New Cover!

     Here is the new cover for Ties of Fate: The Lost Continent. The first book I wrote and published. The artwork is thanks to my talented sister, Melanie, and her amazing Photoshop skills. It's on sale now at www.amazon.com in print or as an eBook.

Check out Melanie Brown and her novel, At First Sight: A Persephone Waters novel, also available in paperback or Kindle version.

Beginning Again

     So the first month of 2016 is almost over. It's been a bit stressful with my grandmother going back into the hospital for a few days after almost six months without an ER visit. I pray we can do at least another six months before her next one, if not longer. My sister and  I are rather tired after such ordeals, and I have to remember that it's emotionally stressful stuff even though I really didn't do anything while Gram was in the hospital.

     I said I was going to do a post about my goals for 2016. So here it is. Nothing like a sick family member to make you think about what you want to do, or not do. I recently took some time to sit down and talk with two of my closest friends to make a list of goals for 2016. Here is the gist of that conversation.

 

     Health is a big one and something I am constantly struggling with. I do not get sick often but I am very overweight and not very motivated to change. it's not that I don't want to change. I have dreamed about a slimmer me for years, but taking steps to make that happen, well, let's just say I am not very good with the follow through. So I am trying to be and eat healthier; 1) by cutting out fast food. 2) not buying sweets or sugary products (this is hard because sugar sneaks into a lot of "healthy" things) because I have NO self control with such things, though we do not buy candy and cookies very often at all these days, not so much as in my childhood. 3) exercising more, by trying for two miles 2 times a week and 1 mile two times a week, and anything over that is gravy. 4) Portioning and food tracking as well as Meal planning, which helps to see what you are eating and using what is already in your pantry, which brings me to my theme for this year, Use what you have.

     I have a lot. If you have read previous posts your would know that I have tubs full of stuff that I haven't seen in years. Using what I have means taking stock of everything and planning how I can use it in my home, or sell it and use the money to help pay off some of our growing debt. I have tons of craft supplies, some of which I plan to sell off outright and others stuff I plan to make and sell on Etsy. I already have a shop, MirrorImageStudios. I just need to focus on getting things up for sale.

     Organization is really big this time of year. I subscribe to a few websites like Organize 365 by Liza Woodruff, that gives weekly posts and podcasts on how to organize your home and any number of free printables for those of us who like to track what we accomplish. My family has donated thousands of dollars worth of stuff over the years, and I especially, get a sense of satisfaction when items get a new life and a new home instead of going into the trash. I plan to start organizing the house, starting with the kitchen in a few days. I already have a list and my printables ready. Cleaning things out also gives me the opportunity to deep clean some areas that really need it.

     Along with organization goes a chore list and keeping the house clean on a daily basis. It's hard when you are stuck at home 24/7. Most people don't have a messy house because they are rarely home. (Oh, for that luxury!) I have to admit that sometimes I become blind to certain things, and my goal this year is to keep the house and garage clean so that those unexpected visitors don't catch us unawares.

     On a personal level, I want to Love God more, and owe the fact that He loves me. I have problems with feeling loveable. I am aware of them, which they say is the first step, but I want to work on my own self-image and feeling like I am making a consistent effort to be more like God has made me. For me this means setting aside time to pray and read my bible that isn't tacking Him on the end of my day as an afterthought or an 'oh, I gotta do that before I go to bed' sort of thing. I need to trust Him, and spend more time with the Word.

     I also want to write daily. I have several projects that I am working on; two novels that I am writing that are almost finished, plus artwork for The Chronicles of Odde series. In certain areas of my life I am a perfectionist, which doesn't make a lot of sense because I know that they will never be perfect and at some point I have to stop and let it go. My writing and art are such areas. I have so many ideas but not the time and skills to execute them. I am learning to build my skill set, and that patience goes a long way towards having a successful outcome.

     My biggest challenge is not giving up, especially when life gives me curveballs and I fall off the wagon or wonder off the path. I need to focus my efforts, and not put too much on my plate a one time. I have lots of ideas and the key is doing a little bit every day.

     Are there any things you are excited about doing this year? Any goals that you are struggling with but determined to see through? I know I have a lot on my lists, yes, I wrote lists. Please comment and share your thoughts and any advise.

     As always, I hope you are blessed and remember that all great journeys begin with the first step. Write On, my fellow travelers! Write On!

Planning and Setting Goals

It's that time of year again. Time to plan and dream and get out your organizational supplies. Time to write on our calendars and make lists, scour the internet for exercise plans and low carb menus. I love this time of year!! Not for the influx of self-help propaganda but for the limitless possibilities and hope that a new year can represent.

I know your probably have a list of things you want to change and accomplish this year, whether you wrote them down on New Year's Eve or like me, are still trying to figure out exactly what is truly important to you, it is wonderful that you have goals. The hard part is making a plan to see them through. Someone said that a goal without a plan is just a dream, and that makes a lot of scenes to me, because how can we reach them if we don't have any idea how to get there. In the age of instant access, we are lucky in one respect. We can find almost anything we need on the internet with the click of a button.

I am still trying to find my footing of this new year. Usually I have a planner that I print out from a variety of websites, that helps me keep track of the endless lists that I am always creating for myself. This year I am behind. Usually I print out my planner before the year even begins, customizing it to my specifications and popping it in a binder. I have the pieces just not an idea of how I want them to fit together. My hesitation is mostly due to the fact that I often have the best of intentions, but little follow through with using my planner. The first couple of months are great, and then somewhere around April I just stop using it, with no real reason to explain why. But I am a firm believer in the expression, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." So this time I am putting a little more thought into it, reevaluating what I have and only printing out the items that I need, making sure to use what I have.

What are your goals for the year? I will write another post with some of goals later... but I wonder how many people write down their resolutions for the new years? Do you keep them? Do you give up or quite? Do you revisit and revise your list throughout the year? Do you plan for long term? Or maybe you have monthly goals?  Please share, I am interested to hear about your success, or why you think could didn't follow through.

I can say that I have one goal already this year. I am going to work in more blog posts. Trying for two a month, or if I feel ambitious, one a week and this time I am scheduling them in! To my fellow writers and reads, I hope you have a blessed year. And as ever, Write On!

Formatting Frenzy

Another Post so soon?!?! I know... I had to add this in! I have been working on formatting most of the day. I am using CreateSpace to finish The Beast of the Ruin and get it ready for sale, both paperback and Kindle editions. (My sister is finishing up some book covers for me and is still working on the maps for this series, so I plan to update it at a later time.) While formatting the novel, I remembered that there was a way to add in chapter headings that were visible while scrolling through the pages. This feature also allows you to add in a table of contents that will update its own page numbers. No more hunting for chapter headings!!

Thanks to a video on YouTube from Chester Tugwell titled "Word 2013 Chapter Numbering & Page Number with Chapter Number" I was able to figure it all out. While I haven't finished the video or watched anything else from this YouTuber I am sincerely grateful to him for making this so easy. THANK YOU!!

Formatting is a bear on good days, but when I find short cuts like this, that will make things easier in the long run, it really improves my mood.

Do you have any formatting hacks? Any quick tips? How about pet-peeves? I know I do... comment and share your Word Doc Wisdom!!

TTFN!!

Write On, my Friends, Write On!!

Giving Thanks

There is much to be grateful for in my house this Christmas season. My Grandmother's health is improving each day and I look forward to the time when she will no longer need assistance with everyday activities. I know she will never be as independent as she once was, but she will be able to take care of herself. I am sure she is looking forward to that day much more than I am, as she is tired of her granddaughters making all the decisions for her.

I am grateful to friends and family for their prayers and support. We could not have gotten by without you.

I am thankful for this time with my grandmother though it has been very difficult and frustrating at times. I know that she would not be here if not for my sister and I stepping in on several occasions.

I am looking forward to getting out of debt. We are now taking active steps to limit our spending and help pay off the mountains of debt we have accumulated since my grandmother became ill. I would like to say that it is mostly medical bills, but I know there was a lot we should have done that we didn't. We were living as if we had the money we used to and that was not the case. If anyone is listening , all I want for Christmas is to be debt free, or at least to pay off a few of the smaller credit cards. I am tired of stressing over finances.

On a different note, I am almost ready to launch The Beast of the Ruin. My sister is reworking the cover along with a new cover for Ties of Fate. I am still working on Lost Lady, The Lost Prince, and now on an older work called The Captain's Ghost. I know it sounds weird but instead of taking a break, I usually switch gears from one story to another whenever I hit a block. I have dozens of stories I have almost finished from years ago. I just dust off a manuscript, read what I have and then start writing. I hope one day I will have a number of completed works under my belt. I feel this method works best for me because if I stopped writing for a bit, it could be months before I picked it back up again. At least this way I might work an hour on one draft and then an hour on another. Eventually they will come to fruition.

My GoFundMe account hasn't garnered a lot of attention. That's okay, I think I will lower the amount of it anyway. I had grand ideas, but what I need right now is funds to market my novel. If they don't know it's there, how can they buy it? Right? My sister and my friends and family have graciously been my test subjects... I mean test readers, editors and critics for many years. With their opinions and my sister's Photoshop ninja skills I have saved hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in publishing my own work.

I find that in many ways it is a group effort. I am so thankful that they are willing to lend me their time and skills. Their strengths help to strengthen me, and I return the favors whenever I can.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas season, and are blessed with all that you need.

To my fellow writers who have finished NaNoWriMo, whether you met the 50,000 word mark or even your own smaller goals, remember that you have started something great! Keep going, keep dreaming. WRITE ON!

NaNoWriMo and the Writer that Time Forgot

We are in the swing of National Novel Writing Month, Welcome November!!! Not only do we have Thanksgiving to look forward to, but the abundance of creative activity adding to the written collective. It is amazing to see how many people are taking part and how far they have come in such a short time. It's only the 17th for crying out loud...

NaNoWriMo's official website has an amazing assortment of helpful tools and advice for their participants from famous authors to NaNoWriMo champions. I wish I had the time to check it all out. I've noticed that once I get started on something that time flies by and I look up to realize I've been at it for hours. I get lost in the world I am building and don't come up for air unless some outside necessity makes itself know. Truthfully, sometimes coming back to the real world is a jolt, as I am my protagonist, and my heroine is just another reflection of me.

On another note, I have switched books for my novel, instead continuing to work on Lost Lady for this month, though I have started on the Knave and the Rose. The reason for the switch was that I realized that out of all of my outlines for the Chronicles of Odde series(Nine Books), The Knave and the Rose was the book that I had the least idea about. It made sense to change gears and focus on something else while I let the plot unfold a bit more in my head. Along those lines I am editing what I have on book two, The Lost Prince. I am about 3/4ths of the way done on that novel which was my last NaNoWriMo project. Still have some plot bunnies to work out there. Editing will help me get my thoughts in order before moving forward.  

Since the weather has finally made a turn and a chill is in the air, you would expect that I sit down to my computer with a cup of hot coco or even coffee, though I am not a coffee drinker. Hot tea of any variety sounds lovely as I write this, but no, I am an iced tea girl. Sweet Tea or Regular I drink it year round, and find nothing more enjoyable than a good iced tea. Many fast food chains make it easy to pick up a good drink while I'm out and about, but there are also some places that I never return too. There iced tea tastes as if it were some powdered monstrosity sold by the barrel. A good Iced tea is my reward for going out and getting stuff done! I only mention it here, because I have two iced tea cups sitting at my elbow, and I wonder if other people have a beverage of choice, or maybe a snack food that helps their creative flow.

While editing I like to print out copies of my work, usually Via Staples. My reward points came in and they have a good coupon this month on presentations. I like my draft double-sided spiral bound with had vinyl covers, and this time I added tabbed pages that tell my were each chapter is for easy reference. The extra page will also give me some space for notes as I decided to forgo double spacing and did single space to save money. We'll see how it goes...

 Printing is also a time that I back up my drafts. I usually send emails to friends and tell them to save my drafts. They are most obliging. I would burn cds of my files but I have noticed that I never really keep track of them. The cds get relegated to a bin, and then eventually end up in my shed were I store all of the stuff that is too good to be donated or thrown away. I have commented on this tendency before and will not do so again, but realizing this about myself, having the copies out in the cloud or internet seems a much better idea.

I have no advice that is unique or extremely motivating to give to my fellow writers other than to quote the famous Nike add, "Just do it!"

I wish you all the best of luck, and inspiration in all its forms and fancies. Write On!

New Ideas and Moving Forward

I am still here! I have been working on Lost Lady for some time. It is the novel that I am most motivated to work on so that is where my focus has been. My goal is to get the first draft completed, or at least very close to completion by the end of this month. There were some days off, and some days of hard writing where I knocked it out of the park!! I am extremely happy with my progress. I need to save my draft's more often. I am very familiar with the tragedy of computer errors.

I am using a method I don't usually do for this novel. I made plot cards. Each scene that I had a distinct plan for I put on a blank 3x5 index card and then I put them in order. As I write I move the cards from my to-do pile, to my done pile. I like this a bit better than a traditional outline because I have a brief idea of the scene already in front of me and I don't have to shuffle between word docs which causes me to lose my place and my  train of thought.

I'm also gearing up for NaNoWriMo. Mostly I am trying to get some of The Chronicles of Odde stuff panned out. I know a lot about the first few books, and some things about of the end ones, since I brain-stormed them rather recently, but the middle ones, starting with my next NaNoWriMo project, The Knave and the Rose, is still very vague.  I think I will start with more plot cards. I have a 150 word description that I uploaded to the NaNoWriMo website, but little more than that.

Here is the series blurb if you were interested:

The Chronicles of Odde tell of the Great Convergence. It is a time when the doors to another world are open.

Pulled from their mundane lives, these young woman are called to a new world full of magic and the unknown: The Kingdoms of  Odde. Here they must fend for themselves, and if they are brave enough and clever enough, an extraordinary destiny awaits.

Not too bad, but kind of vague. I still like it.

So on other fronts, my sister is working her way through the FINAL edit of The Beast of the Ruin. I just hope I gave her the most recent edit, and not some earlier edition. I hate to think of her running through all of that for nothing. She has also said that she will update the cover on that novel and my one officially published work, Ties of Fate: The Lost Continent.

Cover design is hard, but my sister makes it look easy with her Photoshop skills. The hardest part right now is trying to come up with an idea that we love, and not settling for something we like. The original cover for Ties of Fate is missing, so she made me a new one, which is in the same vein, but we both agree that it is not as good as the first. Now, we think that the idea of a sailing ship, while relevant to the book, is not exactly where we want to be for a young adult novel. The book is not so much about ships as a young princess's voyage. While very beautifully done, we think that there are some better ideas out there that will appeal more to my audience, and hopefully promote sales.

Question: Do you have an idea of the cover while your write? Do you look at popular novels and get ideas for you own  cover? Are there any tricks you use to choose your cover design?

 

Well, that's all for today, my friends! Write On!