It's cover reveal day for the upcoming anthology, Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life!  I love the shadow image and look forward to reading the other stories.

Here is a list of the authors included in the anthology:
L. Nahay – Breath Between Seconds
Roland Yeomans - Sometimes They Come Back
Elizabeth Seckman - Mind Body Soul
Olga Godim - Captain Bulat
Ellen Jacobson - The Silvering
Erika Beebe - The Wheat Witch
Yvonne Ventresca – The Art of Remaining Bitter
Sean McLachlan - The Witch Bottle
Sarah Foster - The Last Dragon
Renee Cheung - Memoirs of a Forgotten Knight
Tyrean Martinson - Of Words and Swords

The anthology will be released on May 2, 2017 from Dancing Lemur Press and was created based on a contest through the Insecure Writer's Support Group. We'll have an anthology-specific website and blog available soon.  In the meantime, here's a description: 

Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life
An Insecure Writer’s Support Group Anthology
Can a lost hero find redemption? 

What if Death himself wanted to die? Can deliverance be found on a bloody battlefield? Could the gift of silvering become a prison for those who possessed it? Will an ancient warrior be forever the caretaker of a house of mystery?

Delving into the depths of the tortured hero, twelve authors explore the realms of fantasy in this enthralling and thought-provoking collection. Featuring the talents of Jen Chandler, L. Nahay, Renee Cheung, Roland Yeomans, Elizabeth Seckman, Olga Godim, Yvonne Ventresca, Ellen Jacobson, Sean McLachlan, Erika Beebe, Tyrean Martinson, and Sarah Foster.

Hand-picked by a panel of agents and authors, these twelve tales will take you into the heart of heroes who have fallen from grace. Join the journey and discover a hero’s redemption! 

My story, "The Art of Remaining Bitter," is about a girl who recognizes the motivating power of sibling rivalry in a society that only values positive emotions. Can feeling jealous ever be a good thing? What do you think?

In my attempt to be more productive this week, I'm keeping this blog post extra brief. Here's a bit of advice from Laura Vanderkam: Climb your mountains on Monday morning.  She suggests tackling some of your most important work first thing on Monday. If your schedule allows, is that something you would try?

By Yvonne Ventresca

​I never feel like I get quite enough done. To combat that (and to occasionally procrastinate), I’ve been reading about productivity. Here are four productivity experiments I tried this week:

2. On Monday, I attempted to schedule the whole day by using half hour segments, as suggested in Deep Focus by Cal Newport. (See last week’s post about the book.) The morning went great, and I was very pleased with myself. Then I realized I forgot to schedule lunch, or account for a phone call to my mom, and then a doctor’s appointment got moved up by an hour and a half. Newport suggests re-planning the day to the right of your original schedule as it transforms (which it inevitably does), but I felt frustrated and gave up. But, on the bright side, it was still one of most productive days of the week. The rest of the week I used a modified approach and blocked out which chunks of time I would use for writing, letting the rest of the day flow, and leaving breaks between creative sessions. That seemed to work better for me.

3. I’m participating again in a monthly #WritingChallenge, something that’s helped me in the past.  It’s a Facebook group that includes a group Google document where you can track your wordcount or revision time for the month. Not everyone likes this type of public accountability—you could also try stickers on a private calendar.

4. I am currently revising a new story which is in a messy state, and it can be overwhelming. One thing I did was make a list of useful things to do when I get stuck, like research a certain drug’s effect on memory, read a chapter of nonfiction (I have a biography of a killer I’m using as a reference), or work on my character notes instead of an actual scene. Sometimes these tasks are enough to get me feeling creative again, while keeping me out of the social media time-suck. (For another author’s take on revision, check out Jody Casella’s latest blog post. I love her puzzle analogy.)

I hope you have a productive week! This quote from Sage Cohen's The Productive Writer can be applied to other pursuits as well:  "Writers make time for writing. And everyone does it her own way. Your job is to find your way."

It's time to Celebrate the Small Things! This is a blog hop hosted by Lexa Cain, L.G. Keltner, and Tonja Drecker. My celebration: ​I have a short story, "The Art of Remaining Bitter," included in the Insecure Writers Support Group anthology. The anthology, due out in May, is called Hero Lost: The Mysteries of Death and Life.  I recognize several blogger friends among the winning names -- congrats to all!

By Yvonne Ventresca

Happy New Year! ​Over the holidays, I read Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport, which I loved. The first part of the book is about why deep (vs shallow) work is important, but since I was already on board with that, I mostly skimmed and went on to part two, where he includes lots of helpful strategies. Deep work is defined on his website as the "act of focusing without distraction on a cognitively demanding task."

Newport outlines four philosophies (lifestyles?) for creating deep work. One way is to focus on a project to the exclusion of everything else, which isn’t necessarily practical for most people. A second way is to work seasonally, so an academic, for example, could research one semester and teach another. 

But what about us writers with families and other obligations? Another method is to work whenever you can to squeeze deep focus around other tasks, training yourself to shift gears quickly. But since I work from home and can somewhat schedule my time, I’m looking for something more predictable.

And ta da! There is a “rhythmic” philosophy, of which Newport says, “…the easiest way to consistently start deep work sessions is to transform them into a simple regular habit. The goal, in other words, is to generate a rhythm for this work that removes the need for you to invest energy in deciding if and when you’re going to go deep.”

Rituals, my friends. I’ve actually come across this answer before, but have somehow failed to successfully implement it. Newport mentions Seinfeld’s chain strategy, for example, which I blogged about in Quick Productivity Tips for Creative People. And I explored rituals during my productivity-themed A to Z Challenge with R is for Routines and Rituals. Obviously I'm not entirely following my own advice. But it’s a new year! Anything is possible!

I hope to explore being a productive writer in other blog posts, but for now I’ll leave you with a quote from author Mason Currey (Daily Rituals: How Artists Work) that was included in Deep Work.

 “. . . waiting for inspiration to strike is a terrible, terrible plan. In fact, perhaps the single best piece of advice I can offer to anyone trying to do creative work is to ignore inspiration.”