I Don't Know What to Title This Post. How About I Call It "Edgar?"

My blog tour is over! (Almost.) The posts have all been published, the comments are all in, the winner will be announced soon, and I've written the recap post already, but I still need to draw the winner and add the post to my website. So, nearly, but not quite finished. I had a lot of fun with this thing! Was it worth the money? I'd say I got what I paid for. If I had been able to afford more, I might have gotten more out of it, but for what I spent, I'd say it was about right.

I'd say the biggest issue I had was time. Putting together 10 posts and recording an audio interview in a span of two months, on top of everything else I'm working on, is a lot of work! I also wish I'd had a better mix of interviews and guest posts. Guest posts are much harder, but if I can have some time to work on them, I can really turn out some good writing, which is partly what I was hoping for. I wanted people to get a feel for my writing more than for me as a person, thinking maybe if they liked my writing style, they'd like the book, too. Doing the interviews was fun, but I think three or four probably could have covered everything. I think I ended up with 7 (out of 11 posts total).

Still, I had fun and it was really great to hear some feedback about the book, the excerpts, the blurb, etc. I would still do things differently the next time around, but why do we fall? So we can learn how to pick ourselves up. I even got a 5-star review from one of the tour hosts, so that was awesome! It came near the end of the tour, and since none of the other hosts had decided to read the book and do a review, I hadn't expected it. It was a wonderful surprise to wake up to that morning!

Aside from the tour, I've been working my butt off trying to catch up on my health blog project. Since I just converted it a couple months ago, it's going to take me some time to rebrand the site to the world and to my existing followers, but I am getting a little traffic to site, which wasn't happening when it was just a product-based site. A lot of the visits are probably me as I develop the site and add new posts, but there are a few unique visitors, so that's good. I've got about a week and a half's worth of posts scheduled out as of this evening, so I can have a little time to redistribute my efforts elsewhere, but not much.

I'm still working on the story I worked on for April's Camp Nano, and I'm REALLY hoping I can finish it by the end of the month. Ambitious? Of course. But, if I can do 50k words in November alone, I certainly should be able to do another 20-30k in the 22 days left in June! I know I'm on the right track with it, but with all these other projects to work, and especially catch up, on, I haven't had the time to crank it out. If I sat down and worked on this only for a week, even with work, I could make some serious progress.

I have every damn intention of getting back to Always Happy to Entertain You soon, but I've got so much to catch up on and I want to restructure how I do the posts that it's going to take some real motivation and maybe a kick in the pants to get me back into it. Unfortunately, it's easy to break from right now since so many of the shows are on break for the summer. I'm considering moving the site to self-hosted WordPress soon (not the other WordPress I was bitching about last week), but that won't be for another few weeks.

Aside from that, I'm really financially frustrated at the moment. I was expecting to have a little more money coming in starting this month, and it turns out that's not going to happen now, so now I'm trying to figure something else out, and find the time to do so. I'm getting close to my savings goal for a new (used) car, but it's the little expenditures that are becoming a problem.

A lot of them are "luxury" expenses, like going to the movies and getting small things for myself like books or jewelry (all under $15 or $20, I assure you), so technically I shouldn't be complaining about not being able to buy that X Files memorabilia I want or that new book that comes out next week. I've been on a budget for a long time, and I don't have a problem budgeting or taking my time and saving up for things I want but don't necessarily need. I just really was expecting to have more money to budget by now, and knowing I don't means I have to adjust things and it's going to take a little time for me to come to terms with that.

In any case, even with the tour over, I've got plenty to keep me busy during the weeks and months to come!

Everybody's working for the weekend!

Wishin and Hopin and Thinkin and...

  I don't pray, so I'll leave that one off there. I have been making some good progress over the past few weeks, and it's been keeping me plenty busy--I didn't even realize I hadn't posted here in three weeks until I published my comments about the Boston Marathon attacks.
    Both of my book giveaways have concluded, though Amazon and UPS are really trying my patience on the delivery front. (I'm STILL waiting on my order from two weeks ago--never had to wait this long.) I'm looking forward to the reviews and the feedback, but I really hope they're positive. Building an author platform is hard work, but it's even harder without getting feedback from the people who are actually reading the books and interested in them. My beta readers can only tell me so much.
    I'm into the full-marketing mode now, and I've already had a few stops booked for my blog tour next month! I'm really excited for it, and I really hope it goes well. It seems like most of the stops so far are decent websites that are well-maintained in terms of content and they seem to have a decent number of visitors and readership. I'm hoping that means word will get out and people will start looking into the book and my writing more, even if they don't immediately buy the book. (I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic without counting my chickens--how am I doing?)
    I also relaunched the other website that I've been doing the social media for. It looks beautiful! The hard part for me will be posting regularly, as usual, and getting the advertising publisher stuff worked out. I've been having problems with Cafe Press--those a-holes will not email me back and their ad publisher set-up is a little pathetic in terms of compatibility and technical issues.
    The weather out here has been a little ridiculous. I got a blizzard warning last week and was expecting to be able to call in to work, and then there was hardly any snow. The roads weren't even that bad. (Not even close to the last blizzard I drove home in.) Then this week, not calling for a blizzard, not even a winter storm warning until a couple hours before it hit, and there was probably at least a foot of snow total between Monday and Wednesday.  Tuesday's drive wasn't too treacherous, but the cold and wind Tuesday and Wednesday were a pain to deal with. And they're calling for more rain/snow (could be another big storm, or nothing at all, who knows?) on Monday.
    What the hell happened to spring? I know it's Colorado, but seriously, we don't get snow on the plains this late in the month that often, and we definitely don't get it in these quantities that often at this time of the year. Blarg. I keep waiting to wear my flip-flops and then I look outside and wish I knew where my damn snow boots were. Ridiculous.
    With regard to the blog post title, I'm wishin for some good reviews, hopin my stupid book order gets here soon (like today, when it's scheduled, would be nice), thinkin about Boston and sending out good thoughts.

    Here's to a better spring/summer ahead!

Coming Down to the Wire

Writing stats, 1 day, less than 5 hours before NaNo: 

• 50,009 words completed on my sci-fi work in progress
• 1,000 words or less from finishing my sci-fi work in progress. YES!
• 4 character descriptions (approx.) shy of what I would like to have before I start NaNo
• 1/2 of an outline done for my NaNo plot
• 1 internship accepted at a rate of:
• 5-10 hours per week
• 1 potential part-time job offer in the works

  Figures I'd start having actual commitments to people right before NaNo starts. Like I said last week, when it rains it pours.
  Finally got the new website project transfer completed and redesigned! It's up and running and looks beautiful.
    As far as NaNo goes, I think the biggest problem I'm having is that I've never tried to write a story like this before and my imagination is coming up short. It's a sci-fi alien comedy story. Sort of in the fashion of Douglas Adams, but I'm not that funny. I just had a bit of insight this morning into a direction I could take it, but I still don't have a solid character description for any of my main characters. I have names and a couple of minor personality traits. That's it. Starting to get scared.
    However, now that I've decided which items on my to-do list can be put on hold once NaNo begins, I feel a little better. I just am going to feel guilty every time one of them gets pushed back. My goal is to make better use of my weekends, and with Thanksgiving coming up, I'm hoping a lot of the television shows will go on break for a couple weeks. I am going to have to cut way back on those and watch them on Hulu, which I have found allows me to multi-task better than live shows. In any case, the blogs are probably going to be fewer and farther between, but maybe that will allow me more time to choose more interesting topics.
    In other news, I set up my first free Kindle promotion for the ebook version of my latest book and it has been doing pretty well. I was a little nervous nobody would even look at it, but a fair number have and have downloaded it! Now I'm just nervous that nobody will like it. I hope that the people who do read it (and didn't just add it to their libraries on principle because it was free) like it, and those that do like it leave reviews! We'll see how it plays out over the next few weeks. If it starts getting bad reviews, I may have to start writing under a pen name, though probably not Constant Writer ;)
    As to Hurricane Sandy, I hope everyone out east is staying safe and keeping their spirits up as the storm wraps up. I can't imagine what it's like to see that kind of devastation in your own backyard, but I hope that everyone knows that the entire country is sending out good thoughts, prayers, and well wishes in your direction :)

Stay strong and keep your head up.

It's Going to Be a Long Fall (Season)

  It's going to be a busy fall season! If you hadn't realized, it's already the second week of October, which means National Novel Writing Month is coming up in about 3 weeks.

    I am wrapping up one novel--with the goal to finish it before November 1, planning for my NaNo novel, also due November 1, preparing to edit a story I wrote a couple years ago--something I'd like to finish by the end of 2012, as well as continuing marketing for my recently published book through social media, guest blogs, review requests, etc.
    This marketing process will be ongoing until either A) it does so well I don't need to spend as much time telling people about it, B) it starts getting such bad reviews that I won't be able to recover, C) my next book is ready to release and I will have to devote more time and effort to promoting that one.
    And all of that is just the stuff on my "book/writing" to-do list! This is on top of my marketing work for my friend's website that I've been doing, as well as searching for a new job.

    However, I have an ace up my sleeve this year: I recently bought (with my awesome NaNo winner discount) the software program Scrivener. If you haven't heard of it, it is a writing software that can help you organize and lay out writing projects more easily. It features outlining, pinboards, keyword assignment, and too many other things to name. I've started using it with my current book, and I can't tell you how much easier it's been for me to figure out what I need to do next, which sections need to be added to, where previous characters appeared, and refer back to my outlines, character descriptions, maps, and other planning documents.

    Granted, I had to spend some time getting all those things in order first--uploading files and separating them out, adding the keywords,  etc., but since then, it's been so much easier to go back and work on chapters that need additional scenes or find any anachronisms in my timeline.
    Once I get to the editing process, I think this program will be even more helpful, rearranging scenes, matching up subplots, organizing the timeline, and catching any plot mistakes.
    Last year, I did a post on why you should do NaNoWriMo (make sure to read the comments!). This year, I'm going to go over how to do NaNo when you have a schedule as busy as mine or busier. You know what my schedule looks like for the remainder of the year--this is all on the schedule regardless of whether I get a part or full time job in the meantime. Check back tomorrow for the follow-up, "How to Do NaNoWriMo Next Month."

Ain't no rest for the wicked.

On the Fringe

  This weekend, I got the chance to attend the Boulder Fringe Festival for the first time. I like theater and culture and festivals, so I thought it'd be a good opportunity. Luckily for me, I applied as a reviewer, and in exchange for reviews, I got a free press pass, allowing me to see all the shows for free :D Plus, the reviews would link back to my website--bonus! Five to seven shows in four days--I figured I could handle that. 200 word reviews, not bad at all. How very wrong I was.
    First things first: the festival started on Thursday, a day that I had already agreed to meet a friend up in Fort Collins. I didn't get back home until 9 or 10. Thursday shows were out. Friday, I just didn't go, and that was my bad. Little did I know, I'd have so many things trying to prevent me from seeing the performances over the weekend.
    Being the balanced person I like to think I am, I decided to see not five or seven shows, but six--three Saturday and three on Sunday. But the universe had other plans. Saturday morning, I agreed to drive out to Evergreen to meet the bf for breakfast--One World Cafe, if you haven't been there, it's really good food, and beer for breakfast :) I left at about 1pm. I thought I'd given myself my plenty of time to get from there to Boulder by 2:30, the start time of the first show I wanted to see. I still had to pick up my press pass, so I allowed for extra time for that and parking as well.
    But the 2:30 show wasn't in the cards. There was an accident on I-70 east and my GPS and the road signs told me to exit and take an alternate route, which I did, but US-40 wasn't going any faster. In fact, being it's only one lane, I think it was actually going slower. By the time I got out of the traffic on US-40, it was after 2 o'clock. I still had to get through Golden and head up 93 to get to Boulder. There was a little traffic in Golden too, as it turned out, and apparently I wasn't going fast enough for the speed demons on 93, so I got passed quite a few times.
    When I finally got to Boulder, it was three. I parked my car about halfway between the main theater and the main box office, which was at a coffee shop nearby. However, GPS got me lost again, thinking the coffee shop was farther up the street than it actually was.
    Once I had my pass, I had to sit down and rearrange my schedule for the next two days. Getting the press pass, I was assigned to see 4 shows, and then see at least one additional show to write a review on. Luckily for me, the assigned shows still had times left to see them by the end of the day on Sunday, though it meant I'd have to see a much later show than I had originally intended.
    I saw the Saturday shows, and wrote my reviews that night. One I loved, one was just ok, and the other was really not so great. I tried to be nice in my review, but I couldn't ignore some of the bigger flaws.
However, time was not the only thing against me: our crappy Century Link internet has been flickering on and off for the past week or so and of course, when I actually have something that I'm supposed to get done--something for someone besides me--it decides to go down and not come back. I know everybody hates Comcast, but they do have better, more consistent internet even if there are other flaws in their system.
    So, with no internet to go home to Sunday night to finish my reviews, I decided to write them in between the Sunday performances and type them up and email them from my Kindle using a free wifi connection. Unfortunately, the Boulder Public Library closes at 6:30 on Sunday and my last show was at 9:30-10:30. I headed to the nearby shops and found a Panera where I sat until after 9 typing up my reviews on the tiny, wonky Kindle keyboard. I had one more to type and one more to write by the time I had to go to the last show. When I got out, you know what I discovered? Panera shuts down their wireless after 10:30, which I had intended to use from my car in the parking lot which was still within range. I drove around the shopping center hoping for someone else to offer wifi after 10:30, but I wasn't having any luck.
    Fortunately, I was rescued. My bf called to check in and offered to let me come up to Longmont to the house to use the internet. I got all my reviews in, mostly on time (it was after midnight by the time I finished, but it was before anyone was at the office to read them, so I figure that's on time), and went home.
    While it was fun checking out shows that normally I wouldn't have the time or money to see, I will be a little more careful about signing up for things like this in the future. I definitely would have preferred picking more of my own shows to review and even though I technically had four days to see them in, I think I would have preferred more time. Of course, things were working against me this weekend, but now that I know my way around and know how long stuff takes, I will know how much I can really handle the next time around.

On the plus side, the internet's back.