Blog Tour: Guest post with Heather L. Reid, author of Pretty Dark Nothing + US Giveaway

I was really excited to have the opportunity to read the YA paranormal novel, PRETTY DARK NOTHING. Here is author Heather L. Reid’s way of battling writer’s block. Make sure to check out the  giveaway at the bottom of the post!
 

Cursing The Blank Page: How I Battle Writer’s Block

The cursor winks, mocking me as it looms above the blank page.

“Come on. Do it. Write something.”

Dark and evil it blinks, a beacon of my own inadequacy, each beat a challenge.

“I dare you.”

Fear grips me, anger too.  My mind is blank. I wipe sweat from my forehead with a sleeve. I take a sip of water, to ease the dryness in my mouth. Ideas swirl through my thoughts, I grab at them, one by one examining them in my mind, then throw each back into the ether. None of them are good enough. None of them worthy of the demands of that damned cursor. I curse. Damn you. I look at the clock. 10:20 am. Time and the cursor are in cahoots with their taunts.

It’s Wednesday, a blog post is due, I have interview questions to answer, my inbox is piling up, and the deadline for the sequel to Pretty Dark Nothing is looming like a dark cloud. All I really want to do is give the cursor the finger and escape into a game of Skyrim and devour a bar of chocolate.

“Quitter.” The cursor sneers.

Heat rises in my cheeks. I grit my teeth. I am not a quitter.

“There’s only one thing that can guarantee our failure, and that’s if we quit.”–Craig Breedlove

The cursor stares at me, shocked.

“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I start to write.

“Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until have accomplished a purpose – not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember.”–Anne Sullivan

Not my own words, at first.

“Other people and things can stop you temporarily. You’re the only one who can do it permanently.” –Zig Ziglar

I will not let the blank page, that blinking cursor, win.

“All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right about-face which turns us from failure to success.”–Dorthea Brande

Act as if it were impossible to fail, act as if it were impossible to fail, act as if it were impossible to fail…the mantra for today. The thing that’s getting me through this blank page is the encouragement found in the words and the works of others. It’s the friends that I’ve made online, the support from my peers, my family, my readers, and the belief that I have a calling. This passion for the written word isn’t for naught.

“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.”–Beverly Sills

There is poetry in my soul aching to be released. I must learn to trust it every single day. I grab onto that idea. I hold it close and let it feed me the determination to never give up, to act as if it were impossible to fail. I open myself up and let the words pour onto the page, without fear, without limits. What is there to lose? One word at a time, the good, the bad, the ugly, let it flow until it builds into a flood. It is then that I remember why I write and let the joy of storytelling fill me until I am bursting at the seams. The cursor is no longer my enemy, but my partner, working together to weave magic.

ABOUT HEATHER L. REID:

Heather L. Reid eats mayonnaise on her fries, loves men in kilts, and met her husband playing Star Wars Galaxies online. This native Texan now lives with her Scottish hubby in North Ayrshire, Scotland, where she wanders the moors in search of Heathcliff and William Wallace.      
 

TOUR WIDE GIVEAWAY:

Grand prize includes a signed copy of PRETTY DARK NOTHING, bookmarks, sleep mask, and nail polish! (US Only). Five ebook copies of PRETTY DARK NOTHING will also be given away, open internationally.

Rafflecopter code:

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Book Links: Goodreads – Amazon – Barnes & Noble

Author Links: Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads

Month9Books: Website – Blogger Central – Facebook – Twitter – Pinterest – Goodreads

TOUR SCHEDULE: 

April 22 – Falling for YA (Guest Post)
April 23 – Imaginary Reads (Review)
April 24 – The Eater of Books! (Review & Interview)
April 25 – Book Twirps (Review)
April 26 – Chapter by Chapter (Review & Favorites Q&A)
April 27 – Library of  a Book Witch (Review)
April 28 – Life Debatable (Guest Post)
April 29 – Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf (Interview))
April 30 – YA Book Central (Guest Post)
May 1 – Book Haven Extraordinaire (Guest Post)
May 2 – Books of Love (Review)
May 3 – I Am A Reader, Not a Writer (Top Ten)
May 4 – The Book Cellar (Interview)
May 5 –  A Dream Within A Dream (Review)