authors – Jamie DeBree

Check out the cool surprise box of books I bought this week! They’re all old, antique books, which I love, and I can’t wait to see what’s in there. The green book on top, The Hand in the Dark by Arthur J. Rees was included as a teaser for the types of books in this particular box, and I am greatly intrigued.

I’ll be doing a video unboxing later this week (or on the weekend, depending on my schedule). I’ll do that on YouTube, but I’ll include it here as well next week.

General Discussion – Branding

I’ve been thinking a lot about branding lately…business brands, personal brands, defining phrases, and all that jazz people either wholeheartedly embrace (anyone my age not know the tune that spells “b-o-l-o-g-n-a”?), or love to hate.

I’ve had my marketing hat on a lot lately, as I brainstorm ways to build my writing business into something self-sustaining over the next decade or so, and my two pen names have pretty clear brands (in fact, I’m rebranding one soon that will make it even more clear…and a lot of fun, IMO).

My own name as a writer? Not so much. It’s for a few different reasons – the first being, I always felt weird about fully embracing my “writerly side” online when I do have another full-time job that isn’t an insignificant part of my life.

The second is, when I started this blog/site, it wasn’t a “writer’s site”. It was my personal blog, where I could connect with people on different topics that I find interesting. Unfortunately, people tend to prefer “niche” blogs to personal blogs and have for awhile…I’ve just held out with this because…I’m rebellious that way.

And the third is that I don’t have a strong sense of my own “voice” when it comes to writing romantic suspense, romantic adventure…whatever you want to call it that I write under my “main” name (see? I don’t even fit neatly into a specific genre!), because I’m largely still trying to find it. I had this problem with one of my other pen names as well until just this week, when I was writing some bits of copy for rebooting that newsletter. I slipped into a particular voice, went with it, and liked it so much I’m co-opting it for the entire web site/blog redesign I need to do over there.

I gave my own name & writing some good thought this week, and I’m still confused. And I don’t want to be confused, but more importantly, I don’t want readers to be confused. And this site and blog now exist largely to serve my name as a writer, more than anything else.

So, I’m thinking. Trying to figure out what it is about my writing (under this name) that makes it uniquely mine, and what element(s) would be best to associate closely with my name as an author. It might be that I just have to keep writing to figure it out…and I’m okay with that. I figure lots of things out while writing – which is one of the main reasons I love doing it.

And honestly, I kind of think this is a good general personal exercise too, as it’s helping me clarify my goals for each writing name and each style of writing I pursue. It’s not easy, nor is it particularly comfortable, but I am glad I’m thinking about it, and distilling my goals and vision forward in my own mind, if nowhere else.

All this to say…I’m going to be making some changes to this blog and the site as a whole. But I think they’ll be for the better, and I hope they’ll make things more entertaining and more of a “writer’s site”.

Change isn’t always bad. I’m actually kind of looking forward to a new way of doing things.

Variety News: April 12, 2022

Photo of the Week

General Discussion

You’d think I’d have reached the point of saturation with the plant shopping by now, and I thought I had, truly. But then I got the three little cacti pictured above in the mail (I ordered the pots separately, but aren’t they adorbs?!), and they were so healthy and wonderful that I just had to spend the “new customer” coupon the shop owner sent me, and now here we are, waiting for three more plants to come…well, this week was the plan, but since it decided to “winter” again (read, snow), I’ve asked her to hold off sending them until next week.

Then I’m done for awhile. I think. Probably.

At least the last two purchases have been succulents/cacti, which are less demanding than tropicals. So there’s that. I’m still going to have to set up another grow light for these, as I don’t have enough southern exposures to keep them all happy. I was thinking I’d take some to work, but as these aren’t your everyday “find ’em in the grocery store” type plants, I’m rethinking that for now. I do have a pot of Jade cuttings that will go to work with me soon.

I’ve been writing poetry this past week for poetry month – it’s kind of fun, and I’m using it as dual purpose to learn how to make simple TikTok videos as well (if you want to check out my attempts, my TikTok handle is @jamiedebree, because I’m complicated that way). The world seems to be embracing streaming video at a rather quick pace (thank you, pandemic *eyeroll*), so I’m adapting, rather more slowly. I’ve ordered some minimalistic video equipment to add to my new desk/writing/publishing setup, and I’m hoping to put out more video content…eventually. It’s a process, just like anything else.

As for the writing…aside from poetry, I’ve revised the first scene of the short story I’m working on yet again, and I’m finally happy with it, so I’m moving forward from there. I’ve decided I’m going to rework where I can, but if I come to a scene that needs a lot of revision, I’m just going to rewrite it instead of revise it. I think that will make everything go faster. Or I hope so, anyways. My goal is to publish this story in May, so I really need to get a move on.

Dare I hope the new desk setup will help with that? We’ll see – more on that next week. I will say posting this blog has been much quicker with a wireless trackball, as opposed to the track pad on my laptop.

Currently Reading

Breath in Every Room by Tami Haaland (poetry)
Tier 1 by Cindy Gunderson (Audiobook on Youtube)

Video Highlight

This is crazy cool, methinks. Can you imagine how much work went into making it?
Animated Fiber Art

@buttafly2u This is so cool & Satisfying to watch! #animation #art #satisfying #fyp #foryou #foryoupage ♬ original sound – Yolanda

Song of the Week

Lord I Hope This Day is Good:httpss://youtu.be/nWR78buhHbI

Pop Quiz!

What kind of content do you like to see from authors on social media (yes, this is a self-serving question)?

Personally, my reading self likes snippets of what authors are working on, glimpses into their personal lives, and photos of their pets/things they like. My writing self loves to hear about their process and workflow, or what they do to make parts of the process easier/more efficient.

Post Round-up

The Writer’s Desk (last updated: April 9, 2022)

Jamie DeBree

Writer | DBA | Dog Wrangler

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