Slipping!

The road in front of the trailer park where I live
Nowhere near as bad as '11
When both lanes were shut down

I am slipping this week! I didn't even post my usual Wordless Wednesday. But then it's been an off week here.

Our area of the US received days of rain, which ended up resulting in flooding. Depending on location, it was either more or less severe than the floods of both 1972 and 2011 when Tropical Depression Lee waltzed through. The flood of '72 was the remains of Hurricane Agnes.

This year's flooding was not the result of anything like that...it was just a normal Low-pressure system that stalled over our region here in NY and PA. Every time I checked the radar for this storm, all the rain was doing was moving in a counter-clockwise spiral.

The worst part is, the storm stalled after other little storms had already moved through and left damage from flash-flooding. One area library had to close back in the beginning of August because of water damage. They hadn't even finished with the clean-up when this latest storm hit...and I was dismayed at what ended up happening to this library.

The building...washed out...into the road.

I don't like sharing pictures I haven't taken, so I've provided the link to a public Facebook post of the damage.

Bridges are out, roads are still closed.

I haven't gone out investigating, I have been content to stay out of the way and look at Facebook posts of other's less fortunate than I. C.P. Stringham has had to evacuate from her house several different times over the course of this crazy wet summer.

The only ones liking this weather!

On a personal note, my blood sugars are good enough that I have been given permission by my doctor to drop one of my meds. Next Sunday will be the last day I give myself the weekly shot I've been doing for a few months. Once I can get health insurance again, I can have my A1C numbers taken. I still have to take the two pills, but if the numbers stay good...things are looking good for more reductions. Mostly just being hyper-vigilant on the foods I eat and when I eat them.

Which means I dream about stupid things like making recipes my friends on Facebook share...like the Oreo filled, candy bar topped brownies. You'd think that would be the best place to indulge in forbidden foods right, right? Well, the worst part of the dream...was that I didn't even get to taste them! Better luck next time I guess!

Until next time, stay dry!

Much love! :)

Silence from the Peanut Gallery

It's like that moment when the comedian delivers the punch line and the audience doesn't make a peep.  Not even a chuckle.  And all the comedian can hear aside from the sound of his own heart hammering in his chest, is the sound of one single cricket.

Okay, so I asked you all questions in the hopes that I could get a better idea of how I can meet your blog reading needs...and no one answered.  Either I'm doing fine, or nobody read it which would indicate that I'm doing terrible!

I can handle this.

After all, it isn't like this is my first time blogging.  I used to be quite the avid blogger, back in the old days before I had a husband and full time job.  And as I remember, it took a while to build a following, even though I wasn't looking for that back then.  I just wanted to write and have someone somewhere read what I was writing even if it was mundane commentaries on my life at the time.  I dropped that blog to start this new one because I wanted to appear more professional in my 'new line' as a published author.  And I figured it would be just as easy to start over fresh than it would be to revive the old blog which I had let fall into total anonymity.

The other day when I was chatting during a schedule phone call with +Rebekah Radice (who totally rocks, by the way) one of the things we went over was who my target audience is.  So I've been thinking, who do I want to connect with through my blog?

I hope it is okay to have more than one 'target' audience in mind.

First, I want to connect with readers.  Specifically people who like to read fiction novels.  People who like mixed genre novels.  I say that because if I'm honest, I tend to blend genres rather than write in just one.  Farmer's Daughter is mostly Contemporary Romance, but there is also Fantasy in it (which will increase as the series progresses) and Suspense...which given that I did that one unconsciously, that'll probably increase as well.  People who aren't afraid of a long book - I write what I like to read, and I love long books!  Granted, it's not for everyone.  I had a coworker comment on the length just yesterday.  I get that.  Ring of Fire is probably not going to be as long, but I can make no promises.

Farmer's Daughter.  Lost childhood innocence.

And of course, I most especially want to connect with readers who've read my own book.  I'd love to hear new thoughts and opinions.  I'd love to dialogue about favorite characters and favorite scenes.  Or scenes that were absolutely hated.  Or scenes that you hate to love.

Secondly, I would like to connect with other writers.  For the camaraderie.  If a reader isn't a writer themselves, they can't fully appreciate the madness that a writer goes through during the process of writing a book or short story.  C.P. Stringham is one of my most favorite people in the world, because she's someone who lives close that totally gets it.  We'll talk and one of us will eventually say, "Me too!  I know exactly what you're talking about!"

Because it's good to have people along for the journey.  We each have a different perspective on life.  It's how we are able to help one another along.  I want my journey to encourage others.  Not just to read, but to write their own stories.  And to publish them!  Our stories are meant to be shared!

So many choices...

So I stand at a crossroads of sorts.  Do I change how I've been blogging, or try a different tact?  At this moment, I don't have an answer.  Not really.  Since I began this entire adventure, I've been feeling my way in the dark and flying by the seat of my pants.  But I must be doing something right somewhere because I've given one presentation at a local library with C.P. Stringham, been featured in our local paper, and have been invited to speak at a book club meeting in June (how exciting is that!!)

At the moment, I am getting ready to work on Ring of Fire.  I'd really like to have it finished and polished for an end of summer release.  I plan on going with my mother tomorrow to a family affair, so writing has to be done today.  I have no idea what will be going on Monday, except for no work which is becoming our norm.  Not good in the paycheck (which may be why I'm behind in the light bill)  Ah well, this too shall pass.

On the bright side, I've got most of my weekend chores already done.  Laundry? Check (ok, so the last load is still in the dryer...close enough!)  Grocery Shopping? Check (I hate feeling guilty for buying our needs)  Dishes...uhm, nevermind.  We're good, so I can write with a clean conscience.  ;)



2014 ~ One Day at a Time

Broads of a Feather at the Library

Opening remarks :)

This past Saturday, my author cohort and friend C.P. Stringham and I had a presentation about being independent authors at the Spalding Memorial Library in Athens, PA, just one of our many local libraries.

And it went really well.  There was a comfortable amount of people there for both of us - the seats weren't all filled, but neither were they all empty. I'm not counting the little kids seats in the front row because I don't think they were used.

It was a mixed audience, men and women, young and old.  Even Mr. Janney was kind enough to come along and snap some pics for me.  He even managed to stay awake for it all!  Mr. Janney's not much of a reader, and he doesn't always get what I'm up to on the computer.  There was one moment when I made a comment to the audience about how I hoped I wasn't boring them that Mr. Janney fake snored and got tons of laughs from everyone.  That's why I married him!  I couldn't have planned that half so well!

After we were done sharing our experiences breaking into print though independent publishing we opened it up for questions from the audience.  And they had a few, which was good.  One woman who prefers writing her material out longhand wanted to know if there was any way around transcribing it to the computer.  Not really.  Unless she hires someone to do it for her, but like I said to her that for me personally - I still write things out longhand (especially when I'm at work and the computer is at home) and I find that copying it to the computer is just another part of the creative process.  For me when I sit down at the computer, another door opens for me and the juices kick in - there's a difference to it that I don't have words for, but to me it's just another doorway into my imaginary universe and I have no problem walking through that door and writing what I see and hear.

uhm ,yeah ...... about that ......

There was one older gentleman, who had some questions for us that quite frankly we didn't really have answers for.  I'm pretty sure this explains the looks on our faces in this second picture. (That's CP's daughter Sydney standing in the middle)  He had published a book about 30 some years ago and had questions about copyrighting.  Not a clue.  Neither CP or I go through any other form of copyrighting outside of the Kindle Direct Publishing. Which we told him.

And that we didn't have to pay anything upfront for publishing; it all comes out of the price of the book.  Amazon gets a portion, and we get a portion.  Simple.  It means that even the most financially challenged writer can get published.

I'm still not sure what he'll need to do about using the same cover he used the last time, as it was not his own cover art.  CP and I both do our own cover art.  I've toyed with the idea of contacting a Facebook friend to see if he'd do something for me at a reasonable price, but that's as far as I've gotten so far.

All in all, despite the shaky start to Mr. Janney and my day, everything went well.  I was a little worried that I might have to end up cancelling because of a family emergency, but thankfully the relative ended up stabilizing somewhat before the afternoon.  We've both had enough loss in our life recently and were thankful for the change.

I'm looking forward to our next presentation already, although it has yet to be scheduled.  I've got all sorts of ideas in my head as to how better to present myself so I don't stumble over my own words (I didn't do too badly).  I'll have to take some time and look the PowerPoint over again and take some notes.  Maybe have something written down for some of the slides so I'm not standing there wondering what was going through my head when I asked for it.

CP and I make a pretty good team.

I really need to work on keeping my eyes open more or Mr. Janney needs to work on his photography - one or the other!

2014 ~ Teamwork rocks!