Tag Archives: writing

End of April

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Cherry Tomatoes by Night Owl Dreamer via www.deviantart.com

Cherry Tomatoes by Night Owl Dreamer via www.deviantart.com

It occurred to me the other day that I put up goals for the year on the Forward Motion writers site and I didn’t remember ever giving a status. Sure enough, I’ve been so busy this year that I hadn’t gone back, even once, to check on whether or not I’ve been meeting my goals for the year. Good news! January, February and March I did what I had planned to do.

This month though, I’ve fallen a little behind. While I have completed the cover for my next book to be released, Hard Choices, I haven’t finished the editing. Not good. I hope to release the end of May so as my daughter says, I need to get crack-a-lackin’.

April’s Camp National Novel Writing Month, https://campnanowrimo.org/sign_in, has only three days left, counting today. I’ve been plugging away on my novel, still unnamed and of yesterday, I’m at 46,400 words, well on my way to my goal for 50K words. Just 3500 words over the next three days and I’ll meet the challenge! My novel however will not be complete. I’m probably only a third of the way through it so I’m hoping between April’s NaNo challenge and next month’s Story a Day challenge, I’ll have solidified a habit to sit down and write 1000 to 2000 words per day. I can get a lot of writing done with that pace. Just need to find time to edit!

Saturday we had a sleet/snow storm here in Central Arizona. I’m glad I didn’t have my garden in yet. The one tomato plant I have is still in a pot. My favorite cherry tomato, a Sun Gold, is under the overhang of my back patio, safe from a late night frost or bitter wind. It should start warming up here now so it will be in my raised bed soon. I’m looking forward to the sweet, delicious bite of that tomato, still warm from the sun.

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. We’ve finished the second chapter of questions. Chapter three is coming up.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Please sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Want to know how to get a free copy of each new book? 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!

Flash Fiction Friday: From the Past to the Future

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Crashed by Sc1r0n via www.deviantart.com

Crashed by Sc1r0n via www.deviantart.com

Ree sat at a table outside of a decrepit coffee shop on her hometown’s main street. She’d arrived home last night after a four year stint in the Air Force. She’d been thinking about having a latte at this shop for the last three years. It was on it’s last gasp but still doing better than the majority of shops on the street. Store windows were papered over, graffiti scrawled across several store fronts. She shook her head. What the hell happened?

A handful of retiree’s sat two tables away, complaining about the economy and enjoying the warm spring morning. It must be the economy, she thought as she looked up and down the street and finished her coffee. A light traffic flowed along the two way street, but it was headed through, going to the strip malls at the edge of town.

Standing, she looked around for a trash can to throw her empty cup in when she heard the crash behind her. Spinning, she saw a car coming out of the small side street two doors down, had smashed into the right front fender of a blue minivan headed north on Main Street. She dropped the forgotten cup on the table and ran to the van.

The soccer mom was pushing the airbag out of her face.

“You, OK,” Ree asked through the open window?

“Uh, yeah. Just a little shaken.”

Ree ran over to the car, a rusty four door that she was surprised passed its last inspection. She could see one of the oldster’s on his phone. The rest were standing up, taking pictures. “Hey,” she called as she reached the window. “You hurt?” She leaned down to see inside.

“I don’t think so,” the male voice said. Ree couldn’t see his face, he had his head planted on the steering wheel. The car was so old there was no airbag. He brushed his head and his hand came away covered in blood. “I think I cut my forehead.”

She ran over to the tables and grabbed a wad of paper napkins then raced back to the car. One of the old women called out. “We called 911, the ambulance is on its way.” Ree waved acknowledgement.

At the car, the guy was sitting up. Ree shoved half of the napkins into the guy’s hand. “Here, put this over the cut.”

“Shit, the brakes failed. I couldn’t get the car to stop at the corner.”

Ree peered into the car. The voice seemed familiar. “Stan?”

The guy dabbed at his forehead, staring at her from around the napkins. “Ree? Crap, when did you get back?”

Ree stood up. She could hear the ambulance sirens coming. All of the old people had gone over to the minivan to talk to the woman driver who was standing on the street. One old guy was directing traffic. “You’ve made a mess here, Stan.”

He leaned his head back on the headrest. “That’s me.” He opened one eye to look at her. “You’re lookin’ good.”

“Not the time, Stan.” Ree went to school with Stan. They graduated high school together, dating on and off the whole time. She sighed. Ree knew his life was going nowhere and she didn’t want to be trapped in this little town for the rest of her life. She joined the Air Force right after graduation. “Are you all right?”

“Just this cut, and a headache,” he said. He opened the car door with a tremendous squeal, and got out of the car. “Glad to see ya.”

Ree shook her head. They didn’t part on good terms. She was ambitious and wanted to travel. He wanted to smoke weed and do the minimum to get by. They had a fight and he backed out of her driveway in a huff. Ree’s dog was walking behind the car at the time. Even now her stomach turned at the memory of the car slamming into the Labrador mix dog.

“I’m sorry, Ree,” Stan said as he watched her face.

“That’s more than you said after you ran over my dog,” she said, her voice tight with unshed tears.

He reached out to touch her arm.

She jerked it away. “You said you didn’t even like dogs.”

“I…”

She turned and walked back to the coffee shop where she’d left her backpack. It was time to leave this town for good.

The End

723 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here: http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

Flash Fiction Friday: Restitution

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Misery by fuuuran via www.deviantart.com

Misery by fuuuran via www.deviantart.com

Restitution

Garth felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He did a quick check of the kitchen where he was washing dishes, no one was around. After quickly drying his hands, he answered the phone in a whisper.

“Hi, Mike.”

“Daddy, when will you be home?”

Garth kept watch on the door to the living room, he didn’t want to be caught not working. “After you’ve gone to bed, Sport, you know that.”

“I want you to tuck me in,” the six year-old whined.

Garth’s heart broke. He had to be here despite his wishes. “I’ve explained this already, Mike. I hit a little boy with my car, I have to pay restitution.”

The kid had come out of nowhere when Garth was checking his rear-view mirror. The guy in the car behind him was talking on his headset and was right on his bumper. Garth was bracing for the impact. “Come on, chump,” he remembered muttering. “I could use a slave for a few months.” When he looked back at the road, there was the kid, Clive, he now knew, running into the street from between two parked cars.

Now he was the slave to Davin and Linda Louis, parents of the now deceased, Clive. His lawyer tried to get him off, pointing out the child was not in a cross walk. It didn’t matter. The new legal system didn’t imprison people anymore. Now you had to pay restitution. Garth paid the Louis’ $100,000 and was sentenced to 21 hours per week of labor to the victim’s family for four years. That came to 4368 hours of labor. It was hard labor.

Garth jumped at Linda’s yell from the living room. “I don’t hear those dishes being washed out there.”

He covered the phone with his hand. “Just finishing up, Ms. Louis.”

“Hurry it up,” she yelled. “Those closets aren’t going to clean themselves.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“I’ve got to go, Mike. I have to finish my work.”

“Bye, Daddy.”

“Good night, son.” Garth hung up and tucked the phone back into his pocket and stuck his hands in the dishwater. The Louis’ hadn’t done a dish since he was sentenced over a year ago. They saved them all for him when he arrived at 6pm after working all day. Already tired, he did the dishes, mopped the floors, cleaned closets, the garage, vacuumed, anything the Louis’ told him to do.

Linda came into the kitchen and walked up behind him. She looked into the sink. “You’re goin’ kinda slow tonight, Garth.” She grabbed his left buttock. He jumped. Linda Louis was no prize. Lank, sandy brown hair was going grey and she was about 100 pounds overweight. Garth detested her for the constant groping and leering. Always out of sight of her husband though. Davin Louis was built like a line backer. At 6 foot 3 inches, Garth didn’t want to mess with Davin. He was a construction worker and when he was home, he drank beer like a fish. He was a mean drunk. Both of them hounded Garth from his arrival at 6pm until he was done at 9pm. Saturday’s were worse. By the time he arrived at 9am, Davin was three beers into his day. He watched constantly as he directed Garth to mow, weed, paint, or repair everything around the house and yard. Their house and yard had never looked so good. He was supposed to get water breaks and a half hour lunch but that never happened.

Linda rubbed her hand across his buttocks as Davin yelled into the kitchen, “Where’s my damn beer!”

“Garth will bring it right out,” she yelled back then grinned at Garth with crooked yellow teeth.

Garth dried his hands and got a beer out of the refrigerator. He walked it into the living room and handed Davin the beer.

“Bout time.” Davin took the beer, crushed the empty and threw it at Garth. “Pick that up,” he belched. “Move your ass faster next time or I’ll tell the court you ain’t cooperatin’.”

That was the threat. Time could be added to the sentence if he was reported as uncooperative. Garth nodded and picked up the empty. Back in the kitchen he dropped it in the recycling bin and went back to the sink. Only 3003 hours left to serve, he thought to himself, after I get out of here at nine.

As Linda crept up on him it wasn’t lost on him that he was intending to put the chump in the car behind him in this same situation. Now, he wouldn’t wish this fate on his worst enemy.

“Better get with it, Garth,” Linda whispered as she leaned into his back and ran her hand across his chest. “The closet in my bedroom really needs cleaning.”

His skin crawled as he glanced at the clock. Two more hours to go. The seconds seemed like hours as he braced himself to go to the bedroom to ‘clean her closet’. He just hoped Davin fell asleep in his chair again tonight.

 

The End

841 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here: http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

Halfway Point in April 2014 Camp NaNo

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

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.

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!

Flash Fiction Friday: On the Run

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The Yellow Bomb by decodergrizzly via www.deviantart.com

The Yellow Bomb by decodergrizzly via www.deviantart.com

 On The Run

Joy turned the key in the ignition of her 1972 Pinto. The starter groaned then went silent. She got out of the car and opened the hood. The engine was caked with decade’s worth of dirt and oil. She had no idea why she opened the hood; she had no idea how to fix a car.

She was parked on the street outside her apartment building. Joy looked around the tree lined neighborhood. Too much to hope a mechanic with a tool box would be walking by. She reached up to close the hood.

“Need a hand,” a male voice behind her asked.

Her heart jumped at the unexpected question. She turned around. “Yeah, it won’t start.”

The man, early thirties with sandy brown hair cut short, grinned. “Let me take a look. Why don’t you get in and give it a try.”

She got in and turned the key. The starter groaned.

“Try it again.”

Joy did the same, this time in the crack between the hood and the bottom of the windshield she could see him do something. It groaned again.

“One more time,” he called.

This time the engine turned over and roared to life. The man closed the hood and walked to the driver’s window.

“Thank you,” Joy said. “How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing.” He wiped his hands on his handkerchief. “I could use a ride downtown though.”

She considered his open face and nice appearance. “Sure, get in.”

He hurried around to the passenger door. She noticed he scanned the neighborhood before he got in.

“I’m headed to the University,” she told him, is that OK?”

“Yeah, perfect.” He checked out the back window as he put on his seat belt.

Joy pulled into the street. “Everything all right?”

“Sure.” He glanced in the passenger side mirror. He turned and smiled, “I’m Carl, by the way.”

“Hi, Carl. I’m Joy. Nice to meet you.”

They were four blocks from the University when a black SUV raced out of a side street and blocked her path. She slammed on the brakes.

In one movement Carl unlatched his seat belt and leapt out of the car. A black SUV pulled up behind her and men from both vehicles leapt out, guns drawn. Carl rolled between two parked cars and all but one man chased after him. The last man approached gun pointed in her direction.

“Out of the car,” he yelled.

She put one hand up and opened the car door. He pushed her to the ground. Half an hour later the rest of the men returned.

“He got away,” one of them said.

Joy was allowed to stand up. “He say anything to you?”

She shook her head. “He said his name was Carl. He wanted a ride into town.”

“He’s a spy,” another man told her. “We’ve been after him for two years.”

They questioned her at their office all day. Once released, she resolved never to give a stranger a ride again.

200th Blog Post!

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

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.

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!

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.

Merry Go Round Blog Tour: What Makes Me A Unique Writer?

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Image

Picture “Unique” by Mazyono from www.deviantart.com

The prompt for the month asks what makes me a unique writer. Hmm. Any answer I give could come off sounding flippant. I’m a unique person, of course. No one has my exact background. No one has read the same list of books. No one has had my experiences with family, job, travel, or children.

What makes me a unique writer is that my experiences provide areas of overlap with many people. If I say I was in the United States Air Force that gives me a common background with a lot of people who can say the same thing. We have that shared experience. The same is true with child birth, or hiking and backpacking, or with driving a car. Not everyone will have done those things but enough have that similar experience to know what I mean when I talk about them.

Having those unique experiences allows me to write about them and to use them to extrapolate the skills and feelings from them to experiences I haven’t had. I’ve never been shot but I have broken bones, been burned, gone through childbirth, so I know what pain feels like. I can describe pain and a character’s reaction to it because I’ve felt pain.

Then there are the technical skills, how I put my sentences together, what words I use, and the cadence of my prose. That’s called voice. As someone once told me and you’ve probably experienced for yourself, you can tell by reading a paragraph or two if a piece of work is by your favorite author. You can spot his or her voice in the writing. Prose by Robert Heinlein will sound very different than prose by James Patterson.

So back to the question, what makes me a unique writer? I suppose it’s the sum of my life and how I chose to use it to write my stories.

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!

Blog Hop

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Photo by usisl from www.deviantart.com

Photo by usisl from www.deviantart.com

Here’s another blog hop for you. I was invited to this one by the wonderful Debra Kayn.  She blogs at http://www.debrakayn.com/2014/03/baton-blog-hop.html. The link takes you to her post about this hop.

As with any blog hop, I have some questions to answer. First is what am I working on?

That’s a long list. I’m releasing my Gulliver Station books. The first one, A New Start, was released at the end of January. The next one, The Challenge, is in final editing and will be released the end of March. I have the cover done for that and have begun the process of designing the cover for the third book, Hard Choices. That one will come out the end of May. I’m also working on a story within my writing class, 2 Year Novel. It’s a two year course and there’s a lesson per week. Then there are the weekly flash fiction stories. And I’m outlining a story for the Forward Motion writer’s group’s annual anthology and the April Camp National Novel Writing Month.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I mainly write science fiction. I like to add a little romance into the story as well as the science part.  I also write contemporary stories and even the occasional western.

Why do I write what I do?

I write to topics that catch my interest. My Gulliver Station series for example looks at how people bring their past and their problems with them. Just because they live in the future on a space station doesn’t mean it’s going to be all sweetness and light in their lives. In the series I look at how bringing that emotional baggage with the original occupants of the station affects the long term life of the station. I do the same for each of my stories. I try and take a different look at the possibilities. It’s fun!

Finally, how does my writing process work?

I’m a planner. I like to have an outline of what my beginning, middle and ending will look like. That doesn’t mean I don’t deviate. Sometimes a better ending or a different middle will occur to me and I’ll use that.  I like to write in the afternoon. But if my schedule gets in the way, I’ll write any time of the day or night.

I have two other bloggers who are next on the list. Please check out their blogs. They may have just the right story for you!

Arlene Hittle: arlenehittle.com

Arlene Hittle is a Midwestern transplant who now makes her home in northern Arizona. She suffers from the well-documented Hittle family curse of being a Cubs fan but will root for the Diamondbacks until they run up against the Cubs. Longtime friends are amazed she writes books with sports in them, since she’s about as coordinated as a newborn giraffe and used to say marching band required more exertion than golf. Find her at arlenehittle.com, on Twitter or on Facebook.

Diana Rose: http://thewritersdreamwold.wordpress.com

Diana Rose is a Russian native who lives in New York. Her stories transport readers to the fantasy filled worlds where she brings royalty and magical beings to life, with colorful romantic scenes and characters that her imagination creates. She fuels her creativity while reading romantic novel. When Diana is not writing, she enjoys spending her time with her family and friends. You can find her on her blog: http://thewritersdreamwold.wordpress.com

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.

A New Start: A Gulliver Station story released January 31st! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Kobo: Not Available Yet

Merry Go Round Blog Tour: January – Deleted Material

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Deleted material, hmm, let me think. Do I delete material from my drafts? Absolutely. I’ve deleted whole chapters, sections, paragraphs, sentences, words. If the material isn’t leading the story anywhere, there’s no point in it being in the story. Out it goes.

It’s kind of like pruning your fruit trees or rose bushes. I have a hard time with that. I hate to cut away perfectly fine growth. The problem is, if I don’t prune, the rose bush or fruit tree gets tangled branches, and that leads to poor flower or fruit production. Can’t have that.

So too with my books. The chapter or section may have great writing but if the piece doesn’t move the story forward, there’s no point in it being there. I may be able to use the deleted material for a flash fiction that supports the story. The deleted piece could be edited to become a wholly different story. I may never use that bit of writing again.

But you just wasted a lot of time and energy! Maybe. But every bit of writing I do, whether I use it or not, makes me a better writer. So really, it isn’t wasted. Don’t we do this every day in our lives? We cut away time wasting activities, we declutter closets and shelves. We delete those things that no longer make us happy or productive.

What do you delete?

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!

A Year in Review 2013

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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