Waking Up With Simon The Time Traveling Cat | IWSG

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is a place to share and encourage, where writers can express their doubts and concerns without appearing foolish or weak. It's a great place to mingle with like minded people each month during IWSG day.

Every month there's an optional question which may prompt folks to share advice, insights, a personal experience or story. Some folks answer the question in their IWSG blog post or let it inspire them if they're struggling with what to say.

This month's question is:

"As you look back at 2017, with all of its successes and failures, if you could backtrack, what would you do differently?"

Check out how people have answered this month's question, as well as the other insecurities and writing topics they may have shared by visiting the IWSG sign-up list here. If you want to see how I answered the question, have a look below.

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Via The Graphics Fairy

So this is what a heart attack feels like, I thought to myself as I woke up in the middle of the night and felt an intense pressure on my chest. As I rubbed my eyes and reached for my phone to dial 911, a furry paw jabbed me in the face.

"Wake up, lady," a low voice growled. I turned on the light, opened my eyes, and saw Simon the Time Traveling Cat sitting on my chest. "Geez, get up already," he said as he smacked his other paw across my nose, this time with his claws fully extended.

"Oof, get off of me, Simon," I said, trying to push him onto the floor. He was surprisingly heavy for a cat. Time to cut down on all of the saucers of full-fat milk he demanded on a daily basis. "What are you doing waking me up in the middle of the night?"

"Look into my eyes and count to ten," he said. "We need to travel back in time to answer that stupid IWSG question of yours about what you would have done differently during 2017."

I didn't put up much of a fight, probably related to the fact that I hadn't had any coffee yet. Simon blinked at me slowly with those weird clockface-like eyes of his and I felt myself drift off.

"Snap out of it, lady," Simon said. "We're here. It's New Year's Day, 2017" He rolled onto his back. "Now rub my belly and tell me what you would have done differently during this past year."

I sat up and started scratching his gray fur. "Well, for one thing, I would have never let you onto my boat in the first place."

Simon narrowed his eyes and growled. "Wrong answer, lady."

"Okay, fine. What I would have done is started getting ready to publish my cozy mystery, Murder at the Marina, much earlier."

"What cozy mystery?" Simon asked. I stopped rubbing his belly and stared at him. "Oh, do you mean that stupid manuscript that you got so worked up over just because of a hairball?"

I sighed. "Yes, that one."

He pawed at my hand. "Stop your whining and get back to scratching. And hurry up and tell me about this stupid publishing stuff so we can travel back to the present and you can give me some milk."

"It's just that there's so much to do. Deciding if I want to self-publish or go the traditional route, writing blurbs, setting up social media accounts, that sort of thing."

"Big deal," Simon said. "Use your nails, lady. If you're going to scratch my belly, do it right."

I took a deep breath and ignored him. "And, since I'm leaning towards self-publishing, then I have to think about cover design, ISBNs, formatting, uploading to Amazon and other sites. Not to mention all of the editing I'm going to need to do to my manuscript once I get feedback back from my beta readers. It's a little overwhelming."

"Whatever," Simon said. "Enough about you. I'm hungry. Time to go back to the present and get me some milk."

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In anticipation of maybe publishing my cozy mystery, Murder at the Marina, one of these days, I've set up an author website, author Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a Goodreads author account. If you have a minute, I'd love for you to check them out and follow along. Any tips, suggestions and/or feedback on using social media (especially Twitter, I'm clueless) as an author/writer also very welcome.

As you look back on the past year, if you had a time traveling cat or a time machine, what would you do differently?

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