From the Editor:

Karma Snow and Following Your Dreams

By Lazette Gifford
Copyright © 2008 by Lazette Gifford, All Rights Reserved

It's March, and the ice age of this last winter is finally starting to retreat.  I've seen the jagged, brown edges of grass sticking up at the edges of snow piles!  It won't be long until all that white stuff is gone again.

This year we had a lot more snow than usual, and it was my fault.  This was Karma Snow.  For years, I've sat in my nice warm house, happy as a kitten whenever it snowed.  Isn't it lovely, I'd say as my poor husband grumbled and went out to shovel or had to drive to work.

This winter, my husband took a job in New York -- and I was the one out there dealing with the snow.  So this winter's snow-on top of - snow was my fault.  Karma.

I do hope some of you out there enjoyed it!

I wrote something in my LiveJournal the other day that I think is really appropriate to Vision: A Resource for Writers.  I hope that you find it helpful!

Whatever your dream is for publication, that's the one you should follow.  That doesn't mean it has to be a dream of seeing your book on the shelves of bookstores.  I concentrate on that facet because that's the world I am most involved in, so it's natural for my thoughts to go in that direction.  But remember, I have work up on websites, too. 

If your dream is to have a story on a website that is visited by thousands of people, that is a perfectly legitimate and good dream as having a book in a store.  It's your dream.  You should pursue it in every way that you can.  And, while I've said not to let people talk you out of trying for that book on the store shelf, by the same token, don't let them talk you into it, either.  As long as you fully understand what it is you want, and understand both what you gain and what you lose, and then go after what you want.

And don't listen to the people who tell you that it is impractical.  Dreams are meant to be impractical on some level.  If they were things you could do easily, they'd hardly be worth dreaming about.  Some people may even tell you that pursuing dreams is something you should give up.  If everyone followed that advice we'd be a very poor world.

Find your dream and follow it.  Don't go the easy way -- because the easy way will rarely be the fulfillment of your dream.  If you are going for website publication, then work harder to make certain that publication is the very best you could possibly write.  Find out about website layout and the best way to present it.  Even in Blogger and LJ there are a number of options.  Make it unique, and make it yours.

If you are going to try for traditional publication, remember that it is harder work.  The writing might be much the same, but you are going to have to deal with everything from query letters, synopsis writing, and submission packages to agents and contracts.  Don't let that daunt you.  Every month there are new names on the shelves, and you know that they had to go through the same thing.  (Even the ones who are old writers under new names still had to do this initially!)