Author Dana Lockhart

Welcome to a new segment on my blog I like to call Dana Harts! It's a silly pun on like "I ♥ NY" T-shirts and things like that. Dana Harts will be about things that I love, specifically literature and movies that I recommend.  A sort a recommended reading/watching list, if you will.  I'll try to give you enough information about what makes this stuff amazing without spoiling anything important. Today I'll be talking about how much I ♥ Siren's Lament ! Siren's Lament is a web comic on Line WebToons by instantmiso.  It's free to read, it's beautiful, and it's pulled at my heart strings unlike anything else in a long time.  It's a love triangle with hot mermaid men.  What more do you want? The story follows a flower-shop owner Lyra, who is broken hearted because her best friend/crush is dating another woman. When her heart finally reaches it's breaking point, she goes to the ocean's edge and there she hears a hypnotic voice offering ...

It's hard to find time to blog right now, and I apologize for that.  So here's an explanation for my absence and some updates for the future. Long story short, my dad is in critical condition at the hospital and I've been spending most of my free time with him. It's been hard. I don't have much to update on the pitching situation either.  One agent I still haven't heard from and the other that seemed interested hasn't replied to my follow up. I am slowly working on a new series of blog posts that I hope to release soon.  A sort of review/recommendation of reading/watching.  When I find something I enjoy, I want to spread the word in hopes someone else will find joy in it, too. I'm gearing up for the Steampunk Festival in Hannibal, MO. My writers guild will have a booth there. In the spirit of things I'm putting together a costume that I'll try and have finished by then. It kind of all depends on the health of my dad at that point whether I'l...

I have a lot and nothing at all going on at the same time. I got five agents that requested material while I was at Gateway Con. I didn't like one of them because he sounded like he came from a vanity publisher, and another one told me to submit it via their website but their website isn't accepting submissions?  So I sent varying requested lengths of The Un-Life to the remaining three and so far I've only gotten a brief response from one that didn't say yes or no.  So I'm not sure what's going on there. I suppose I'll see what the others say before I start digging in too deep. Gateway Con was amazing. I recommend it or any other writing conference if you are an aspiring author. I met several authors that have become acquaintance-friends.  Made some connections, I hope, with editors and agents.  Learned some.  The hotel was pretty and expensive but amazing.  I bought some signed books.  Conventions are a great way to boost confidence, meet people, and ...

A lot is going on in my life right now that has distracted me from posting on a regular basis. I ended a bad relationship as well as a bad friendship and I'm taking it hard. I'm a little over a month into my new job and I'm loving it! But more importantly, I'm nearly to the next step in my publishing adventure. I will be attending the St. Louis Writers Guild Gateway Conference  this weekend. There I will network with authors, editors, and agents, and the best part of all is that I will be pitching to two or more agents to try and get The Un-Life of William Moore published traditionally. It is a little conflicting.  From how much Kindle Scout wanted to turn my novel into a crime thriller, I'm afraid of what an agent or publisher would want to do to it before they'd say yes. But I can't just ignore the opportunity.  So often when you submit queries it can take months, even years, before you hear back as to whether they want your  novel or not.  I don't wa...

-Where Have I Been?- Well, nowhere, really. I'm just in a wonderfully weird spot right now. I got a new job, which is great, but it did put me in this unsettling limbo as I waited to start my first day. As I discussed in my post announcing my resignation, when I quit I was sent home to finish my last two weeks as "vacation." This was upsetting due to not being able to say goodbye to anyone, among other reasons. It was also off-putting because I couldn't start my new job immediately despite my sudden availability. They were expecting me more towards May 1st, and here I was free on April 17th. Both bosses were away, one for almost a week, another for a week and a half.  Three days after I quit I got a hold of one, who said that the other one needed to be back before we could get started. Okay. I passed another week in this uncomfortable stand-still. I binge watched a lot of TV (Sherlock Holmes two times, two seasons of Supernatural, the Lost in Space first season, lots ...

-I Was That Kid- When I was still just in middle school I once caught myself with no less than ten novels in my back pack.  I devoured books like I was starving for literature.  I always checked out the maximum number of books from the school library and picked the biggest books I could so they would last longer.  But after I left high school, my time spent reading dropped drastically.  At school I burned through homework like a wildfire and often had spare time during class to read.  My bus commute was no less than two hours even though I lived 20 minutes from the school.  But once I graduated high school, I didn’t have the obviously free time anymore where reading or staring into space were the only options I had to occupy my time.  During college I’d bring my laptop with me and during my down time I leeched off the college’s wifi to play games and watch videos.  During this time I became a Netflix account parasite and binged seasons upon season...

It's honestly been a hard month. Full of stand-stills and unexpected pitfalls. I'm disappointed that most things I'm trying to achieve in my life right now just aren't going according to plan.  But that's fate for you.  Try as you might, the universe can off-set you at a whim. I'm also sad to announce that just three months after my campaign, Kindle Scout has thrown in the towel and will no longer be accepting submissions.  I had planned on continuing to submit my work to them in the future, but now that is no longer possible, unless by some miracle they reopen submissions.  But right now, I'm assuming they are just shutting down the program for good. But!  All is not lost.  I'm reconsidering my plans for The Un-Life of William Moore . I am wanting to get it out as soon as possible.  My plan had been to self publish.  However, I am strongly considering changing my mind and giving my novel a chance to be traditionally published. Normally the tradit...