Julie Elise Landry
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How I drove myself crazy trying NOT to publish

11/1/2015

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I awoke before dawn after a quiet but restless Halloween night.

My stomach churned with acid and I fed it coffee, shutting out the self-destructive whispers encouraging me to abandon this pursuit. But as I turned the corner into my office, I saw the message scribbled on my tiny chalkboard: Publish or Perish.

In that moment, I wanted to perish.

But I sank to the ground, positioning myself in front of the plastic tub that holds my laptop--the makeshift desk I fashioned when I moved back to New Orleans a year ago. My old desk didn't survive the trip out of my old office, much less the trip from northern Louisiana.

For hours, I fought with various uploading systems and formatting requirements, making all the final arrangements to let people read the book I wrote, if only in electronic form.

And then, I stalled.

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The Touch—the Feel—of Paper

10/30/2015

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I had a difficult week.

Every day, I fought with the CreateSpace file review system over the cover for my paperback of Bless the Skies. Though CreateSpace repeatedly approved my cover, the digital proofing system showed me terrible-quality renderings of the artwork, with pixelated white lines stitching up all the seams between graphic elements.

I continually harassed my poor cover artist Andy Tripp, demanding file after file for CreateSpace's 10–24 hour review process. By the time we'd gone five rounds, I'd long terminated any remaining emotional connections to this novel.
"It was the horrible never-ending oscillation between hope & despair which I could not longer have endured without the total loss of reason." -- Edgar Allan Poe
As it turns out, those white stitches were a pixel-only problem, not an ink problem. They never would have transferred to print.

And last night, a copy of my book landed in my hands.

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The Genius of Lists

1/27/2015

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Today, I purchased Workflowy Pro.

In all honesty, I did not need to purchase Workflowy Pro. I cannot imagine requiring more than 250 bullets in a single month (I use an entirely separate account for my job), the themes aren't compelling enough to justify $50/year, and my Dropbox account is currently too full for me to sync ANYTHING.

[Reminders:
  • Clean out or upgrade Dropbox account
  • Sync Workflowy to Dropbox account
  • Figure out why Weebly won't allow me to indent these bullet points into subpoints]

But I purchased Workflowy's premium services—because I love the program. I gave them money simply to support their product, out of an irrational fear that maybe one day they'll be $50 short of staying in business. I want Workflowy's people to know that people like me love the product their people made.

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An Awkward First Post

1/24/2015

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Once upon a time, blogging felt easier than speaking. I'd douse the Internet in all the sad, angst-steeped thoughts of an introspective teenage girl, and as a result, always knew what to say. Now, anticipating actual traffic to this website with the launch of my first self-published novel (hopefully soon), I find myself asking what a stranger might be curious to know about me!

I'd like to say that I've been working on Bless the Skies for over a decade. I began at the unfortunate age of fourteen, writing in pencil in a notebook I hid beneath my mattress. I managed to evacuate New Orleans with that notebook in August 2005, but I'd dare not look at it now! The story began as a dream of two girls fighting monsters in a forest.

For the past few months, I've been planning the sequel -- I don't like the stringency of the word "outlining," but the number of ordered lists burrowing into my Workflowy account certainly resembles an outline -- and I have significant ideas for two other dark fantasy novels. Every weekday, I drive twice across the world's longest bridge over water, and those miles offer delightful opportunities for think-think-thinking of stories.

My preferred alcoholic beverages are rum, bourbon, and beer. I have Christmas lights in my home office year-round. Nearly all my clothes are blue.

I hope you'll be reading me soon!
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    Julie Elise Landry: 
    n. (1) Author of dark fantasy novel Bless the Skies. (2) A New Orleans native. (3) One who adores musicals and violent horror movies. 
    v. (1) to overthink

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