Blog Archives

Goals Achieved

8/30/2023

I’m happy to report that I healed from the cold, the birthday bonanza is successfully done, and my writing is back on track. I pre-published The Fourth Quarter and Duality Monday. The Fourth Quarter will release September 15. It includes Quarantine, Resonance, Duality, and A Christmas Proposal, and it’s available through Amazon or at all other online retailers through this Universal Link. Duality will release November 1, and is available for pre-order through Amazon or at all other online retailers through this Universal Link.

So if you get The Fourth Quarter, then you’ll get to read Duality seven weeks earlier. But if you have all of the other stories and only want Duality, then it’s coming November 1.

I’ve enjoyed working on these projects and the rough draft of Singularity, but now I’m ready for a break. I’m glad everything worked out, and I plan to return to my goal of writing at least two short stories a week until I’m ready to return to rewrites for Singularity, but first I’m going to take a writing break for the rest of this week and next week. I need it and would like some time to return to reading and working on my counted cross stitching. My reading has slowed down over the past month, and it’s been five months since I worked on that Believe in Santa pattern. Sometimes you need to do something different.

That’s all today. Have a great week and a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

Bye!

0 Comments

Progress

8/23/2023

0 Comments

The rough draft of Singularity is done. I actually finished it last Friday, but I also got a cold that’s had me knocked out since then. I really think it’s Holy Spirit intervention that I was able to get those last chapters written before a head full of snot knocked me out. But, at least, I had the relief of knowing that was accomplished.

Still, the cold was not great timing. Not only is it “birthday bonanza” time (that time in late August with a clutch of birthdays, including my husband’s and my own), but I was hoping to embark on finalizing Duality this week. I have been researching cover art, and thankfully I’m recovering enough that I believe I can do the final edit and proofread of the manuscript this week, but the formatting and pre-publication will have to happen next week. It might not seem like a huge deal, but The Fourth Quarter (the ‘fall reads’ anthology I’m releasing in mid-September) will combine Quarantine, Resonance, Duality, and A Christmas Proposal into a single book, so I need to complete Duality to keep this project on track.

That’s both the benefit and disadvantage of being self-published. You have complete control, but also complete responsibility. You don’t have hard deadlines and impossible turnaround times to keep publication deadlines and can adjust as needed, but it’s up to you to anticipate what’s needed and plan to get the work done on time. It requires a lot of organization and self discipline, but I do prefer it this way. I’d hate for a publisher to email me a request for an errata file on a full manuscript with a 72 hour turnaround deadline today. Especially with a full time job outside of the home. Ouch. I remember those days and they hurt – especially when I had to do one for Splinter with a splitting 4-day migraine!

But at least I have the option to give myself time to heal so I can do my best work, and that will work out for the best in the end. I’m not too far behind schedule, and the truth is that I needed some time to remove myself from the Singularity world so I can turn my focus back to this project. Turning the last page of a good book is hard enough when you read it, but when you’re writing it then it does take some time to leave that world and enter another, especially with multiple projects in progress.

That’s all today. Take care, and have a great rest of the week.

Bye!

0 Comments

Acceptance

8/11/2023

0 Comments

If gratitude is the key to abundance, then acceptance is the key to contentment. That’s what I believe anyway. And to find true gratitude, you have to be first content with what you have to really make progress in life.

What is acceptance? We talk about in in terms of grieving a lot, but I think it applies to more than getting over a loss or adjusting to a change that you didn’t choose. For example, it’s accepting that, as much as I’d like to have this rough draft of Singularity done already, it isn’t quite there yet. I had a sense of exhaustion last night when I was running my file backups and realized that I’ve been working on it since late March, and just hit Chapter 30. I looked back over blog and journal entries these months and acknowledged that I need to slow down doing these rough drafts to pin down the research and storyline right, but now my spirit is at a place of accepting it. I’m excited about this story and want the draft done, but I need to slow down and channel that energy correctly to complete a solid draft that won’t be a nightmare of rewrites later this year. That happened with Broken Time and Duality, and I've learned from my mistakes. Now's the time to apply the wisdom I gained from those experiences, meaning slow down the rough draft and do it right the first time. Or as right as a rough draft can be.

It’s part of day-to-day life as well. As much as I’m over the stupid-hot heat waves of summer, the truth is that it’s August, and it will be a lot easier if I accept that it’s summer and let it be what it is until it passes in a couple of months. It’s that and gratitude for air conditioning, or being absolutely miserable until October. It’s accepting that we took a financial hit a couple of months ago with some major vehicle repairs, and the only way to recover is to stick to the budget and plan to pay down the balance. It’s continuing to do my workouts every evening no matter how tired I am so I'll be strong, healthy, and won’t feel like a pig-in-a-poke. And a million other little things about being a responsible adult, living the life I’m blessed with, to ensure that I’m achieving my full potential, living it to the fullest, and laying the groundwork for a future that I’ll also be happy with. One thing I do believe we have to remember is that acceptance doesn’t mean you’re alright with things. It means that you choose to accept reality for what it is and commit to doing the best you can with it. Then you’re ready for the next step of opening your eyes to your blessings and the opportunities that are part of that acceptance.

Yes, we accept more than we realize. We just don’t realize how often this decision lies before us. I’m not sure what brought this to my attention for this blog entry. The manuscript, I suppose. Writing a book always hijacks your brain, especially when you have one part in your own little world and one in your reality. Then again, it could also be that acceptance is a theme that my characters are dealing with. Funny how life and art imitate one another sometimes.

The manuscript will get finished, and probably before the end of the month. I’m accepting that it’s going to take a little more time to write the final third of this novel. At least it’s coming to life, which is more than it was five months ago.
That’s progress, and that’s something to be thankful for.

That’s all today. Take care, and have a Happy Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Bye!

0 Comments

Goals Achieved

Progress

Acceptance

Escape Reality

Archives

Categories