Guest Blog: Lynn Crain, author of The Blue Moon Magic Series #PNR #Romance

It Ain’t All Roses

This past weekend, I went to a conference in Munich, Germany. I was really jazzed to be going and even more excited about the subject matter that I was going to talk about #SocialMedia. Apparently, because of all my blogs and my longevity in the business, I’m seen as something of a guru. While I will say I do know a lot, I will never know it all.

Saturday came and I went to the opening of the conference that morning. Even though there were people arriving on Friday, the first official day wasn’t until the day of my talk. I mingled with the crowd there and my traditional ebook publisher Tina Haveman from eXtasy Books, but I knew I was a fish out of water as this wasn’t my normal crowd. Most of the people in this group wrote gay fiction or some form of BDSM or erotic fiction. Most of my works were tame in comparison. Looking around I also realized that I was probably one of the oldest writers in the room.

I fretted as I always do but once I met with my panel partner, RJ Scott, I knew we’d be fine. We had planned for this and even had handouts, something I hadn’t seen anyone have so far. When it was time for us to start, RJ and I took our place and suddenly, two new people came in and took the other chairs. We looked at each other stunned, not understanding what was happening but saw two more people had been added to the panel without a word to us beforehand.

Immediately, the dynamic of the whole talk had changed and I remembered a saying I’d been touting on my Wednesday Blog, My So-Called Writing Life. It goes something like this: it ain’t all roses nor is it tiaras and limos. In this writing life we’ve chosen for ourselves, everything can change in an instant. Either we can go with the flow, be flexible and be ready for anything or we can be miserable and disappointed.

Because of this change in dynamic, I went into flex mode and opened with something I never thought I would. I started with, ‘ You’re looking at the dinosaur in the room’ then I proceeded to explain why. See, I did not grow up with #SocialMedia. I grew up with floppy disks the size of dinner plates. And games where we only saw our characters move one space at a time. Never mind the fact they were X’s on a black screen and only when they had moved over a spot was it revealed. All book sales were done by word of mouth or by expensive ads in print media whereas the opportunities we have today were boundless.

As I went over the history of how #SocialMedia came to be, I felt some of the tension go out of the room because I had everyone seeing what life was before. And just how hard it was to be an author then. It was almost as if there were those who would see how we handled the new dynamic but I paid them no mind. I also went over the fact that a top criteria for today’s author is to be flexible. Things rapidly change. Everything we do today is seen as marketing or branding and that may not be the case. This very talk was a case in point.

My panel partner was very disappointed on how the talk went because we had planned to go over the pros and cons of #SocialMedia and how today’s author could use it to their benefit. As it was, we went over very little of what was planned and more into that marketing and branding scheme so many see #SocialMedia being. People were apologizing for the next two days because of what some saw as a debacle. I saw it as an opportunity since I trudged on and gave out information as topics came up.

Yet, through it all, something miraculous happened. Every time I went by someone who attended the talk, I would get some version of ‘ah, my favorite dinosaur’ and I’d smile. I had made an impact where I thought none would be made. People might not remember the #SocialMedia aspects of our talk, but they would remember me telling them about the history and how I had seen it all.

Our handouts went into the goodie bags that were given out on Sunday, so everyone knew we had a well planned talk in mind. We got apologies as well as compliments on how we’d handled things considering. Our talk was one of the most commented on plus the fact I’m pretty sure both of us were invited back. I know I was.

And while it wasn’t the best experience, it gave me more of working outside my comfort zone and practice on being flexible. In my honest opinion, every author needs a little of both since there are days the writing life isn’t like we planned.

BIO:

Award winning author Lynn Crain has done it all in her life. From nursing to geology, her life experiences have added to her detail rich stories. She loves writing full time as she weaves contemporary, fantasy, futuristic and paranormal tales, tame to erotic, for various publishers. Her home is in the desert southwest though her latest adventure has taken her to Vienna, Austria with her husband of many years as he works his dream job. You can find her on the web at www.lynncrain.blogspot.com. She loves hearing from her readers at lynncrain@cox.net.

Blue Moon Magic

One father.

Two mothers.

Four siblings.

One incredible story about that special night which changes them all. Forever.

Finding his true family, is one thing. Wanting something he couldn’t have another.

Night of the Blue Moon ~ Book 3 Blue Moon Magic Series

Blurb: All his life he felt he hadn’t belonged but it wasn’t until Clarity Langford appeared did he know the truth of it. Once that truth was revealed there was no going back for Connor Angus, only forward. He discovers he is the long thought dead son of pack Elite leader, Charles Langford. And with that knowledge comes a family full of sisters, mystery and longing for things he’s not sure he has any right to obtain and one of those things is Cordelia Sinclair.

PURCHASE Link:

Amazon US ~ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VN4EPLM