We Didn't Ask for This: Excerpt

From Adi Alsaid, the acclaimed author of Let's Get Lost, Never Sometimes Always, and North of Happy





Every year, lock-in night changes lives. This year, it might just change the world.





Central International School's annual lock-in is legendary -- and for six students, this year's lock-in is the answer to their dreams. The chance to finally win the contest. Kiss the guy. Make a friend. Become the star of a story that will be passed down from student to student for years to come.


But then a group of students, led by Marisa Cuevas, stage an eco-protest and chain themselves to the doors, vowing to keep everyone trapped inside until their list of demands is met. While some students rally to the cause, others are devastated as they watch their plans fall apart. And Marisa, once so certain of her goals, must now decide just how far she'll go to attain them.

















Please enjoy this excerpt from We Didn't Ask for This:










Excerpted from We Didn’t Ask for This by Adi Alsaid. © 2020 by Adi Alsaid, used with permission by Inkyard Press.


The lock-in was going fairly well until Marisa unleashed her cronies and chained herself to the main entrance.





No one really noticed right away, busy as they were taking part in a number of lock-in-related activities: laser tag in the parking garage, a sanctioned food fight in the cafeteria, a photoshoot tutorial with a renowned YouTube influencer.





Once a year, in April, the doors at Central International School’s K-12 campus closed—though they didn’t literally lock—to allow the high school students to roam free for the whole night. Having the next day off school was nowhere near the best part. Nor, strictly speaking, were the activities themselves, though they were extravagant and wonderful and distracted everyone from what Marisa was doing.





People fell in love on lock-in night. They stumbled upon new passions that would shape the rest of their lives, discovered friendships they could not imagine living without, before or after. Traumas were resolved on lock-in night, anxieties disappeared, never to return, not even after the buses arrived in the morning to take the students back home.





This was well known to the few students who had been lucky enough to have attended before, or who had siblings who had attended in years prior. At Central International School, the student body ebbed and flowed, changing drastically from year to year, and often even more frequently. It was common to have different classmates every semester, and sometimes students would find the person who sat next to them in class—the alluring redhead who scribbled song lyrics on the margins of their textbooks, who one time turned and asked to borrow a pen they never returned, though they had offered a smile that carried with it joy beyond a simple gesture; the redhead who might have one day soon become more than just a classmate—was simply gone from one day to the next.





Even by international school standards, the turnover rate of both students and faculty had always been high, though it had a great academic reputation, and the city in which it sat was a diverse and world-class cosmopolis. Yet people never seemed to stick around for long, as if families were carried in by the seaside breeze, and carried away by the same. Most students had multiple passports, and their parents were multinational, or transient because they were diplomats, or titans of industry, or missionaries, or digital nomads, or teachers within the international school world. They had roots in many places, thought of no one place as home—or rather, thought of everywhere they’d been as home.





So it was rare for a student to be around for several lock-in nights. Even the locals, who made up a mere fifteen percent of the school’s population, often temporarily relocated during their high school years—a boarding school exchange in Switzerland, a South American road trip in a van with their family, a missionary excursion in Central America.





Despite all this, the lore surrounding lock-in night was always momentous, starting as an excited murmur the first day of school and building to a frenzy by the night before the event itself a month or so before the end of the year. Students wondered how, exactly, their life would be improved by the evening. There was no question it would—they could feel it on their skin, their heartbeats thudded with the knowledge that things were about to change, they had absorbed the gossip, not just a rumor or two, but dozens and dozens of first-hand accounts or verifiable secondhand stories, so many of them that it did not feel like hearsay but like fact—it was the how that was exciting. Would the redheaded classmate return to slip a hand into theirs during the movie marathon on the roof garden? Would their fear of heights be cured by the trapeze the school had set up on the football field? Or would it simply be a night of such fun that the joy would sink into their bones and change them into happier people?





Lock-in night, simply put, was magic. Even all those who had never experienced it knew it to be true.





Which, of course, was why Marisa planned her protest for that well-loved night. To make people pay attention, disrupt what brings them joy.





The mad desire to act had existed long before her plan did. Marisa loved the water as a baby. Her parents told the stories to anyone who would listen. She always feigned embarrassment at their anecdotes about her hour-long baths and surprising performance in toddler swimming classes, her dark, curly hair unfurling in the water behind her like a mermaid, her brown eyes huge within the goggles she always carried around. But the truth was that she loved the stories. They confirmed this was not a passing fad, not a childhood obsession that would lose its significance over time, not a baby blanket carried around charmingly until age ten, when





it was shoved into a box and donated.





When she discovered snorkeling and, later, diving, that love blew wide open. This? This had been possible this whole time?





Though Marisa was only seventeen, her parents’ constant relocations for work meant she’d seen a hefty percentage of the world’s waters. She’d snorkeled in Mexico, Fiji, the Philippines, the Great Barrier Reef, Belize. And the more she did it, the more her heart broke. Human beings had found a way to kill water.





The places famed for their snorkeling were heart-­ wrenching. The destroyed beige reefs littered the oceans like ornate gravestones. They should have been resplendent with color. Books and scientists told her as much, and other divers did, too. Of course, though, they weren’t. Not anymore. The world had ruined that particular beauty before Marisa had ever had a chance to see it, killing the corals with spilled chemicals, suffocating the oceans with heat. Every time she surfaced, she would dive into the internet, trying to find a way to help. Changing her sunscreen to the reef-safe kind, cleaning up plastic on the beach, asking her parents to donate yet again; nothing felt big enough.





Then came the three-day weekend at the start of the school year that changed it all. She had convinced her parents to take the family to the beach, and the Cuevases, who knew their frequent moves could be hard on the children, relented de-spite the fact that neither of them felt settled in at work yet, and they would have really liked to stay in the city and run errands.





Marisa had heard amazing things about the snorkeling in the region surrounding the beach. She was always skeptical when she heard anything like that; she’d been disappointed enough. She was fine just swimming among whatever fish remained in the area and pretending this was what it had always been like, this was the wondrous alien world other divers described. After their most recent move, she’d done her usual research and found on the most trustworthy sources that an untouched blip still existed, not too far from her new school.





She convinced her parents, who knew it was better to indulge Marisa than fight her, to take a boat to an island, then another, smaller boat to another, smaller island. Arriving at the clear, turquoise waters, which were peppered with butterflies from who knows where fluttering across the surface, whole waves of them outnumbering the tourists she had seen even on the mainland, Marisa allowed herself to hope. Well before her family was ready, Marisa was in her flippers and mask, and she sat on the edge of the boat and let herself fall backward into the warm waters. At first, her heart had soared: greens! Purples! Oranges! Bright colors in the reefs, finally. The schools of fish were more like armies, numbered not in dozens but in hundreds, maybe even thousands, various species all swimming in their separate schools, like great big flags unfurling mightily in the water.





Marisa followed them, kicking delightedly, her heart flooding with joy. Then she turned a corner around some rocks and her breath caught, as if someone had reached inside her chest and closed a massive fist around her lungs. Even here, she found murk and drudgery, the reef not on display so much as its dying was.





She emerged from the water and took off her mask, tears mixing with the waves. People and the trash with which they suffocated the world. She looked around, shading her eyes from the shimmering sunlight with her free hand. Maybe it was time to accept the world as it was.





As she turned to swim back to shore, she caught sight of something on the far end of the island. A construction site. Large, acres and acres of it, from what Marisa could tell, and a handful of bulldozers. She swam closer and saw the sign announcing the coming resort. Nearby, a trickle of brown-gray water weaved its way from below the makeshift wall around the site and dribbled onto the sand.





Yes, it was a travesty, an outrage that the world had been ruined before her arrival. But that trickle hadn’t reached all the way to the shore, not yet.





As soon as she and her family made it back to their eco-hotel that day, Marisa decided she had to stop that waste from reaching the ocean. Whatever she could do for the reefs, she was going to do it. If it was just shutting down that one construction site, or if it was something much bigger, she had to try. What else was there but to try?





Months of stewing later, of planning, of seeing the ruined remains of the ocean floors every time she closed her eyes, of thinking of a way to make everyone else see what she saw. It all led up to this moment, when Marisa hoisted a chain from the duffel bag she’d hidden on campus a few days ago. She weaved it through the handles on the double doors that led into the main school building, then she wrapped it three times around her own body, uncomfortably tight, so bolt cutters could not break through the metal without snagging on her skin. When she was satisfied, she grabbed three giant padlocks from the bag and locked herself in, meaning to stay.





She set the keys in the middle of her palm, rubbing them each in a pad of butter procured earlier from the cafeteria, and which had warmed nicely in her pocket throughout the afternoon. Then Marisa, rehearsing her speech in her mind one last time, looked up. She expected to see a sizable crowd already gathering. What she saw instead was a lanky blond sophomore leaving the bathroom across the open expanse of the building’s foyer. The boy was checking to see if he’d remembered to zip up. He had not.





When his eyes met Marisa’s, he could tell she had seen him checking, and he stepped quickly away from her line of sight, failing to notice the heavy metal chain wrapped around her torso.












About the Author


Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico City. He attended college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He's now back in Mexico City, where he writes, coaches basketball, and makes every dish he eats as spicy as possible. In addition to Mexico, he's lived in Tel Aviv, Las Vegas and Monterey, California. His books include Let's Get Lost, Never Always Sometimes, and North of Happy. Visit Adi online at www.SomewhereOverTheSun.com, or on Twitter: @AdiAlsaid.











Check out Adi Alsaid on these platforms:


Author website: https://www.adialsaid.com/


Facebook: @adialsaidauthor


Twitter: @adialsaid


Instagram: @uhhdee


Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44786180-we-didn-t-ask-for-this









Adi Alsaid's books are available from these retailers:




Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Didnt-Ask-This-Adi-Alsaid/dp/1335146768


Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-didnt-ask-for-this-adi-alsaid/1131130957

IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781335146762


Books-A-Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/We-Didnt-Ask-This/Adi-Alsaid/9781335146762?id=7833509719461


Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/we-didnt-ask-for-this/id1458725170


Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/We_Didn_t_Ask_for_This?id=LGSSDwAAQBAJ&hl=en_US

An Afternoon at the Strand

It's Valentine's Day. Whether you have a love to celebrate or are actively boycotting this greeting card holiday, I've got a poem for you about my one true love--books. It comes from If It Was New York, Summer 2009 and it's a sneak peek at what the collection has to offer.

An Afternoon at the Strand

Miles and miles to keep you entertained

Practically calling out to you with all its musty glory

New and old, there's no shame in what you happen to like

Diving deep into stacks, submerged until the last call

No more room left for you to bring home another treasure

Another stack places more tension on an already worn shoulder

But it's a habit, a hobby, an obsession

You need it more than it needs you

Those words, billions of them floating around you

And a million more trying to get out of your own head

You just need to focus, focus

...focus...

Then maybe you'll find the gem you've been looking for

The one that will twist your insides, clamp down on your lungs

At just the right moment to scare yourself at the thought

A book is just a book, until it's not, then you give it life

Calmly breathing culture, giving birth endlessly to another

And another until you can't stand it—you must have them all

Maybe you'll turn into a maniac, consuming thousands of words

Bloated, but still ready for the next delicious stack

It has a different taste, and you can't wait to try some more

And you situate your tote, and you check your wallet

Another stack for home, another stack for the pleasure of it all.




Interested in more from the upcoming collection? Check out Patreon for more exclusive excerpts and extras.

Amazon Charts--What's It Doing for You?

Amazon has a new feature that they rolled out recently--Amazon Charts. The charts published weekly include the most read books on the site and the most sold. The question here is who benefits from this information, and is it enough?



Let's start with who I think doesn't get any benefit from these charts: readers. I just don't think that readers can gain much from this list (I also really don't think they get anything from NYT or USA Today bestseller lists either). At most, it encourages a reader to buy a book based on the popularity of it rather than the substance. Not all popular books are good, and not all good books are popular. It simply feeds a reader's ego: "Oh, I've read all those books that are popular this week. I must be an astute reader!" Nah.

Okay writers--it's your turn now. Amazon Charts can be beneficial to you, but only to a point. Knowing the difference between what's selling the most and what's being read can clue you into what genres are getting the most movement. However, because these charts take into consideration different formats (paperbacks sold can be tracked; paperbacks read cannot), it's not a full picture of what's going on. For example, my personal preference is to get a nice hardback copy of a book if I know I'll enjoy it. If I can get a great deal on an ebook ($2.99 or less) I'll take the risk to try something new. For Amazon Charts, one of these purchases would count, one would not. Writers can't really distinguish a reader's motive from the charts alone.

And while the charts can tell you something, it won't tell you everything. Specifically, it won't give you numbers. It doesn't include how many have been sold, downloaded, or how many pages read for any title. Those would be like gold to a writer. That would give a much better perspective on how these titles end up on the charts any given week.

So, reader or writer--will Amazon Charts have any impact on how you buy and read books? 

An Unplugged Moment

The cable company struck again on Friday. From noon until noon the next day there was no cable, no internet. It's not like this doesn't happen around this time every year, it's just usually shorter outages, maybe four hours or so.

I took it in stride. After all, I was already prepared because my schedule had been varied. I was all set for a potential disaster. So, all of the work for one of my freelance jobs was in my email, totally accessible from my phone. No problem there. I put a record on the turntable and relaxed. But one who is used to digital streaming quickly realizes that records are not easily paused. So I moved on. I had a number of previously downloaded podcasts on my Kindle that I could access (and had to get rid of anyway--memory shortage).

After a few entertaining podcasts, I moved on to reading. Without online access I had at least 100 different books at my fingertips. I read for awhile, skipping from book to book. I then looked at the clock. Surely hours had past? Nope. Just two.

By the evening, I was itching for some news. No, seriously. I get a little edgy when I'm out of the loop for more than a few hours. I decided to use my phone and stream my local news station's broadcast through their app. No problem for the first hour, but my cell service provider must have realized I had it too good and slowed my speeds so the streaming stopped working. Just as well, because the streaming used a quarter of my monthly data in just an hour. Hmph.

The rest of the night? Switching between season two of Get Smart and season four of Emergency! Thank heavens for my unruly DVD collection.

The next morning wasn't too bad because I try to limit my online access on Saturdays anyway. I went and got a coffee. I read some more. Played a little Mario on the Wii. But what angered me the most out of this whole matter? I didn't write. The absolute perfect time to write, and I didn't do it. Okay, maybe I snuck in a few sentences, but once I realized I needed to Google a question, I gave up. This experience made me realize how, even sitting watching TV, I'm addicted to Googling things I don't know. How did I survive before that search engine existed? Did I just walk around like a dummy, not knowing the answers to weird, random facts?

All is right with the world again, so it's time to get to work on August's projects. They are big ones, so get ready. It's going to be a wild ride and I'm taking you with me.

Scouting Kindle Scout, Phase 3: The Verdict

Last week I finished the two books I was studying from Kindle Scout (one non-winner, one winner). I've already written my reviews, so I won't go into too much of that here, but you can read my review for The Standout and Autumn's End if you are interested.


So, what's my verdict on what should have been published and what shouldn't? Truth is, I think both of these books should have received a contract for Kindle Scout. Although I didn't enjoy The Standout as much as I thought I would, there was nothing wrong with the story, and I may have even been more interested in reading it if I had read the previous Robin Bricker novels. And Autumn's End was a great book--it had characteristics of books I already love, and it still provided surprises I wasn't expecting.


Because I think both of these were on equal footing to receive a contract, my first conclusion into this process is that a well-built audience prior to submitting your book is essential for being considered. Staying in the Hot & Trending category throughout the whole nomination process probably doesn't hurt either. Good to know. That means I have a ton of work ahead of me if I'm going to take on this journey myself.

Cover Reveal: In Another Life

The first chapter for In Another Life will be uploaded to Write On next week, so I thought before I did that, I would give you the first sneak peek of the cover. This is a cover that I've been holding onto for a couple of years now, and I'm very glad that it's getting to see the light of day. 

What do you think? Does it make you want to pick it up and read a few chapters? If so, I can't wait to see you on Write On next week! Now I'm off to do more revisions and write the all-important blurb. 

Scouting Kindle Scout, Phase 1: The Nominations

Before I venture into the realms of submitting a book to Kindle Scout, I though I would check out how the process works from the reader's side. Because, presumably, those voting for each project are dedicated readers.

First Impressions
I started looking through the projects a few weeks ago. I didn't instantly find something that stood out because of one major problem: bad covers. Now, I don't mean a cover that has the wrong font or a photo that doesn't accurately describe the contents. I mean absolutely atrocious covers. Ones that a first-time self-published author wouldn't even want to publicly represent their book. I would never consider wasting one of my three votes on a book that you know won't make it through the vetting process, because I assume the people that run the show behind the scenes are smarter than that.

Just to make sure I wasn't being too harsh on these nominees, I checked out all of the titles published by Kindle Scout so far. In my opinion, out of all the published titles only one of the covers wasn't up to my standards. Of course that's all subjective, but still. First impressions matter.

Casting My Votes
I did eventually find books that I wanted to nominate for publication. They had good covers, the blurb was intriguing and the sample provided hooked me. All I had to do then was wait for the results.

50/50
So far I have voted for six books. Two titles are still currently in the nominating process. Two titles have been accepted for publication and when they are released, I will be provided with a free copy for my vote.

And then there were two.

These two titles didn't make it to publication. I don't know how I feel about that. These were the two titles I was most excited to root for. The two votes that went to books which won a contract weren't that interesting, but were professional in their presentation. So what does that say about my taste in books? More importantly, what does that say about the Kindle Scout process?
 
The Aftermath
Without access to voting numbers, no one could tell you what distinguishes a book that makes it to publication with Kindle Scout and what books fall short of the finish line. I know the two biggest factors are the professional appearance of the project and the marketability, but which one is weighted more heavily is only known to the Powers that Be. What I can tell you by going through this nominating process is that I've found one significant drawback on taking a chance with this program. No matter what happens to the books you vote for, you as the voter will find out.

Think about it. You get dozens of nominations. Hundreds, maybe. Then your book isn't selected. Every single one of those voters will get an email telling them that your book didn't make it. That it wasn't good enough. That, in the words of certain political candidates, you're a loser. Do you really want your readers to know that your project didn't succeed? Would it matter to someone enough that they no longer had an interest in reading it?

I happened to be reading an article the other day about the downside of Kindle Scout and browsing through the comments. An author who submitted a project (which I happened to nominate) talked about the fact that they didn't win a contract. Not only did possibly hundreds of that author's current readers take the time to vote for the project, they also got that "sorry you didn't pick a winner" email. The author admitted to being embarrassed by it, and wondered how much of a setback it would be.

However, some may actually find this email to voters as a benefit. It could spark interest in previously published work. And the email also promises to let voters know if the book is eventually published on Amazon through KDP. So even the pros and cons of the program have their own pros and cons.

Marching On
Does this deter me from going ahead with submitting a book? I don't think it has changed my mind, but it is making me rethink my approach to the project before submission. Do I have a solid, interesting book to submit? Yes. Do I have a decent cover? It was designed by a professional, so yeah. Do I have the backing of a big enough audience to prove it's marketability? Unfortunately, no. And I know this. So the question comes down to whether I would submit a project knowing this and hoping there are enough Kindle Scout lurkers (who didn't come there specifically to vote for a project someone asked them to vote for) willing to give my project a chance.

And maybe I should move my expected submission date. Right now I have it scheduled to start in the middle of December. I'm thinking that's probably not the time a lot of people are hanging around, voting for books. Then again, a truckload of votes could be my one Christmas wish come true--that is, if I lived in a Hallmark movie. ;-)

What are your thoughts on the nominating process?

If I Don't Need It, It's Out

This week it's all about getting the clutter out of the way. I know I probably missed the spring cleaning bandwagon, but this clutter-clearing session is more about moving than it is about cleaning in general. I need to get rid of anything that's not important and that I couldn't see taking with me (good advice for revising your writing, too). Problem is, I find a lot of things important. I get sentimental about scraps of paper or little mementos that look like trash to everyone else. I seem to be the only one who knows the stories behind them, so... yeah. Lots of things that I have to sort through.

The one thing I'm not sentimental about are the books I have. I mean yes, some of them I love dearly. But it really is time to part with a good percentage of my library so I don't have to think about it anymore. I tried selling a few on Half.com, but because that's a very slow way of selling, I'm just going to go and donate them all. My local Goodwill is getting a huge literary haul at the end of the week. Your welcome.

But don't worry, the writing isn't suffering through all this chaos. After almost two weeks of not being able to log into Biosgraphy, I was finally able to put up another piece about my short stint experimenting with the Law of Attraction which you can read here. I'm also still knee-deep in book #3 of the trilogy, and I've begun an outline for a crime thriller that I may hold off for NaNoWriMo in November. Or I may get too excited about it and start writing it tomorrow--you never know. ;-)

Rain, Rain It's Okay...

April showers have been abundant this year. It's kind of weird when the dark clouds roll in and make it seem like it's almost evening in the middle of the day. It's a great atmosphere for writing though, even if all of the rain can be a bit inconvenient.

I took the weekend off from Camp NaNoWriMo. I didn't necessarily need a break from writing because my mind is still fully focused on the plot, even when I'm away from the computer. In fact, I'm less than 5k away from meeting my goal! I mostly took the weekend off to work on that all-important Next Step, whatever that may be. I explored more marketing avenues for Unfolding Life and worked on the early stages of my marketing plan for the trilogy. I don't want to be caught off guard with the next project, so the earlier I get started, the smoother the transition from unpublished manuscript to published novel will go.

I am still looking for more Amazon reviews for Unfolding Life, so if you want a free PDF of it to review, just let me know by dropping me a line through the contact form on the bottom of the sidebar. The more reviews I get, the more advertising options I will have with the discounted/free ebook newsletters.

So what are you working on this week?

A Sale You Won't Want to Miss

Get ready to shop for another Christmas gift for you or someone you love: As a part of Read Tuesday (the indie author version of Black Friday/Cyber Monday), I’m offering Unfolding Life for just $0.99! And because I just couldn’t wait to get the deal rolled out, the discounted price starts TODAY and continues through December 12. 

The ebook is just $0.99

If you don’t have an ereader and are not crazy about ebooks, the print version is also available. You can purchase the print version from either Creatspace or Amazon.

Createspace: $9.99

 

Amazon: $8.83 (at the time of posting--Amazon's price tend to change on a whim)

**At Amazon, Unfolding Life is enrolled in Kindle Matchbook, so if you buy the print copy, you'll get the digital copy free!

I hope you have a haiku-filled holiday this year!

Reconnected... and It Feels So Good

Well, as of 7PM last night, I have Internet access again. It wasn't easy, and I didn't think it would happen. A call was finally placed, and the cable experts on the phone were adamant this this equipment would no longer work because of the speeds being paid for. Yet four hours after that call was placed, the Internet was running again, and might I add, faster than ever. Huh. But this equipment is inferior? Okay...

Anyway, I've been trying to catch up on all my emails and getting back to work. The three-day hit I'm taking in the wallet doesn't help, but luckily there is work to be had now that I'm back online. Will I still have to go out and find seasonal retail work? Looks like it. And New York is getting put off indefinitely. Money is the main issue since we are now officially in lets-hike-up-the-prices-for-the-holidays season, but the hatchet attacks on the streets and deadly diseases infiltrating the city are making me feel not so bad about not getting there right now.

So I'm going to focus on what is good around here. NaNoWriMo starting next week? Check. Tons of samples/campaigns/VoxBoxes/free stuff coming in the mail? Check. Still having a three-year backlog of books to read? Check. So it's not so bad.

Still Chugging Along...

My head is filled with plans and plots and dreams and inspiration. Some have even ended up on paper. It's a writer's curse, but it's still lovely.

I'm at one of those points where I just have to stick with a project and see it to the end, rather than trying to manage two, three or more. Today I'm choosing one project to finish the first draft and one project to finish revisions. That's it--no more until they are done.

Along with all of my writing, I'm still trying to make my move. Again... there's a lot more planning going on than action. While I would just love to pack a bag and take off, I'm the type of person that has to consider every single positive and negative outcome imaginable first. This may take awhile... ;-)

All of this stalling can end with taking in a deep breath and making a decision. I will get there... even if I have to reread those self-help books I read a few months ago to get my butt in gear.

In more mundane news, my book auctions on eBay ended today. There was some interest, but no bites so I'll be relisting them tonight. I may also get a few new titles listed, but no promises on that one. If you don't want to wait around for me to list books on eBay, you can always check out what I have on Half.com if you are interested in building up your library as I downsize mine. 

Have a great week! I'm going to make sure mine will be. 

July Roundup

What happened in July? Quite a lot. I'm proud about the things I have achieved and I'm still striving to tackle more next month. Here's a roundup of what I've been up to:

Camp NaNoWriMo:
I participated in another round of camp this month. Starting from scratch on an outline I couldn't stop writing during last November's competition, I aimed for 25,000 words. I managed to get 11,534 words, which isn't a bad start, though one of these days I would love to win this competition. I've been competing way too long to not have a win yet.

I'm looking forward to meeting the NaNo challenge again in November. 

The Novel in Question:
This novel that I still can't quite categorize and still spend moments agonizing over the name of the fictional island--it's still totally alive, which is more than I can say about some of my previous NaNo novel projects. I don't think [#] is even a third of what the novel could be, so there is plenty of more first-draft writing in my future. 

My Next Challenge:
That whole pesky "real job" talk? Yeah, I think it's time to get one. I know what I want to do, I'm just not surrounded by opportunities I can take advantage of. I'm currently writing cover letters for editorial assistant positions. However, the stress of the massive amount of planning is getting me down. I'll be the first one to say my cover letters are probably not the best I can do (yet), but I know that I am perfectly qualified for this position.

All of these jobs are in New York. That's the hard part. I'm still debating on whether I should just suck it up, take a chance and go first, then submit the letters; submit the letters with a specific date of arrival; or simply leave it open and throw together a quick travel plan if I'm lucky enough to get a call back. I know which option will give me the best chance, so taking a huge risk on a relocation may be just what the doctor ordered.

Ultimate Dream:
Ooh... that's easy. Getting the editorial assistant job and living it up in the city. Living it up may mean free days at museums and spending time people watching in a park, but it still works.  Achieving this within the next month would be AWESOME, but I probably need to think in smaller steps. Although, this surge of positive energy does make me feel like I can do just about anything right now.

Other Goodies:
Money is an evil necessity.

That's not technically one of the goodies I was talking about, but it relates. I still have plenty of books to sell on half.com. I've reduced the prices a bit to make them even more appealing. I need them out of the way, and it doesn't hurt to get a little pocket change in the process.

Of course, you could always take a chance on buying my haiku book, too.

Okay, that's about it. Let's see what August brings!

Amazon's New Kindle Unlimited Program

While I may have had a rant about cover letters scheduled for today, I decided to scrap that and talk about the new program from Amazon called Kindle Unlimited. You get to learn about this new program, and I get to spend more time crafting really good cover letters for my next career adventure, so everyone wins.

I received an email from Amazon on Friday introducing me to this new program. While on the surface it may look like just another way for Amazon to get your money, for the savvy reader it can be an affordable option to read like crazy without paying $25.99 for a new hardcover.

The program lets you pay a monthly fee of $9.99 to download and read an unlimited number of books onto your Kindle device. Amazon says that you have a choice from more than 600,00 titles. The Kindle Unlimited Page lists quite a few bestsellers and current popular titles, most of which are price between $8-$15. Not a bad deal, right?

Those who will see the best benefit from this program are the readers that are exclusively or almost exclusively using a reading device. It is also beneficial to readers who can devour at least 3-5 books a month. At just $9.99, the Kindle price of many popular titles will pay for themselves even if you just read a single book a month. However, if you are like me and don't necessarily want to be forced into reading a specific amount a month to justify the cost, you may want to skip this program for now.

The program is also great for Kindle authors. If an author chooses to enroll in KDP Select, their book is automatically enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. The benefits for writers include being paid a royalty for the download, but the catch for this is unlike the royalty from the Amazon Prime Lending program, to get paid the Unlimited royalty the reader must read at least 10% of the title, otherwise the download does not constitute a payment.

Good news: my book is part of KDP Select, so you can take advantage of reading it if you sign up for Kindle Unlimited. But please, for every independent author's sake, read at least 10%. It costs you nothing but a few minutes of your time and you may discover a great read. 

Getting to the Next Big Thing with a Kick-Ass Life: A Tale of Two Self Help Books

Sometimes, you can get lost in your own life. You feel like you’re in a rut and there it just no way out. 

Tell me about it. 

I wasn’t going to just sit back and let life continue to pass me by, but I didn’t know how to stop it from happening. So I started to read Your Next Big Thing by Ben Michaelis, PhD. A few days later, I was just looking for another book to read and picked up 52 Ways to Live a Kick-Ass Life by Andrea Owen, CPCC. While it wasn’t intentional to read these two self-help books at the same time, I was interested to see which one would speak to me. Here’s how it went. 

The Situation

My situation is simple: I want to live in New York City, but I don’t know how to get there. 

Okay, literally I know how to get there. What I mean is that I want to be able to live successfully there—which means a good job. An apartment. Human connection. I’ve been working full time as a freelance writer since 2008. This job has had its ups and downs when it comes to the all-important paycheck, but it’s been in a steady decline for about three years now—to the point where even a simple Midwestern lifestyle is not achievable (translation: I moved back in with my parents three times in the past ten years). I’ve done what I can to perk it back up, but so far nothing has worked. That means I’m in a little bit of debt, and I don’t feel comfortable throwing caution to the wind by just packing up and leaving tomorrow. If I did, I wouldn’t need to read either one of these books. 

Everyone says: get a new job, save money for a year, go. Well, not here. That’s my setback. I would not be opposed to getting myself out of full-time freelancing if I had another option for a job even loosely related to my field (I hold a degree in English—it’s a wide, wide field). There’s nothing here but customer service positions—and I’ve suffered through that two and a half weeks longer than I thought I would before I got out of it. In New York, I would be more open to positions that creatively uses my creativity. And I’m sure there would be more options, even if that meant long hours, low pay or *gulp* back to customer service. 

I’ve wanted this since I was five years old. I thought I would go to college there. That didn’t happen. I thought I would move there after I graduated. That nearly happened, but didn’t. I just assumed that I would be there by now. I’m turning thirty in two and a half weeks (yikes!) and for some reason, that was my arbitrary deadline. Why would someone out of there 20s be stupid enough to carry all that debt and all that lack of courage to a city that can eat you alive with one wrong look? 

Still… sounds like a fun place to live. I still want it. That’s why I tried these self-help books. I wanted to know what I could do to change my mindset and change my situation to make this dream come true. 

What These Books Promise

Like any self-help book, these books do not promise an overnight turnaround. If any book did, it would be a worldwide bestseller and the rest of the self-help industry would go out of business. These books are a guide. They are a way to help you work through your own issues and, in time, figure out what it is you want and what you are willing to do to change your life around. 

Okay. I’m ready. 

But it takes more than just being open and ready (you may actually find out when you start reading that you are definitely NOT ready). Once you start reading either one of these titles, you will realize that it is not something you can do in a day. It takes time to let each of the subjects soak into your brain to really see any change. Personally, I don’t recommend reading any more than one or two chapters a day. 

52 Ways is a book that is meant to be more general in what you could attain. You are looking to get a fulfilling, kick-ass life. It teaches you how to discover what you truly want out of life, what’s holding you back and what you can do to fix it all. It covers everything from the curse of dieting to relationships and work issues. 

Your Next Big Thing seems to have more of a narrow focus according to the title, but really it is doing the same thing as 52 Ways. It is giving you the tools you need to discover yourself, find what you want and give you the confidence to take the next step in whatever it is you want to pursue. 

The Homework

Yes, boy and girls, these books ask for homework. There may not be any right or wrong answers, but making lists of values, what brings you joy, your nonnegotiables, and how you can best serve others is an important part of the process these books ask you to go through. These exercises help you understand what you truly have and want you truly want. Writing these things down provides tangible evidence about yourself and what you want. 

I’ll be honest—I didn’t write anything down. It’s not that I didn’t do the exercises, because I definitely did. But I closed my eyes and wrote them down in the space of my mind, not on a piece of paper. In my household, papers with words on them tend to end up as public property, and this is a very personal journey. So, aside from not having a physical copy of the homework, I did complete it. 

There are also requests in the book to make small shifts in your life. Some of the ones that both books have in common is to honor yourself, listen to the difference between your inner critic and your inner hero, love yourself and of course getting rid of the negative relationships in your life (for me, that feels like I would have to get rid of every single person I know. But that’s a problem for another day). Not everything can be done as soon as you finish the chapter. It’s all a marathon, not a sprint. 

The Approach

This is where the books really distance themselves from each other. If both books are essentially teaching the same concepts, the approach is what will be the appeal or the turnoff for readers. 

If you are looking for the more scholarly approach, Your Next Big Thing is definitely the book for you. This book has that familiar school chapter structure of: 

A) Here’s what you will learn,

B) The bulk of the chapter that teaches you that concept, and

C) Here’s what this chapter just taught you. 

This is helpful for those who like this type of structure or for those who may have already started working on themselves and want to go back to relearn certain strategies or concepts. It is a calm, caring, clinical approach that can (if you’re reading late at night) find you nodding off a bit while trying to read it. 

52 Ways is a whole other story. This is a book that doesn’t kid around—it wants to give you that needed kick in the ass so you can turn it around to have a kick-ass life. With chapter titles such as “Don’t Take Other People’s Piles of Shit” and “Quit Bitching and Moaning” you know there’s no fooling around reading this. 52 Ways is like that friend or family member in your life you hate going to advice for because they tell it like it is without a filter to spare your feelings. However, that person is always right, which annoys the hell out of you. 

I will tell you that I definitely responded to 52 Ways more than Your Next Big Thing. Why? Because every chapter made me feel something. Some chapters made me sad, some filled me with a momentary abundance of confidence. Some just pissed me off. But I felt something. And I could use that energy to learn more about myself and why I feel so stuck. 

The Verdict

Did either one of these books get me on the path to changing my life so that I can best achieve my goals and dreams? Both of them definitely got me motivated to create a big change in my life (though listening to the theme song to Who’s the Boss? can leave me with the same feeling), but as far a clear direction to start, I’m still a bit lost. I think I was looking for a more personal, definitive answer to my issues, which you can’t—and shouldn’t—expect from a self-help book. 

I know what I want—I know the options available right now to take that next step, but none of them seem right for me personally unless I’m willing to take a huge risk, which is not a “I’m afraid of failure” risk; it’s more like a “I could end up homeless” type of risk. I’m pretty much in the same place as when I started reading either one of these books. 

That doesn’t mean these books are not valuable to the general population of readers who are interested in making a change. These books can be great for those who are in a number of different situations including a career change, relationship issues, and discovering a passion that you may have left behind years ago. 

I don’t think rereading either one of these books in their entirety will help me get any more clarity, but I will be revisiting specific chapters are helpful in my situation. I realize that I may just be suppressing my own inner voice and waiting for another person to tell me what I should do—which is probably the source of my problems in the first place. 

See? I learned a lot about myself, I just need to keep working at it. So the effort to improve myself was worth it, even if I wasn’t magically lifted up on a cloud and placed into a Manhattan apartment with a steady income.  

**Disclaimer: Both of these books were free for me. I received 52 Ways to Live a Kick-Ass Life through a Goodreads giveaway, and I received Your Next Big Thing free through an Amazon promotion.