About

Ellastasia aka Atombaby aka whoever the hell I am. I write, I read, I paint, and I love taking care of my husband and children. Homemaking, cooking, loving my 3 cats, this is living life to its fullest.

Numerous WIPs, one completed and self-published, then consequently withdrawn because of writer’s remorse, but I’m not the kind to hold on to past mistakes.

Writing is an interesting and neverending journey, one that is absolutely enjoyable no matter the pitfalls and disappointments I run into. Writing is an addiction I won’t be breaking out of anytime soon. I write for fun, I write for the sheer pleasure of it. Yes, I am one of those who could care less about profit.

So this blog is more or less a collection of my musings about my writing life, the tips and intelligentsia I’ve picked up along the way, and sometimes some random rant or other. This isn’t a formal author’s bio, so I’ll leave it here like it is.

16 responses to “About”

      • Are you sure? Of course you’re sure. And because it was solely your decision, you were able to take it down.

        I just self-published something I have always knows would be hard to get through traditional publishing. It may be egotistical to say, but I am profoundly satisfied with the ability to make every single editorial decision – and it looks, sounds, and feels EXACTLY the way I want it to.

        Took forever, of course – but trad pub isn’t known for being fast, either. My writing partner got her traditional deal at about the same time I was ready to publish – and she will have to wait until late this year for it to come out; it’s already been pushed back once.

        When you’re my age, possibly it is better to do it yourself than to argue with the young ones.

        Nice chatting with you, BTW.

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        • I have enjoyed reading your blog – I do tend to binge read, unfortunately – and most bloggers don’t produce nearly fast enough – because finding intelligent material on the web can sometimes be hard.

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        • And finding intelligent individuals on the web is equally as hard. And it’s so nice to meet you! I try to write a new post a few times a month as I’m a firm advocate of quality over quantity. I thank you for reading my drivel!

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        • I post when I have something to say – to myself or the world. Myself is good enough half the time because I like to figure something out (especially if I haven’t seen it elsewhere), and then add my little bit to the wisdom (?) of the internets.

          It’s often new to me, but I have been reading books on writing for twenty years now, so that surprises me (or I’ve been reading the wrong books).

          Doesn’t matter – it gives me practice composing, putting in H2 and H3 headlines, and using all the blogging formatting tools. And trying to be coherent when my brain isn’t as sharp as I need it for creating fiction (most of the time).

          I think of it as a magazine which happily publishes whatever I send it. At least there I don’t get rejected. I’ve taken a few posts down, fixed a few afterward, but in general it is good practice at getting thoughts out of my head and into usable form.

          And I’ve learned to use other tools, such as Quozio (which stopped working for me recently) and ShareAsImage (I use the free version – that’s all I need for now) to put up something graphic at the head of the post. And practicing my graphics skills is never a waste.

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  3. “It should have never been done!”
    I have to disagree! I’ve had lots of stuff published and even self-published a few things, some publishers were horrid to work with and I felt a lot of writers remorse- but it was a huge learning experience for me and I learnt a lot from it. Often times you learn more from jumping in head first then you ever would from watching on the sidelines! 🙂

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    • Thank you for the encouragement. It was definitely a good learning experience for me. One of my mottos is that there is no try, only do or do not.

      I have yet to deal with publishers/editors! The idea of warping my story to fit a trend (ie if a publisher suggests changes in the plot) would just kill me. Which is why I went the self-publishing route. But honestly, my story was just awful..!

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      • ALWAYS feel free to contact me! 🙂 I’d be happy to share any insight/publisher suggestions. I’ve never had publishers try to change anything major about my story, but they would likely tell you about major changes before offering a contract- I have had that one happen! 🙂

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  4. Short update: My writing partner withdrew her book from the publisher who had agreed to publish it – because they are no longer going to be publishing her kind of book (thriller), so they wouldn’t publish the second one in what she hopes will be a series!

    So she now has NO publisher, a new agent who doesn’t seem to be able to place the book, and NO publishing date (it was going to be September of this year).

    Not that I’m selling much – but at least I’m off the first book (except for marketing more), and writing the second, and that initial publication fear is over.

    You can get problems with traditional publishing even after they have accepted and scheduled your book for publication! I feel for her, but it makes me even less willing to join her.

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    • Thank you for sharing! I’m sorry about your writing partner. As with many things that have to do with money, there is always a catch. Will she continue with her agent, or is she considering self publishing?

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      • She will not consider self-publishing, so strong is her desire to be in bookstores and libraries and acknowledged by a publisher as publishable.

        She had to buy her rights back (they’d already edited the book). She didn’t have an agent before – had managed to get a contract with a small publisher by personal contacts at writers conventions like Thrillerfest (at her own expense).

        She now has an agent – but he’s not succeeding (again, I think, via a personal connection he took her on).

        She’s a good writer – but this is her chosen path.

        Lest you think she doesn’t know what she’s getting into, she’s a lawyer – so at least I know she can read the contracts.

        Some people want to be validated in the traditional way – I love her, but she knows how I feel and I know how she feels, so we are supportive of each other’s choice, but not a source for each other.

        There are still people being successfully published by the machine; she hopes to become one of them. She can afford to wait – so I don’t actually worry about her.

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        • Her ambitions are certainly understandable. There’s still an appeal to me to be published in the traditional way. After all, if TOR decided to publish me, I would be on cloud 9 till kingdom come. But we can all dream, right? My feet are firmly planted on the ground though (:

          Your friend’s situation sounds like a major headache, and I’m glad she was able to get her rights back. Contracts and legalities are intimidating. Just from my experiences with insurance companies vs my insurance agent, I’ll take an agent any day over trying to take care of it on my own. Being an attorney would definitely be beneficial, but that’s knowledge few of us are familiar with. So your friend has it a bit better than us plain folk!

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