Getting things rolling

Here is an unexpected mid-week post. I haven’t done too much on the list of goals I posted on Sunday, but things have been going on that I wanted to share.

A dear writer-friend, Beth Camp, posted an author interview of me and my novel on her blog. I so appreciate it and wanted to send her out another thank you.

I’m also up to six reviews of it on Amazon, all five stars and I wanted to give a shout-out to those kind people as well. The release date for the paper version is this Friday, so my marketing efforts will step up a notch then. I just so badly want to have that physical copy in my hands before I go too crazy with promotion.

Regarding our nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers, we had a sale on our Etsy Store. That’s always exciting, especially when it comes from out of nowhere. Like so many other things on the internet, there are so many vendors on Etsy that it’s hard to rise to the top and get noticed.

We updated the Tumaini website a few weeks ago and now are working on finalizing a new logo and business cards.

Finally, it’s been two weeks since I worked on the new novel. I pulled it up tonight, took an inventory of it and have set the bar at finishing the rough draft by October 13. That means an average of 500 words a night, which will be more like 1500 words a couple times a week, but I want to keep it all in perspective. I just wrote a 310 word scene on it, before I decided to write this quick post.

Yup, time to move on and get things rolling.

Hope you are having a good week as well. 

You know how I always have to include a picture. This is the first one that bounced up when I opened my file of pictures. My daughter took it while she was in Kenya for six months in 2010. I love this picture. Always reminds me that we all need friends and it doesn't matter who they are. 

Lofty Goals. Or not.

Once again, I did so poorly on my week’s goals that it doesn’t pay to reprint them here. I still do not know what is wrong with me. This seven-month funk should have run its course by now. The antidepressant is helping in some ways, but I still haven’t found my drive. Scrolling through Facebook or mindlessly watching Home and Garden TV continues to suck the life out of me.

Today is our family picnic, at my house, in the rain. We will have to picnic in my living room, all 37 of us! This past week I did wash the windows I needed to do and cleaned up the spare bedroom which has been taken over by Mom’s stuff all year.

Also, I did sign up for two events for our nonprofit, as well as to sell my books. The end of September, my daughter will give a presentation on our work in Kenya, at the clinic where I work. I’ll have my books available for sale there. Then I signed us up for our yearly craft sale the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I’ll have my books there as well, along with all of our Kenyan merchandise.

I think that was about it for the week. Except that I keep forgetting to mention that I continue to post to this blog once a week and to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles, three times I week. I should give myself credit for that, huh?

Once again, I’m going to look forward to the coming week with lofty goals. “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” is to be released on Friday, so I’m hoping to get my copies by then or shortly after. Oh, and there are three reviews of it on Amazon now, with another one promised to post soon.

1)    Send emails to the rest of my contacts regarding the new book and asking for reviews.   

2)    Set up two more book signings.   

3)    Write three thousand words on the new novel.

4)    Pick a better working title for the new novel.

5) Work on two items to submit:           

a) favorite quote and reflection for work calendar, Sept 15 deadline

                        b) poem on aging, Oct 20 deadline

            6) Post three times to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles.

7) Non-writing things to do:

a. Scan a dozen of my mom’s old pictures into the computer.

b. Wash two or three more windows. I only have five left!

With the Labor Day Holiday weekend coming up, maybe I can finally get some stuff done.

Have a good week and safe end to the summer.

  

Some of Mom's stuff cluttering up the spare bedroom.

The spare bedroom looks a lot better now. 

are things going swimmingly for you?

Ok, well, I’m looking at the goals I had for myself and it’s not even worth repeating them here. If you follow me on Facebook or read my other blog, you may already know why. People have told me that passing a kidney stone is like having a baby. Not even close. I popped my kids out in six hours and three hours, respectfully. This stupid stone is hanging on like there’s no tomorrow.

I slept pretty much two entire days this past week, but rallied enough to travel with Hubby and the Dog for two other days. Checked the internet on my phone every day, but completely skipped going on the laptop a couple days. 

I know I need to get it together this week, but with a family picnic at my house next Sunday, I don’t think much except yard work and house work is going to get done.

Yet, I’m going to try to do this: 

1)    Continue monitoring the situation on “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” – returning emails and Facebook messages from interested parties and naturally jumping if I hear of a potential venue for a book signing.  

2)    Stop checking the book’s ranking on Amazon several times a day. Stop obsessing about how few reviews I have.  

3)    Write three thousand words on the new novel.

4)    Pick a better working title for the new novel. I have waffled between “The Novitiate” and “The Abbey” and “The Big House”, but none of them does anything for me. In my head, sometimes I call it “Where the River Runs Red”, but not only has that already been done, it’s almost too close to my first novel. I will think on it.

5) Work on two items to submit:           

a) favorite quote and reflection for work calendar, Sept 15 deadline

                        b) poem on aging, Oct 20 deadline

6) Non-writing things to do:

a. Scan a dozen of my mom’s old pictures into the computer.

b. Wash three of my house’s windows. I did wash one window yesterday. I can’t imagine finishing them all by the picnic, but at least need to wash the ones in the public areas.  

How are your goals coming along? Swimmingly? Are you ready to get back at it after a summer vacation? 

are you ready to take a break?

Here’s how this week’s goals panned out:

1) Contact the media person and then three more places for book signings and / or readings. Emailed the media person. Twice. I think I am going to just relax and not worry about it until I get my own supply of books to sell. All the experts will say that is the wrong approach, that you and your book have to hit the ground running. But  - bleah – I’m just going to take a break anyway.  

2) Email everyone (within reason) on my contact list, reminding them about my new novel, “Where the Sky Meets the Sand”, and asking them to write a review for it on Amazon if they’ve had a chance to read it. And offering to email them a free copy of it if they would write that review. Have emailed 32 people, only up to the K’s. Have gotten two responses. Only one review yet on Amazon, but someone did praise it on Faceebook and she got two responses to that.  

3) Write 1,000 words on the new novel. Wrote 1,495 words!

4) There are three places I’d like to submit to in the next few months, so I should work on those. Nope, didn’t write any of them.  

5) Non-writing things to do:

a. Scan a dozen of my mom’s old pictures into the computer. Scanned sixteen.  

b. Wash five of my house’s windows. Washed two, but they were the biggest ones! (The attached pictures of those windows are from years ago.)

c. Finish reading “On Writing” by Stephen King. I am going to count this as done. I couldn’t sleep last night, so got up and read the last real chapter. I had already read Furthermore #2 and Furthermore #1 is too technical to rush through.  

d. Repack all our Kenya merchandise. Done.   

This coming week, as already mentioned, I am going to take a break. It’ll have been a month since “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” has been available on-line. Perhaps I could be doing more here at home to promote it at this point, but I think it may be time to let it rest, wait until I get my copies in my hot little hands. Give this whole marketing thing a fresh start by the end of the month.

So what will I do this week: 

1)    Continue monitoring the situation on “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” – returning emails and Facebook messages from interested parties and naturally jumping if I hear from a venue which I have already contacted.

2)    Stop checking the book’s ranking on Amazon several times a day. Stop beating myself up if it continues to slip. It will jump back up once the paper version is out.

3)    Write three thousand words on the new novel.

4)    Pick a better working title for the new novel. I have waffled between “The Novitiate” and “The Abbey” and “The Big House”, but none of them does anything for me. In my head, sometimes I call it “Where the River Runs Red”, but not only has that already been done, it’s almost too close to my first novel. I will think on it.

5) There are three places I’d like to submit to in the next few months, so I should        work on those things:          

a) poem using book titles, Aug 15 deadline, which I need to write today if I’m going to

b) reflection for work calendar, Sept 15 deadline

                         c) poem on aging, Oct 20 deadline

6) Non-writing things to do:

a. Scan a dozen of my mom’s old pictures into the computer.

b. Wash four more of my house’s windows. Have washed only two of them and have a total of nine left by the end of the month. Physically, I can’t wash more than a few a day.  

c. Find a relaxing book to read and read it!

How are your goals coming along? Swimmingly? Or is it time for you to take a break too?

Have a great last few weeks of summer.

how did my goals fare?

Yesterday, we had a sale for our nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers. It was quite successful. Rain had been in the forecast, but it turned out to be a warm, sunny day. We were in a town where we’d never had a sale before, so it was good to meet lots of new people, hand out lots of business cards, make over $300 and be invited back for next year.

How did the rest of my goals fare?

Once again, the reason for writing down my goals and highlighting my progress. I really felt that I did nothing this week, yet look at this. Green highlight is goal accomplished. Yellow highlight is at least worked on. Red print is a total failure.

1) Print out another copy of my Press Kit. Done.

2) Contact three more places for book signings and / or readings. No, but here’s why. Early in the week, my publisher sent me the email address for the company’s media person. I emailed her, telling her what I’ve done so far and asking what help she can give me moving forward. I have not heard back from her. That seems to be the modus operandi of this publisher – not returning emails in what I consider a timely fashion. Or it could be how most publishers operate and I was just spoiled by my first publisher who returned any email within hours, even on weekends.

3) I’m gonna try writing 1,000 words on the new novel this week. I wrote 1,053 words. Wow, I didn’t realize how close that was.

4) Continue posting a plug for the new novel, “Where the Sky Meets the Sand”, on all my social media. Have a little bit. Want to quit before I become annoying.

5) Non-writing things to do:

a. Scan a dozen of my mom’s old pictures into the computer. Scanned 13 of them.

b. Finish reading “On Writing” by Stephen King. Looking at where the bookmark is, it doesn’t appear that I’ve read much of it this week, but I swear that I opened it every day.

c. Host a sale for the nonprofit. I forgot to write down this goal last week, so thought I would take credit for it now.

Last night, an old friend sent me one of those stupid “thinking of you, sending love and electronic flowers” impersonal crappy things on Facebook. So I messaged her back, saying we need to get together, so without thinking we made plans for today. Life is way too short to worry about some list of goals. People gotta come first.

But this is what I am gonna do in the coming week:

1) Contact the media person and then three more places for book signings and / or readings.

2) Email everyone (within reason) on my contact list, reminding them about my new novel, “Where the Sky Meets the Sand”, and asking them to write a review for it on Amazon if they’ve had a chance to read it. And offering to email them a free copy of it if they would write that review.

3) Write 1,000 words on the new novel this week.

4) There are three places I’d like to submit to in the next few months, so I should work on those things:          

            a) poem using book titles, Aug 15 deadline

b) reflection for work calendar, Sept 15 deadline

            c) poem on aging, Oct 20 deadline

4) Non-writing things to do:

a. Scan a dozen of my mom’s old pictures into the computer.

b. Wash five of my house’s windows. I have a picnic here the end of the month and all the windows (just 12 of them) need to get washed before then!

c. Finish reading “On Writing” by Stephen King.

d. Repack all our Kenya merchandise. After a sale, it always gets packed up in a disorganized rush.