Challenge The Spy/Bride Post

Posted on November 3, 2014 by conniejean

P1010937-1000x750 RAF Chicksands Priory by SBuxton https://www.lumixgexperience.panasonic.co.uk/gallery/sbuxton/chicksands-priory/#.VFW7LPldWo0

P1010937-1000×750 RAF Chicksands Priory by SBuxton https://www.lumixgexperience.panasonic.co.uk/gallery/sbuxton/chicksands-priory/#.VFW7LPldWo0

Here’s the deal. I was informed of this cool web site: beyardandholmes.com (http://bayardandholmes.com/2014/10/22/new-release-and-the-spy-bride-contest/) and a challenge they are running. Here’s their challenge:

We are inviting all bloggers to write a post about absolutely anything espionage or wedding related. Link back to this post to be entered in a contest for a $25 Amazon card and a copy of RISKY BRIDES.

Write about your favorite Bond movie, your favorite historical spook, or how you used to spy on your siblings. Tell us about your wildest bachelor party, you favorite wedding, or your worst bridesmaid’s dress. If you manage to write about both spooks and weddings in the same post, you’ll have your name entered twice.

So, really, how can I go wrong?

Here’s the post.

As some of you may remember, I spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force. One of the best assignments I ever had was to RAF Chicksands in the United Kingdom. It was a small, tranquil base about an hour north of London. We didn’t have planes. We had antennas.

The antennas were for listening to what was going on in Europe. I’m sure if anyone is interested they can find information on the internet about “Elephant Cages” and what information was being gathered.

What I liked about the place was that it was an excellent location for my family. We arrived there just as my daughter was turning eight. She was sure that because her name was Elizabeth, she’d be invited to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen. Unfortunately that never happened but we did stay there for two tours. We left that idyllic base when my daughter was 16.

One other aspect of the base that was a real draw was that the base had a Priory. An old religious cloister sat smack dab in the middle of the base. It was the hub of many social activities. It never hurt that it had a ghost. Halloween parties were a huge deal. But the place was so lovely, many a wedding was held there. There was a volunteer organization that worked to fund building repairs, keep the gardens up, and just make use of the place.

That was by far my best assignment and many of us that served there still chat via social networks. It no longer serves as a military installation and the Elephant Cage is long gone but the Priory is still there, and I expect, still hosting weddings.

In other news:

By the way, NaNo has started and I’m just ahead of my target goals. I love that. Then if I have to miss a writing day, I’m not all behind and weepy.

I’ve also developed a cover for the cozy mystery I’m writing. Just for giggles, I’ve loaded it on my Pinterest page. Check it out: http://www.pinterest.com/conniecockrell/ That would be my My Books and Stories board, Mystery at the Fair is the cover pin.

That thyme? I got it down, spent an hour and a half picking the leaves from the stems and hung both rosemary and sage to dry.

Last week I talked about Christmas Cards. No can do. But, I’m not giving up my candy making. I’ll try and do some steps in advance in November that can be held in the fridge until I’m ready to complete them and get the tins in the mail.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Like any author, my books sell based on reviews. Would you be interested in getting a free copy to review for me? Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up. Or sign up here. Use Control, Click to access the link.

First Encounter: a Brown Rain Story released September 18th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Sewing, Cooking, Planning for NaNo, Writing, and Christmas Cards?

Posted on October 27, 2014 by conniejean

Hubby and me, Bad Witch and Good Witch, photo by Randy Cockrell

Saturday my hubby and I attended a Halloween party with a lot of our hiking friends. That’s the pic, there at the top of the post. We had a lot of fun. I went as a good witch and made my own costume. That’s where the sewing part came in. I had to modify hubby’s costume as well so, more sewing there.

The planning for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or NaNo) proceeds down to the wire. I still need two stories for the 14th and 28th of Thanksgiving. My outline for my Cozy Mystery, working title, Mystery at the Fair, continues with difficulty. I have 45 scenes. I seem to toss more than I write new. I keep going through the cards, wondering where I can insert more trouble for my main protagonist, Jean Hays. I’m starting to wonder if I need another plot line. I have 4 days to figure it out.

I’ve also been thinking about the cover for Mystery at the Fair. Since I want to write these as a series, I’ve been contemplating the theme that will continue from book cover to book cover. My first thought is to have the same background color on each book. I’ll keep you posted on what the unifying element will be. If you don’t know, NaNo is a writing challenge. Every November thousands of authors, new and experienced, try to write 50,000 words or more in the month. It turns out to be 1667 words per day, minimum. You can go to the website and check it out. www.nanowrimo.org/en/sign_in It’s free to join and there are forums to visit to talk with others about writing.

I’m well into the final edits for the second book in my Brown Rain series. It’s at the editor’s now and I expect I’ll have it back from them in the next day or two. I’ll make the final corrections and start the formatting process. I finished the cover for it. It looks great. I think I’ll do the cover reveal next Monday. Stay tuned for that.

That thyme? Still on the drying rack. Sigh. I’d better hurry up and get that down and the rosemary and sage up on the rack.

Oh, and the Christmas Cards? I have made my own Christmas Cards for several years. It’s so much fun to pick a design and then the paper and colors and make all the pieces for assembly. The problem is that I send out about 60 cards, it’s a big family and we have a lot of friends. Unfortunately, it’s the end of October and I don’t have anything planned. Then there’s NaNo taking up a lot of time in November. So, I’ve decided that there won’t be homemade cards this year. I’m a little bummed but relieved that I can put that stress away to concentrate on writing. So, to my friends and family used to getting a homemade card, I apologize, but something has to give.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

First Encounter: a Brown Rain Story released September 18th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Racing through October

Posted on October 20, 2014 by conniejean

Red Rocks of Sedona by Randy Cockrell

Is the month going by as fast for you as it is for me? Wow, it’s been a crazy month. Last week my hubby and I went to Sedona with several of our hiking friends and had a good time hiking that area. The picture at the top of the post is from there. Too beautiful for words. Of course the weekend before was the craft fair, that was exciting. The 4th was my visit to the Sedona book fair. Then there are the meetings for the book festival we’re planning for Payson, dental appointments, HOA meeting, project management phone calls and a luncheon for the neighborhood ladies.

In between all of that, I’m prepping for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or NaNo). I want to have stories scheduled for every Friday in November so I don’t have to worry about that while I’m writing my newest draft. I have 2 scheduled, 1 written and ready to be scheduled and one still to be done. I still need one for the 31st of October, too. That should probably be kind of Halloweeny, don’t you think? Other NaNo planning is my outline. It’s going to be a cozy mystery, the first one I’ve tried to write. I have five plot lines and about 30 scene sentences completed. I think another 30 – 40 scenes will fill the story out nicely. If you don’t know, NaNo is a writing challenge. Every November thousands of authors, new and experienced, try to write 50,000 words or more in the month. It turns out to be 1667 words per day, minimum. You can go to the website and check it out. www.nanowrimo.org/en/sign_in It’s free to join and there are forums to visit to talk with others about writing. I need to think about a cover for my cozy mystery, too. Hmmm.

The garden is still producing tomatoes and the sweet and hot pepper plants still have a couple peppers on them ripening. Otherwise the garden is looking a little worn and tired. Soon I’ll have to pull everything out and prep the beds for the winter.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

First Encounter: a Brown Rain Story released September 18th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Cover Reveal for Hard Choices

Posted on April 21, 2014 by conniejean

Hard Choices
Cover art by Connie Cockrell

Check it out! What do you think? The book itself will be out the end of May. I still have editing to do on it. Overall, it’s a very short novel and a four related short stories. It’s set in the Gulliver Station timeline between The Challenge (released end of March 2014) and Revolution, which is slated for release end of July 2014. I’m still contemplating the arrangement of the short stories. Here’s a blurb about the book:

A short novel with four short stories, Hard Choices looks at life on Gulliver Station in the time after The Challenge. Weather in the Biosphere is a tale about two cousins, who make an ill-timed mistake. Methane Breathers considers communications difficulties between two different species. Growing up is full of hard choices as Cassandra Madison in The Conversion discovers. Barrie has lost his job and must play the game for his family to survive as you’ll read in Dedication Day. The title story, a short novel, takes a look at life on Gulliver Station from an outsider’s point of view. Between ships, Jolene Harris enjoys leave by herself when things go horribly wrong. Will she live to reach her new ship, The Adirondack?

April’s Camp National Novel Writing Month, https://campnanowrimo.org/sign_in is in its third week. I’m plugging away on my novel, still unnamed. As of yesterday, I’m at 32,000 words, well on my way to my goal for 50K words. There’s still a lot of writing to be done but it looks as though I’ll meet the challenge!

My rhubarb has made it through the dry winter here in central Arizona. I think it needs at least another year before I cut any stalks.

The root canal took five shots of novocaine and two hours but the dentist was quite pleased with the results. I still have some jaw ache from the procedure but it’s slowly going away. It’s nice to take a drink of room temperature water and not wince from the pain.

My project to collect my mom’s history by using To Our Children’s Children: Preserving Family Histories for Generations to Come by Bob Greene and D.G. Fulford is ongoing. Not every phone call to my mom has time or opportunity to ask questions but it is moving along. My brothers and sister are going to like this.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Go ahead and sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up. Or sign up here. Use Control, Click to access the link.

I have an in depth interview on my Smashwords Author page. You can read it here. Don’t see information about me you’d like to know? Leave me your question in my comments and I’ll try to answer it.

The Challenge: A Gulliver Station Story released March 23rd! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Halfway Point in April 2014 Camp NaNo

Posted on April 14, 2014 by conniejean

Writing in the Evening by ksiaz via www.deviantart.com

Tomorrow will be the halfway point for the April Camp National Novel Writing Month, https://campnanowrimo.org/sign_in . So far I have finished a novelette and two short stories. I’m now working on my novel, still unnamed but it’s a fantasy. I set my goal for 50K words and as of Sunday afternoon, I’m over 21,000words. There’s still a lot of writing to be done!

I bought fresh seeds today. I can plant cold hardy stuff like peas and beans now. The rest will have to wait for warmer weather. My Meyer lemon tree has another round of blossoms coming. This is the third time it’s blossomed since January. I have some tiny lemons growing from the last flush. Hopefully I’ll get more on this go round.

I have to go to the dentist on Wednesday, I have a tooth ache under a crown. The dentist says I need a root canal. Yay me! A root canal. Anyway, I’ve had this ache for about a month; it’s time to get it taken care of.

I bought To Our Children’s Children: Preserving Family Histories for Generations to Come by Bob Greene and D.G. Fulford a very long time ago. It’s a list of questions around the person’s personal data, family life, work life, ancestory and so on. I dug it out of my book case and began asking my mother questions from the book. If I ask a few questions every day, (I call her everyday anyway) soon I’ll have enough information to put a memoir together for her. I’m liking this project.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

The Challenge: A Gulliver Station Story released March 23rd! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

200th Blog Post!

Posted on March 31, 2014 by conniejean

Celebration by Star Maiden, PatriciaRodelaArtist, ©2007-2014 PatriciaRodelaArtist

This is my 200th blog post! I’m amazed to be honest. When I started this I never expected to have much to say. I’ve discovered I have a lot to talk about with you all. Thank you for coming back every week!

I’ve been prepping for the April Camp National Novel Writing Month, https://campnanowrimo.org/sign_in . This is a writing challenge but unlike November’s 50K word in the month challenge, I can set any word goal I want. I have a novelette to finish, two short stories to write, and a novel to do. I’m going to set my goal for 50K words. Lots of writing to be done!

I’ve been doing some gardening. I had to begin watering too. We’ve only had one rain storm since December and it was barely a tenth of an inch. We still get frost in the mornings though so I can’t plant a lot yet. However, things like spinach, lettuce and other cold hardy things can be planted. I’ve been eyeing pansies for the flower tub in my front yard. They’re extremely cold hardy and will look good out there for a very long time.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

The Challenge: A Gulliver Station story released March 23rd! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Kobo: Both A New Start and The Challenge are up on Kobo. I’m linking to The Challenge on this blog but you can check my author name for other books available on each of the above links.

As of this writing Apple still doesn’t have The Challenge up so I’ve linked to A New Start. It may be up by the time you try it.

A Year in Review 2013

Posted on December 30, 2013 by conniejean

It feels like 2013 has been a wild ride, as far as my writing is concerned. I’ve taken several writing classes this year and I can tell my story telling has improved considerably. I’ve settled into blogging twice per week, on Monday and Friday. That rhythm works for me and I don’t feel like I’m spamming my followers. So here’s how I did.

As far as I can tell I wrote a Flash Fiction Friday story every week and updated my Blog and Facebook Fan page (both titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly. I added a monthly blog post for the Forward Motion site called Merry-Go-Round blog. My post is the 18th of every month. I missed one of those as well.

I started the Y2N class (2 Year Novel) with Lazette Gifford and kept up the weekly lessons until November when the National Novel Writing Month and then the holidays knocked me off track. I’m behind about 8 lessons right now so it’s still possible for me to catch up.

I outlined short stories for May Story A Day challenge. The challenge for this year was to write ten short stories. I managed six last year. I finished the May Story a Day challenge with 12 stories. Not every one of them was a gem but I’ve set them aside to fix them up and publish them. On short stories, I’ve been writing them all year in addition to the Flash Fictions and novels.

In addition, I began revising my November 2012 NaNo story, TriPoint Station. I had to rename it: Gulliver Station, Hard Choices and began outlining the first book in the series, Gulliver Station: A New Start, in Scrivener. The series continues with The Challenge, drafted in July and Revolution, drafted in November.

I struggled with Scrivener. I’m still a beginner and am pretty sure I’m not using a fraction of the tools available to me in the program. Other programs I’ve learned this year are Gimp and SketchUp. The last two I use to make my own book covers. Thank goodness my husband loves to take pictures. His pictures are used on my covers.

I also wrote, How To Design an ebook Cover. That became my Vision submission for August. My submission in December to Vision was, Gerunds, the -ing words. Funny story. The Gerund article came about through a short story critique. One critiquer mentioned that I used too many gerunds. High School English class was a long time ago. The research I did to fix that problem became the article. Thanks to the critique, my writing is now stronger.

My goal for 2013 was to publish 4 books. I epublished, A Trio of Animal Tales in January. Recall revision was finished in February! I decided to self publish. I published it May 27th. I continued to revise stories for a collection I called Halloween Tales and wrote a fifth one so there would be 5 stories in the book. Release was the 30th of September. I released Christmas Tales November 17th. It was a little stressful, releasing a book in the middle of NaNo but I managed to get it done.

My story After The Storm was rejected by Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show magazine so I submitted it to Asmiov’s Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine, where it was rejected also. I entered a Scribophile contest with Generation Bug and was not selected as the winner but I had enough confidence in the story to enter it in the Writers of the World contest for the 3rd quarter. I did not win. I sent Where the Brown Things Are to WotF (World of the Future: a science fiction magazine that has a quarterly contest to select the best stories for the mag.) I wasn’t supposed to find out until January if I won but they worked fast and I found out I was not accepted in December. Sigh. I’ll try and write something to submit in January. I submitted a story, The Reunion, to a contest held by the Southwest Authors. I found out in October that I did not win that one either. I still haven’t heard back from the Tucson Festival of Books (The Reunion) or the Arizona ONE-BOOKAZ Goes Digital eBook Writing Competitions (Generation Bug) on my submissions. I’m going to cross my fingers. I also have Someone Else is Living Here out to the Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition. I’ll hear from them in February 2014.

On a positive note, I submitted a short story, Dogs and Cats, to the Forward Motion site, http://www.fmwriters.com/zoomfm/, for their 2013 Anthology, Cats Eyes. The story was accepted and came out in September. https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/books/book-detail-page?ie=UTF8&bookASIN=1493638475&index=default

My story, Just Add Copper, was submitted to the How To Think Sideways Anthology, The Adventure of Creation, and accepted in June. The anthology was published in mid-August. Some great short stories in various genre’s by some great authors. http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-Creation-Foreword-Sideways-Anthology/dp/3956810007/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378051491&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Adventure+of+Creation

I participated in the April Camp NaNo and wrote the first draft of Gulliver Station: A New Start. I’ve signed up on a different site, http://julnowrimo.com/ for my July efforts. Several of my Forward Motion friends love the site so I thought I’d try it out for the next book in the Gulliver series. The big news in November, was of course, National Novel Writing Month (NaNo for short). I drafted out the last of the Gulliver Station series, Revolution.

I signed up for and completed a Holly Lisle Flash Fiction course. That generated 5 flash fiction stories for May Story a Day. Lazette Gifford’s SciFi Class was not announced, so that goal was deleted. I listened to a webinar with Guy Kawasaki, hosted by CreateSpace. The seminar, How to Sell More Books with Social Media ran 1hour and 13 minutes. It’s on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=135KGCLqC6Q The third class of the year was, Mugging the Muse by Holly Lisle, https://howtothinksideways.com/. I learned a lot about myself and how to write better. If you’re a new writer or an experienced author, check out her courses. Some are even free! The fourth class was on marketing for my books. I looked at some free training video’s by Jeff Walker, recommended by Holly Lisle. I was not able to take his course. But, based on the free information he published, Holly put together an author-centric, free, self-monitored course on marketing. Which resulted in a Holly Lisle class she calls, The Ugly Baby Workshop, a marketing type course. One of the items in that challenge is to release a book. My Christmas book was that project. The course is about how to do a new product launch, so the book and the below domain name are part of that launch.

I joined the July promotion on Smashwords.com with my book, Recall. It was a month long promotion, free to download. It was downloaded a lot, which was encouraging. The hope was they’ll like the book enough to come back and buy one of my other books. At the end of December, I haven’t seen that happen. Something to consider for 2014.

Using the Guy Kawasaki information from July, I began a marketing campaign to post regularly, twice per day on Twitter (@ConnieCockrell) and Google+. That’s been going well. I find something fun or interesting or cute or about my book(s) or someone else’s book coming out and post. In December I began making a late night post, 9 or 10pm that may reach the Asian market. Who knows if getting my name out there will generate sales, but a Google+ and a tweet only take a minute or two. I’ll see over the next few months if anyone from the Asian region begins following my blog or Facebook page.

Based on the marketing classes I took some steps to improve my professional presence. I took the plunge and bought a domain name and set up my own publishing house: 2ndWindPress.com. What was exciting was filling out the on-line form. It asked for my organization and my position. I, with more than a bit of a thrill, typed in 2ndWindPress and Publisher. I know, I’m easily entertained, but my heart actually beat faster.

I went to the local Chamber of Commerce and got my Doing Business As (DBA) form. How did this affect me? I have a nifty logo and publishing house name to add to the spine of my books. It sets me up as a professional. It confirms that I’m serious about my writing and getting my books published.

I made quite a few changes to my blog as part of my new marketing plans. I changed the background color from boring gray to a more festive Autumn color. I added some new links to friend’s blogs and a sign up for a newsletter for my fans. Followers get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. They can go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up. To make that happen I had to sign up for Mail Chimp. I also updated my Google+ page and my Twitter account. If you aren’t a follower or friend on those sites I’m looking to build my communities there as well.

Late in November I took on a Chuck Wendig challenge on his blog, www.terribleminds.com. Participants write a 200 word section of a story each week. The first week you create your own 200 word beginning and post it. The next week one or more participants pick a beginning not their own and add another 200 words. By the end of week 5, each participant will have worked on 5 different stories in 200 word increments, making a 1000 word finished story. I participated each week. I posted each story on my blog in the Friday Flash Fiction spot. I plan on going back to the Chuck Wendig site and find the completed stories I contributed to and post them on my blog in January.

This has been a long post. I’m actually surprised at the number of classes I’ve taken (5) and stories and books written and released. (1 novel and 3 collections published and over 96 stories and novels written). It’s been a full and fruitful year. I hope yours was too.

I wish you all a very happy, productive New Year!

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up. http://conniesrandomthoughts.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8c24bb15bdf9245512f722298&id=0a097feea0

I have an in depth interview on my Smashwords Author page. You can read it here: https://www.smashwords.com/interview/conniecockrell Don’t see information about me you’d like to know? Leave me your question in my comments and I’ll try to answer it.

Links to Christmas Tales and which will lead you to my author page on each site where my other published work is available:

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/christmas-tales/id761282885?mt=11Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/christmas-tales-3

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Tales-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1494200570/ref=la_B009O6199C_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385963121&sr=1-4

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/christmas-tales-connie-cockrell/1117497310?ean=9781494200572

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/christmas-tales-3

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/379010

End of November 2013

Posted on November 25, 2013 by conniejean

Hoo! Six days left for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! I’m close to finishing my book. It’s the last book in my series, Gulliver Station. This one is titled Revolution. I’ve committed to putting the first book, A New Start, out in late January. This is my first series. It’s been a real lesson on creating a very long range story arc.

Thursday is Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays. How can a person not like having all of their favorite food on the table at the same time. This year my husband and I are going to a friend’s house. There’ll be 14 other people there. Kudos to my friend, Diane, for hosting such a large gathering.

Now we’re running into the Christmas season. I have so much to do in December I think I need to make a list. And, in case you haven’t heard, I put together a collection of Christmas themed stories. I released the collection the 17th of November. I had to write a couple of short stories to go into this collection. It’s out now and I’ve put the links below if you’d like a nice read over the Holidays. I’ll put additional links in as the book goes live on those sites.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Go to the button on the upper right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up.

Christmas Tales released November 17th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Amazon or Smashwords today!

Links:

Kobo: Not yet available

Barnes and Noble: Not yet available

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Tales-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1494200570/ref=la_B009O6199C_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385322757&sr=1-5

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/379010

Apple: Not yet available

How I Did for October 2013

Posted on November 4, 2013 by conniejean

Hoo! Four days into the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! Just settling into my rhythm, getting words onto the page. It’s an exciting month.

October was also killer, so to speak. Lots went on so let me show you how I met the goals for the month.

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Done. Not only the four needed for October (and all of them with a Halloween theme!) but 5 for November, all Thanksgiving themed. I need to be able to focus on the novel so I got all 5 Friday flash fictions written and scheduled on my blog. You won’t miss a one.

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Did all of that. Indeed, I made quite a few changes to my blog. I changed the background color from boring gray to a more festive Autumn color. I added some new links to friend’s blogs and to a sign up for a newsletter for my fans. (See below for more about the newsletter sign up.) Not in the goals. I also update my Google+ page and my Twitter account, twice a day. If you aren’t a follower or friend on those sites I’m looking to build my communities there as well.

– Continue to revise short stories

– Did that.

– Continue to submit short stories

– I submitted one short to the Tucson Festival of Books and one to the Arizona ONE-BOOKAZ Goes Digital eBook Writing Competition.

– Finalize outline for November NaNo

– Done. I’m writing to that outline now. It’s the last of my Gulliver Station series. I wrote the first one last November (which has turned out to be book 3 of the series). I’m pretty excited about writing the final book. It’s taken me a year to do it.

– Other things

– I have begun looking into marketing for my books. I looked at some free training video’s by Jeff Walker, recommended by Holly Lisle. I was not able to take his course. But, based on the free information he published, Holly has put together an author-centric, free, self-monitored course on marketing. I’m going through the steps of that process as we speak. Most of the changes to my blog were based on the lessons of this marketing course.

– I put together a collection of Christmas themed stories. I already have the cover for it drafted and all of the stories. Also part of the marketing course, I plan to release the collection by the end of November. I had to write a couple of short stories to go into this collection. So I had plenty of daily writing practice for November’s NaNo.

Halloween Tales released September 30th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Amazon or Smashwords today!

Links:

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/halloween-tales-a-collection-of-stories

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/halloween-tales-connie-cockrell/1116995365?ean=2940045288972

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Tales-Collection-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1492783072/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380515780&sr=1-2&keywords=Halloween+Tales

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/359689

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/halloween-tales-collection/id716418558?mt=11

What’s going on in November

Posted on October 21, 2013 by conniejean

Ten days to go until National Novel Writing Month (NaNo) begins. I’ve got a basic outline completed though I need a few more scenes planned. The challenge is to write at least 50,000 words of a novel in the 30 days of November.

This will be my third NaNo. This year I’ll be writing the final book of my Gulliver Station series. I plan on releasing the 1st book of the series in late January. It’s titled, Gulliver Station: A New Start. The daily word count to meet the goal is about 1700 words. I’m able to get the goal. The hard part is to do it every day. It will be hard for me this year as I have a 3 day hiking trip with my hiking group planned for the middle of the month. I’ll have to write extra words every day and/or write while I’m away.

Also planned for the end of November is the release of my book of Christmas stories. I’m still looking for a good title. I may go with Christmas Tales. I’ve named my two other collections, A Trio of Animal Tales and Halloween Tales. Using Christmas Tales keeps the theme going, don’t you think? Take a look at the draft of the book cover. What do you think?

November is a busy month for sure.

And in other news, I just finished an in depth interview on my Smashwords Author page. You can read it here: https://www.smashwords.com/interview/conniecockrell Don’t see information about me you’d like to know? Leave me your question in my comments and I’ll try to answer it.

Halloween Tales released September 30th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Amazon or Smashwords today!

Links:

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/halloween-tales-a-collection-of-stories

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/halloween-tales-connie-cockrell/1116995365?ean=2940045288972

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Tales-Collection-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1492783072/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380515780&sr=1-2&keywords=Halloween+Tales

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/359689

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/halloween-tales-collection/id716418558?mt=11

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Tag Archives: NaNoWriMo

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Cover Reveal for Hard Choices

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A Year in Review 2013

End of November 2013

How I Did for October 2013

What’s going on in November