Tag Archives: Plans

Monday Blog Post: Memorial Day Weekend

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Hummingbirds, Bees, Feeder, Randy Cockrell

Hummingbirds vs Bees by Randy Cockrell

So how was your Memorial Day weekend? Do anything fun? Go camping? Have the whole family over for a BBQ? My town’s Farmer’s market opened for the first time this season on Saturday. Mom and I went early, saw all the stalls, some new, many returning again. She bought a huge cinnamon bun from the local bakery and we both bought tamales from the tamale lady to eat for breakfast. I had the green pork and she had the red pork tamale. Yummy in my tummy. On Sunday, hubby, me and my mom went to the Pine Craft Fair. Randy had the Navajo Taco to eat. One of our hiking friends was a volunteer making them. So that was fun. Then we had what hubby and his brother call a Taco Feast on Sunday evening. The two brothers had fun reminiscing about taco night when they were boys.

This month’s challenge is called May Story A Day, May SAD, and I committed to write 10 stories for the month and actually shoot for 12. As of the 23rd, I have 9 stories written, most of them are flashes but there are a couple of short stories in the mix, too. In my other writing group I’m still keeping up with my 5 minutes per day writing challenge. I have missed a day or two but I’ve been diligent about putting something on the screen every day.

Last week I mentioned that I’ve upgraded my my website. I now have a basic site up and running at www.conniesrandomthoughts.com. Notice there is no more wordpress in the URL. I’ll be closing down www.conniesrandomthoughts.wordpress.com. Last week I asked you to go check up the new site and follow that before you lose out on weekly stories and my writing updates! Unfortunately, the site subscribe button was missing. I’ve spent many hours this week putting a subscribe button on there as well as social media follow and share buttons. I’m not a web site developer or a programmer but I’ve got things operational. Take a look.

My editors at Silver Jay Media helped me cut the final 600 words in my short story, Eavesdroppers, and it’s now in their capable hands for the final line and copy editing. If you’re thinking that it’s quite a process, you’re correct. At any rate, soon the story will be as good as I can make it and I’ll send it off to a contest. I’ll keep you posted on it’s progress.

The Payson Book Festival is at www.PaysonBookFestival.org. Check out the site, especially the Meet the Authors tab. Is your favorite author listed? If not, come and find a new favorite author. Mark your calendar to come to Payson for July 25th to meet us. We’d love to chat with you.

Today’s picture is of our hummingbird feeder. Somehow tiny cracks developed in the bottom of the feeder. The leaking nectar attracted the bees. It went on like this for several days and the hummingbirds were not happy. Anyway, Friday, hubby took the feeder down and repaired the cracks. No more nectar for the bees. The hummingbirds are happy. The bees got a head start on their honey making.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

If you’re interested, click here to sign up for my newsletter. I make special offers to my newsletter people that I do not make on the website.

Lost Rainbows released January 25th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Monday Blog Post: Spring is here

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Daffodils, Connie Cockrell

Daffodils by Connie Cockrell

Above is a picture of some of my daffodils. The really early ones, the miniatures have been up for two weeks. The tall ones, with the orange centers, just started blooming. I have a few late bloomers in the beds as well so I’ll have daffodils well into April. I also began my gardening. Saturday I pruned the dead wood out of my blackberries. I have let them run amok all over the ground. I really should trellis them and prune them back. I suspect they’d produce better if I reined them in. I still have to trim my rosebushes, they still have dead blooms on them from last fall. I had really wonderful roses last year after pruning them back very hard.

My book signing for March 21st at the Scoops Ice Cream store here in Payson is just a handful of days away. If you’re in town on the 21st between 1 and 3pm, stop by to grab an ice cream and chat. You can find both of these events and the July Book Festival on the Where Will I Be? tab on this website. I’m featuring my latest book, Lost Rainbows, but I’ll have my other books there to buy as well.

The month has been so full of Fair planning and Festival planning that I haven’t written or edited as much as I should have. However, I wrote two flash fiction stories last week but only posted Sixty-Four. The other one became a long telling instead of showing and needs a lot of editing to become presentable.

The Payson Book Festival planning is moving right along. You can see the information on www.PaysonBookFestival.org if you’d like. Kick-off pricing on author tables is now over. There’s still time to sign up for a table, though. You can share a table, too, to make your costs less. Fill out the Author Registration and get that in to us so we can reserve you a table. Author registration closes at the end of April so we can put the program together. You’re not an author? Then mark your calendar to come to Payson for July 25th to meet us. We’d love to chat with you.

My short story, After Math, came back from my content editor. It has a few more comments but I haven’t had a chance to take a close look at it. I’m hoping to get that polished up and off to a magazine soon.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Lost Rainbows released January 25th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Monday Blog Post: March is Here!

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InD'Scribe Conference

InD’Scribe Conference

Big news, I’ve signed up to attend my first ever writer’s conference. It’s called InD’tale Con and is being held in Palm Springs, CA on September 17 – 20, 2015. I’m pretty excited. I’m catching a ride with another author from Payson and I expect we’re going to have a lot of fun. If you’re around Palm Springs at that time, stop by my signing table and say hi!

I’ve also arranged a book signing for March 21st at the Scoops Ice Cream store here in Payson. I put info out on the radio, the newspaper and put up posters all around Rim Country. If you’re in town on the 21st between 1 and 3pm, stop by to grab an ice cream and chat. You can find both of these events and the July Book Festival on the Where Will I Be? tab on this website.

I’ve managed to create a couple more chapters in my All About Bob story. Poor Bob. I’m being pretty mean to him. I’ve also begun the planning and outlining for my next Brown Rain book, not sure what I’m calling it yet. Rest Stop, has come to mind. Anyway, in this book Alyssa will be the main character though Kyra will have a lot to do as well. I’m planning to write it during April’s Camp NaNo. I still need to edit Mystery at the Fair. I’d like to release that in May, and have it ready for the summer reading season and for the July Book Festival and the September conference.

The Payson Book Festival planning is moving right along. You can see the information on www.PaysonBookFestival.org if you’d like. Kick-off pricing on author tables, half price now ends March 15th. Hurry, sign up for a table, you can share a table, too, to make your costs even less. Fill out the Author Registration and get that in to us so we can reserve you a table. They’re going fast at this great price.

I’ve sent my short story, After Math, to my content editor. I hope I’ve rewritten it enough to change the feel of it and make my main character the girl I had in my head. I’d like to get it circulating, maybe even sold.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Lost Rainbows released January 25th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Monday Blog Post: Rainy Weekend in Central AZ

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Rainy day, Birdbath, Central Arizona, Connie Cockrell

Rainy day at the Birdbath in Central Arizona by Connie Cockrell

We’ve had four days of rain here in Payson, Arizona. This is very unusual weather. I’ve used it to my advantage though. I made a lasagna Saturday instead of my usual spaghetti and remembered to take pictures of the process for my post on the 25th of this month on Chicklets in the Kitchen blog. I also finished up a 3 day mini-workshop held by Holly Lisle. My flash fiction Friday post is the result. Be sure and check it out on Friday.

Lost Rainbows is moving along as a serial. I’m posting the 3rd installment on 4th here on my blog and the 2nd installment on the 4th on Wattpad.  (www.Wattpad.com).  I’m ConnieCockrell on that site. A new chapter will be released each Wednesday for 16 weeks. Enjoy.  I’ve also managed to create a couple more chapters in my All About Bob story. Poor Bob. I’m being pretty mean to him.

The Payson Book Festival planning is moving right along. You can see the information on www.PaysonBookFestival.org if you’d like. We still have a Kick-off pricing on author tables, half price now through mid-March. Hurry, sign up for a table, you can share a table, too, to make your costs even less. Fill out the Author Registration and get that in to us so we can reserve you a table. They’re going fast at this great price.

I’m still working on the Northern Gila County Fair. (www.NorthernGilaCountyFair.com) We have to do a lot to catch up but we’ll be starting the sponsorship drive soon, decisions are being made about events to be held, the new volunteers are getting into the swing of their responsibilities and we’re getting ourselves organized. The volunteers are very enthusiastic so I think we’ll have a great fair year.

The Book Festival and the Fair are still taking a lot of my time I still need to edit my November story, Mystery at the Fair. I’m working hard on my short story, After Math, so I can re-start submitting it to magazines. I’m keeping pretty busy, hope you are, too.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Lost Rainbows released January 25th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: January – New Beginnings

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Spring Flowers

Connie’ Flowers by Randy Cockrell

Hello and welcome back to the Merry-Go-Round Blog tour. I hope you’re as excited about the New Year as I am.

I have a number of new projects planned for 2015.

First, I’m finalizing my story, Lost Rainbows. I received the prompt for this last January and a few of my fellow Forward Motion authors took the prompt too. Every story is different though a few of us went with the obvious, a story about leprechauns. While I generally wanted the story to be short, it turned into a novelette, 16,000 + words! I’m in the final stages of editing then I’ll self publish by the end of this month. Oh, I’d better hurry. It’s halfway through January already!

I’m working on a class, How to Write a Series Extended, from Holly Lisle. The class started last June and I’ve written 2 novelettes so far in my series. I call it the Brown Rain series. I hit a real milestone in December as I was catching up on the lessons. I’ve got a loose plan for the third book and I’ve regained the excitement I had at the start of the class. That book will get written this year. It may get published this year, or may not. Depends on when I actually write it.

In November I stepped outside my comfort zone and wrote a cozy mystery. I’ve just started editing it this month. Since finishing those Series classes in December, I’ve gained more enthusiasm for this series, I call it the Jean Hays series, as well. I already have an initial idea for the next book here as well. I’ll use the methods I just learned to flesh out my idea. No idea, though, when I’ll be able to write it. It may end up being drafted in November for my NaNo novel. I’ll see how things work out.

I also want to gather 5-10 of my flashes, do an edit, and put them in a collection to publish. Probably a SciFi/Fantasy collection as I haven’t done one of those yet. What’s nice is that I can expand on the stories. I don’t limit myself to just 1000 words after I’ve posted them as flash fiction stories on my blog. I can flesh them out a little more.

I’ve put up as a goal to publish 6 books this year. So far I’ve talked about 3, so I’ll have to get writing if I’m going to put up half a dozen books.

Other plans, to participate in May’s Story a Day challenge. I seem to be able to write about 10 short stories in that month. Always a good thing as it gives me more fodder to send to contests, submit to e-zines, and add to my own collections.

So that’s it. Lots of work planned. Lots of stories to be written. Tons of fun to be had. Hope your year is as productive as you’d like it to be.
The Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour is sponsored by the website Forward Motion (http://www.fmwriters.com). The tour is you, the reader, travelling the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. There are all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s always something new and different to enjoy. If you want to get to know the nearly twenty other writers check out the rest of the tour at http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com!  Up next: Jean Schara

Monday Blog Post: Busy January

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Bridge, Roosevelt Lake, Dam, Hike

From a hike to Roosevelt Lake. The bridge near the dam from a different POV than most people get.

I’m sitting down to write this blog and all of the things I had thought to write about have flown out of my head. That’s what I get for not jotting them down as I think of them. No matter, there’s so much going on in January, I have plenty to talk about.

First of all, my leprechaun story, Lost Rainbows is proceeding along my editing path. All of the copies are back from my readers and I’m busy looking through the comments and making changes. Next, I’ll send it off to my editors, Silver Jay Media. They are marvelous people and are working very hard to make my work shine. I have contracted out my cover this time. JA Marlow, jamarlow.com, is a wonderful author in her own right and uses her graphic arts background to make great covers. I haven’t seen the first draft yet but she told me it’s almost done. I can’t wait to see it. I’m still hoping to make my self-imposed deadline of the end of January. We’ll see how that goes. It may slip into February.

Also on writing, I just started a new novel. I call it my All About Bob series for New Adults. That’s the 15 – 20 year age group. I thought of this series over a year ago when I was taking a writing class. I developed the first story a little bit and wrote a tiny bit about each of four other stories to go with it. Here’s my series blurb:

This is a series of novelettes about five Bobs, from different towns and circumstances, but they each dream of a different life.

The first story is about one Bob who dreams of college. The second story looks at another Bob, still in high school and desperate to date the cute girl in Social Studies. The third Bob dreams of leaving home for more excitement. Bob number four would love some economic security, self-respect and a way out of the dead end life his parents live. The fifth Bob wants to see the world and the wonders it holds. See how each Bob confronts the obstacles that are denying him his dreams and how each young man forges his own path to adulthood.

I have no idea why I wrote about a young man instead of a young woman. It just seemed the way it should go. Anyway, I’m excited about the first story; It’s a Question of College, and have been writing it fairly steadily. No plans yet on when it will be published.

On the volunteering front, I’m hip deep in planning for the first ever Book Festival in my town. It’s a lot more complicated than you would think. However, we do have a website: www.paysonbookfestival.org and a facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PaysonBookFestival. The committee is very excited about putting this together.

I’m also on the Northern Gila County Fair board. Our first meeting of the year is coming up at the end of the month. We need volunteers, like any other non-profit organization. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Gila-County-Fair/136645043024179 and our website there is www.NorthernGilaCountyFair.com

Since it’s January there’s not a lot of gardening going on. My Meyer lemon tree bloomed over Christmas and as I do every year, I took a small watercolor paintbrush and moved pollen from one flower to the next. I have several teeny tiny lemon buds which I hope will grow to fantastic lemons.  My orchid is also sending out a new flower shoot. My daughter gave me the plant a couple of years ago as a Mother’s Day gift. I’m surprised I’ve kept it alive for so long. The dry Arizona air isn’t exactly ideal for a tropical rainforest flower.

Also on the agenda for this week is a hike on Tuesday, and a massage. My daughter gave me a gift certificate and on Thursday I’m going to indulge. It’d be nice if I could give myself a whole spa day but that is not going to happen. There’s too much writing to do for me to skip a day.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

The Downtrodden: a Brown Rain Story released November 22nd! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Monday Blog Post: Starting a New Year

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New Year, New Year's Eve, Snow, Lighted Tree

New Year’s Eve Snow by Randy Cockrell

Happy New Year to you and your families. The holidays are over, we’re still digging tinsel out of the carpeting and the new eating and exercise plan is still operational. Whew. 2014 was a tough year for a lot of my friends and family. I’m hoping 2015 is much, much, better. One way I’ve found to help me make my year move along on an even keel is to have a plan. Yeah, I know, but I’ve used goals for decades to help me organize my thoughts about what I need or better yet, want, to get done during the year. Additionally, it’s great to look back in December and go, “Whoa! Look what I’ve accomplished!”

Here are the major writing things I want to accomplish in 2015.

– Publish 6 more books

– Turn my wordpress blog into a full-fledged web site

– Participate in the April and July Camp NaNo’s and the November NaNo

– Complete the Holly Lisle World Building class and the How to Write A Series Expanded class

– Submit short stories to contests on a schedule I’m developing.

– Increase speaking appearances and opportunities to sell my books

– Participate in the Payson Book Festival as an author

I know, it looks a bit overwhelming. I didn’t talk about continuing to produce a flash story every Friday for my blog, or any personal stuff like travel, gardening, projects, volunteer work, you know, life stuff. All of that has to be done as well.

Goals help me plot out a work/life balance. If I see I’ve really scheduled a lot of writing stuff, I can back out on the plan at the beginning of the year and cut myself and my hubby some slack for running off and going camping or travelling.

What do you do to plan out your year? Just take it as it comes or jot down some things you’d like to accomplish? Go ahead and share in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

The Downtrodden: a Brown Rain Story released November 22nd! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Blog Post: Last Monday of 2014

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Gold Fish

Gold fish in large Tank by Randy Cockrell

It’s the last Monday of the year. I hope your Christmas was merry and bright. My daughter and her boyfriend came down from Flagstaff to visit both sets of families. Of course we all overdosed on turkey dinner. They got it twice. Presents were exchanged. I received books I’ve had on my list. I’m already a third of the way through one. We have had a quiet weekend. Sunday I spent time exploring a program called Daz3D. Its basic program is free with extra things you can buy to expand the options. I went through a lot of tutorials and spent an hour playing with it. It will take some time to learn how to create backgrounds, people/creatures, and effects. Check it out at Daz3D.com.

The garden is finished till growing season. I spread compost and planted onion and parsley seed. I should see activity in February or March, depending on the weather. The bed that’s overrun with mint, I spent a lot of time pulling roots, twice! But there’s still mint in there. I’ll have to be very diligent about pulling it up every time I see some poking its head up. In the meantime, I have a 2 foot square of grass that we planted for the dog who is now gone. I’ll drop some roots in there and see how they do. The square is surrounded by hostile ground, the hard, rocky, clay soil of my yard. It should stay contained there pretty well.

This week we have an invite to a New Year’s Eve get together and a New Year’s Day brunch. Both are pot lucks and I have my recipes selected. I’ll need one or two more ingredients so I’ll go shopping today for what’s still needed. Oh! I’ll take pictures of one of them and share it on another blog I where I post. It’s called Chicklet’s In the Kitchen on WordPress. I am scheduled to post on the 25th of every month.

On the writing front, I’ve been editing a short story called After Math. It’s been shopped out to three different contests and was rejected each time. I’ve revised it and sent it to a Content Editor for review. Once I get it back and make final changes, I’ll submit before the end of February deadline for that contest. I’m also working on my leprechaun story, called Lost Rainbows. That’s been edited and I’ll be passing it out to my beta readers this week. I hope to have it published by the end of January. If you’re interested in following this process more closely, sign up for my newsletter. Special offers show up there you may be interested in receiving.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

The Downtrodden: a Brown Rain Story released November 22nd! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Merry Go Round Blog Tour: December and Where Are My Goals for 2014?

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Hit the Target, Grunge, Digital Art,

Hit the Target by ns-dante via www.deviantart.com

My list of goals for 2014, by the month, was extensive. Last year this time I went through the list as though I were reporting accomplishments to my commanding officer. This year, I’m going to be a little less obsessive-compulsive.

What’s been most important? I put six books up for sale. One every other month. This is the 2nd year in a row I’ve done that. Pretty good stat considering I just started writing in 2011.

I’ve been studying the craft. I have a world building class, still in progress and a class on how to write a series, extended version that I have been taking from Holly Lisle. https://howtothinksideways.com/login/  I signed up to take the World Building class then the Series Extended class opened. I’ve been doing the latter and the poor world building class has suffered. I’ll correct it soon, I promise. I also am still struggling through the 2013 Two Year Novel course. I’m tracking the lessons as they come in but I’m woefully behind the curve. The story still isn’t written and most of this year’s lessons are about editing and publishing. I’m not throwing my hands up. My story isn’t bad, it’s just not what I envisioned. I add words to it whenever I get a free writing day and the need to get words on screen is too much to bear. I need to finish it as it’s planned then wait and let it rest. Somewhere out there is the story I actually wanted to tell. It’ll come to me.

I’ve been working on my social media program. Since I publish independently I must work my own advertising/marketing program. Some people think this is a sacrilege. I can only say this. If it isn’t a sacrilege for Stephen King, James Patterson, or Nora Roberts to use the full weight of their publishing houses to advertise their work, why is it a sacrilege for me to use Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ to advertise my work? Anyway. I keep plugging away at making my marketing effective. I’ve taken 2 classes in the last 2 years. This year’s class offered some more detailed instruction. Some of it has been interesting, some seems like spam, some may be useful. I plan on turning my wordpress blog into an actual website in 2015. So beware, there are changes coming.

I am working hard at writing. This is the most important thing to me since my marriage and my daughter’s birth. I want this to work and I want this to be professional. I’m making this claim publicly for the first time since I started writing. I don’t consider this to be a hobby. I’m serious. I’m working hard to improve my writing skills. I hope my followers will help me by participating when I offer chances to interact with me. I’m serious when I ask for your opinion. When I make an offer, take me up on it. It’s real. My goals? I want to be a professional author. Help me make it happen.
The Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour is sponsored by the website Forward Motion (http://www.fmwriters.com). The tour is you, the reader, travelling the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. There are all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s always something new and different to enjoy. If you want to get to know the nearly twenty other writers check out the rest of the tour at http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com!  Up next: Jean Schara

Weekly blog post: Finishing off the Year

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Books, Book Table, Sell Books

Me and My Book Table, November 29, 2014

Thanksgiving at my friend’s house was great. Of course we all ate more than necessary but lots of good conversation was had.

I signed books at the Swiss Village Small Business Saturday Christmas kickoff. The day started warm enough, I was in the sun. By noon the sun had moved to put my spot in the shade. It got cooler after that until at 4pm I called hubby to have him bring my winter coat. I stuck it out until 7pm. Met some nice people, sold a few books and had three people sign up for my newsletter.

My NaNo book, Mystery at the Fair, finished first draft at about 52,000 words. I need to do some research and lots of rewriting and editing. It may be my March 2015 release, I’m not sure yet.

My book, The Downtrodden, book two of the Brown Rain series is up on Smashwords and I’m finally got it up on Amazon, Apple and Barnes and Noble. I’m still featuring a special for newsletter recipients. Sign up for my newsletter and tell me you’d like to do a review and I’ll send you a free ebook. 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. If you’re already a newsletter recipient and you’d like to review a copy, drop me a comment or an email and I’ll send you the secret code!

No work has been done on the last two garden beds. Last week was nutso and nothing was accomplished. I did, however, manage to get my outdoor Christmas lights up on Sunday. Hubby and I will do the final connectivity today and test the timers. Yay, Christmas! I sent my Christmas cards out on Friday, day after Thanksgiving. It’s a lot easier when I’m not making the fifty or so cards I send out. Up next? Candy making and sending, interior cleaning and Christmas decorating as well as getting those garden beds cleaned up. I only decorate for Christmas so for me it’s a pretty big deal.

I’ve been talking to my Mom nearly every day. Looking forward to her flying out here. Sixteen days to go!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

The Downtrodden: a Brown Rain Story released November 22nd! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!