IWSG: BookBub, Authors, and a New Year

 

Happy New Year and welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group. IWSG is the brainchild of Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Thanks, Alex, for starting this group and keeping it going. We are rockin' the neurotic writing world.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG

The awesome co-hosts for the January 3 posting of the IWSG are Joylene Nowell Butler, Olga Godim, Diedre Knight, and Natalie Aguirre!

January 3 question: Do you follow back your readers on BookBub or do you only follow back other authors?

Usually, I only follow back authors. I want to show them support. It never occurred to me to follow back readers. I'm interested in what everyone else says about this.

We're off in a new year, a new adventure. I'm glad to see 2023 in my rearview mirror. It wasn't as bad as 2020, but it wasn't a great year. My husband's health issues continued. I fell and partially tore my rotator cuff. My car was in an accident. Though no one was hurt (thank goodness), my car has been in the repair shop for three months, with no real estimate on when I'll get it back. Last month, I wrote that I'd killed my computer. Again. Okay, not totally killed. It was fixable, after more than a month of doing without. Do you see why I'm not sorry 2023 is over?

With my woes behind me, I'm ready for a new start. I spent most of my "free" time last year reading. I've enjoyed many new books and discovered new authors. I'm ready to delve into the stories I've started. I hope next month I can report on my progress. 

Wishing you all a great start to a new year.

Click here to find others on the Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop. Or go to IWSG on Facebook to see who’s blogging today. 

#IWSG: Regrets

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Day. IWSG is the brainchild of Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Thanks, Alex, for starting this group and keeping it going. We are rockin' the neurotic writing world!

The awesome co-hosts for the January 5 posting of the IWSG are Erika Beebe, Olga Godim, Sandra Cox, Sarah Foster, and Chemist Ken!

Happy New Year!

How is your new year starting? Hubs & I stayed up to watch the ball drop in NYC then promptly went to bed. We're not as young as we used to be when we went out with friends or had friends come to our house. This year, we even stayed up later than my younger sisters. 😀

My first goal for 2022 is a larger presence online, especially with my woefully neglected blog. Sure, every month I posted with this wonderful group, and I fulfilled my commitment to post monthly on the Paranormal Romantics blog. But, here on my own blog, I haven't done much.

That's changing. I rejoined the Weekend Writing Warriors on January 1st. Two days ago, I resurrected my "Monday Morning Musing." Plus, I'm going to be more active recruiting guests--as evidenced yesterday by my friend (and fellow IWSG'er) J.Q. Rose as she celebrates a book birthday. So, here's an open invitation to you all. I love guests. Normally, Thursdays will be my guest day. Contact me if you'd like to visit by emailing me at dmburton72@gmail.com. Remind me that you're an IWSG'er.

Now for this month's optional question. BTW, I love these questions.

What's the one thing about your writing career you regret the most? Were you able to overcome it?

I regret not starting sooner. I've been seriously writing for publication since 1993. My kids were about to head off for college. Time for me, instead of my life revolving around their activities and my volunteering, especially with Girl Scouts. I don't regret that time, but I wish I'd started writing sooner. Unless I turn back time, LOL, I can't overcome that. 

Also, I regret not finding this group sooner. When I joined in September, 2013, I was number 300-something. My point being 300+ people knew about this group before I did. Many have dropped out since then (I'm number 30 now), but I'm glad I stuck around. You all have encouraged me, sympathized and supported me through life's challenges.

Good luck as we all work our way through another year. This one has to be better than 2020 or 2021. And if it isn't, we carry on.

Click here to find others on the Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop. Or go to IWSG on Facebook to see who’s blogging today.

Happy Writing!

A New Year and a New Start

 image credit: poetryclubs.com

Monday Morning Musing

I love this graphic. Leaving 2021 behind and leaping into 2022. That appeals to me as I leave all the worries of the past year and look forward to a better one.

For the past two years, I've neglected my blog. I showed up once a month for Insecure Writers Support Group day (1st Wednesday of the month) and hosted authors with new books. Anything else was too much effort as we dealt with the covid pandemic and my husband's illness. As a full-time caregiver, my energies were challenged. I'm sure anyone who has been a caregiver knows what I'm talking about. But now that Hubs is better, I can focus on my writing.

I started the new year by rejoining Weekend Writing Warrior blog hop, where writers post snippets of their work. I shared the beginning of my latest Alex O'Hara PI mystery, The Case of the Wedding Wrecker. It begins with Alex and Nick's wedding. Such a happy and exciting time. From the title, you know something awful is going to happen. If you're interested, go to the previous post and read the snippet.

On New Year's Day, or thereabouts, it's tradition to set goals, make resolutions, or plan what to do for the year. Since I have two works-in-progress (full length novels) and a couple of novellas in the works, I plan to finish at least two this year. That means buckling down, BIC-HOK (butt in chair, hands on keyboard).

It also means being more active here. Today, I resurrected Monday Morning Musing. Tomorrow, I'm celebrating a friend's book birthday. I hope you'll come back and see what it is.

Starting out with plans is great. Following through is tough. I'll let you know how I'm doing next Monday. See you then.

 

Happy New Year

2017 is going to be a great year. Why? Attitude. It will be great because I want it to be. Oh, I know it’s not as simple as that. I can have the most positive attitude and something drastic, something beyond my control can happen. Even so, I believe that people who expect the worst will find it, and people who expect good will find that, too.

Each January is like being given a do-over. An opportunity to put the past behind us and restart. So we didn’t accomplish all we planned last year. We get a chance to try again, to do it right this time. For the past couple of years, I planned to release two novels and one novella. In 2015, I released two novels, but no novella. Last year, I released a novella, Mission to New Earth, but no novels. If I considered that a trend—a downward one, at that—I wouldn’t release any book this year. Gotta fix that. The question is how?

I need an action plan. Too many times I let projects that seem overwhelming get me down. Instead of breaking down the project into manageable tasks, I do nothing. Not this year. My first task of the new year is to write a business plan. What do I want to accomplish and how am I going to do it. I will set SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Realistic, Time-based.

In an online chat group with other writers, we recently talked about how we plan our business year. One writer said she maps backward. She sets the task, figures out how long each step will take then plans what she needs to accomplish each week leading up to the completion. That seems reasonable to me. 

If writing were the only thing I needed to do, career-wise, I’d be fine. But pesky things like marketing and bookkeeping also need to be done. So I need to factor in those chores in my plan. Social media, while fun, is also a source of information. I need to plan time for that. Not too much time, mind you.  J

Then there’s my family. I’ve written often about the grandkiddies, how when they come over (or we go to their house) my writing stops. Not because I can’t work with them around. I don’t want to. I treasure that time with them. Too soon they’ll be so busy with their own activities they won’t have time to hang out with us.

What about time with the Hubs? Too often he gets short shrift. It’s sad to think I need to plan time with him, besides watching TV together. We do go out to the movies but not as frequently as we’d like. Travel. I need to follow Nike’s ad and “just do it.” Plan a trip each month. Anything from a mini-trip to a nearby town to explore (not just to shop) to a major trip that takes a week or longer.

Writing down what I want to accomplish helps. Hence, the business plan. Maybe I need to make a “family” plan, too.

Being held accountable increases the likelihood of accomplishing goals. Next week, I’ll let you know how I did on the business plan.

May you accomplish all you want to in 2017.

Speaking of things beyond my control . . . If you purchased books at All Romance eBooks, you know they closed their doors (website) December 31st. I only had my books there since August. If you bought any of my books and didn't have a chance to download them, send me proof of purchase and I will replace them. While they aren't paying the authors for 4th quarter, readers shouldn't be punished, too. Email me at: dmburton72@gmail.com, include a copy of your receipt, and let me know what format you want.

New Year New Books #NewBooks4Me

Did you get an Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo gift card for Christmas or Hanukkah? Here's a chance to get more for your bucks. The authors listed below (and me) are offering 99 cent books. 

Have you read my book SWITCHED? I have a special place in my heart for this science fiction romance. It was my first published novel. The heroine, Jessie, is such a wise-cracker, especially when she's nervous. Unlike Jessie, I can never think of come backs until hours later.

As if being kidnapped by aliens isn't bad enough, Jessie Wyndom discovers they grabbed her by mistake. She wise cracks past her fear especially when she learns she was part of an experiment separating Terran twins before birth. Her twin just took Jessie's place back in Ann Arbor, Michigan while she gets to twiddle her thumbs on an Alliance of Planets starship. The only good part is the hunky captain. Except. He's so unemotional he could be Mr. Spock's double.

Captain Marcus Viator's well-organized life is turned upside down by the free-spirited female from Earth. Problems with the starship prevent him from returning her to her home. Fate brings them together. Treachery tears them apart. Is their love strong enough to reunite them?

Amazon ~ B&N ~ Kobo ~ iTunes ~ Smashwords

Have fun and happy reading.

Sign ups for New Year, New Reads Book Blog Hop

1.	Patricia Lynne	7.	Francis Mandewah	13.	Neal Roberts
2.	Tui Snider	8.	Rochelle Campbell	14.	Paige Warren
3.	Christine Rains	9.	Jemima Pett	15.	Kenna McKay
4.	Tyrean A Martinson	10.	Mary Pax	16.	Pembroke Sinclair
5.	A.A. Chamberlynn	11.	Diane Burton	17.	Kandi J Wyatt
6.	Connie B. Dowell	12.	Jessica Coulter Smith	18.	tara tyler

Or return to the source: http://www.patricialynne.com/blog/new-year-new-reads-sign-ups

Have fun, happy reading.

Old Year - New Year

This week, news programs review the past year. The good and the bad, mostly the bad. Do you spend this time reviewing your life, career? Or are you thinking ahead about the coming year?

The name of the first month of the year comes from the Roman god, Janus, the two-face god. Statues, like the one to the left, show him looking forward and backward. The time between Christmas and New Year’s is a good time to do both.

Looking back, 2015 was a good year over all. The high point was the birth of a granddaughter, my son’s first child. Enjoying time with my other two grandchildren, one (8 y.o.) is a reader like her grandmother as well as a writer; the other (5 y.o.) taught me how to play Candy Crush. I’m not sure that was a good idea. LOL. Reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, enjoying fairly good health. Two trips to Arizona to visit our son and his family, two to Indy to visit with my sister, a couple of shorter trips around Michigan, my first airplane trip in eight years, which wasn’t too bad. And I got back to sewing—something I haven’t made time for in years—making a jumper for my older granddaughter and a dress for her doll.

On the writing front, I released two books—The Protector (An Outer Rim Novel, Book 3) and The Case of the Fabulous Fiancé (An Alex O’Hara Novel, Book 2). I also wrote a short story for The Roses of Prose holiday collection. Alas, the Christmas novella didn’t make it. Time got away from me. Maybe I could make it a Christmas in July release. Hmmm.

What does 2016 hold for us? Plenty of surprises, I would guess. I’ve already started the next Alex O’Hara book, and I even have a title—The Case of the Meddling Mama. Hopefully, more trips. More time playing with the grandkiddies. More sewing. Better time management. That’s the key. I tend to go in spurts, getting totally immersed in a project to the exclusion of everything else. Not good.

In the past, when I’ve written goals (resolutions), I’ve tried to make them specific (e.g., finish three books). While that’s good since it’s measurable, I need to make one overall goal. A balanced life. Vague but more important than the number of words written per day or books released. Keeping things in perspective might be a better way to express the concept.

Share your old year accomplishments and/or new year goals. While you do that, I’m putting aside my computer to play with the grandbaby.

Back to Work

After two weeks of vacation from school, many mothers are so happy that today has finally arrived. Considering the weather we had yesterday—snow and sleet—it’s a wonder school is actually in session.

Although the new year started last Thursday, I consider it beginning today. After all, we had to

recover from the rush-rush-rush of getting ready for the holidays, grabbing after-Christmas sales, returning those gifts that didn’t fit/weren’t right/didn’t work, and celebrating New Year’s Eve—which for those of us of a certain age meant staying up way past our bedtime. LOL

Now it's time to buckle down and return to work. For those of us lucky enough to write full time, “work” means getting back to that manuscript we stepped away from a couple of weeks ago. To avoid extra stress, I stepped away more than a couple of weeks. I love the holidays—putting up the tree, decorating the house (sort of), celebrating with family and friends. What I don’t like is cleaning the house for company. What I really wanted for Christmas was a housekeeper. How did the Brady Bunch afford a live-in housekeeper like Alice (Ann B. Davis)? Well, Santa didn’t deliver.

I have three stories in progress and it’s difficult to decide which one to return to. Do I choose the one I “write” in my head each night as I fall asleep? Rissa’s story in the Outer Rim series. Or the novella I should have finished in time for the holidays? Christmas in Space, an expanded short story. Or do I tweak the second Alex O’Hara novel? The one I wrote first before deciding that I needed to write about what came before.

Decisions, decisions. When faced with a dilemma such as this, I procrastinate. I have too many things on the home front that I didn’t finish in 2014. The tree and decorations need to be put away. Filing papers that have stacked up while I was busy doing something else. Organizing everything for taxes. A movie sounds good.

When faced with so many choices, how do you decide what to do first?