; I keep track of the chapters posted and critted for and by the group.

    By that time, I fix a meal and while eating, read one of the books I review for an online review company. Following that, I do crits for the Lethaladies (daily) and for the HHRW critique group (a couple times a week).

    By the time that is finished it is late afternoon when I devote the rest of thetime to writing and/or revising. As a natural night owl (I don’t start the day until about ten), I find I write better in the late hours than in the morning.Also, I sometimes prefer to write by hand and seem to write better first drafts that way. Since I can’t write as fast as I type, I think the slower pace allows me to think scenes through better. However, I confess to often getting lazy and using the computer.

    When I use the computer, I write in my home office, a place cluttered with many books and papers where I feel right at home. When I write by hand at home, it’s at my dining room table, also cluttered with books on a normal basis. I also work as a volunteer once a week for the company I retired from, filling in for the receptionist. Since the phone hardly ever rings, I can do what I want, read or write, and I usually write one chapter each Friday afternoon. I also do some revising while at this company, and I always do revisions by hand, no matter where I am.

    During the times, such as while waiting in a doctor’s office, I either do revisions or work on a new chapter. While on the bus, I usually read, generally one of the books I review, which I’ve put on my NOOK. I love to watch baseball, and sometimes football, and will do some writing or revising when the games are on. I’ve tried working on a book while watching the mysteries I love, but end up losing track of both the TV story and mine.

    I would guess that I spend more than nine or ten hours a day devoted to writingor writing related tasks, and love every minute of it.

    I wish to thank Faye for hosting my virtual book tour and also to encourage visitors to follow me on the next day of my tour (see schedule at http://sleuthingwithmollie.wordpress.com)

Joan K. Maze
Writing as J. K. Maze
www.joanmaze.com
http://sleuthingwithmollie.wordpress.com
http://homicideandmayhem.wordpress.com

Here's a List of Joan's Books:

Murder By Mistake, book 1 in the Mollie Fenwick MysterySeries, available as an ebook from Red Rose Publishing, B&N, Fictionwise and Amazon

Murder By Mistake, book 1 in the Mollie Fenwick MysterySeries, available in paperback from Amazon

Murder For Kicks, book 2 in the Mollie Fenwick MysterySeries, available as an ebook from Red Rose Publishing, Fictionwise and Amazon

Framed In Fear, romantic suspense, available from Red Rose Publishing, Fictionwise and Amazon

Flight of the Hawk, shapeshifter paranormal novella written under the name Jaye Leyel

Murder By Spook, book 3 in the Mollie Fenwick Mystery Series,in progress