Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Sassy Bits of Life Advice
Courtesy of Artgirlz


1. Create the Unexpected *

2. Pick up Litter

3. Work for Peace

4. Use your Blinker

5. Plant Flowers

6. Be Brave *

7. Be Bold *

8. Breathe and Smile

9. Take a Bath

10. Eat Chocolate *

11. Learn New Things *

12. Break the Rules *

13. Wave to your Neighbor (or Blogging buddy) *

* Tips that can be used in life as well as writing.



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Whew! and Yum!

Well. That half day I was going to have to write? The one that was working around an event at my son's school? Well, that one is no more. My husband decided this morning that we needed to 'tidy up a bit', just in case a friend of ours might possibly want to stop by for a visit while in the area. So I spent my whole morning 'tidying up' the colossal mess that was our house since the return of our trip. Yes, yes, I'd been working on it--not fast enough apparently, and yes, yes, I needed to get it done before this weekend, when my husband had agreed to drag our Christmas decorations down from the attic. But I didn't need to have a whirlwind cleaning spree on my 'day off'. Still...it does look much better.

Technically it's not all done. I'm resting, drained after all the non-stop tidying. So, having not eaten breakfast, I poured myself a glass of milk and grabbed the little breakfast bar that Old Navy was giving out on Black Friday. Has anyone else had this nasty little snack??? Because it's delicious!! It's called a 'Flapjack & Maple Syrup Short Stack Breakfast Snack Granola Bar' with walnuts, and it's simply scrumptious. I would immediately go out and buy up a box if I knew where to get them. The wrapper simply says 'Season's Eatings from Old Navy and Cereality'.

Wait! In my search for a picture, I found this. They're selling a similar bar...wonder if it's the same...for not a bad deal. I wonder what the shipping is. Will research and put off final cleaning a bit longer.

Are you ready, boots?

Today was the day I went shopping for knee-high black boots. I've never had any before but kinda wanted them last year and really think I should have some this year since I have several new things that would work really well with that type of boot.

I was hoping to find something at Macy's, since I have a $10 gift card they sent me in the mail and they're always having sales, but I couldn't find anything. So, with trepidation, I headed down to Dillard's. Dillard's shoe department is twice the size of Macy's and is always filled with cute little shoes I tell myself I'll buy when they go on sale. .
Dillard's very rarely has sales, so my shoe collection leaves a little bit to be desired. I did find some I liked--a couple of pairs actually--by Michelle D. I tried on the hipper of the two and it was uncomfortably tight across the toes and higher up, even in the wide size. So I tried the other, more casual of the two and it fit pretty well, although I think the tightness around the calves will take some getting used to.

Then I saw this cute little shiny navy patent ballet flat and sent my little one over to get it (not wanting to be seen walking around in capri pants and charcoal grey socks)...and he leaned on the table, upended it, and sent everything in all directions. He was very embarrassed. Well I got the boots and we left. I'll get those little ballet flats when they go on sale. But then I thought, maybe I'll just stop by DSW and see if I can find a bargain. .
If I do, I can just take back the hard-won boots from Dillard's. So we breeze through, and just a few boots shy of stepping out the door, I find another pair I like--same price--less stylish perhaps, but more comfortable still. So I bought them too. And now I have to decide which one to keep or whether to take them both back and call the day a wash. What do you think?

Vacation is Over, People. Way Over.

Well, I'm back from a week long stint in Charleston, South Carolina, visiting my sister, brother-in-law and two nieces. After we got over the drive straight through, and I slogged through the first few days with a sinus headache, we really had a good time...and then we pulled another all-day drive back home. And now I'm absolutely swamped with things to do.

I tried to keep up with my blog a little over the vacation, but I haven't worked on my WIP in what seems like forever. I'm really going to have to crack down if I'm going to even come close to making a stab at trying to finish up by the end of the year...or even by February when one of the RWA chapters I belong to will be hosting agents who'll be taking appointments. (I have plenty of time to worry about how I'll deal with that frightening aspect of writing life later).

And of course, now I have all those other little projects associated with the holidays to occupy my time as well...holiday parties, teacher gifts, holiday baking, shopping, gift-wrapping, decorating, and on and on. I'll be lucky if I can squeeze out every last one of my Mother's-Day-Out writing days before my little one gets out for Christmas break. I have exactly six of them left, and one is already at least partially taken up in a project at my older son's school. Blogs may well be short and sweet from here on out...

Before I sign off (so much still to unpack...), look at this gorgeous cover from the very sweet and busyDeborah MacGillivray. Her debut novel, A Restless Knight has gotten rave reviews. This one though is so delicious looking...it makes me think of peppermints. It's also a contemporary, which I'm reading more of these days. It's in my current Amazon order. One more thing to distract me from my WIP...

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Reasons I Love Thanksgiving

1. There's such a build-up and a huge amount of anticipation...at least in my mind.

2. The menu-planning--for some reason, I find this fun. Despite the fact that the menu is pretty much the same every year.

3. The camaraderie with family and friends, our common goal being the making and eating of a delicious, satisfying meal (with plenty of leftovers).

4. All the different smells...roasting turkey, pumpkin pie, cinnamon and ginger, homemade rolls (that last one only if I'm spending Thanksgiving with my mom...which I am this year).

5. The preparation of Thanksgiving dinner (if not overly stressful...meaning if the turkey was not forgotten in the freezer or a key ingredient found missing).

6. The football games...sort of an ambient noise for me.

7. Being cozy and warm inside when it's chilly, rainy, or downright cold outside. Except on those freak holidays when we're all wearing shorts...and sweltering in a kitchen with the oven on for hours.

8. Filling my plate will all those things that I don't make at any other time of the year...totally conscious of all my options.

9. Watching movies while totally stuffed, but still managing to fit in a few bits of Christmas candy, holiday cookies, or snatches of leftovers.

10. Knowing that this holiday is the threshold to bigger things...that Christmas (and all of its trappings) is just around the corner.

11. Feeling justified in getting the holiday decorations out, playing the Christmas music, and getting in the spirit.

12. Getting prepped and ready for a full shopping day Friday, The Day After.

13. And of course, family and all they represent.

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and a painless start to the holiday season!



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Virtual Blog Tour

Today I'm a stop on Dorothy Thompson's Virtual Blog Tour for her recently released eBook, A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your Self-Published eBook, a subject I have a healthy amount of interest in myself. Dorothy is the editor of The Writer's Life and the moderator for TWLAuthorTalks, a yahoo group I belong to that brings in successful authors and agents as resources for the unpublished author.

I did a mini-interview with Dorothy, and here's what she had to say about ebooks...

A: What do you see as the role of self-publishing in the current publishing climate? Is it a viable solution, a last resort, a savvy business opportunity?

D: Definitely a savvy business opportunity! Self-publishing eBooks is a great way to make money on the side while you’re either waiting for that NY contract or those piddley royalty checks from your already-published books. It’s so easy to do, and you keep 100% of the profits!

A: How have the promotional strategies outlined in your book, A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your Self-Published eBook, helped in marketing your previously published ebooks?

D: What’s funny is, my previously-published eBooks are the ones who inspired this promoting eBook. Last year, I did an experiment with one of the free eBooks that my writing group and I published. I wanted to see if I could get it in the top ten spot in all the search engines using a popular key word phrase, “free ebook for writers.”

Using the notes that had been piling up on my desk, and in my files on promotion that I had accumulated over five years, and implementing the ones I thought would work, I (along with the help from my writing group) managed to get our eBook “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Published” in the number one spot on all the major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others. I know this stuff works, and that’s what my eBook is all about.

Why the importance of getting it into the number one spot? When people use a certain search word or phrase that is related to your book, you want them to land on your website link. If your website link doesn’t come up in the first three pages of a search engine, you’ve just lost a potential customer.

A: What are your thoughts on the near future of e-publishing?

D: I think it’s looking great. I’ll never believe that print books will ever go out of style, or completely replaced, but it sure is nice there is an alternative. The reason why I love eBooks is for the convenience. If I need to know something in a hurry, or I am doing research and need to know a certain something that I can’t find over the Internet and I find an eBook that can give me that, it’s a sold eBook.

But, the best thing, in my opinion, about eBooks is that it’s so easy to put one together and sell it yourself. What better way to make 100% profit on something you created?

But the thing is, we have to create awareness of our eBooks in order to see any sales at all. There are still a lot of people who balk at buying them. That’s the reason why I put out free ones. I want the public to see how easy it is to read them over the Internet. That’s their only downfall, I believe. People tire easily if they have to sit at the computer any longer than they have to, so you have to be a savvy promoter to get to those people. If it is something that will make their lives better, I believe you’ll have a winner on your hands.

So, to answer your question, I see e-publishing sticking around a long, long time, especially if writers jump on the bandwagon and start creating their own eBooks. It’s a win-win situation if you promote right.

Thanks for your insights, Dorothy, and best of luck with the tour and the ebook! And if anyone else would like to chime in with opinions on the future of ebooks, consider this an invitation...

Plot Board

Per a request in the comments of a recent post, I'm going to give a few details on the plot board I'm creating...have really almost finished creating. I got the idea from Diana P. (can't find her post right now) and read a really good description of how it works on Roxanne St. Claire's site.

Basically, you buy a pack of multi-colored Post-its and assign one for each of the different plotlines in your book (romance, suspense, subplot, inner conflict...whatever). Then you get yourself a posterboard or foam board or something sizable on which to tack on the Post-its, divide it into squares or blocks, one for each scene, and then write down the specifics of each plot element that is changed/adjusted/tweaked in that particular scene, and then afix the Post-it to the square. That way, you get a visual of the entire book and all its elements, complete with colorful tracking of where each plotline is developed. (If it's working right, all the colors should pretty much balance out). If scenes need to be changed, you can mix the plot points up on the board and see visually how it'll work...really get the 'big picture'.

I started mine after my first draft was already done, and I think that is probably the way I'll go on. It makes for a great review--it takes me so long to get a book written that I find I forget everything that happens in the interim. Plus, I can see which scenes need to be trimmed, beefed up, or rearranged. It's a little bit of time investment, but I think it's been worth it--it's even better helped me get a handle on my Goal, Motivation, and Conflict, which was in my mind after reading Deb Dixon's book.

So that's it, in a nutshell. Plot boards: Two thumbs up, highly recommended.

Your Ideal Disney Hero

Mine is evidently Phillip
Take this quiz!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Favorite Things...One For Each Letter of the Alphabet (Part 2)

14. Newness: brand-spanking preferred.
15. Oranges and the color orange
16. Popcorn: caramel, kettle, or movie.
17. Quilts: homemade are best
18. Romance novels, romantic comedies, romantic gestures
19. Shopping, when under no pressure to find something
20. Twilight
21. Unladylike Pursuits. The book, of course, and the very idea.
22. Vacations and vintage stuff
23. Windy days and watermelon
24. Xtra features on DVD's
25. Y'all! My blogging friends.
26. Zoos




Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

One More Person Knows

Yesterday on the playground, one of the moms I've been spending everyday after school with for the past year asked what I do during my little one's Mother's Day Out time. I froze up a little, turned away for a moment, and finally admitted that I write. First it was nothing else, just that I write. I didn't tell her what I was working on, that I'd already finished a book and published it myself, or anything. So she very politely dragged it all out of me. And while I felt awkward telling her, I felt a little relieved too as if I'd been bottling it all in and finally was letting it go.

It's awfully hard to bring up the fact that you're a writer. At least I find that it is. Most of the people I meet in more that a passing fashion are other moms (most of whom know that I'm a stay-at-home mom), or they're writers. So, if these moms think you're a stay-at-home mom, they don't ask what you do--it never comes up, because motherhood is enough. And I'm not the type to just launch it on people: 'Oh, by the way, I'm a writer.' I feel like people are going to smirk and scoff and say, 'So what!' So it's like a closet hobby--that I work on all the time.

But this other mom had the perfect reaction. She was excited for me, excited for her--that she'd discovered this little tidbit of information. She immediately said she'd look for my book, that she wanted to read it. I was truly flattered. It was the perfect little pick-me-up.

Ideally, the news will spread like wildfire all over my son's elementary school, and I'll be inundated with moms and teachers all clamoring to buy my book. Or maybe I'll continue to live in relative anonymity. Totally works for me.

Aimless Wanderings

I'm back in the saddle today, but there were a great many distractions. An almost absurd number of them. My sons have a search and find Christmas book with over 200 things to find, and we've never found all of them, despite exhaustive efforts, so today I actually made up a spreadsheet to sort things out during an upcoming car trip. Then there were a few Christmas gift ideas I needed to check on (this is how I work), email to get through, visits to blogs I'd been neglecting...you get the picture. Then I had to process an Amazon Advantage order for U.P. (the life of a self-publisher) and so on and so forth. Then I got an email from a guy friend giving me all the juicy details--well maybe not all of them--from the evening he proposed. Very conducive to romantic thinking...

So then, I got right on it. Brainstorming, researching, plot-boarding. But now my time is once again up.

I did, however, find these great scrapbooking papers from Basic Grey while I was searching for digital design elements to use for the redesign of my website. I'm trying to think of something creative and yet not time-consuming, or design or labor intensive to do with them. Thoughts?

Slip-slidin' Away

My WIP is becoming but a fond memory. I'm trying to keep it in mind, thinking of it anytime my cold isn't clouding my thoughts, or something else isn't demanding my attention, but what with the substitute teaching I did last week, my sons' illnesses, and my own cold, I've got excuses aplenty.

I did manage to finish Deb Dixon's Goal, Motivation, Conflict, which gave me lots of things to think about, and then there was the advice from Susan Wiggs, and my work at my plot board, so there's a lot of ideas swirling around upstairs, but none of them are getting written. Unless you count them being jotted in a little notebook.

Sure, you say...I could be writing right now. But I'm barely motivated to sit here as it is. I've just finished finagling the photo calendars I'm giving to a few lucky recipients as gifts this year and tweaking the final photo Christmas card so as to take advantage of today being coupon expiration day. I really want to go curl up with a book and a mug of hot chocolate. But why get too comfortable? I'm going to have to make dinner for my boys in a few minutes, and the torture of getting up after getting comfortable just isn't worth it. Not that it's in any way related, but I won't go into a hot tub in cold weather either, for this very reason. I anticipate how cold and miserable I'm going to be when I get out, and I can't take it. It just isn't worth it.

I should really go now...

Out of Order

I'm taking a sick day today...because I'm sick. I'm snorting back Zicam every four hours hoping it shortens the duration of this cold...and I'm really hoping this is just a cold.

I did get to see Susan Wiggs give a talk yesterday about brainstorming your book. It was very informative, and I got several good ideas for my current WIP (which means several changes, but isn't that always how it is? One of the suggestions she gave for getting to know your characters is to have them answer the questions at www.mylifemycard.com (the questions they have celebrities answer in the American Express Card commercials. I plan to give it a go when I'm thinking clearly again...

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Favorite Things...One For Each Letter of the Alphabet (Part 1)

1. Apples, skin on
2. Brownies...LOVE 'em. Oh, and Books too.

3. Christmas and all the trimmings
4. Desserts...I absolutely must end a meal with a dessert.
5. Enchiladas, Cheese
6. Feather pillows
7. Gerbera daisies


8. Humor, assuming it's funny
9. Ice cream. My favorite is milk chocolate ice cream with marshmallow creme on top.
10. Journals...I love the pristine blankness of them, the infinite possibility.
11. Kisses, both candy and lip.
12. Limes
13. Motherhood...Awww



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Not Quite 'Flushed Away'

A friend of mine told me today that she'd recently gone into her children's bathroom to find water all over the floor, which appeared to be footprint shaped. And they were all around the toilet. After confronting her kids, she discovered that they'd seen an ad for the animated movie Flushed Away in which actual children were getting flushed down the toilet and getting to see the movie. So hers were trying it. The little one (four) was in the toilet and the older one (six) was flushing it. Alas, they didn't make it. And evidently it didn't bother them that THEIR FEET WERE IN THE TOILET!!!!!



As if this wasn't bad enough, my friend then went on to say that she hoped the last person to use it had remembered to flush the toilet. EEEEWWWWW! Hadn't even thought about that possibility. Two little boys dipping in and then wandering around the house... Ahh, the joys of motherhood.

Whew!

I am exhausted! I was all ready this morning, planning out my 'day off' today, both boys in school, when I got a telephone call. It was my little one's Mother's Day Out teacher, calling to see if I could substitute today in one of the classes. With only the barest seconds of hesitations, my mind flitting over the lost opportunities and the scary possibilities I would be facing, I told her I could. And so begun the day...

Luckily, I got the 3-4 year old class, so no babies who didn't recognize me, crying in my arms all day, no diapers, no sobbing for Mommy. These kids had it all together with energy to spare. There was no outside play today due to rain last night, so by the end of the day, the kids were wired, crawling around under tables, jumping over prone bodies, laying across tables, dancing, running, you name it. I didn't know my disiplinary responsibilities, so I sort of ignored it, waiting for the two 'real' teachers to do something. Seriously though, I could have had that room whipped into shape in no time...but I didn't attempt it.

There was a little girl in there with the same name as mine, and one of the teachers kept calling her name, tagging on an instruction: 'Alyssa, sit on your square,' 'Alyssa, stop eating playdough'. Everytime, I turned, thinking she was talking to me. Very disturbing.

But now I'm done, secretly hoping they won't call me back. Or if they do, that it won't be too frequently...

Perfectly Pigeon-holed

Well I took the Princeton Review Career Quiz today, and guess what? I'm perfectly suited to be an engineer! Imagine that...I was an engineer for five years (and if I may say so, a pretty darn good one). But then I got the call. To motherhood and then to writing.

It's interesting, because evidently my 'usual style color' is yellow, which is described as such:

"People with yellow styles perform their job responsibilities in a manner that is orderly and planned to meet a known schedule. They prefer to work where things get done with a minimum of interpretation and unexpected change. People with a yellow style tend to be orderly, cautious, structured, loyal, systematic, solitary, methodical, and organized, and usually thrive in a research-oriented, predictable, established, controlled, measurable, orderly environment. You will want to choose a work environment or career path in which your style is welcomed and produces results."

And yet, I've haven't done such a great job of applying all this meticulous organizing to my writing. Wonder what the implication is there...

* As a side note, I'd love it if someone would tell me how to use font colors in Blogger.

Lazy Weekend

At least lazy as far as writing is concerned. I got zero writing done, but I am knee-deep into the GMC manual by Deb Dixon. Very good stuff in there. I've decided that before I begin revisions in earnest, I'm going to make out a GMC chart and try to map out a plotting board with Post-it notes. (We'll see how long it takes before I'm burnt out on that little project.) Seriously though, I think it'll help get things all together for me in my mind so that I can visualize the entire storyline at once and no lose sight of any details.

With no writing comes time for other things. Saturday we took the pictures for our Christmas card. And let me tell you, it's going to be very cute! Kodak now offers the option of adding multiple photos to a single photo card, with a nice selection of layouts, and it's a very nice, very easy-to-use feature. When we finished with that, I went out to lunch at my favorite Tex-Mex restaurant (across town in Houston, or about 40 minutes away) and indulged myself in oodles of chips and salsa and jalapeno ranch dip and a plate of cheese enchiladas with refried beans and green chile rice. Yum! I won't be back for probably a couple of months, so that'll have to hold me.

Then on Sunday, I attended the last day of the Houston International Quilt Festival--the biggest quilt festival held annually in the world. And let me tell you, it's huge. Houston has a huge convention center, and between the vendors and the finished quilts, it takes up the whole place. I'm not much of a crafty person, and by that I mean I'm not very skilled at crafts. I love them, and I get optimistic looking at them, imagining that one day I might try my hand at something. And then sometimes I just try to persuade my mom to make something for me. Occasionally, it actually works. So I got a few things and snapped a few pictures of some particularly impressive quilts.





This last one won 'Best Of Show', with a prize of $10,000. The quilt took the artist a year, she said, and it was only the third one she'd ever made. The design is based on the book being held up beside the quilt. Fabulous, huh?

Friday Cocktail

My 'interview' is up on The Good Girls Kill For Money Club. Come visit and get my recipe (actually my mother-in-law's recipe) for Spicy Shrimp Cocktail and try your hand at the questions I've left...

Also be sure to read some of the comments already left...the guys (meaning guys and girls) over there are a riot!

Have a great weekend. I've just found out I'd better get busy on my WIP because my mother-in-law is telling people in masses that I'll have another book out in 6-8 months. Egad!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Quotes That Make Me Smile

1. "Begin each day as if it were on purpose." - Mary Anne Radmacher

2. "Dwell in possibility." - Emily Dickinson

3. "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." -Eleanor Roosevelt

4. "Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the
senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends.
They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness." - Helen Keller

5. "Art is the only way to run away without leaving home." - Twyla Tharp

6. "Sure God created man before woman, but you always make a rough draft before creating the final masterpiece." - Anonymous

7. "I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time and prevents arguments." - Oscar Wilde

8. "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars. - Les Brown

9. "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." - Winston Churchill

10. "Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. - Winston Churchill

11. "I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking
them." - Jane Austen

12. "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun
and - SNAP - the job's a game." - Mary Poppins

13. "I always knew I was destined for greatness." - Oprah Winfrey




Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants