by Tish MacWebber | Feb 7, 2019 | Flash Fiction, Writing
Here I go again. I am starting over.
I have been working for over a month and a half to get to this day. Today I relaunch my website. It wasn’t a simple task for me. I am not trained for any of this. I am using The Easy Author Website; template two of three amazing options. The creator of The Easy Author Website and The Happy Writing Co, helped me to build it, I couldn’t have done it without her. Dionne and a few of my other friends have been very supportive of my journey here on the internet. Without their answers to my questions, it would not have been relaunched.
A website is never really done, is it? There is a risk of it becoming boring and people stop visiting. This is what we bloggers try to avoid. Losing our audience. We work hard to reach out and stay in touch with our frequent visitors, friends, family and supporters. Every blogger needs a support team. To the people who have patiently waited for me to get this show back on the road, thank you.
What has changed?
Many things have changed. I published my first novel in October 2018 and I have been working diligently to organically market it. Marketing is a must in the Indie Author world. To do it organically, without paying for advertising is how I am approaching it. Marketing on social media is tricky to navigate. I have learned about marketing on social media, and I am applying what I learn every day.
Which brings me to more news.
Here I go again. I am starting over.
I am currently working on building a full time writing career. Things changed in my life. I found myself with an opportunity to dive into this adventure with all of my gusto. My peers in the writing community assure me that I can earn a living by writing. It will be up to me to get it started and keep things moving smoothly. I didn’t plan for this to be the way things turned out. Now I can focus on what is important to me for the first time in a really long time. It is scary and new. It feels like the right move for me.
I am going back to the original blogging schedule for now.
Tomorrow, Trust Your Gut Thursday will be back. I have new material to write, for you to read tomorrow. The angry tomato will return for the weekend warrior series. I will be continuing the #Tishspiration Tuesdays. Things may look different, and changes will keep happening. I plan to keep blogging.
The Tish MacWebber Always Blinging…online store opened today!
The store is new on my website. Dionne came to my rescue again. Writing friends are the best. We help each other out. I ask lots of questions and usually, one person out there has the answer I need. I love the supportive writing communities I am active in.
In November, I won first place in the Kit Sora Flash Fiction Contest, sponsored by Engen Books. The name of my first place winning story is Love in a Bottle.
The story was received well in the different places I shared it.
People want to read more, they want to know what happened next. I didn’t know what to put in a newsletter. I have decided that it would be good to add more to this story in it. Every month, I will send a newsletter out, with a new part of this story, and in the future there will be new stories.
I took a chance this fall and paid admission to a prestigious short story competition.
The NYC Midnight Short Story Competition has 3 heats. I have submitted my first story. If I get to keep going, I am up for the challenge. They assign topics, genres and a character to write into your short story. I want to win and there are prizes. The best thing about it is that we all get feedback on our work. It will be priceless to get feedback on how to improve my writing skills.Timing is everything. I am hoping it is my time to shine. I am ready. Are you with me? Let’s go!
by Tish MacWebber | Jan 14, 2017 | Writing
Once upon a time a man was introduced to his granddaughter, Patricia MacLellan. When he met her, he called her Tish. It stuck. Tish MacLellan grew up in Cape Breton, in a house that used to be a church, on the world famous Cabot Trail. She spent her summers at local beaches and at a place she calls The Cabin. She learned to swim, and spent a lot of time rock hopping along the shores and coastlines of Cape Breton Island. She had a wild imagination, and dreamed of owning a horse someday. She still has her walkman with the best mixed tape ever, and it still works, even after putting all of those years and miles on it.
She loved to read, and began writing. Creative writing is one of many hobbies that she spent her spare time on. She kept a diary and when she got older, she called it a journal. She enjoyed cross stitching and embroidery. She learned to knit and to crochet. In high school, she wrote her first song.
Her love for animals made her decide to take a pre-vet program at NSAC. She was ill during her first year, and this delayed her completion of her B.Sc in Agriculture, majoring in Animal Science. While studying at NSAC, she met her future husband, Roy Webber. They dated, fell madly in love, and made it official with a wedding. The same day they got married, there was a hurricane. It was all very memorable, and all who attended the celebration of their marriage had a wonderful time, despite the weather.
Before the wedding happened, Tish was thinking about the name she wanted after she married Roy. She thought it would be a fun thing to create a new last name, and they could both become the first MacWebber Clan. Roy did not agree to this idea, and did not want to make any changes to his last name. Not even when Tish told him that she would create a brand new tartan for the new name. Tish decided to go the traditional route and take his last name, and legally became Patricia Webber. It didn’t take her long to adapt to her new name.
They moved around the Maritimes so much, that Roy’s family joked about them being gypsies. After living all over Nova Scotia, they moved to New Brunswick, shortly after a brief time living in Prince Edward Island. In Fredericton, New Brunswick, they made new friends, had roommates, and eventually bought their own mini home. They had cats constantly as pets for many years. After living in apartments for the majority of the years they were together, Tish decided that it was time, now that they have a home of their own, to get a dog. She looks forward to that. She still has no horse of her own, yet, the baby barn is not quite big enough for a horse.
When Tish decided one day that it was time to take a chance and share her songwriting with the world, she thought about creating a blog. Little did she know that it would build itself into a bigger project than she had imagined. She had also always wanted to write a fantasy trilogy, being a fan of reading them, herself. She asked her friends online what the best options were, and decided to go with a Blog page here, on WordPress. Then another new friend stepped up and made her think beyond the surface of what she was building. She revisited an old idea of hers to write her novels under a pen name, and she remembered wanting to become the first MacWebber. So, there it was. Tish MacWebber became her pen name.
Her beginner attempts at creating a blog page were good, but they weren’t great. So she asked again for help, and her new friends helped her some more. One of them took her page and changed it, and this was her new and improved starting point. Tish absorbed all the information this friend had shared with her, and thought long and hard about the next steps. She is very grateful for all of the help her new friends have given her, and she plans to return the favour, even if it is just by paying it forward. When she asked about her colours, branding and logo, people liked it for different things, but it wasn’t what she needed it to be. She kept thinking. After about three weeks of mulling it over in her mind, things clicked into place, simultaneously.
She searched through hundreds of colour palettes, picking her favourites. She found one that she kept referring back to, and decided that it was the one she would choose. Then she made a tartan design. She got her friends and family to give opinions on her progress as she tried to put the pieces all together. Her father told her that a circle would not be wrong on a tartan, rather that it would be the french connection. Her mother is french, so it fit. The motto for Clan MacLellan is, “Think On.” Her logo was developed with the phrase “Always Thinking…” because she is a dreamer that does think a lot; but also to honour her ancestors. Her cousin helped her pick the final design, and through their online chat the “…” was added to the logo. So that explains the colour, logo, and the circle. But the circle is made up of diamonds. The diamonds symbolize the marriage of all these things together, and connects all of the dots.
Tish does tend to overthink things at times. However, when she does this in terms of being creative, and it works, it makes her feel amazing. Being creative is her passion. She is going to share it with the world, and see how far it will take her.
