Scrambling Out Of The Nest – My First Post

What have I gotten myself into?

That must be how a turtle hatchling feels as it makes its mad dash toward the sea, disoriented, exposed, terrified for its life. But to the sea it must go. In the sea there are no raccoons or foxes or ghost crabs to snatch it off the beach and devour it for dinner. In the sea, it will swim for miles offshore or catch a ride on a floating seaweed island and be carried off to more protected waters.

Conversely, my survival as a hatchling writer depends on NOT disappearing into the relative safety of the sea. In fact, if I am to succeed in this new venture at all, I must gather those liberties I’ve enjoyed all my life—privacy, anonymity, shelter from the judgement of others—and let go.

The prospect is darned-near paralyzing at times, and at times when I’m feeling particularly vulnerable, I think, Who the hell is going to be interested in the ramblings of a first-time author? That’s when I take deep breath and say, “Don’t worry about it.” Why should I worry? I’ve done everything I can to get myself to this point—which, in many ways, is just the starting line—and nobody can stop me.

I must remain on the beach.

Now that I’ve spilled my guts to you…

I’d like to introduce myself. My name is MJ Mumford, and I’m absolutely thrilled to see you here on my shiny new website. I’ve just put the final touches on my first-ever published book, TimeBlink: A Novel, and in a few short days, it’ll magically appear online where anyone in the world can get it! Yikes, that’s a humbling thought. You can find all the details on my website’s Books page, and I hope you’ll check it out.

My goal for this blog is to give you a glimpse of what it’s like to be an indie fiction writer.

Are you curious about traditional versus self-publishing? You’ll hear why I went down one road and not the other. Are you scratching your head right now, wondering why someone would launch her debut novel amidst a global pandemic? I’ll tell you why I think it’s a great idea. Or you may be wondering how I stayed on task without pulling all my hair out. I’ll tell you how a having a fantastic mentor has been crucial to getting me to this stage in my writing journey.

In other posts, I plan to do a Reading Roundup of the books I’ve read throughout the year with micro-reviews of each. Do you enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles? I’ll tell you how writing a novel is like putting a puzzle together. Have you ever seen the same numbers appearing repeatedly over days or weeks? For me, it was the number 444, and I’ll tell you all about it.

I’ll also be posting cover designs for upcoming novels that you are welcome to critique. Go on, I can take it! Arriving at the final design for TimeBlink was a six-month process that included twenty-two other concepts before I finally settled on one I was proud of. Have you ever come across a book cover that didn’t fit the genre you were expecting at all? Drop me a comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

So that’s it in a nutshell…er, turtle shell? Check back for more book-related content, or better yet, subscribe to follow my journey out of the nest!