Fun Life Update
We left the homestead during the week. If you know my husband and me, you know we’re heavily day job focused during the work week. So, this outing was a great treat! We saw Weird Al Yankovic in concert at the Kennedy Center. I was a little apprehensive about being in such a large crowd indoors, but I masked as much as possible.
The Kennedy Center, what can I say…What an impressive and timeless building. It had been ages since we’d last visited and the space felt like a balm to the soul in some ways. There was a singer playing their acoustic guitar on the Millennium Stage which was enjoyable. We picked up our tickets and grabbed a quick sandwich and a cookie because it was dinnertime, and I was feeling a bit peckish.
Weird Al delivers such an entertaining performance. I absolutely love the joy this man’s music brings to people. His songs are silly fun, and I believe our world needs silly and funny right now more than ever. We need this respite from the onslaught of grim and fear that’s out there being fed into our brains by the news and social media. 365/24/7 All the negative stuff that generates “engagement.” Listening to Weird Al and his band play were two hours full of joy.
If your life allows, get yourself some time of joy. Take a walk or sit with your eyes closed under a ray of sun. Just take some time to be. We’re all rushing around busy busy busy. Take time to appreciate someone’s art. Take time to tell someone you love that you love and appreciate them.
Writing Update
I have scheduled my dev edit for January 2023 with the amazing Dawn Alexander of DawnAlexanderBooks.com. This book is going to get finished all because of her great story coaching this past year.
ESQUEE!!!!n (extra exclamation points to really drive home how I’m feeling)
I’m working on lining up my line editor and proofreader. Yes, I’m excited and terrified at the same time because this makes this whole process even more real. Other humans will read and judge my writing which of course makes me want to run and hide under a large boulder.
This whole process has been such an incredible learning process on how to write a good story.
And let me tell you, self-publishing is not for the faint of heart if you’re looking at this as a business. The upfront investment into quality editing services is the biggest part of my costs considering from the time spent writing and revising itself to developmental, line and copy edits to the final step of proofreading. Did I mention I have to learn how to use Vellum to the internal book formatting? It takes a WHOLE VILLAGE of people to get a book into publication shape. Marketing and publicity plans? Yes, thank you for asking. Those are two line items I will have to figure out…ummm…later.
The book cover is a premade cover from the awesome Nathalie Gray at www.kanaxa.com which I’m planning to reveal closer to whenever I set a publication date in 2023 which may be late Spring 2023. Your guess is as good as mine because honestly everything depends on my energy level and working with my process instead of fighting it.
Tweaking things, a little may help. I’ve signed up for focusmate.com and made a commitment to myself to sit and do two hours of work on the novel as many days as I can during the week. Tired and don’t feel like it? Too bad so sad because if I want to stick to my winter/early spring deadlines for my editors I really need to buckle down.
There are so many things involved with the publication of a book that it gets overwhelming, but I keep telling myself that to eat the whole elephant, I can do it in small bites.
Worked on updating my project expense tracking sheet like a real grown author taking this seriously. My metrics of success are currently whether someone that I don’t know enjoys the story I’ve written. Have I given them a story good enough to entertain them and help them escape into a fantasy world? I hope I succeed at that.
Book News from Author Friends
My friend romantic comedy author Pru Warren www.pruwarren.com is launching a Kickstarter on November 1st for The Surprise Heiress Series
When a university librarian they barely remember leaves three unrelated women incredible estates in her will, the women become Surprise Heiresses.
I want to support my author friends and would ask you to please consider signing up to be notified for when her Kickstarter goes live. This doesn’t commit you to anything, but notification sign ups let Kickstarter know there is interest in the campaign, and they may choose to promote it. So if you have a couple of minutes head over to Kickstarter and lend a hand to Pru https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pruwarren/pru-warrens-surprise-heiress-series-delicious-extras?fbclid=IwAR0WN-MXL6ltdV7cuH62HMYWiS0csUqrD_9bRW-OqAFOflzidc-UtTW8bs0
Also local author friend Meg Napier has a recent release called Second Stanza, https://www.megnapier.com. You should give her book a try if you enjoy romantic suspense.
Go forth. Be bold. I’m going to go and run my errands. Hope you are having a good week.
What are you up to?
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