About the Author
Jaime Lee Moyer lives in San Antonio, land of cowboys, cactus, and rhinestones. She writes books about murder, betrayal, friendship, magic, and kissing, an activity her cats approve of (even the kissing).
Her first novel, Delia’s Shadow, was published by Tor Books September 17, 2013. The second book in the series, A Barricade In Hell, comes out June 3, 2014, and the third book, Against ABrightening Sky, in 2015.
Jaime’s short fiction has appeared in Lone Star Stories, Daily Science Fiction, and the Triangulations: End of the Rainbow, and Triangulations: Last Contact anthologies. She was poetry editor for Ideomancer Speculative Fiction for five years and edited the 2010 Rhysling Award Anthology for the Science Fiction Poetry Association. A poet in her own right, she’s sold more than her share of poetry.
She writes a lot. She reads as much as she can.
You can learn more about Jaime by checking out her website.
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A year isn’t so long. It only feels like forever.
By Jaime Moyer
On September 17th, I will have been a published author for one entire year. This was a year full of surprises, of holding my breath, of learning all the things I thought I knew all over again. I usually relearned everything the hard way.
Realizing an entire year had passed was a bit of a shock in and of itself. I live my life day to day, and things like anniversaries creep up on me. But a one-year anniversary seemed notable and worthy of comment, so here I am.
Surprise number one, which wasn’t really a huge surprise to me: I can measure the way my life has changed in inches, not in miles. Many of those changes are internal. The way I look at certain things in life has changed; some goals and priorities. No one else would notice.
From the outside nothing about my life looks any different, aside from a shelf on the bookcase where all the books have my name on the cover. I still have a full time job. My long time friends, and my newfound friends, are still very very important to me. They are my family of choice.
I’m always sacrificing sleep to writing and writing related work, and I’m still not famous. I’m not even well known.
(spoiler) The average SFF writer’s life—or any writer’s life for that matter—isn’t anything like what you see in a movie.
Surprise number two: People honestly and truly think that being published equals instant riches, a life of ease and an end to working hard for anything, ever again. That includes everyone from extended family (who really should know better) to total strangers, and everyone in between.
I shouldn’t have to say that’s not true, but I’ll say it anyway. That’s not even remotely true.
Surprise number three: Readers will go out of their way to tell you how much they loved your book, thus making your day.
And readers who are less than fond of what you wrote aren’t shy either. You hear from them too.
Surprise number four: Anyone who tells you not to read reviews has your best interests at heart. Trust them, listen to them. Those people are your friends.
Because really? Life is too short to be upset by someone trashing a book you spent a year or more of your life on, all because they found a typo in the last ten pages.
Surprise number five: My personal definition of failure has always been this: The only way you ever really fail is if you don’t try. Give what you care about your absolute best, get up again if you fall, and keep going.
Probably the biggest surprise of all is that after a year, I still (mostly) believe that.
3 Responses
Thanks for sharing this, Jaime.
Thanks for reading, Paul.
A year’s anniversary is a great time to look back and reflect, isn’t it? I’m sure that the insights you’ve gained in this first year will help you as you span out into time. Thanks for sharing, there are definitely some points to ponder here.