Big Book Sale

If you follow me on Twitter (and you should), you know that If It Was New York, Summer 2009 is on sale for just $0.99 the entire month of June. However, what you may not know is that all of my titles are on sale for $0.99 in June. A pretty good bargain*, if I do say so myself. Check out the links below to find your favorite ebook retailer:

If It Was New York, Summer 2009: https://books2read.com/u/mBro0O

Seeing What Develops: https://books2read.com/u/3k0WzL

Unfolding Life:  https://books2read.com/u/4DAAvQ

A Note on Amazon

To be clear, the $0.99 sale price point may or may not be on Amazon. If you wade through all of the advice like I did when it comes to price changes on Amazon without being in KDP Select, it's sometimes better to not change the price and let the market do it's thing. If you are dying to get it at this price and only from Amazon, you can always tell Amazon about a lower price (I believe there is a link on each book's Amazon page to report this). From reading through other experiences, I see that sometimes this gets Amazon to lower the price to match other stores, sometimes it doesn't. We shall see what happens.


*psst! You can get an even better bargain if you sign up to be a 2019 All-Star on Patreon. For just $1 a month, you can get access to digital downloads of all three titles, plus my three out-of-print Kindle Worlds novellas all bundled together.

Celebrations and Steady Work

Camp NaNo is going well. I'm not hitting my 60 minutes per day target, but it's looking like I won't have to, at least not for the first draft. I'm 112 minutes into working on the pilot script, and I'm 17 pages in. It's a sitcom so I'm aiming between 30-40 pages total, giving the first draft room for cutting if necessary. Of course if I could sell it to a streaming service, I could stay on the higher end of that page count. Pipe dream, but a fun one.

This is also National Poetry Month. I'm posting a found poetry piece on Twitter each Monday and one every day on Patreon, which is my way of celebrating this year. There's also a new thing that has popped up on Twitter -- #IndieApril. It is a push to not only celebrate indie authors, but to also encourage purchasing their work. I don't know how well that's working out for everyone.

When I saw an early post, I decided to reply. Most of the posts tell other users to add their links in a reply, then the original post creator will pick a couple of titles to buy. Over just a day or two, these posts have morphed a bit. Some don't promise a purchase, but do promise a retweet or like. Others are doing more to promote their own book under the guise of promoting others. I only participated in the first tweet I saw with this hashtag, then one other. The first one yielded little--not even as many impressions as it would had it been a tweet of my own. The second one was a success, but it was specifically for a retweet/like combo only.

That's all I'm doing. I can't go around chasing all of these tweets, and if they pop up hours after the original post, there's little chance my reply will be seen anyway. The other issue is that the people seeing these posts are overwhelmingly other authors. I like supporting indie authors, but I also know the tight budgets of most indie authors -- there aren't going to be a lot of copies sold, even with hundreds of retweets and thousands of impressions. The promises already made may never be fulfilled. I'm just being realistic with it. It's a great idea, just not a practical execution. Someone needs to get started on a full-scale website for #IndieApril2020.

Thanks for the 140-Character Memories

There are different levels to how annoyed I get when unfollowed on different social media platforms.  Instagram is too difficult to even try and keep track of who follows and unfollows on any given day, so there's no reason to get riled. I tend to feel the same way about Twitter because for me that platform is 99% business, even if a real human connection is made on occasion.

I only bring this up because lately on Twitter there has been a clear and patterned departure in who follows my account. I first noticed this about three months ago with the unfollow of one of the first writers that I made a connection with. I was a little disappointed in that one because it was a writer who I was looking up to and gaining a lot of knowledge from by example. We never corresponded directly, but I did read many of her books. But there were three or four others like this writer, so it didn't matter.

Until this week, that is. The rest of them, all female writers, all working predominately in romance, all starting out as independent and transitioning into traditional are now unaware of what I'm up to. I'm quite sure none of them were paying close attention to my posts anyway, but I do find it interesting that it is happening now. I've been immersed in poetry almost full time for the past six months. I haven't thought about any of my romance manuscripts for a good long while. I don't tweet about romance novels at the moment and I haven't been reviewing many of them either. These could be reasons for the departure, but there are many other plausible reasons too. They could have unfollowed me through a management service that told them I was inactive for a period of time (which is how I found out about the unfollows in the first place), they could have hired a social media manager--I've been in the game awhile now so I know how easy it can be to flush the followers that aren't serving a very specific goal.

I'm not dwelling on the act itself of unfollowing, which can be misinterpreted as removing support for a fellow writer. I really don't think that much thought was put into it. What I did want to do is thank these writers for giving me what I don't think I would have had otherwise--a clear perspective of what its like to be a writer in this day and age. What this job entails, which has a lot less to do with writing and a lot more to do with marketing.

And they all taught me many important lessons about writing in a professional capacity. They taught me that your first book is probably of significantly lesser quality than your latest release, which once I discovered this with all of them was a relief. They also taught me that a devoted, highly engaged following is the only way to keep moving up in the industry. I'm still working that one out, but I do have insights that I can use to try and keep that train chugging along through my own career.

These lessons were important, so I'm glad that I was able to receive them just before and during the early days of my career. Of course those lessons could keep continuing, but like these writers, I have to keep my social media in check--so I've followed their lead and rid myself of what's no longer useful. 

Getting to Know You, Twitter Audience Edition

To figure out what any audience wants, you have to get to know that audience. Thankfully, Twitter analytics collects a lot of data. For the longest time I didn't pay attention to anything other than the first page, which contains information on how many views, follows, and clicks I get across the platform. However, I did start looking at the audiences tab to see just who my audience is.

When I posted this last week, I may have been making light of my analytics, but the information is all true.

Finally took a deep dive into Twitter analytics. My audience is mostly California women who like to read about science news while eating cheese and yogurt and watching their favorite TV drama.

I can totally work with that. 😏 pic.twitter.com/3dX3yKmwkj

— Terri Deno (@TerriDeno) September 19, 2018

I've gotten some good insight on who might possibly be paying attention to my tweets. Here's the breakdown:

• 60% of my audience is women (no surprise there)
• 67% reside in the USA (mostly in California)
• Their buying habits consist of fresh, healthy products and premium brands
• They like cheese and yogurt (who doesn't?)
• They are AT&T customers using desktops, laptops, and iOS devices
• They read about science news
• They like TV drama (sports came in a close second--really?)
• Most make 75k-99k with home values ranging 100k-199k (lucky ducks!)

These audience insights are interesting, but I'm not sure how much they are helpful when it comes to crafting my marketing or getting more to sign up for my Patreon page (which is why I looked into this in the first place). Clearly this audience can afford a few bucks for a Patreon subscription, so the key question is what can I do, using this information, to convince them it would be worth it?

There's no single clue that points to any pivot I can make. I scrolled through all this information and there was really nothing that popped out. The things I like and talk about (books, writing, music, photography) didn't even register on the list of interests. This is mostly likely because it's not clear how this information is obtained. If it's all from those quick Twitter surveys that pop up, I might be getting a tiny fragment of information from my entire audience.

The other issue I have with these analytics is that all the people I'm actively engaged in conversations with on Twitter don't fall into most of these categories, except the bigger ones like gender and location. It's as fascinating as it is frustrating.

Organized and Feelin' Fine...

I'm totally organized to take on the rest of the year, including projects, freelance work, and other fun stuff. And it helps to have a few good tools to stay organized--my new Sarah Scribbles calendar and organizer are keeping me motivated (and entertained).

The new Fiverr gig has been up and running for a few days now, so if you need blog editing services, you can check it out. Also, Fiverr has introduced an Available Now option that lets you tell customers you are online and ready to work. So, I've decided to hold something like office hours for the editing gig as well as my book spotlight gig--I'll try to stay available for at least an hour or two a week. It will probably be at different times, depending on what's scheduled for that week, so I'll announce my availability on Twitter.

The Patreon page is coming along. I want to get it all snazzy and looking good, so the page will not launch until November 1. I know. The same day NaNoWriMo starts. What am I thinking?! Anyway, I'll be providing more information once it launches. I'll also be providing more information on this year's NaNo project once I figure out what it will be.

I'm not sure if I announced that Seeing What Develops is now available for purchase on a range of platforms, but if I didn't, here I go. The book is now available as an ebook through Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, Inktera, Playster, 24Symbols and outlets that sell books for Tolino. I'm still working to update my book page on the blog, and that's why it's hidden at the moment. It should be back up soon.

Have a happy weekend full of writing!

Publishing Year One: Launching the Haiku Rocket

If there is ever a single moment in the publishing process that strikes fear into an author, it’s the thought of launching the project. This is where you put everything you have in front of the world and you can’t be shy about it (even if you want to be). I knew that Unfolding Life was ready—it my eyes, it was the absolute best I could do. It was ready to be out in the world. 

Launching a book though is more about marketing than it is about feeling accomplished. Without a strong marketing presence behind the work, who will know about what you’ve done? I tried to start the marketing buzz early with this book. I posted on my Facebook page regularly even though I had an audience of less than a dozen people. I tweeted to my heart’s content with all those relevant hashtags. I also started participating in daily haiku writing on Twitter to help boost my presence with the haiku crowd. But I didn’t beat anyone over the head with it. I restricted myself to three promo posts a day because when you are trying to launch a book, it’s not advantageous to lose followers by being spammy. 

Once the week came where launch was imminent, I braced myself. I secretly wanted to be overwhelmed with book sales, reviews coming in on Amazon and on Goodreads, and let’s be honest, my ego wanted bloggers and those in the literary media to be requesting interviews. I have a very healthy imagination, don’t I? 

To get more word-of-mouth advertising, I also ran a giveaway contest for the ebook version (at this point, there was no physical book version). Things were going stellar—and then March 17^th came.

I wanted to launch the book on the 18^th, but with Amazon’s review period and this being my first work published with them, I was afraid that it would take longer than 24 hours to approve. So I jumped the gun a bit and it was available about 12 hours earlier than expected—which didn’t make one miniscule bit of difference, but I certainly fretted over it for awhile. 

The giveaway ended and I awarded the book. I celebrated the launch all day long on social media. I easily sold books to a few friends. The ball was finally rolling. 

Tomorrow, it’s all about the money—and how I didn’t spend a dime on marketing.

Starting the New Year Off Right

Some days it just hits me. There are so many ideas in my brain that they can't be contained any longer. Since the 1st I have written half of a short story, a new novel outline and I'm about ready to tackle another previously planned novel outline. I also managed to squeeze in a couple hours of revision. A lot is getting done, so I'm way more optimistic about this year than I thought I would be. Write on, people. Write on.

Since this is the first post on TSW of the New Year, it's also time to do a little roundup for those who are just joining us. First, I want to let everyone know that I love connecting with other writers and creative people all over social media. I know everyone has a favorite platform, and some of you already follow me on a few of them. I don't do a whole lot of cross-posting, so if you want to follow all of my accounts, here's a rundown of where I'm at:


Twitter:
My freelance life in 140 characters.

Facebook:
As you can see, a big 2015 goal of mine is to get more Facebook likes so I can access my analytics.

Google+:
I'm here, but not every day.

 

Instagram:
I love photography. Some are weird, some are fun and some are just me. Enjoy.

Tsu:
A relatively new social media site. If you are a writer, artist or musician I definitely recommend signing up. This is a great way to gain exposure and Tsu lets you earn ad revenue share off your posts.

And I may also have a little haiku book out there you may have heard of called Unfolding Life. If you don't already have a copy, check it out.

In the coming year I hope to publish more, so stay tuned of all of that good stuff.

The Chronicles of My #Nanowrimo Adventure

If you follow me on Twitter or on Vine, then you may have noticed that I'm doing a Vine a day for NaNoWriMo this year. It's not much, but I wasn't sure about doing full videos just yet. Maybe next year this will turn into a full-on vlog (or a reality show? Come on producers, you know you want to *wink,wink*). But for now, you will be able to see snippets of the things that make nano great--and suck. Here's an example from Day 1:








Don't follow me yet on Twitter or Vine? I'll be putting up a weekly roundup of the videos on my YouTube channel, which I would be more than happy for you to subscribe to so you'll never miss a new video.

Okay. Back to writing...

Start The Countdown

If everything falls into place this week, my haiku collection, Unfolding Life, should be published by next week. how exciting is that?! If you haven't caught a glimpse of the cover on social media, here it is:

When it is available, you'll be able to purchase it from Amazon--don't worry, over the next few weeks I'll remind you endlessly how you can get your very own copy of it. I'm starting only with the ebook option, but a print edition should be available later in the year.

As always, if you want the latest news about Unfolding Life or any of my other writing projects, follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

Fire Up the Back Burner

...because I've got something to simmer. I set out to finish two first draft manuscripts this month, and I'm halfway there. The novel that I started for NaNoWriMo last November (Verses and Vows) is now a complete first draft! It's a very rough first draft, but there's a distinct beginning, middle and end to work with. And since any good writer will tell you that you need a little space between writing and revising, that's exactly what I plan to do.

The other first draft (In Another Life) is still right in the middle of all the action. If I want to get both of these novels published before the end of the year, I really have to get this first draft finished by spring. This second novel is actually the one I want to put out first, simply because it is the novel I chose to have cover art done for when I won a contest last year. This novel process has actually been going completely backwards--I have the cover and a lot of the promotional work planned out, but I'm still lacking the actual novel. 

If I want to get anymore done, I better get back to it. ;-)





* * *
P.S.: If you are curious about any of my current or upcoming work, you don't have to wait for the next blog post. Go ahead and follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. I'm also on LinkedIn if that's more your thing.

An Unwanted Guest

I spent some time babysitting about two weeks ago. Now I'm paying the price. I have a cough/cold thingy and it's been draining a lot of my energy. I'm working at about 20% of my normal capacity, but the upside is that I'm still working. Although, NaNoWriMo has been severely neglected. I may use it as an excuse to avoid family togetherness at the end of this week. ;)

The poetry chapbook manuscript I've been chattering about on Twitter and other social media sites is going out today. The only thing I have left to finish is a little formatting and the table of contents, then it's off.

So with my tea and my tissues by my side, I'm ready to conquer the week. What are you writing this week?

Here's a Chance For #Freebies!

Hey guys -- Happy Labor Day weekend!

I know that most of you are on vacation, or at least relaxing at home with your long weekend (if you don't happen to work in food service or retail). So, I thought I would brighten your day by bringing you a special offer. This is an awesome chance to help influence what products people are using and talking about and get a chance to get free stuff. I know I love free stuff. Do you? Read on.

Recently, I joined a program called Influenster that rewards its members who are influential in different expert topics. They are looking for more members, but it is an invite-only program. And guess who just happens to have 5 invites left to give out? Yep, that's right. Me. I do. Want one?

You may want to know how Influenster works to see if you are interested. You can read all about it at their website, but I'll give a quick overview. Once you sign up, you take a few short surveys about topics you are interested in, then you are awarded badges and an Influenster score. My topics include beauty, fashion, food and pop culture. There are also topics such as eco-friendly, wine enthusiast, debonair man and home decor. You can also earn other badges for lifestyle topics such as new mom, pet owner and bookworm (yep, I've got that badge too).

Once you earn your badges, you can improve your score by sharing product pages on social media, writing reviews of your favorite products and answering questions other users have about those products. The higher your score, the greater the chance you will be able to get freebies, such as a VoxBox full of goodies.

If you take my invite and sign up this week, you can have your own chance of earning qualification for the next VoxBox just by using your own invites to give out and let your most influential friends shine along with you. If you get three active invites of your own, you are one step closer to those freebies. Can't you just imagine it already? There's no cost, you don't have to do stuff every single day--all you have to do is link your social media accounts to your profile and your set!

In order to get your invite, I will need your email address. I promise, you will not receive any other email other than the invite. You can EMAIL me with the subject line "Influenster Invite" and I will send it out ASAP. Or you can send me your email in a DM on Twitter. Or on Google+. Or Instagram (trying to make this as easy as possible!). To automatically qualify for the next VoxBox, you have to sign up and send out your invites before Friday. I can't wait to hear from you!

Where I Stand Today

I'm really trying to avoid throwing my hands up in the air and screaming. The reason I was in such a mood yesterday (if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you definitely saw it) was because the last significant writing client has left me. This client praised me on my work and always gave me good feedback, so the ending of the relationship so abruptly came out of nowhere. It also took 98% of my weekly income away.

Technically, this client and I only know each other as seven digit numbers through a job brokering service, though I am well aware of what website I was writing for, but still -- it's a shock to log in one day and see that you are suddenly blacklisted by the client (the broker company actually uses that word) and you get the dreaded "this client does not accept articles from you" message. Only last week I was promised by this client that I would be getting some more work soon. This is why it just doesn't make sense. And I cannot get an explanation even if I wanted one -- blacklisting prevents messages from being sent or received.

This is what I ran into all weekend:

To be fair, I still have royalties from past work plus a few great clients who are easy to work with and I work hard to do a good job for them. I just can't pay everything with those jobs.

So I spent yesterday looking for the usual writing jobs online only run into a wall of scams. These scammers are not even trying to be subtle anymore. What frustrates me the most is that it's been less that 48 hours since I stopped getting any work and everyone around me is jumping to the "quit and get a real job" speech. Usually they hold off a couple of weeks before that comes up. Not this time. I'm not taking it lightly either. I know that if I take what they consider to be a stable, decent job that I will never pick up my pen again. I would be done with writing permanently because it would be a waste of time. I would have real work to do. Which means I would constantly be frustrated because I would have all these stories that need to get out. If they thought I was unpleasant before... I don't think they would like the full-time employed me.

This situation is putting a damper on working with Camp Nanowrimo for the second half of the novel. I'm not inspired, even though I have an outline to follow. I don't really feel like it's a priority anymore, which I guess is proving a lot of people right that I need something more than what I have now. I just don't know how to get it.

What does this all mean? All of the stuff above was just ranting to get it all out. I'm NOT giving up on writing (I don't realistically think I ever could), I may have to move up my release date for the novel, and I am open to part-time work that's not writing related -- it just can't consume my life. It would also be great if that part-time work didn't involve pets or people. I'm allergic to both. ☺

Callout for Guest Bloggers!

TSW is still looking for guest bloggers to contribute! Here is the original post from a couple of weeks ago:

Since the blog's main purpose is writing, I hope that there are a few writers out there that would love to talk about their own personal writing experiences, a writing topic they are an expert in or other writing-related topic that you can think of. However, I would like to also include anyone with a business remotely related to writing. If they want to write a guest blog post, I'm totally open for that. And this is a VERY loose interpretation of writing related. For example, you could own a coffee shop and write about the types of coffee writers love, the weirdest writer that's walked through the door, etc. As long as it's grammatically sound, I'll consider it.

What do you need to do to be featured on TSW? Well, all you need to do is send me the post along with your bio. Please feel free to include links to your website, blog, Twitter account, Facebook or any writing that you want to feature in your bio. You can also include a picture of yourself or a relevant picture that goes along with the post, but please make sure that you own the rights to the photo, otherwise I can't publish it with your post.

All guest posts will be published on Fridays. At least two tweets on my Twitter account (@TerriDeno) will also help to promote the post. Happy writing!

**If you are planning to send in a guest post for April, I will be featuring guest posts by poets or about poetry to celebrate National Poetry Month. All other guest posts sent along not on the topic of poetry will still be considered, but will be held off until May.

The Rules of Freelancing #6: Use Social Networking Responsibly

Social media can be a blessing and a curse for anyone—including those running a standard business or trying to sell their freelancing services. Social media through Twitter, Facebook and a variety of other platforms can help you connect with potential clients and existing customers. However, you may want to separate your personal life from your public life when it comes to posting on these sites. Sometimes potential clients can be turned off by the smallest things. Maybe they don't like cats and wouldn't want to see four posts about your cat everyday. More likely, they will be looking for posts you make about your business, issues that affect your business and your other clients. You should always tread lightly since a seemingly innocent post can turn off a client, such as telling them how hard you partied last weekend and now your hangover has you behind on your work. They may not like that. Another taboo post is badmouthing a client for whatever reason. Your potential clients want to know that you will deal with project issues in a private, professional manner instead of telling everyone how annoying your current client is, or how they are late on paying you.

You also don't want to rant about anything on social media. Political opinions, your parking ticket—unless all of your followers are your best friends, a constant stream of rants will turn off even your most dedicated followers—some of which could have been potential clients.

Do I rant on social media? Occasionally. Do I post all about my personal life, including my cats? Personal life—yes. Cats—no, I'm the one who is annoyed by the post of your cat in its Halloween costume. Send it to your mother--I'm allergic. And a dog person.

I do know that constantly offering political opinions, hating on websites and other harsh posts may not be great for business. And yes, I have complained about nonpayment by clients, but always kept at an anonymous level. They don't know I'm talking about them—of course, if they aren't paying me, then they should know exactly who they are! I have in recent weeks backed off posting about client issues. I do not get jobs through my social media accounts, but some of my jobs are in social media, so I know that clients are reading it. My political opinions and posting random pictures of food? Those may stay for awhile longer. I am human, after all.

Learning Those Inevitable Life Lessons

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I really don't. I try to not whine (at least publicly) about every little thing that goes wrong, but I couldn't help myself on Twitter yesterday. I even committed a big no-no by whining about a lost project/client. I was just so frustrated and didn't know where to turn. My family knows nothing about freelance writing, so it frustrates me even more just to try and explain the situation. Friends would listen, but again, it takes too long to explain and just keeps me angry longer.

The worst part is that if I look at the situation from the outside, I sabotaged myself without knowing it at the time. I'm the one that halted all other work to put that project first. I'm the one who decided it was okay to do a small sample of work without pay. I'm the one who, after finding out the job was awarded to someone else without ANY consideration to my sample, couldn't bring myself back in the mindset to work, even if it was only for $3 and some change per article. At least it would have been something. Then, thinking another job may be coming through, I waited patiently for... you guessed it... nothing. So I had more and more time to think about all that is going wrong and trying my hardest to come up with the good things to balance out the list. The list is still not balanced, by any means.

Like everyone says: these moments in life will make a great book someday. Let's just hope it's a book that sells a few million copies.

A Little Writer Fuel

I'm still busy packing, so there's not much to update on the writing front. I did, however, find an interesting article today on Twitter that you can all peruse in my absence:

The Fuel that Drives Extraordinary Content

Hope you all get some writing done this weekend! 

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Damn You, Economy

It's finally caught up to me. I thought I was very lucky over the past two years when it came to economic security. Sure, as a freelance writer the work was never exactly "secure" but I was feeling pretty good about the money I was making. Was. Now, I wish I had listened to the same old advice all seasoned freelancers dish out (including myself on occasion): NEVER depend on a single job/project/client, even if the money is good. I've learned my lesson. Again.

Because of this great opportunity I had, I've been out of the current freelance market for about two years. Although I do the occasional paid blog post or paid Twitter ad, 99% of my income came from a single job. And I liked it. I still do. But the whole thing is being revamped, restructured--whatever business term you want to use for it--and there's a potential it could be gone at any moment. At least for me. I'm sure the company will survive, just maybe not with as many hands on deck as they used to have.

I did what any shy, sensitive writer would do. I sat down and cried for three days, staring at a computer screen that said work was not currently available. In recent days work has been available, but not nearly the amount I am used to.

Getting back on the horse is the appropriate metaphor for this situation, but the freelance market has changed drastically in the past two years. First thing I noticed was the number of jobs available. It's probably about half of what it was in 2009 (at least where I look for it). The second thing I noticed was that the stakes are much higher, though the pay seems to remain the same. I came across many ads for jobs that required a master's degree. A master's? You mean I worked for 4 1/2 years for a bachelor's and that's just not good enough anymore? Now I'm not only sad, but angry at the thought that my skills are no longer competitive in this market.

And like I've talked about in past posts, I was looking to branch out, making a more stable career for myself. Something in journalism or book publishing. I still don't have the right skills to be considered for these jobs. Now with the thought that my savings account could be empty in a couple of months, that internship is slipping through my fingers before I even finish the cover letter. I can't pay for travel to get an interview (if one was offered), let alone the money I would need to live during the internship if I was lucky enough to get it. 

What can I do now? Many have told me to just go and work at Walmart. "At least it's a paycheck." I've seen too many great creative minds fall into this trap. Once you start looking at a job as nothing more than a paycheck, you've lost something of yourself. It's hard to get back to the dream that you started out with. I don't have a family to support. I don't need all the extras I like to buy. The work that's "just a paycheck" should be available to someone who really needs it. I can't let myself think of a job as just a way to get money. I want to be happy with what I do. And call me young and naive, but I still have that thought in the back of my head that I want to make a difference somehow with what I do.

In this economy, I am still lucky compared to many. For now I still have a roof over my head and food in the fridge. My whining doesn't mean a thing to anyone who can't say that for themselves. I just don't know where to go from here. If I don't make a bold move (whatever that may be), I'll never get to experience what's out there. Money makes the world go 'round. So how bold can anyone really be with $20 in their pocket?

Back into The Habit

I haven't gone missing. I know I blogged like two days ago and everyone was like, “Oh, she's still around?” Okay... maybe I just wished someone had noticed the absence from my blog. Baby, I'm back! And I'm all ready to be consistent once again.

My goal for the blog was to write a more personal post on Mondays, writing tips on Wednesdays, and I had super big plans for Friday posts. I am a prime example of how life takes funny little turns and puts you where you didn't know you would be. Turns out, if you have to wait in front of the computer day in and day out for work over a span of about two months, writing seems to fade into the background.

For the first month, I waited around for work with a book in my hand. Work always showed up just about the time the character in the book was going to do something crazy stupid and I really wanted to get to the next chapter. My life during this time was filled with next chapter – work –next chapter, etc. And this, my friends, is not something you want to read about every week. Am I right? There was no way I could drag my mind out of the mud to get something even coherent on the blog or otherwise. (If you don't believe me, check out the useless drivel I tweeted during June @Terri84) The one bonus? I did get a lot of book reviews written (you can see them all on Goodreads).

Then July hit. Ah, July. My favorite month of the year. Not just because that's when I was born, but also because I really love the way the word 'July' sounds. As with anyone that gets older, I get worried I'm not making enough progress in my career. It was time for a new goal, so I started writing a feature length script. It's now a month into that process and the progress is still steady. The first draft gave me a whopping 52 pages (for those that are unfamiliar, a feature length needs to be a minimum of 90 pages). The first revision gave me a whole 62. I added in another scene this morning and now I'm up to 64. See? Visible progress. Maybe that's why I like scripts so much... page count is so much more satisfying to me than word count.

And where do I go from here? On that beautiful journey of making more life decisions that will, at the last minute, fall through. Let's hope they don't, but I've got to be prepared if they do. Prepare carefully to act spontaneously. That's been my motto for months now.

So what's in store for me over this next year? Well, to maintain the promise of getting back into the habit of writing on the blog, I'll let you know on Wednesday. And if I fail? Remember, I'm human. I tend to do that.

Random Rant: Celebs Leaving Twitter?

Today I watched The View and heard the ladies discuss that there are a lot of celebrities leaving Twitter. While normally I could care less about celebrities, this bit of news kind of irked me. First of all, it's the celebrities joining Twitter that had it grow to the astounding numbers that it did over the past year or so. Now they are abandoning it. While many people have found that Twitter is useful for other purposes besides stalking their favorite celeb, many may abandon it.

It also gets me a little riled up to think that they thought it was such a great idea to really be able to speak to their fans, but now they've change their minds like a finicky little thing. I appreciated the honesty they brought the conversation. People would now know what the real story was rather than believe the headlines (of course I'm only talking about those celebs that write their own tweets). And you why many of them left? Their heated discussions with fans cast them in a bad light (not all, but some). Honestly, I would rather know what you really feel about a topic rather than the stripped down "let's not answer anything" answer that any publicist can give.

It's a shame that this had to happen, whether out of controversy or boredom with the site. I have no idea why this captivated me like it did, but I'll be sure not to let that happen again. :)