This Time of Year

I hate the cold. I hate getting out of a warm bed in the morning. Like many of you, I'm sure, I keep my house in general on the cool side to save energy costs and the bedroom is a little frosty in the mornings.  But...there's always on of those...I do get a lot of writing done in the winter because I stay indoors as much as possible.

My editor at New Concepts Publishing shocked me yesterday with the return of my manuscript with all the first edits done and ready for me to go through again. I wasn't expecting it until next month. Guess that makes my plans for this weekend pretty solid. And the temperatures are going to dip again so it's inside for me.

But next year at this time, I hope to take a mini vacation/writing retreat of sorts to a warm weather location and do some writing in the sunshine. Did I mention I hate the cold? I'm  not a huge fan of the beach because the ocean is so durn noisy and so are the people lounging about there. But early morning walks and digging my toes into the sand sound pretty good right now.

We had a little snow for Christmas and that's enough for me. I'm ready for a little warm weather and outdoor exercise.

So this weekend, I'll be watching some Dr. Who and editing a manuscript for what feels like the 1000th time. I'll also be wishing for warmer weather.

What are your plans for the weekend? Is winter dragging on for you or you one of those cold weather fiends? Are you keeping your house cooler than you used to?

Goal Setting

As a health teacher, I do a lot with students about setting goals. I know this audience doesn't need to read any of my lectures on the importance of working toward something. Many of my fellow bloggers have already publicly shared their goals for 2013. Putting it out there is a great motivator to help one strive to meet those goals. My turn.

First my excuse for not doing this right at the start of the year. I was too busy with a deadline. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I really did have an artwork questionnaire and other work hanging over my head for one of my contracted books. The fact that my children were home from college and I wanted to spend every possible minute with them is only incidental to the lag time in my goal setting.

Goal #1  Finish my last read through on The Heir of Futhark and send it to my editor. Get the artwork ready. Make changes suggested by my editor. Publish this last book in The Futhark Chronicles on Kindle and Smashwords. My self-imposed deadline is February 28th.

Goal #2 Complete editor suggested changes for my newest futuristic romance novel, The Marine's Queen. New Concepts Publishing has set a tentative publication date as March 29th.

Goal #3 Complete editor suggested changes for First Dragon, the first book in The Morbunda Saga. Crescent Moon Press has contracted this, my second epic fantasy series. I've  very excited about it though I don't know the publication date yet.

Goal #4 Set up blog tours and do mega promotion for all three books above. My biggest challenge.

Goal #5 Use my new camera to take more pictures I can use on my blog.

Goal #6 Complete two more futuristic romances for New Concepts Publishing.

Goal #7 Complete the second book in The Morbunda Sage. It's about half finished now though untitled.

Goal #8 Do some traveling. With my son doing an internship in Colorado Springs from May to November, I'm heading west. Then my daughter is at Boston University. Seeing her every two or three months isn't often enough for me so I'll be heading north on occasion. I have a sister in Washington State. I've always wanted to see those mountains. I have a sister in Mississippi, a very warm place to visit in the winter. I have a sister in New York State, pretty much on my way to Boston.

In case these goals seems ambitious, remember this is the year of retirement for me. I'm going to try and be a full time writer starting in June. I hope it works.

Did you all set your goals? Any place you're intending to visit this year? Is your family spread out like mine?

To Do List

I've spent the last ten days working on a to do list. Every time I check something off, I seem to add three more things to replace it. Lots of these things are like a housekeeping list for my writing life and not so much setting goals. I'm getting around to the goal thing, but not yet.

Housekeeping involves some things such as:

* Adding up tax info for my husband to do the taxes. Not that I'm making big money or taking big deductions, but it still has to be done.

* I spent an entire afternoon changing all my email addresses I use to sign in at various sites, personal and professional, to my gmail address. I had been using the gmail and two different verizon addresses. All gmail now. You never know when you might change internet providers and then I'll want to be rid of those Verizon accounts.

* I schedule a number of guests on this blog for the next few months. I want to help them with their promotion and hopefully they'll return the favor.

* I've been investigating security programs for my computers. I need to renew my Norton or buy something else today. Haven't decided yet.

* I'm working with my niece, my intrepid cover artist for the fourth and final book in The Futhark Chronicles series. It's with my editor now. Love that Gina.

* I'm catching up on some writing articles and magazines I have stacked on my desk. I'm always looking for something that will make me a better writer.

* I'm also getting back into the swing of blogging three times per week and visiting more blogs everyday.

So my desk looks a little neater. Now if only blogger would fix itself so I can upload pictures. I have my new camera and all these pictures I took to use here, and blogger is being difficult.

So what housecleaning chores did you have to do lately for your writing business? Any security program you recommend over the others? Do you use numerous email addresses?

Indie Life

Welcome to my first post in the Indie Life blogfest. To join, go here, where The Indelibles Writers have started this second Wednesday group where indie writers can share, comfort, encourage and basically, help each other manage the sometimes lonely life of being a writer.

Though this group is small, I believe it will grow and thrive because there is a need for it. Most writers get the answers they need from other writers. Need to know how to promote, how to use social media, how to self publish, how to find an agent, how to investigate the reputation of a small press, ask another writer. If they don't know, they know how to find out or someone who does know.

This brings to my point for this first post. When you become published, you'll find yourself checking your sales numbers, your reviews, and your ranks against other books in your genre. What you find might be encouraging or quite the opposite. It might discourage your from trying again. You might feel hopeless. But ... remember you're not competing against those numbers you obsess over.

If your book isn't doing well, do a better job or promotion. If your book isn't getting good reviews, try to learn something from them. And then make your next book better. You're competing against yourself. You must try to make every book better than the last one your wrote. You must improve your voice, make it unique and memorable. Create characters who readers will care about. Challenge your characters more than you did in all your previous works. The competition is your past work.

Do you see improvement in your work from one project to the next? Do you have other indie authors who have helped you along in your career?  Am I the only one that blogger won't let upload a picture?

First Monday Health Tip

Life is about balance, getting right amounts of what you need. Offsetting the good with the bad can help keep you in balance.

Writing, sitting at a desk, can be bad for your health. Hours and hours on your behind not only may add pounds, but it isn't so good for your heart and all those other health issues associated with a sedentary lifestyle. Add to the mix all the hours that writers spend reading, and you have more time on the tush and fewer working those big calorie burning, heart pumping tools found in the big muscles in your thighs and buttocks.

Winter joins in the conspiracy to keep you inside, sipping some hot chocolate and reading by the fireplace. But movement is required for good health so how does a busy writer get that done? Here's something on my wish list though not necessarily this model. There are lots of choices.

Can you see yourself getting some work done while walking on your treadmill. Check out this TrekDesk. At this point, since I don't have a desk on my treadmill, I usually watch a movie or listen to my iPod. But a few days ago, I played some games on my phone and found it very entertaining for 50 sweaty minutes. Couldn't I also do some promotion on social media while walking on the treadmill. Could I type and walk at the same time? I think I'd like to try it out before I purchased it just to see if I could.

I don't own an elliptical but I've read while on one at work. Didn't really like. My brother recommends his stationary recumbent bike. Here's some good prices on Hayneedle.  I know I could get work down while on one of those.

So do you have ideas of how you can work out and write or work on promotion while you exercise? Or would you rather just completely separate the two? If you can't workout outside, what is your favorite cardio workout indoors?

Tortured!

I'm waiting to receive my manuscript back from my new editor at Crescent Moon Press. First Dragon is the first book in my latest epic fantasy series. The book has three main characters sharing the danger, battles and ... well ... difficulties of epic proportions. I know I have a good plot but I'm a little worried if I've made things difficult enough for those three people. Have I tortured my protagonists enough?

I think of all the books I love, the movies I enjoy, and I know the best ones are the ones where the main characters suffer greatly and then overcome it all. 2012's offering of hero movies certainly followed the formula from Dark Night Rising and The Avengers.

Besides my epic fantasy novels, I also write fantasy romance under the pen name, Susan Kelley. I have a contract for another novel with my publisher coming out later this year. Romance usually requires a 'happily ever after,' but that doesn't mean the characters shouldn't be tortured before they get there.  I know I've done a pretty good job of it in some of my previous novels. One Good Woman might be the one with my most tortured characters who finally find happiness. I love those characters because they react to the adversary in their lives in complete opposite ways yet somehow both come to the same point of healing and redemption.

Have I tortured my characters in First Dragon enough? I guess my new editor will let me know. Do you torture your characters? Do you ever worry you're too nice to your protagonists?

Happy New Insecure Year

Happy New Year to all. I've been looking forward to the start of the 2013. As I've reminded you again and again, and will again and again over the next few months, this is the year of my retirement from teaching.  I'm looking forward to the being a full time writer and that leads me to my first post of the year for The Insecure Writers Support Group. This wonderful group was started by Alex Cavanaugh and one only has to post the first Wednesday of every month to be part of the terrific network of like-minded bloggers.

I know many of my blogger buddies took some time off over the holidays from their usual blogging schedule. Today if my first post in some time, as I busied myself with family obligations and worked on a manuscript that has needed my attention for a few weeks now. And guess what.

My blog didn't disappear. I didn't lose any followers. Blogger didn't shut down because I didn't have three new posts per week. My friends didn't abandon me because I didn't visit their blogs everyday. The blogosphere went on without me. It was the least amount of time I spent reading blogs in the last two years. And it was okay.

What I learned is that it's okay to take some time off. It's all right to concentrate on one project at a time or spend extra hours with your family. I've worked hard on my blogging over the past year, but it didn't all fall apart because I took some time off. I didn't even feel guilty. And I got so much other writing done. And I have two publishers sending me edits for rewrites sometime in the next two months so I might have to take some more time off. And it's okay.

Don't be afraid to relax and focus on the immediate demands of your life, personal or professional, and slack off on others. That's my advice for today.

Did you take some time off over the holidays from writing or blogging? What's the longest break you ever took? Did you feel guilty?