Featured Writer on Wellness: Avis Adams

I feel so excited while I’m writing, but when it comes time to share my work, I freeze.

I’ve had to get over that, but rejection is difficult for me, as it is for a lot of writers.

What Helps Me Deal with Rejection

Rejection hasn’t stopped me, but I’ve had to become very pragmatic when dealing with agents and publishers. Their rejection seemed like a roadblock to my success, and it hurt, so I decided to own those feelings and allow myself 24 hours to mope, then I’d get back out there and work on revision suggestions or character development to improve my writing.

I have to write almost every day, so why not learn and improve from the suggestions? I walk every day as well, and I would clear my mind and meditate on peace and relaxation and letting go of negative feelings. I have a daily affirmations app on my phone, and I’d read that before going on my walk. I used to have a dog that would go with me, and her smiling face always made me forget my stress and tension.

I listen to classical music, sometimes light jazz, and I love what I call my Zen channel on my streaming device. It plays Indian flute, sometimes harp, but always calming music.

I also garden to relax and process thoughts. Writing is like a puzzle, and sometimes it hard to find the missing pieces, but I find if I slow down and relax using walking, gardening, and meditation with music, the pieces present themselves, or an idea will come to mind, and I can solve the issue.

I Limit My Screen Time to Reduce Eyestrain and Headaches

The biggest physical challenge is sitting for long periods inside in my office or somewhere at my computer. Screen time is getting more and more difficult because of things like eyestrain and headaches.

I have started writing early in the morning and revising in the afternoon, and I limit myself to an hour or two each session. I can get a lot done if I’m focused. If I’m on a roll, so to speak, I’ll write for two or three hours, but I lose productivity.

I’m not the kind of writer who can drop everything and pull an all-nighter, so I don’t even try to do that. I do write before my day starts to encroach on my creative thoughts. Then I do some yoga and stretches then breakfast and a walk.

Did I mention I’m an early riser? I wake around 5:00 am, and it allows me to use the quiet hours to work before I go to my real job.

How I Address Book Marketing—My Number-One Stressor!

Marketing has been difficult for me, and learning what it takes to sell a book has been a steep learning curve.

I have a blog, and I decided to focus on what I know, which is writing reviews because I do that as a part-time gig for a review company. I work with authors from my small press to create interviews for my blog. I send the author an info sheet and they send me cover shots, head shots, and responses to questions.

I write up an interview using their response to the questions and place the images and voila, I post it on my author website on my blog.

I also use Facebook and Instagram. I’ve tried TikTok and Twitter, but my accounts were hacked, and it seemed like I was spinning my wheels and not reaching a larger audience. I’ve quit using Twitter and TikTok, and I’ve focused on Goodreads, Bookbub, and I’ve taken a course on creating and using Amazon Ads, which I plan to explore this summer.

I’ve entered contests and sent my books out for reviews and received some really great feedback, but actually selling books has been difficult. I try not to dwell on the disappointing sales numbers and keep writing. I’m with a press that doesn’t look at numbers and drop you as an author for not making a certain number of sales, so that’s a relief, but it still weighs on me.

The small press also has an intranet for authors to share ideas and support one another, so that’s been helpful, and I have two writing groups that provide wonderful support.

Marketing has been the number one stressor in my writing life since I signed my first contract, and I have decided to address it like by taking courses and learning as much as I can to create a process and checklist for marketing my books so that I can focus on writing more books!

The Challenge of Finding Time to Write

I am an English Instructor at a community college. Teaching full-time makes finding time to write almost impossible.

As soon a quarter would begin, I could continue writing until about week four of the quarter. Then the workload would push all my other endeavors to the back burner. I was able to retire early, so I took that opportunity and began writing in earnest while teaching only one or two classes at a time. That enabled me to focus on a project with only minor interruptions, and I finally attracted a publisher for my first book, a book of poems.

I was elated.

It took longer to receive a contract offer for my first novel, but once that happened, I kept writing and now have two novels and a novella with a small press.

My writing groups keep me motivated to write. One group meets online once a week, and when we first started meeting six years ago, it was in person. It seemed like too much at first, but now it is part of my routine. My second group meets twice a month. I’ve been meeting with them for eight years, and twice a month seemed like too much at first. Now I can work through a novel bringing scenes and chapters to one group and another and get the feedback I need to see what’s missing, or what needs clarification.

One group also studies a book on writing craft, so we discuss a chapter on deep POV, or on character arcs. It’s been so helpful.

The problems I’ve had in the last couple of years that pulled me away from writing was a divorce after four decades of marriage, and a major move this year from a farm to a townhouse. I was in counseling with a wonderful therapist who helped me through both major events, but I never quit writing.

I’d say writing kept me grounded.

The marketing of my books suffered because I didn’t feel the energy to put myself or my books out there, so I didn’t do it. I’m working on the marketing portion now that I’m settled in my new home and the dust is settling. I also lost my best friend to renal disease.

The Garden is a Sacred Space for Me

I love the earth. This planet sustains us, and I love nature, and living sustainably. That was possible on my little farm. I loved growing food and putting it by for the year. I’d make enough jellies, jams, pickles, and apple sauce for the year. We’d have apple pies at the holidays from apples from our trees.

I loved to garden barefoot and feel the warm soil on my feet. I love the smell of moist soil as I’m pulling weeds or planting shrubs. I find it so relaxing, and the beauty of the garden is a wonderful result to share.

I’m in a townhouse community now, and I get compliments every day on the little bit of gardening I do here. It surprises me, but it’s also a great way to meet new people and socialize. My neighbor and I have become fast friends, and we’ve bonded over gardening and her lack of knowledge.

I don’t know everything about gardening, but I know enough to gain some satisfaction from it. The garden is a sacred space for me, and even if it’s just soil in a pot, it makes me happy, and I find it so comforting to get my hands dirty working the soil.

What Helped Me Get My First Publishing Acceptance

I kept getting rejections from agents and editors even though I wrote every day for years and I took classes in college and many, many workshops at Hugo House, online, through PNWA.

I joined a critique group and I also read books on craft constantly. The writing book that was instrumental in the acceptance of my first novel focused on deep point of view, and I truly feel like creating that deeper POV for my hero was the missing link for me.

Now I focus on writing in deep POV to create characters that readers can connect with and relate to. It’s been a steep learning curve, but I never gave up on this dream because I’m going to write every day whether I publish or not!

Advice for a Young Writer: Never Give Up!

Write every day. Take classes and workshops online, or through writing associations. Submit to contests and write in multiple genres. Attend readings and listen to the work of others and read your own work. Join a critique group. Read books on craft and never give up!

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Avis Adams lives in Oregon and has had two YA novels released by The Wild Rose Press: The Incident, in 2022, and The Disappearing Names in 2023. She has a romance novella, The Christmas Wish Knotts, released in 2022. Quilcene, her first chapbook was released in 2019.

She belongs to the Baker Street Writers Group, and Birds of a Feather Writers, and is an active member of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association and Willamette Writers. She loves to present sessions on writing craft at local conferences.

She lives near Forest Park in Portland, Oregon, where she writes, hikes, kayaks, gardens, and plays with her granddaughter. She teaches English at a local community college.

For more information about Avis and her work, please see her website or Linktr.ee page, and connect with her on Goodreads, Facebook, and Instagram.

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The Incident: Seventeen-year-old Josh has prepared for any emergency or storm, but when the storm of the century hits, he learns no one is ever prepared enough.

Sixteen-year-old Emma is on a mission to protect the environment, but she gets caught in the colossal storm, and her fight for the planet turns into a struggle for her survival.

Desperate to rescue themselves and the people they love in a world forever changed by the cataclysmic storms, they forge through an unrecognizable landscape where the rules have changed, and it takes more than luck to survive.

Available at Amazon and wherever books are sold.

The Disappearing Names: Fifteen-year-old Sam wants her missing father back. On an underground tour in Seattle, she learns the legend of the Roman Bricks and how they transport people to the past. Could she travel back in time and keep her dad from leaving?

She stays behind and touches the glowing bricks, but her best friend, Nicole, tries to stop her. When the dust settles, they find themselves in a strange room. It is soon apparent that they aren’t in Seattle anymore, nor in their own time. They are in 1901 Portland in the Shanghai Tunnels.

Sam and Nicole begin the journey to get home, but first they must understand how the bricks work and who to trust. Grandma Meyer gives her the answer, but can Sam trust her? Racing against the clock, Sam learns the hard way that if she’s not careful she could run out of time.

Available at Amazon and wherever books are sold.