switching things up

My original blog, The Dino Chronicles, follows the stories of my life - past and present, my crazy thoughts and insights, and random happenings. Series like walking the streets of my hometown, coming to the clinic and coping with coronavirus. And lots of pictures.

When I started this blog eight years ago, I wanted to use it as a sort of journal of my writing journey and my trudge to publication. The plan was to share my personal thoughts and dreams on writing as well as boring things like word count and how long I managed to keep my fingers typing on any given day.

The real catalyst that got this blog started was the ROW80 (round of words in 80 days) Facebook group. ROW80 asks that writers blog about their writing goals and progress, so that’s what I’ve been posting here the last few years on Sundays. I haven’t shared those posts from this blog as much as I have the Dino Chronicles, probably because I thought I would bore you.  

With the release (hopefully!) of my latest novel later this week, I’ve been rethinking both my blogs. I’ve decided the thing to do is to get back to basics and write about my writing here and share that with the world as much as my other blog. The Dino Chronicles will return to the stories I spin, while this log will tell you what orbit those stories are spinning in.

And all of this because, as mentioned, I hope to release “The Truth Beyond the River” later this week. As I already wrote on one blog or the other, the story begins around the Fourth of July in 1974. How appropriate for it to hit Amazon (it won’t be hitting any bookstores near you) around that date this year, right?

There are also several characters and scenes, as well as a main part of the story line, which are very relevant to our national news this month. I’ll go into all of that in detail next time.

Here, though, in keeping with the ROW80 group, are my goals for this week.

1) My novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”.  

a. Finalize the back cover.

b. Format the e-version. I thought I was all done with this, but I have to do some kind of tortuous hoop-jumping to get the chapters to be accessible by a tap on the Kindle.

c. Scan through the formatted paper version one last time.

d. Publish both the e-version and paper version on Amazon.  

e. Market, market, market. Not sure what I’m going to do there yet; there’s a lot in my head.  

2) That’s really all I can get done this week. I just needed to add a second bullet point because that is what they taught us in school.

Hope this wasn’t too boring. And I hope you are looking forward to getting your own copy of “The Truth Beyond the River”. 

reserved and relaxed

Yup, there we are all, reserved and everything. 

   I went away again this weekend, for the second week in a row. Between Hubby’s broken arm, the pandemic and all the other craziness in my world and the world in general, we have been staying close to home, just like everyone else. But I was born with wanderlust and it starts to pull me down if I can’t be traveling at least a couple times a month. Plus, it’s summer! Which means we all just need to get out!

The other exciting news is that I got paid royalties on the novella, “To Find Justice”, that I published on Amazon in March. Okay, it wasn’t enough to put me in the next tax bracket or even make a payment on pretty much anything. But I am pretty thrifty, so I think it was enough that I could buy a whole new outfit at St Vinnie’s thrift store. The biggest thing is that it justifies me calling myself a writer.  

Speaking of writing, here’s what I had hoped to do this week and what I actually got done. Highlight in green for each item accomplished, yellow for those at least attempted, and red lettering for an item which did not happen.

WRITING     

1) Continue updates on “How Chris is Coping with Corona”.  Yes, three times for 1,519 words.

2) Post three times to “The Dino Chronicles.” After the last two weekends, I have lots of fodder for it. Yes.   

3) Post here once. Yes.

4) Work on my memoir, “Holding All the Aces”. Nope.

5) Edit my story for the Road anthology. Yup.

REACHING

1) Submit that story to the anthology as the deadline is June 15. Yes, sent it off on Friday.

2) My novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”. The Ultimate Goal is to publish it through KDP by July 1.

a. Work on the front cover. I just emailed my friend to see where she was at with the cover. But I did take a ton of pictures from along rivers this weekend, so if she doesn’t get back to me, I will use one of them. I had been thinking I could buy a stock photo, but why, when I have so many pictures that I’ve taken myself.

b. Work on the back cover. Yes.

c. Decide about headshot pictures for the back cover. Now I think I will just skip the pictures of me. I had thought it was the thing to do, but now I’m not so sure.

d. Format it for both e-version and paper version. Nope.

e. Think about marketing for its release. Always thinking about it, but if I didn’t do anything concrete, I don’t think it counts.

READING

1) Read six other blogs and comment on three of them. Read six blog posts and commented on one.  

2) Get half-way through “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott.  Yes.

REMAINING

1) Work on my family tree two days. No, only one day for a few minutes.

2) Send out three thinking-of-you cards. Yes.

3) Relax again next weekend as we have a camping trip planned. YES!

I can’t think of anything extra that I have going on this week. Maybe I can get a few extra things done. But after having two relaxing weekends in a row, I’m not going to stress myself out.

WRITING     

1) Continue updates on “How Chris is Coping with Corona”, but I think I’m going to wrap it up for now. Heavens, I’m up to 26,500 words!

2) Post three times to “The Dino Chronicles.”    

3) Post here once.

4) Work on my memoir, “Holding All the Aces”.

REACHING

1) My novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”. The Ultimate Goal is to publish it through KDP by July 1.

a. Finalize the front cover.  

b. Finalize the back cover.

c. Format it for both e-version and paper version.

d. Think about marketing for its release.

2) Research other places to submit short stories to.

READING

1) Read six other blogs and comment on three of them.

2) Finish “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott. 

REMAINING

1) Work on my family tree two days. 

2) Work on finishing the garden shed my kids put up last weekend.  

3) Take the bags of stuff I cleaned out of my closets over the winter to Goodwill. (Speaking of being thrifty . . . maybe I could spend my $3.89 royality check.)

Have a great week, cut back on any stress you have control of and enjoy the summer as best you can.

Try something new

View from our cabin. 

This was a short work-week. I took off on Thursday, so that I could go to a cabin up north with my oldest sister for a long weekend. She has been needing to get away for quite some time (like, since her husband was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer 14 months ago).

Things didn’t go quite as planned – long story – but as it turned out, I had Thursday night and all-day Friday at the cabin by myself. I got a lot of writing done, not as much as I would have liked, but when does anyone ever do that?

Here’s what I had hoped to do this week and what I actually got done. Highlight in green for each item accomplished, yellow for those at least attempted, and red lettering for an item which did not happen.

WRITING     

1) Continue updates on “How Chris is Coping with Corona” three times a week. Only two entries for a total of 511 words. Seems like the whole pandemic is settling down, or the George Floyd murder and subsequent rioting has taken all the headlines. I don’t know. The world’s gone mad.

2) Post two times to “The Dino Chronicles.” Since we won’t have internet at the cabin, I’m thinking I won’t get a third post in this week. Two entries.  

3) Post here once. Done.

4) Work on my next novel, “Ice Cream Spies”. Nope.

5) Work on my memoir, “Holding All the Aces”.  I don’t think I did.

6) EXTRA. Work on story to submit to an anthology called “Road”.

REACHING

1) Write a blog post about the idea behind my novella “To Find Justice”. Done.  

2) My novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”. (Down from eight items to five.)

a. Work on the front cover. I will keep checking in with my friend who is an artist. Not done.

b. Work on the back cover. Done.

c. Get headshot pictures for the back cover. Not until I get a haircut, but now I’m debating about including my picture or not. I’m thinking maybe of using my class picture from the year the story takes place.  

d. Format it for both e-version and paper version. Not done.

e. Think about marketing for its release. (Seems like a long list.) Not done. 

My 6th-grade class picture. Yikes!

READING

1) Read six other blogs and comment on three of them. Read four and commented on three.

2) Finish reading Beth Camp’s latest novel, “The Seventh Tapestry.” Done. Need to write a review of it.   

REMAINING

1) Work on my family tree two days. Nope, not at all.   

2) Send out three thinking-of-you cards. Sent out two thinking-of-you cards, one page of inspirational thoughts, two birthday cards and one sympathy card. Yikes!

3) Relax while at the cabin Thursday through Sunday. Yes, but not nearly enough.

Over the weekend, I started reading “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott. It is giving me a lot of inspiration to write. As I’ve stated somewhere, I write because I can’t not write. Which means, I just need to write what I feel like when I can and stop giving myself imaginary deadlines and all this pressure. I’ll get the next book published when it’s meant to happen. I gotta stop the madness.

I also started reading another book over the weekend, “Confessions of a Prayer Wimp” by Mary Pierce. I read it a couple years ago, but it is worth reading again. In one of the chapters she writes about disconnecting from social media, the internet, even the TV and radio. Which I did this weekend and it was amazing. My greatest goal, the one not listed here, is going to be to significantly limit my internet use. It is the biggest drain of my time and energy.

So, that being said, let’s spell out another list of goals I may or may not reach.  

WRITING     

1) Continue updates on “How Chris is Coping with Corona”, but I think I may wrap it up soon, at least for now.

2) Post three times to “The Dino Chronicles.” After this weekend, I have lots of fodder for it.   

3) Post here once.

4) Work on my memoir, “Holding All the Aces”.

5) Edit my story for the Road anthology.  

REACHING

            1) Submit that story to the anthology as the deadline is June 15.

2) My novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”.

            a. Ultimate Goal: publish it through KDP by July 1.

b. Work on the front cover. I need to check in with my friend the artist. 

c. Work on the back cover.

d. Decide about headshot pictures for the back cover.

e. Format it for both e-version and paper version.

f. Think about marketing for its release. (Seems like a long list.)

READING

1) Read six other blogs and comment on three of them.

2) Get half-way through “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott. 

REMAINING

1) Work on my family tree two days. 

2) Send out three thinking-of-you cards.

3) Relax again next weekend as we have a camping trip planned.

Have a great week, cut back on any stress you have control of, and enjoy the summer as best you can. Maybe get out and do something new - like kayaking!