A Day in the Life - Michelle Nicole, 2013 Debut Author
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It's been a while since my last debut author blog post.
I've asked many 2013 Debut authors to write a "day in the life" type post about their life
learning to write their very first book.
I'm easy- so I gave them the artistic freedom (bc as a creative person myself, I LOVE freedom)
to pretty much do or write what they wanted!
Today I have
Michelle Nicole
Her debut Soul Survivor is hopefully coming in MAY!
Her debut Soul Survivor is hopefully coming in MAY!
A Day in the Life…
Hi, there peeps! First off, I have to take a moment to
gloat over Michele (single ‘L’) Miller. She rocks…seriously! And I cannot wait
to get my hands on her debut novel. When
she asked me to do a guest spot on her blog I was (and still am) completely
honored and no words can describe how important and awesome she makes me
feel. So, Michele (single ‘L’) thank you
so much for thinking of me! And for the record this is my very first guest post
EVER so I’m hoping to not eff it up. ;) Here goes nothing…
I’m Michelle (double ‘L’) Nicole aka Michelle N. Files,
CPA aka Mitchell aka Michelle Files the MBA student aka soon to be Professor
Files. I know lots of names right? In order to properly convey the full picture
of a “Day in the Life” I found all my names necessary. ;)
Let me break it down for you, starting with Michelle N.
Files, CPA…she is the hardworking, accountant, cranking out taxes and all
things numbers from 8-5 Monday thru Friday (except from Jan thru April 15th
then that is literally her entire life.) Then there is Mitchell (a family given
nickname)…a born and bred WV girl (and NOT inbred I might add…I also wear shoes
and have all my pearly whites) who’s the oldest of ten grandkids, lives in the
middle of a dairy farm surrounded by her extended fam, married to her high
school sweetheart and loves her furry children dearly. On May 4th, she will be turning her
hat in as Michelle Files MBA Student for MBA graduate and come this August she
will become Professor Files Intro to Accounting instructor.
Finally…Michelle Nicole…I saved the best for last. She's
an indie author who’s been working on her debut novel Soul Survivor since 2010!!!! (She also loves to blog, tweet, and
Facebook whenever she can.)
Why so long you ask? Well, my long list of “names/titles”
should help sum that up. Not only do I work full time as a CPA, I’ve been
working on my MBA, and trying to balance time for family and necessary personal
hygiene. That has proven to be a tough trade, needless to say the last few
years have been insane.
So, why bother writing a book when my life is
hella-crazy? First off when is life NOT hella-crazy?! Secondly, being a writer
is something you do for love and it is not something you can turn off. I
learned that the hard way. One day out of the blue I sat down and started to
write and now I have so many characters running around my brain 24-7 I have no
idea what to do with them all! LOL!
Where does my inspiration come from? Everything but
mostly music. I am in the car driving a good bit and of course I jam out. There
have been so many out of the blue moments where a scene will hit me or a
character will appear and I can’t get them out of my head. I have so many Ah-Ha
moments in the car!
What’s my method? It’s funny, if you know me in real life
you know that I’m an organized, OCD freak who loves lists and organizing
things. That being said my writing is completely different! I don’t outline I
don’t plan I just let things happen. With Soul
Survivor (along with my other 7 WIPs) my process is so unorganized it
sometimes freaks out my OCD side. I write scene by scene because that is how my
stories appear in my head. Sometimes I hear a song and I see a scene and it
just continues to replay in my head until I write it out. With SS, once I had
written almost 60,000 words, I knew first of all there was no way this was
going to be a stand alone book…it was way too long (that’s when I decided this
would be a series) and secondly it was time to make a rough road map. So I
did. Knowing where my series would
end…that’s right I already know how things will end…I went back and organized
the scenes into an order and filled in the blanks, did some plot development,
and made a list of key characters and in this case I’ve chosen a specific villain
for each book.
When do I have time to write? Clearly I don’t…otherwise
SS would have been out last year when I wanted it finished but a good friend
and trusted author once told me not to fret, sometimes a good book just takes
time and judging by the quality of her books, I know that is the truth. I haven’t had a free moment since December to
really sit down and write (stupid tax season) but typically I fit in writing
time on evenings, weekends, and sometimes even lunch breaks. I’m looking
forward to May because tax season will be history, my MBA will be complete both
of which equal FREE TIME TO WRITE! Yay! SS is almost ready…I just have a few
final steps to polish things up and then I plan to send it to my editor for
round 2. Word to the wise, if you can afford an editor DO IT! It will only help
you improve your story and your writing skills…seriously! So that being said, I
can’t wait to get SS out to you! I vow to have this book published and out to
the world in May! So watch out!
As a side note, my busyness has been very difficult on
me…I think about Soul Survivor every day…from the moment I wake up til the
moment I go to bed and sometimes I even dream about it. It truly is something
that is a significant part of me, which is incredibly frightening. When I decided
to publish my book, I was all "gung ho let’s to this!" But I’d be
lying to you if I didn’t say I am really freaked out over making this happen.
I’ve been the smart/numbers girl all my life…to me there’s no risk in that role
but writing well that is sharing a completely different side of myself. A side
I’ve kept guarded. I know not everyone will like my book, of course I still
want them to like it…LOL…but I try to be realistic about things. Handing my
book over to beta readers was certainly the most nerve wracking part of my
writing career…but I’m so glad I did. Those ladies were honest, fair, and just
flat out amazing. If their opinions are any indication…I know you’ll love it.
So, that's about it…me in a nutshell…the day in the life
of Michelle (double L). ;)
You can catch up with Michelle HERE
I must say that I was able to BETA read for Michelle and her book is fabulous! I can't wait for her to put all of the new touches on it so she can share it with you all!
If Michelle's story doesn't give you hope nothing will. As crazy busy as she is this is proof that if you stick with your dreams they will eventually come true!
