New Year’s Resolutions – 2018

Wow! It’s been a long time since I last posted on this blog. Minus today’s post on my fitness blog – Fitness Freak – concerning my fitness-related resolutions/goals, it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged at all.

My fitness life has been super busy so that all I’ve been doing for my writing life is reading books – audiobooks and books with my son during his reading time at bedtime. I had a Goodreads goal to read 150 books in 2017. I failed. I got really close – over 140 in fact – but 150 was out of my reach.

For 2018, I’ve gone back down to 100 books. If I was only reading, I’d try for 125, but my resolutions are going to take up too much of my time. There are my fitness goals, yes, but a huge amount of my free time during the day will be spent writing now. Yep! I’ve resolved to get my butt in gear to write Shadow’s Strength, the sequel to Night’s Treasure.

2018 Goal:

• Write 1st draft of Shadow’s Strength

There’s just the one goal. SS has spent so long on the back burner due to my fitness life commitments, it’s ridiculous. So this year I’m finishing that 1st draft! I’m not demanding that it be in publishable condition – just the first draft. Editing can take forever but so can a single draft, especially when you’re severely out of practice, so one step at a time.

So! That my writing resolution for 2018! What are your goals or resolutions?

Why I Can’t Commit to Reading One Book at a Time

Today on FB I listed the 6 books I’m currently reading and then asked why I can’t commit to reading one book at a time. It was supposed to a quick answer but as I typed I realized I needed more room than I was willing to give on a FB post. I know I sometimes write long FB posts but, believe it or not, I don’t like doing that.

Here’s my current list of books:

• “Shadow House You Can’t Hide” by Dan Poblocki
• “Refuge” by A.I. Nasser
• “We’re Alive: A Story of Survival, The Second Season” by K.C. Wayland
• “Cranford” by Elizabeth Gaskell
• “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” by J.K. Rowling
• “Heaven and Earth” by Nora Roberts

The same list is on Goodreads. I didn’t list the last 2 books on my Goodreads list because I’m not actively reading those 2. I should take them off because I don’t intend to finish them in the near future, but I’m lazy when it comes to deleting books from the list.

So why can’t I commit to reading one book at a time? There a various reasons and they all sound reasonable to me…of course or I’d stick with the one book.

• Filler

I’ll end a book and then start one I’ve already read (Heaven and Earth) in order to pass the time before a new book comes my way. I’ll eventually finish this book but not for awhile.

• Inspiration

Sometimes I’ll be watching a show or movie that inspires me to read the book. That was exactly what happened in the case of Cranford.

• Freebies/Suggestions

I might come across an interesting freebie book that snags my attention or someone may suggest an interesting book so I’ll put everything on hold to read it. In the case of Refuge, I had gotten an e-mail from Team Scarestreet asking if I was interested in reviewing a free audiobook series by A.I. Nasser. I submitted my application to be a reviewer, was accepted, and received my promo codes for the books on Audible.com. Refuge is the 2nd book of the series. The first one, Kurtain Motel, I couldn’t stop listening to and powered through it so when it ended I immediately went on to the 2nd book.

• Traveling

I’ll keep a family friendly audiobook for car trips. Unfortunately, since car trips don’t commonly last more than 30 minutes and we don’t always listen to the audiobook on those trips, it takes a horrendously long amount of time to get through one of those books. Such is the case with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

As for Shadow House and We’re Alive, both of these fall under the Freebies/Suggestions category. In the case of We’re Alive, someone had suggested it as a good podcast for people who like the app Zombies, Run! so I subscribed to the podcast and was wowed, not by the sometimes painful voice acting but by the story.

I was ordering some books for my son from Scholastic.com. Order forms are sent home each month for each class. We don’t usually get anything, but my son’s favorite books were there this time so I gave in. I tried it online this time and saw a notice on their site for Shadow House. I love horror and the cover looked interesting so I read a sample. I found it as an audiobook on Hoopla so I borrowed it last night and finished it by this afternoon. It was fun. Simple, obviously meant for younger teens, but still enjoyable for an adult assuming you don’t mind that it’s not complex and long etc. I’ve moved on to the second book or I will very soon so I’ve already added it to my list.

Believe it or not, my list does wittle down to 0 books every now and then but it doesn’t happen often and when it does it doesn’t stay that way for long.

Why I haven’t been writing or blogging

I say I’m a writer but I haven’t written anything in a long time. Nor have I been blogging even on my fitness blog. There’s a simple explanation for this: I’ve been busy reading and moving forward in my fitness career.

I know, I know. Career? Fitness instructor? Yeah, not really. Barely a part-time thing. But that’s not the point. It’s at least currently what I want to do for a job. Even paying next to nothing pays more than my writing does. I’m not complaining, just stating a fact.

I’m working on expanding my repertoire in the fitness industry. I initially started with learning my friend’s Circuit Fusion class which I can use for almost anything so I’m good for subbing several different classes. Then I added POP Pilates last year. Now I’m nice and experienced with POP and added in several kinds of SilverSneakers toward the end of Winter. I’m only teaching one kind of SS class but it still makes me stressed and anxious the night before.

I’ve also recently started focusing on building my strength etc so I can one day perhaps become a BodyPUMP instructor. That’s pretty iffy as I’m just not sure if I’ll ever be physically strong enough to survive the training workshop.

And now thanks to the Memorial Day Weekend sales, I’ve now started training to be a personal trainer! Yay!!! Super excited about this! All my books etc came in the mail when I was out on vacation. I opened the box and the sheer size and weight of the textbooks was rather daunting, but I know I can do it! It’ll most likely take the entire 6 months I have before I’m ready to take the exam, but I’ll keep at it!

Anyway, sorry for talking about my fitness stuff here on my writing blog. I just wanted to let everyone know why I haven’t been writing stories or blogging here

• fitness repertoire expansion
• reading

I should put up reviews of what I’ve been reading, but I haven’t. I’ll try to do that from now on if I do nothing else in my writing world.

Hugs and Kisses!!

Where has the time gone?

Wow! Life got super busy. I haven’t been writing since I finished Psyche because I’ve been reading and working on my fitness classes. Those classes used to be my “real” job. Now they really are a real job! Subbing, training, and my regular classes are taking up a ton of time (preparation still takes awhile for me sometimes). Then there’s my mommy duties, misc stuff, reading and I’m swamped! Also I may or may not have been playing video games when I shouldn’t have been a couple weeks back.

I don’t give a review for everything I read (especially here), but here are the books I’ve been indulging in:

• Kurkow Prison by Ron Ripley (Team Scarestreet) audiobook presently reading
• Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman presently reading
• Captain Underpants #9 by Dav Pilkey presently reading
• Grimm Fairy Tales Vol 1 by Ralph Tedesco presently reading
• Sanford Asylum by Ron Ripley (Team Scarestreet) audiobook
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton audiobook
• Treat by Mary E Twomey
• Red Winter by Annette Marie
• Dark Tempest by Annette Marie
• Dracula by Bram Stoker audiobook
• Captain Underpants #1-7, 11, 12 by Dav Pilkey
• The Lighthouse by Ron Ripley (Team Scarestreet) audiobook
• The Town of Griswold by Ron Ripley (Team Scarestreet) audiobook
• Tempt by Mary E Twomey

Yeeeeaaah…I read a lot of audiobooks. Mainly to save my eyes. And then all the Captain Underpants books are bedtime reading for my son. Honestly, though, I really suggest adults read them too. They’re hilarious! It’s my son’s current favorite series.

We discovered the series with #8 back in January or so and read in whatever order we could get them. He has fabulous memory when it comes to these stories but each book gives a short recap of what happened before if the two books are connected. If not, it gives a short recap of how Captain Underpants became Captain Underpants. We’re almost done with #9 and then he just checked out #10 yesterday from his school’s library so we’ll be done with the series within the week.

That Grimm Fairy Tales book is a graphic novel and it kinda sucks. I was hoping for some interesting stories but they’re pretty ho hum with some even being annoying. Very disappointed. I checked out 4 volumes from the library but I think I’ll return them all after I’ve finished this first volume. As you can see from my reading list above, I don’t have time for boring books.

My Goodreads reading challenge for 2017 is to read 150 books this year. Last year I challenged myself to read 100 and I went way over. Yay! So far I’ve finished 32 books and am 5 books ahead of schedule.

I’m sure I’ll fall into a groove by April…or May…at which point I’ll start incorporating writing back into my schedule. I’m sorry to say but when writing doesn’t pay the bills, it gets set on the back burner if there’s something else that does.

I just need to finish all this training crap and get settled into my new SilverSneakers classes and then everything will be good.

*fingers crossed*

However, one good thing! Night’s Treasure will be free for awhile on instaFreebie! So get it while you can! And please please PLEASE if you read it, leave a review on Amazon. Nobody knows if my books are any good if no one reviews them. I’m not above begging…that’s why I’ve put it up for free on instaFreebie. I’ll give the book to anybody who shows even a modicum of interest at this point if it’ll garner me some reviews. Obviously, I’ll give it away even if it doesn’t get me reviews because so far that’s what I’ve been doing.

Happy reading!

 

Nearing the end

I’m reaching the end of Psyche. Whew! It’s been quite enjoyable writing it so far. I’m glad I started it way back when as a way to take a break from the sequel to Night’s Treasure. Honestly, I’m not really sure where I’m going to go after I’m done with Psyche. Currently I’m content to focus on this novella so that I can finish it…and finish it on time.

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to get 2 books published this year. Obviously Psyche would be the first. For Greek mythology books, I have a bit of a list.

• Shadow’s Strength (NT sequel)
• Poppy’s story (no title yet)
• Arachne (Myths of Olympus)
• Persephone (Myths of Olympus)
• Medusa (Myths of Olympus)

Medusa is still a maybe. I’ll think about her later when I’ve done the others.

But then there’s also my Norse mythology project:

• Ildri’s Worth

That’s the first book. I had planned to make it a trilogy with each book standing on its own. But first, of course, I’d have to finish the first book. While Norse mythology holds a super special place in my heart, I’m not as familiar with it and the culture so that series has proven rather difficult to plot out. Still, my inner self is fairly itching to complete it so I can revel in that side of me.

And then there’re the horror stories that are dying to come out as well and the miscellaneous stories that I like to toy with every now and then.

Instead of getting shorter, my writing list seems to be getting longer! I can’t seem to write fast enough to keep up with everything. Maybe now that I’m writing every day again and once more serious about it, I’ll be able to get through my list faster.

Still, it’ll be a tough choice figuring out what title to do next after I’m done with Psyche. I’ll probably move back to Shadow’s Strength in order to finish Sophy’s story. Then I’ll have the dubious pleasure of figuring out which one to move on to again.

Life After Publishing – Psyche

What to do after the debut novel is published?

Why write more of course!

Over time my writing has become stagnant but life is changing and my mindset is changing therefore my writing habits must change as well. Like Dr. Frankenstein with his monster, I need to breathe new life into my writing and start again.

And I am. But rather than continue with Shadow’s Strength, NT’s sequel, I’ve once more picked up Psyche. I’m hoping to renew my old habits of writing at least 1k words every week day and if I can then this novella should be completely done (editing and all) by the end of January-February. I add in February because I have no delusions about how often I’ll write during the holidays when I’m off visiting people.

However, I also know that the longer I do my daily writing, the more used to it I get and then the more I end up writing each day. So I’m optimistically looking at a release date of February 1st which would be really good because the story is about love and February is the month of love.

Should we go for that then and dare me to be late?

Okay! But if the story turns out to be longer than 40k, then the deal’s off.

Night’s Treasure on Amazon NOW!

Night’s Treasure is now available on Amazon as an e-book for the Kindle and Kindle app. It came out on December 1st, 2016 and I couldn’t be happier! Well, I could. I could if everyone in the world was buying it, but that’s never going to happen. Not even Agatha Christie or the Bible has been bought by every single person in the world.

I don’t know if I’d want that kind of success anyway though. Imagine how many haters there’d be out there because of course not everyone likes the same things. I don’t think I could take that kind of negativity. Or popularity for that matter.

Anyway, December 1st I woke up all excited to check out Amazon and see my book on display to be bought. That is, until I found out our internet was down.

My husband was at work (he wouldn’t have known how to fix it anyway) and it was too early to call my dad for help, so I rolled up my figurative sleeves and started messing with the internet box. After a couple failed attempts, I fixed it! For those out there wondering how to do so: I turned off the box, then unplugged it from the other box it was connected to (I’m so detailed and knowledgeable), counted to 10, then plugged it back in and switched the box back on. VOILA! Magic.

So with my new Ms Fix-It status securely in my ego, I proceeded to get on Amazon and revel in the glory of having a book published. A minute later I had the bright idea to take a screenshot and post it on FB. My first guessed attempt failed.

Problem: I had no idea how to do that anymore. I learned in high school but it’s been well over a decade since then so I’ve forgotten.

Solution: Google it!

Directions immediately came up. And they were so easy! So I tried. Failed again. Then I saw that laptop users needed to press another button. Oh. Feeling like my Ms Fix-It status was getting tarnished, I tried again. WOOHOO! Success!

So I went to FB and uploaded the picture there. Huh. I peered at it – it looked kind of weird. Where was my e-book cover? I clicked it for a closer look.

I took a screenshot of the directions for how to take a screenshot.

OMG! What’s wrong with me???!!! In mild shame and deep stupidity, I took another screenshot of my book’s Amazon page and uploaded it onto FB. Everything was great and 100% perfect so I once more esteemed myself and lauded in my brilliance!

Yeah, I was on Cloud 9 yesterday and had a great time all day. I was gushing on the phone to my dad after those technical wonders and caught myself giving a Queen wave at the walls. Seriously!

I was talking on the phone and telling my dad how I had figured out tech stuff that kids are now born knowing and my hand went straight up in the air and did a Queen wave at the walls! When I realized what I was doing, I burst out laughing and of course told my dad who laughed at me too. When I did it again, I announced it and he joined in. Queen waves to all walls everywhere!

Tentative Book Cover

I’m wondering if perhaps I’m being too serious with my desire to get published. I mean, there seem to be a ton of people doing the self-publishing e-book route who are getting their work out there. True, most of them are not famous and do not have a huge following, but their work is out there and I, for one, enjoy finding them.

Perhaps they’re not making any money, but then neither am I and I have nothing to show for it unlike them. Decisions decisions.

I think I’m going to go for it because, really, what have I got to lose? I’m not making any money with it sitting unused collecting e-dust on my computer. At least if it’s out there online, it can collect e-dust where everyone can potentially see/access it.

Honestly, I don’t care about the money anymore. If it makes a little, I’ll be super happy. If it makes nothing, that’s okay too. It’s not like my real job makes much money yet I enjoy doing that. I’m thinking I should learn from that and focus on the enjoyment rather than the $$ and just go for it.

Here’s the tentative book cover that I’ve made for Night’s Treasure. Thoughts are always welcome! Please tell me if you like or don’t like it.

Challenge Completed

Yay! I completed my reading challenge for 2016! I challenged myself to read 100 books in the year 2016 and I’m actually over 100 books now. The main reason I was able to finish the challenge is that my son is old enough to enjoy chapter books now. He’s in love with the Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osborne so we’ve been reading several chapters almost every night and sometimes even whole books when we’ve had time and the book’s been exciting enough. We’re on book 27 – Thanksgiving on Thursday.

I’m not sure if we’ll keep reading after 28 because then they move from Morgan Le Fay to Merlin and those are quite a bit longer. We read 2 of them at the beginning of summer before moving back to get the entire series in order. Yep, we’ve pretty much read the entire series this summer. Before that was every Ninjago chapter book we could find.

When we went to SoCal during Spring Break with my parents I continued the bedtime reading routine but I was going to stick with just a couple chapters a night so I didn’t annoy my parents or keep everyone up too late. That plan went right out the window when I tried to stop and my parents and Mini Me immediately complained that they all wanted to hear the rest of the story. Luckily the 2 books I had brought each had 2 stories in them (one short story and then the chapter book) so the books lasted 4 days. My throat, on the other hand, got really tired from reading out loud about an hour each night.

All for a good cause – my son’s literary entertainment and my reading challenge.

I’m actually surprised I was able to get a full 100 books read. Maybe I should extend my challenge? Mini-Me isn’t going to want to stop our bedtime reading routine and after school starts I’ll have more Me time that I’ll be using for reading. Actually, I’ll also be using it for writing, working, and practicing POP Pilates but I’m sure there will still be a lot of time left for reading. I mean, I can do fitness stuff for only so long every day before my muscles give out.

 

Quick Update

Just wanted to give a quick update to what’s going on in my writing-related world right now.

• writing
• proofreading
• reading

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Writing

There’s not a whole lot of writing going on but what there is is from Psyche and blogging. If you’re a fitness and health kind of person, you can check out my Fitness Freak blog for what’s going on in the fitness-related part of my world. My most recent post is about how social media can really hurt us mentally/emotionally if we’re not careful – Social Media’s Black Hole of Despair. The title’s a bit melodramatic, but still quite apt for a lot of people.

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Proofreading

I’ve been proofreading an author’s novel. Won’t say which novel or which author but I will say it’s shaping up to be a goodie. So far I’ve been sent the first 15 chapters and, while the beginning needs a ton of editing (in my opinion) to lighten it up, the rest is just peachy.

It’s felt really good to proofread something that wasn’t science-related. Last night my husband finished a report he was writing for work and wanted me to proofread it because English is his second language. I’ve been doing this for him since before we were married and we sometimes joke that one reason he married me was for my proficiency in English. I’m not a science person but I have gained a semi-understanding of chemistry and microbiology through his papers and reports. But man are they B-o-o-o-o-o-o-ring!

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Reading

That leads me into what I’ve been reading. It feels so good to read for fun after proofreading especially when the job is something like science. To be able to sit back and just read is so relaxing. I always appreciate it more after I’ve done a stint of proofreading. No longer do I analyze and think. I allow myself to sink in and get lost in the story.

It’s lovely.

Lately since my iPad reading time has been spent proofreading, the only “fun” reading I’ve been able to do is with my son right before bedtime. Every night after our other bedtime jobs are done, we sit in bed and read. For the past couple months, it’s been books from the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. We’ve just finished #13 – Vacation Under a Volcano.

It’s a good series, written for kids. Chapter books. We usually read 2-5 chapters every night. Osborne is a very good writer, combining just enough facts with creative storytelling to teach kids while keeping it interesting for them. My son loves the series so I try to keep up a steady stream of borrowing them so we don’t have to go without. We borrow hard copies from the library and digital ebooks from both our last library from when we lived in Colorado and our current library here in Nebraska. Overdrive is very much our friend.