My Life is A List

So this blog will probably sound like my life right now—stream of consciousness.  I started making a list of things to do.  I like lists.  I figured I’d begin with large categories and then break it down to specific tasks within those categories (anal, huh.)

So I started with: family, work (as in day job), writing and publishing. 

So under family, I have more chores, you know the fun stuff like laundry, and the biggie, my daughter’s graduation party.  The party is three weeks away and, well, sooooooo not ready. I think my hubby needs to be on the list as I have to be reminded to give him some TLC. Lets not forget the kids, the father and assorted aunts, uncles, cousins and in-laws.  I think I still have friends.

Work, well that stinks and I really need to actively look for another option.  I know the job market is tough but no one should dislike going to work every day and not try to change their circumstances. So job hunting should be on the list.

Writing: I have Dark Dealings out to my beta readers and am starting to get comments back.  I will need to review those comments and make corrections and changes, as needed.

I have found that my fledgling blog site gets better traffic if I post three times a week .  Daily would require giving up certain activities like bathing-bad idea.

I have three projects in various stages.  I also would like to try my hand at short stories that could be publishable and erotica (under another name) because it would be fun.

I must also continue to refine my writing skills, because I am anal (see above) and expect nothing less than the best from myself.

Publishing:  First of all, I continue to be on the fence about traditional publishing and indie/self publishing.  I over-analyze a lot of things (see this post), so not only do I weigh the pros and cons of each, but I also question my own motivations (control freak, impatient).  At some point soon, I know I need to fish or cut bait.

Regardless of which route I choose, I have to “build my platform” that means finding ways to reach out to future readers and introduce them to me and my work.  It also means attending conferences and getting involved in writers groups, which also falls under the writing category as refining.

And I need to start working out again and lose 15 pounds and read the pile of books in my office and on my Kindle.

Most of all I need to make a plan to stop making myself crazy or at least give up sleep.

So how’s your day going?

#WW Blog Styling with Friends

                I was honored by my good #pubwrite friends, Karen DeLabar  and Aden Penn with the Versatile Blogger award.  Their talent, energy and enthusiasm leave me in awe.  

                I am reminded of the quote “to whom much is given, much is expected.”  It not just the pretty award above that I refer to (although that’s awesome), it is the support, mentorship, camaraderie, and education I have received from family, friends, including all my fellow writers and readers.  Let me as Karen said pay it forward:

                Recipients of the Versatile Blogger award must do the following in support of their fellow bloggers:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.

2. Share seven random facts about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to 5 new-found blogging buddies.

4. Contact the winners to congratulate them.

So here goes:

7 Random Facts About Me 


I know 2 times 7 is 14, but I'm not that interesting.

1)      - I ate bugs in Australia

2)      - I went to an all-girl Catholic school for 12 years.  I know that explains a lot, including the bugs

3)      - I only have one canine. A tough one for someone who writes vamps and weres.  Maybe I suffer from fang-envy

4)     -  While we are on the subject, I’m a Dark Shadows fan.  Yes I am that ancient.

5)      - I will eat just about anything (see #1 above) except internal organs like liver, kidneys, etc.

6)      - I slept six hours in the Presidential Suite at the Fours Seasons in Philadelphia.  No presidents or heads of state were injured in the process.

7)      - When on Wall Street in the 80’s I was complimented by Japanese bankers for kepping up with them when drinking over lunch, which may have extended into dinner. I don’t remember, but it was a good thing I had a couch in my office.

Since I received this award from two people I hereby bequeath and recommend the following 10 awesome blog sites to you.  Please visit and follow these terrific folks.

Steve Umstead

Karen S. Elliott

Al Boudreau

Thea Atkinson

Caridad Pinero

Aimee L Salter

R. A. Evans

Ann Mauren

Sheila Lamb

ParaYourNormal (you now who you are)

Stop by these awesome bloggers and say hi.  Feel free to leave one or two random facts about yourself on this post or any of my others.

Blog Streaking with Thea and Friends

For the month of April, fellow author, Thea Atkinson is streaking through 30 blogs and flashing us a piece of fiction. I generously offered her a space today so she could expose a piece. My blog will be back to normal tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy and follow the links at the end to see who she flashed yesterday and who she will flash tomorrow. Feel free to leave a comment to let me know if you enjoyed the streak, and you are welcome to tweet it or share it on Facebook. You can also follow the chain through twitter with the hashtag #blogstreak

I am Anna

By Thea Atkinson

http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com

I am Anna, and the sounds of this house whisper to me as I lie on my narrow bed in darkness. There’s no window in my bedroom to relieve my eye of wall; no moonlight streams in through clouded panes. This room is wholly blanketed in a perfume that dissipates by day but that leaks from the walls at night and rises to my nose with the stealth of a snake. It brings with it a spectral whispering that brushes over my body and makes each hair rise to its touch. From toe... to shin... to thigh... to stomach… the moaning washes over me, as if it were a blanket being pulled to my chin.

When it reaches my ears it swells to a whisper and circles my head with a ghostly life of its own, with essence, and movement, and body.

I repeat the same sentence to remind myself I am of this world and no other, that I am a solid body with a right to be here. I repeat it to block out the sounds of night in this room, to disguise the whispers, to fill in the brief silences between the guttural cries--to drive away the spirits.

I am Anna.

I scrub his floors and scour his fancy, indoor commode in return for billet, spare and cheap as it is. My employer just grunts at my efforts and scurries back into the mortuary, closing the door behind him with a deathly click. I gape and try not to look shocked at the naked bodies within.

A Jump on a New Year's Resolution

2 hours later

People say I have a lot to say…

Usually I say a lot when I’m trying to avoid doing.  In this case, I am procrastinating on my current manuscript, that always needs editing, and the next manuscript, which is just a gleam in my mind’s eye.  Oh, and those query letters for a manuscript in search of an agent.

So…it was time to start blogging.  After all, it’s still writing.  Right?

Besides, I was going to make this one of my resolutions for 2011.  We are snowed in today by a raging blizzard—see photos.  No time like the present.

Like most writers, I have a J-O-B.  Writing is a passion, an addiction; I don’t know how to stop.  It doesn’t pay the bills, yet.  In fact, it doesn’t pay at all.   I know there are a lot of us out there pouring our words out on paper or screen.  I wanted to create a place to ramble about the writing process, ideas, books, movies and all those things that writers wonder about including real life.

Christmas Day, my daughter flipped through the guide on our TV and noted that there was nothing to watch except multiple versions of The Christmas Carol.  At the same time my son was excited about the premiere of the Dr. Who version of The Christmas Carol.  Christmas is about hope and redemption.   But do we have the tendency to take a good thing (a story, a theme a trend) and beat it to death.   I hope not.   Paranormals are my passion, ever since I was in grammar school and raced home everyday to watch Dark Shadows or curled up under a hand crocheted throw in a dark room with my grandmother as images of Bela Lugosi, John Carradine and Lon Chaney (Sr. and Jr.) flickered across the television screen.

So for 2011, I will continue to pursue my passion, hopefully publish and get this blog thing figured out.  Did I mention the twenty pounds I must lose by mid-March?