Celebrating the Best of Royalene Doyle

and her fantastic Conversations

• Conversations: 8/2/13

Royalene’s first post for us was way back in 2013, almost six years ago. Can you remember what you were doing six years ago? Luckily for us, the archives of our blog have preserved Royalene’s thoughts from the time, and they’re wonderful thoughts indeed. Here, in her first ever blog post for Self Publishing Advisor, Royalene captures what it means to feel (and to forget to feel) what it means to be a newly published author. As someone with experience on both sides of the self-publishing divide—Royalene has provided a variety of editing and assistive services, as well as published her own books—she found herself ruminating on what is valuable about that newness, that new-minted feeling. A hint? It has to do with passion. And over the last six years, we’ve seen plenty of that most important of all things, passion, pouring out through Royalene’s “Conversations” post. We highly recommend that you take a look at this, her first, her marquee blog post! She also delves into some tips and tricks for writing books in the self-help genre, specifically for authors looking to give other authors advice.

• Conversations: 1/30/15

Speaking of advice for writers of genre, this next blockbuster success of a “Conversations” post comes from 2015, two years into Royalene’s tenure on Self Publishing Advisor. In this post (titled, cleverly, “Saints and Science Fiction”) Royalene examines the ins and outs of a very different genre, one in which convention and the confounding of convention are equally important features. The advice Royalene gives is, as always, incisive in its observation as well as enduringly humane. She draws upon her own experience and the experience of her friend, an author in the genre, and the methods and processes by which he created his works. And if you’re wondering if this is only ever going to be useful to authors of science fiction—it’s not! In this blog post, Royalene and her friend provide a series of motivations to keep authors of all genres in “the zone” and in love with their project. One of the greatest takeaways is the use of what they term a “Motivation Diary,” and you can be sure we’re thinking long and hard about whether to add this to our own lives right now as we face life on the blog without Royalene. She was (and remains, albeit more distantly) our greatest cheerleader and motivator.

• Conversations: 10/21/2016

Our final “best of” post for the day also touches on genre, only this time the genre in question isn’t lifestyle/self-help or science fiction … it’s mystery! We all know and love the work of Agatha Christie, of course, and Royalene is no different, paying her homage and looking deep into what makes a work in the mystery genre a success. Hint: it has to do with the word “brinkmanship,” which Royalene defines at length, also discussing its entanglement with other concepts and methods for writing. Definitions have always been one of Royalene’s greatest strengths as a contributor to this blog, and this post is no different. Not only does she lay down some wisdom about brinkmanship, but she also defines and explores the ramifications of “clues,” “red herrings,” “the suspects,” and “disguises”—particularly as they relate to the writing of mystery books. And of course, Royalene’s skill with a sentence really shines throughout this post as well, as always. Well worth a second look!

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That’s all for this week! We’ll be back next Friday as we detail more of Royelene’s greatest hits, as determined by our blog’s analytics. You can follow Royalene’s further adventures by checking out her Twitter feed (her handle is @RoyaleneD) or her website at www.DoyleWritingServices.com. We miss you, Royalene! ⚓︎

ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. She developed these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, has received excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.

Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena. December 2017 marked the end of Royalene’s tenure at Self Publishing Advisor. and we will be spending the next few weeks celebrating some of her all-time hits, her most well-received articles for our blog, in thanks for years of generous service.

‘TIS ALMOST THE TIME TO SAY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Two more days—just 48 little hours—when the New Year’s Eve gatherings will be in full swing and we all step into 2018. I must admit, in my youth, I never considered what my life would be like in this future. I certainly didn’t imagine that I’d be a writer, or that a majority of my writing efforts would be amazingly blessed by helping other writers fulfill their dreams of being published. So, as this year of 2017 slips into memory, I’d like to share a few highlights of my writing life with all of you, and hope these will trigger thankful remembrances of your own writing career—encouraging you to look into your writing future.

First, I am so thankful for the English teachers who encouraged me in elementary and high school. After listening to experiences from other authors, I know my classroom days were filled with miracles—encouraging words (and grades).

I am also thankful for the university professor who gave me very poor grades, adding comments that belittled my writing style—and writing voice. Even though I totally stopped writing for a few years, there was always something inside nudging me to put pen to paper and share what was on my heart. Christmas card notes became the impetus that helped me start writing again.

My Aunt Sherry (my Mother’s youngest sister) was also an encouraging force. “You have such a natural way with words,” she’d say. And when I started writing essays and short stories again, she was the first to lovingly critique them. She was thrilled for me when one of my Sci-Fi short stories was published.

By the time I was in my 30s I was happily a member of a writers’ workshop that met once a month. Each one of those gatherings (of 8-15 people) was filled with love and laughter, critique and word-play, and spontaneous combustion of ideas to further plot and character development. These marvelous people will always “speak” to me in my “inner-writer’s-ear.” However, I most often hear the gentle, poetic voice of our leader, Lois Beebe Hayna. She left this planet this year at the age of 104, but will never leave my heart and thoughts and her poetry books will bless many generations. I strongly suggest you Google her name and listen as she reads her own “Last Will and Testament” poem.

There were also many years of my writing life when I was employed fulltime (to pay those monthly bills) and happily found myself in positions where I typed (read and gently critiqued) the papers of anthropologists and archeologist, department and company managers and owners. The pattern of writing—and building my skills all along the way—continued as I was recruited to become a high school teacher. Student assignments came flowing in and, again, my writing (and communications) background proved useful.

Then came the day when my husband read one of my short stories. “This has to be published!” Neither of us knew anything about the publishing world, but we did realize that no traditional publisher would publish one short story. So, we printed it. The title is DEPLOYED: A Christmas Story, and the initial printing of 500 copies were mostly given to detachments of soldiers being deployed. It is now a paperback and eBook on Amazon.

Writing is such a passion in my heart that I had to produce a second book in 2015: FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words. This one was done the correct way with Outskirts Press where I hope publish a fiction work soon.

Today I continue writing almost full-time! My writing life story is unique to me and yet I’m certain you’ve recognized similarities to your own journey. Each day for me is a balance act between writing for clients and helping them publish their own books, and writing my own stories—always researching some unique element no matter which project is before me.

THE writing life (our life) is full of those “construction” and “scaffolding” pieces shared with you this month. It is also a path with Bright Stars along the roadmap highlighting the writing we’ve done, the authors, publishers, editors, creative consultants we met, and books we’ve published. May you continue the journey and enjoy every moment of 2018 and beyond… ‘til we meet again. ⚓︎

ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. This is a nice fit as she develops these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, is already receiving excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.

Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena. This is Royalene’s last “Conversations” post for Self Publishing Advisor.