MONDAY MOTIVATION - Progress

 Good morning, everyone!

One quick note before I contine with today's post.

The last two author reviews for stories in the Christmas at the Amish Bakeshop have been moved to the last two Tuesday's of this month. We have a guest author all this week leading up to The Writer's Nest post on Friday. Beginning tomorrow I'll be featuring B. D. Storey

Another week begins.

While last week was productive, I didn't do as much as I'd hoped... including getting Burroughs emailed. I'm doing that TODAY, before the task gets lost in the shuffle.

I managed to clear the big work table in my studio but before I could make further progress, I remembered I had a Stampin' Up! retreat this past Saturday. I was thinking it was this coming weekend! Oh well, I watched some very creative people resurrect old techniques. I was one of the very few who remembered when those techniques were 'new'. While they're still fresh in my memory again, I want to play with a couple of them this week.

Why? Because I'm trying to come out of 'hobby' dem status with the company and be more of an 'earning' level. I'm not going full speed with building a sales team, but it would be nice to sell enough to pay for my crafting habit ;-)

I also learned last week that my sister in law and her husband (Bob's youngest brother) will arrive on the 26th for three days. Mind you, this comes the day after Bob is supposed to come home... on our 37th wedding anniversary. Rhonda is also my only down-line in my Stampin' Up! business. We'll spend three days crafting.  That said, the studio has to be finished... 9 days from today to be exact!  

I'm still knocking off between 3-4 p.m. to get two or three writing sprints in on the book. Felt good to be sprinting again last week. One of my dear friends has been dividing her writing time between our two groups. We do the shorts sprints in mine - which she prefers. Then when I'm done for the night, she moves back to our 'Goddess' group and does the longer sprints. The five of us have been a group for almost 15 years. I just can't do the longer sprints. My brain starts wandering after longer than thirty minutes.

That's me for this week. I know the tasks are not exciting, but they are things I must get done. 

My TOP 3:

* Email Burroughs

* Catalog stamps

* Sprint every day

I'm hoping the dog days of summer are moving out and we can begin to breathe a little cooler air. 

All my best

~Angela

MONDAY MOTIVATION - Time to Tell a Story

 Good morning, everyone!

Wow!

Well, I can say first of all that last week did not go as planned. 

For starters, Bob left on Monday. From there I dove in to really making progress on clearing the studio by working through one area at a time. I managed to complete my filming area except for a shelf I need Bob to add to my shelving unit. He tried to do it before he left but the one shelf board I had wasabout 1/2" too short. In the mean time, I'm making progress elsewhere.

Yesterday, I found about 80% of my 4'x8' work table. I need it cleared for working on other areas, like cataloging the stamp sets and cutting large pieces of mat and foam core board - again, for other projects that need finished.

I also didn't get Burroughs emailed. That is tops on my list for this week. Review my contract to make sure I have dates correct, then email them a formal request for rights back. Cross your fingers because I really want to offer Somewhere Down the Line in print in time for the Ozark Creative Writers conference in October.

TIME TO TELL A STORY

I woke up this morning with the realization of why An Ozarks Homecoming is moving so slow for me. I'm so caught up in getting details correct that I've stopped giving you a STORY! The light bulb clicked on last night as I finished the last novella in Christmas at the Amish Bakeshop. When I finished The Christmas Cupcake by Loree Lough I thought, 'she told such a beautiful story'.  (No spoilers as to why since you'll learn more in Week 3 of the Author Spotlight series for this book) The sense dawned on me is that's how my first two books came about. I just told a story. 

So effective with tonight's writing sprints, I'm just going to sit with a blank page and start telling a story. I'll fix all the 'telling to showing' stuff in edits. 

Hello Kitty in honor of Sarra Cannon

Here's my Goals for the Week:

* Contact Burroughs

* Clear Sofa

* Tell the Story

That's it for my week. What is ONE THING you want to do TODAY! Tomorrow will come soon enough!

All my best

~Angela

MOTIVATION MONDAY

 

Good morning, everyone!

Another month is behind us... as well as Camp Nano. I can say without reservation that I did not meet my goal for July. I just can't write in chaos and my office/ studio has been a disaster. My goal has been to get that space organized so that I will have my peaceful writing space back. 

Since this picture was taken, I've made a new sofa cover but the area is a complete disaster at the moment. The sofa is buried beneath my sem-day job as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. That's been the project I've been working on. As I said in last week's post (or the week before) putting it out there is a great motivator. I need my space back so I hope to have reclaimed my sanctuary by next week. 

Bob leaves tomorrow - opening up my week to really dive in.

* Dedicated writing time

* August blog posts scheduled

* Continuing work on the conference items

* Following up with Burroughs

Note: I'm writing this post a couple weeks ahead. I can do that thanks to my planner. By the time this airs I hope to have heard back from my editor at Burroughs and gotten the rights back to Somewhere Down the Line. If that's the case than an additional task will be added to my list of cleaning the manuscript up (can't believe the mistakes they put back in after we'd taken them out during edits!) as well as getting my new cover ordered

That's a full week for me. What's on your agenda?  Please share in the comments below and we'll motivate each other! 

All my best

~Angela

MONDAY MOTIVATION

 

Good morning, everyone! Welcome to a new week.

The past weekend was busy but full of love and chatter. Bob and I won't have the opportunity to travel to Texas to see his Mom and her husband but I already know that my next trip to Texas will include heading for the southern part of the state - a part I've not visited before.

Bob is home for another week but he understands I have to get back to work. I'm only focusing on the things I have to do immediately. One of the things I'll focus on is what I must get scheduled for the first few days of August before Bob heads back out on the 3rd. After that I can go back to crazy hours.

This week:

* Blog posts through August 4th

* Contract with Burroughs (yes, I've still not done that task ::; sigh :::)

        That one is really important as I'd like to have hard copies to sell at the Ozark Creative Writer's                    Conference coming up October 7-9th.  I'll be presenting two sessions on blogging/ marketing                   which brings me to point #3

* Begin outline for handout and a saleable workbook for the conference

Speaking of the conference, there's still time to register as well as enter the myriad of contest categories for your chance to win awards and CASH! 

That should keep me out of trouble this week. What items are motivating you this week? Share below. Accountability is a great motivator!

All my best                                                                                                                                  ~Angela