Write for the Love of It by Karen S Bell

Author of the novel, Walking with Elephants, Karen S Bell shares writing advice.

Advice I would give new authors…

Write for the love of it.

If you are set on making a living at it get admitted to the best writing programs at the best universities. Work the connections you make there.

For the rest of us that can’t do that or who started writing after college like me, don’t quit your jobs, or live with someone who is willing to pay all the bills.

I guess if you have the money and time go to writing conferences, I didn’t, so you can try to build connections with agents. Agents are looking for blockbusters or aren’t looking for new clients so having connections is key.

There is a deluge of writers out there competing for the limited audience of readers who will take a chance on an unknown, who happen to read your genre, who read at all. Name recognition comes with big marketing expenditures if you self-publish. Some get lucky and get a following. But if they don’t have the writing chops, it doesn’t last.

So, try and be touched by the gods or just enjoy the process. I’ve written three books that most people haven’t read. I will probably be unknown for my entire writing experiment. But who knows? Maybe after I’m dead I’ll hit it big because as long as Amazon is in business my books will be for sale.

About Karen S Bell

I get so much satisfaction in the writing process. I take care to choose just the right word, to make sure each sentence has the right cadence. I appreciate other writers who respect the craft in this way, and I hope my readers do so with me.

Writing is a need, a desire for expression, and springs from well within my subconscious mind. Thoughts rise up, scenes rise up and blend in with the over-arching story. These thoughts emerge whenever they want to and wherever I am and probably not when I am at the computer.

The computer is for the craft, the technique. The thoughts come during walks, or while driving the car, or at the grocery store. I am the willing recipient of these thoughts and so they seek me out. It’s a mystery this business and art of writing and it keeps me enthralled.

Connect with Karen on her Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon | Goodreads

About the Book

Walking With Elephants by Karen S. Bell
Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction

Synopsis

Suze Hall is at a crossroads. Her nemesis at work, Wanda, has been promoted and now will be her boss. Her husband, Bob, is leaving her and the three kids for a six-month sabbatical down under. To top it off, her best friend, Marcia, is missing in action—playing footsie with some new boyfriend!

Adding to this disaster stew, David, the gorgeous hunk who broke her young-girl’s heart has coincidentally popped back into her life and has something she desperately needs to keep her job.

Walking with Elephants, a lighthearted slice-of- life story, brings to the table the serious work/family issues facing women today. It explores the modern dichotomy of a workplace that is filled with homemakers who still must cook, clean, carpool on nights and weekends, shop for prom dresses, and “create” the holidays—such as Suze. But it also is filled with women who have the same drive as men, have no family responsibilities, and will do what ever it takes to get ahead.

So step into the shoes of Suze Hall and commiserate over workplace politics, titillate your sexual fantasies, ride the wave of a working mother, and fall-down laughing.

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Watch the trailer on YouTube.