Sara (Fiorenzo) Heacox's Blog

As many of you already know and some of you are figuring out, my writing process is a bit slow. I am not the kind of author who can finish 2, 3, or even 4 books in a year. I am lucky if I can finish and publish 1! Mostly, this is because of my day job, in addition to directing the plays and musicals at my school. I also have two little girls who both are into competitive Taekwondo. We are at the school 5-6 days a week. When a person is  that busy, it is just hard to find inspiration. I keep telling myself, it will happen just as soon as my life slows down a bit. And then a few weeks go by and nothing has gotten done. Until, one day inspiration strikes!

As usual, I was playing on Facebook. I was looking at some covers my cover designer (Marisa at Cover Me, Darling) had designed. There was one that was gorgeous and would totally work for a book I have had in the back of my mind for awhile. I had to sit on my hands to keep from a buying a cover for a book that is a few years down the road and still locked in my brain. I reminded myself that I have a series  (The Impossible Art Series) and a sequel (sequel to A Sadness Within) to finish. It was then that I thought, what am I doing here on Facebook, I should be writing!

Ten minutes later, I was switching from my iPad to my computer and opening up iTunes. Searching for my playlist, much to my dismay, I saw that I had no playlist. Of course this resulted in over an hour building up my playlist so that I had something to listen to while I write! And this is when my true inspiration hit. When I write, I plan and plot in my head for weeks, even months before actually writing a word. I wait for the story to come to me, and as I was grabbing songs, it finally started to speak to me. Certain songs were just jumping off of the page at me and begging to be part of my new project. As I listened to the songs, the characters took shape and began to develop their  voice in my head. I realized that my main male character likes rock music. Old school rock. Like Jimi Hendrix or The Who. His potential love interest prefers The Civil Wars or Guster.  They are both tortured souls (a trend in my writing?) and she has flaming red hair. There are some other details that are just too good to share yet as well. With characters that are becoming more solid and less ethereal in my mind, perhaps now, I will be able to write something.

Inspiration is always hard to come by, especially when your life is as busy as mine. I just have to learn to listen when it strikes.

~Happy Reading!
Sara

A sneak peak at the playlist for The Impossible Art of Forgiving (The Impossible Art Series Book 2)

Go Insane - Fleetwood Mac
Sympathy - The Goo Goo Dolls
Red House - Jimi Hendrix
Rocketship - Guster

I'm sitting here watching the Rose Parade and licking my wounds from Michigan State's devastating loss to Alabama (I bleed green!), I'm been doing some thinking. It's a new year. Time for get healthy, lose weight, and make other resolutions that we may or may not keep. I'll admit. I'm one of those people who makes these resolutions, at least until now. I have always found it odd that we tend to wait for the new year before making any changes when in reality, it is just another day. Why not strive to be your best everyday? And if you "fall off", in the famous words of one of my favorite literary heroines, "Tomorrow is another day."

As many of you know, I am a high school English teacher. One of the things I love the most about teaching, is the chance to begin again several times a year. Each year, each semester, and even each class is a chance to make my teaching the best. That Romeo and Juliet lesson didn't go so well 1st hour. That's okay, I can just fix it for 2nd hour! What if I don't like how my classroom is running? I can just change it. Why wait for a new year to change what needs to be changed in order to make us happier and healthier? I think this is a philosophy that we should keep with us all year long.

Life is short. Don't wait to make a change for the better. Do it now, whether it is January 1, March 1, or July 29th! Don't wait to be who you want to be.

So here's my resolution. . . not make a resolution. I am going to make changes when changes need to happen and I encourage you to do the same thing.

Happy New Year!

Balance has been my nemesis this past year. Sure I published my first novel, but I also started a new job. And I'm a mom. And a wife. Sometimes it's a lot to juggle. My writing life has been a bit slow to say the least. I am working on my next novel, but as I can't always write everyday, it's a slow process to say the least.

I also teach full time. I am a virtual teacher which is great because I get to work from home, but that doesn't mean that I can just write anytime I want. My day is full of classes, phone calls, emails, and grading. Some days, I don't leave my office all day! By night time, I am usually too tired to write much. So, I write when I can. Maybe it is only a hundred words, maybe it is a few thousand.

Meanwhile, I have been watching my friends release book after book. I have been cheering their successes but found myself beginning to compare my life to theirs. Of course, It's hard not to get jealous. I miss marketing opportunities, conferences, and conversations because I am teaching. Most of the time, I feel behind and like I am never doing enough to build my brand to become the writer I want to be. I get frustrated and that is when self-doubt strikes. This is exactly where I found myself a few, short weeks ago.

And then something happened.

Every class, I teach, I share a quote of the day with my students. It is usually something that I find online. Something to motivate them and get them to think of themselves and their lives differently. As I was sharing one day, something hit me. I always give my students advice, but find that I don't always take it and here was the best advice staring right at me! When I read the above quote, I suddenly saw my life in a new light. Any self-doubt or jealousy began to disappear. You see, I realized that your journey is not mine. What I am accomplishing is different than what everyone else is accomplishing. And this journey that I am on is exactly where I am supposed to be. Being a writer means being patient. Success does not come over night. Authors don't find success overnight. It takes years of hard work to get to that point and most of that time, that hard work took place behind closed doors.

I am just beginning on this journey and it is my own. And someday, with hard work and patience, I will get there, too.

~Happy Reading
Sara

Before I sit down to write, I put together a writing playlist. Certain songs will get me in the mood to write specific types of scenes. After awhile, the list changes as my story changes. It is molded into the perfect playlist to go along with the book.. As I was listening to my generic list today to prepare to write some more tonight, and I realized that I never did share my playlist for A Sadness Within. This book has a very dark mood at times and so a lot of the music I listened to was dark. Take a listen! You may find something new to add to your collection.
- Happy Reading (and listening!)
Sara

1. "Rainy Day" by Guster
2. "My Immortal" by Evanescence
3. "Fix You" - Coldplay
4. "Gloomy Sunday"  and "Ice" by Sarah McLachlan
5. "Shattered" by OAR
7. "Look After You" by The Fray
8. "Love is Blindness" by U2
9. "I'll Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie
10. "Hemorrage (In My Hands)" by Fuel
11. "Soulmate" by Natasha Bedingfield
12. "Politik" by Coldplay
13. "Untitled" by Domestic Problems

Instrumental Songs
"Variations on the Kanon by Pachabel" by George Winston
"Prelude in D Flat" by Chopin
"Fantasy #2 in D Minor" by Mozart
"Rhapasody on a Theme of Paganini" by Rachmaninoff
"Brokan" by Helen Jane Long

A pic of me 2 1/2 years ago with my first query submission! Today is a big day. Today I am revealing myself to the world. I am releasing a book. Several years ago, I decided to begin my lifelong dream of writing a book. It is something I had always wanted to do but honestly, never thought it was possible. I toyed with writing in high school and even in college, writing short stories (I made my creative writing class cry!) but never really got going. I even worked as a writer and editor for a small travel magazine after college. Still, writing about tour destinations is a far cry from writing the next great American novel. Instead, I pushed the notion to the side.

Fast forward to years later, and I decided that it was time to start. I wrote in secret at first, not telling anyone what I was writing, slightly embarrassed to be writing a paranormal romance. Gradually, I began to tell my friends and family. There were mixed reviews. People thought I was crazy. People thought I was a genius. People thought I was brave. I thought I was just being me.

I finished a few years ago and began to query. I queried some pretty big names. Agencies like Barry Goldblatt Literary (represents Jo Knowles and Robin Wasserman) and Jane Rotrosen Agency (represents Jennifer Armentrout and Kristin Hannah). I did my research. I didn't just query every agent. I queried about 15 agencies and got rejections from every one. This may not seem like a lot, but like I said, I was picky. Those 15 came from a list of over 100. Feeling a bit frustrated, I pushed my project to the side until a very good friend (author Gypsy Rae Choszer) said that I should self publish. With a renewed sense of promise, I decided she was right.

Today is my release day. Today is the day tat all of my blood, sweat, and tears become a reality. Writing a book is an extremely revealing process. I didn't just write and publish a book. I learned a lot about myself. I feel that in sharing a book, I am sharing myself as well, and that is an absolutely terrifying notion. Still, after waiting for someone to make my dreams come true, I decided that my dreams will happen when I make them happen. Today is an important day to me, not just because it is my release, but because it is the start of something new. I started my own publishing company to publish my books. I am a writer and now I am a published author. There will be many people who like my books and those that don't and that is okay. I learned a long time ago that you don't write to become rich and famous. You write for yourself. That's why Fitzgerald's quote is so important to me. I write because I have something to say. Enough for several more books. ;)
~Happy Reading (and writing!)
Sara

A SADNESS WITHIN is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com via ebook. Paperback copies can be ordered soon!

After a few hectic days, I finally finished going through the edits from my editor, and I am happy to say that A Sadness Within is back with her for a final check! The last few days have been a barrage of emotions as I looked at some of her edits and thought, did I really write THAT!? Or, I can't believe I forgot to put THAT!? My problem is that I am a perfectionist. Not only that, but I teach English both at the high school and college level. I know that I need an editor, we should never edit our own work, but that doesn't stop most people from expecting perfection from me. As a result, I expect perfection from myself! I can't tell you the number of people who delight in finding a mistake in a status update, email, or even this blog post. It is often hard for me not to take it to heart, but just like them, I need to remember that I am only human and therefore not perfect.

It took a lot of restraint to keep myself from taking the edited manuscript and reread it all over again to fix any "mistakes," because to me, there will always be mistakes. Always things I can change or fix. I talked to my author friend, Gypsy Rae Choszer, who said that there came a time when she, too, just had to let go. That is exactly where I am right now, too! I have to just let it go (thank you Disney and Idina Menzel for forever giving me an earworm!). This book is going to to be fine. There will be good reviews and bad, and there will also be MISTAKES (GASP!). I can always fix them on the reissue anyway.
~Happy Reading!
Sara

I can't believe that the day has actually arrived. . . the cover reveal! This cover was designed by Laura at BookFabulous Designs.  Isn't it gorgeous?

It's funny how having a cover and sharing it with the world, actually makes it so very real. I started writing this book about 6 years ago. I would work diligently on it for awhile and then put it up for several months. It has gone through many versions and has certainly been a labor of love. Sharing this with the world is a satisfying yet terrifying endeavor!! I hope you all like it. Feel free to share with anyone you think would be interested in reading A Sadness Within when it releases, Summer 2014.