Friendly Cannibalism

My new page, Highlighed Life, is officially in full swing! Paula Shene is my first victim as a spotlighted author of children's books. Please be sure to swing by my page and read up on her (http://rachelaolson.com/highlighted-life.html).

I had strong intentions today to get reacquainted with Love During Death and possibly get a bit of writing in. Unfortunately, I've had part of a song from one of the one thousand Land Before Time movies stuck in my head ALL DAY. It replays over and over...friends for dinner, I'm gonna have friends for dinner...and I've felt a bit like a cannibal today, though I've never eaten any of my friends before. At least not that I'm aware of...

 

ANYWAY, I got some reading in and finished Glimpse: Zellie Wells book #1 by Stacey Wallace Benefiel. If interested, I left a review. Check it out on the Amazon.com page here.

I have a three-year-old passed out on the couch, it's quite possibly my bedtime, and I have an insane amount of stuff to do at my day job tomorrow. I can't wait for September so that I can get my book signing out of the way and move on to more writing and publishing and...and...and...

Last but not least, a big thank you to all my continued supporters and all the newcomers. Remember to support the "self employed" community by reading self published authors, support their editors and graphic designers, and don't be afraid to put a good word or two out for the ones you really enjoy! If you or anyone you know is looking for awesome children's books, be sure to check out all the info on Paula. She's inspiring!

Good night all!

Chronical Power

It's been awhile since I've blogged, so you'd think I had a lot to talk about, right? Ugh, sometimes I think I have the most boring life.

I finished my editing and have passed off to all but one of my beta readers. Now it's a waiting game. For those who haven't seen my posts or my Special Events page, my book signing has been scheduled for the 15th of September, 2012. I'm conjuring up a plan for those who are unable to attend due to work and/or distance.

So, I got my eyes checked this morning. It's such an adventure to try to drive around and do my usual Saturday errands when my eyes are dilated to the size of oreo cookies and have to wear one of those silly plastic sunglass slip things IN MY SUNGLASSES because it's too bright out for just my sunglasses. I did manage to spend a pretty penny on groceries during my blindness.

My friend Megan and I watched the movie Chronicle this afternoon. I would definitely recommend it, and intend to buy it...eventually. I have to save my extra pennies for the book signing. :)

Alright! Question of the hour: if you could have three (3) super powers, what would they be and why? Mine would be flying, telekinesis, and the ability to turn my skin tough, kind of like a shield. Why? Just because I think it'd be cool to fly everywhere, move things with my mind, and protect myself with rock-skin. I guess I have a super hero complex, and would like to be able to go anywhere in the world and help others. What are your thoughts?  I look forward to hearing from you!

Interactive Vampires

What today consisted of: cover art creating. Today I made the official cover art for my colaboration book, Love During Death which is being co-written by my amazing friend, Jessica Humphrey. Now that things are beginning to wrap up with The Seventh Layer, I've decided it'd be wise to get my rear in gear and finish Love During Death. I've already told Jess that it's time we crack down on each other.

On to other things! I've decided to do some in-depth research on vampires; their history, the differences between one person's creation and the next, things like that. I want to hear from YOU. What do you know about vamps? What would you like to know? If there was one (or two, or three) thing(s) that you'd like to see in your own vampire creation, what would it be? Share with me your knowledge! If you know of any awesome websites, I'd love to check them out. Never know where this kind of knowledge might take me ;)

Visit the Books page to view the new cover art! Love During Death will hopefully be released in the spring of 2013. Be sure to stay tuned in to my Facebook Page for frequent updates and one-on-one interaction with me and some of my fantastic writing companions!

Left Field Days

It's been a crazy few days here in my small town! Yesterday, my parents and I took my three-year-old on the 1880 train in Hill City, SD. Today was a busy day of church going and napping. Doesn't sound like much, I know. But it felt like too much! Sometimes my body tries to tell me I'm older than twenty-seven (no, I'm not age shy).

Upcoming plans: order banner and make fliers/handouts/business cards/bookmarks for book signing in September. I'll be making an event on Facebook for it as well, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Also on this week's agenda: finish editing!!! So much to do, so little time!

On another note, the new website is up and I've concluded that I like it better than the old one! I've also added two pages, one for links and one for my upcoming spotlight-a-week page. If you or someone you know who is in the writer community or associated with it wants to be the spotlight of my new page for an entire week, email Mr or message me on FB. You could even leave me a comment here!

My girl Jessica Humphrey should be getting back home to Colorado tonight from her trip to Philidelphia. She and I seriously need to get cracking on Love During Death. I've decided to forego making the cover art for it as well, seeing as how I've heard nothing from the girl I had "hired" to do it for me.

That's all I've got for now. When all the commission settles down to a quiet simmer, I'll start coming up with much more entertaining things to talk about. Until then, bear with me. I'm pretty Stoked about being two steps away from publishing so it's all I can think about. Much love to my faithful followers, and a hearty thanks to my frequent visiters.

To end the evening, could we keep everyone in our thoughts and/or prayers that were victims of the shooting in Aurora, CO and to all the fighters tending to the fires here in Nebraska? My heart goes out to all of them.

Gateway To Insanity

Here's a little peak into my day: went to transfer domain name, website was down for FIVE hours. Considered switching website hosts, but couldn't really find what I wanted. Pretty much walked in circles in cyberland before accumulating a massive headache and bad attitude before I threw up the bird and called it quits for now. So......conclusion of the day: I will NOT be operating under my doman address for awhile yet. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on that.

On a much happier note, I'm about to go shower so that I no longer smell like rotting pig flesh on a hot, humid day. I'm sure that'll make everyone's night just a little bit brighter! Oh, and tomorrow I continue round one of editing, beginning with chapter 4. Since this is my first soon-to-be-published novel, I'm completely clueless as to how many rounds of editing I'm supposed to go through before I send it off to beta, but I assume I keep cycling until I feel confident that I caught everything and fixed/changed everything that needed fixed/changed. By my estimations, I'll be ready for beta in a week.

More sunshine and rainbows: I've been accepted into the fabulous Indie Author Network (IAN) community and look forward to working with some amazing writers! I'm also planning on revamping my information with the Indie Book Collective (IBC) and attempting a second time to get in touch with the ParaYourNormal team. I might procrastinate that last effort until I know for sure I have the time and energy to put for my best for them if I'm able to get my foot in the door there. If it were my choice, I'd learn to astroproject so that I can be in more than one place at a time. Talk about multitasking!

I'm not sure how far back I passed through the doorway into insanity, but it was there somewhere along the road today. They say there's a fine line between psychosis and brilliance. I always found entertainment and enlightenment in dancing on both sides of the line, usually one foot on either side. Today, I tripped and rolled haphazardly deep into the darker side, far away from the line. I haven't found my way back yet; maybe in the dreamlands. See you there in some way, shape, or form!

Good Morning, Twinkle Stars

This is how cool I am: I went and laid down with my three-year-old around 8pm to put him to bed, and gracefully nodded off myself.

What's even more cool: I woke back up around 11:30pm wide awake.

Granted, I didn't eat dinner tonight because I wasn't hungry at the time (I still haven't eaten and I'm STARVING). There's always a reason. I believe tonight's reason was so that I could get some writing in.

Here's an update:    
                                 Current word count: 46,288
     Progress: 405 words into chapter 14 (just started). This will hopefully be my last full chapter. There will be an epilogue following. Hoping to be done writing and on to editing by Sunday or Monday!

Keep your fingers crossed that I get a majority of my writing done tomorrow (technically today) and Friday. I have family coming to town this weekend including a nephew I've yet to meet and a pain in the Rumplestiltsken (sp?) brother. Awesome parade on Saturday that little man will just love, but it all means that I'll likely have little time to write.

Other points of business: I'm thinking about adding a web page for promotional purposes for other artistically inclined individuals (have I mentioned this before?). I'm still brainstorming the idea, but would love to hear everyone's imput on the matter. Originally, I intended to highlight one person at a time. I would still like to do this, however I'd also like a page for constant support or special occasion promotions. I need opinions! Comment here, message me on FB, tweet! I don't care, just holler at me!

I've got to eat something and get back to bed. If I don't, I'll be as nasty as Medusa and look a hell of a lot like Frankenstein!

Email Blogging Artist Promoting

I'm trying out a new blogging technique: text to blog! We'll see how special it is. If I like it. I just might use it. It does seem a bit rediculous to type an entire blog on my phone though. Maybe it's not meant to be used this way? What do I know.

Well, I reached 40,000 words this weekend! Pretty excited about that. If I kick it in gear, maybe I can be done writing by the end of July/beginning of August and get started on editing! I'm still hoping to publish before 2013, my current goal aimed for Christmas. I spent a good chunk of today working on manuscript formatting and familiarizing myself with the CreateSpace website, and only knocked out 1300 words. Sad day. It felt productive just the same.

I'm considering starting a promotional page for my fellow writers, but I don't want to be so limiting. I want to reach out to all artistically inclined individuals. Who would be interested in having their talents displayed for a week? I'd like to promote one new artist (writer, photographer, graphic designer, editer, etc) a week. Opinions? Anyone out there interested in participating? Let me know!

I've barely got one eye open and the other already rolling its way back to Dreamland. My carpal tunnel is screaming at me for typing all of this on such a tiny keyboard and my body is begging for TLC. I'd say it's bedtime. Sleep well my friends. Dream good dreams.

Mini Makeover

I made some pretty obvious changes to the website today. Also wasn't overly impressed with the RSS feed that my website host provided, so I've switched. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to transfer the old blog posts to this one, so I've save them for the time being. They can be accessed from the side bar. More changes yet to come! Web address will be changing before the end of the month, as long as everything goes as planned. Keep your eyes peeled for updates on that. The second edition to Lisa Logue's Cursed Secrets comes out tonight! Check back on the Recommended Reads page for a direct link(s) to that. I've got to get back to my day job, but wanted to get out a quick update to all my readers! Thanks for keeping the faith!