THOUGHTFUL MONDAY

 Good morning, everyone!

All my best!

~ Angela

THOUGHTFUL MONDAY

 I've always admired Andrew Carnegie. He is one of the 'Men Who Built America'. If you've not see the series on the History Channel, I encourage you to check it out. 

All my best

~Angela

TOP 3 - October 5, 2020

 

This week is all about family. 

This is Bob's final week home before he goes back out on the boat. Now that the temperatures feel more like fall outside (we were 33*F at 5 a.m. today!) we need to get some things prepped in the garden for winter.

As you can tell by the bright pink box, I have baby stuff to finish. Kassie's due date for the twin girls is fast approaching (Thanksgiving-ish) I have so much to do to be ready for these new 'grandbabies' coming into our life. 

I am sharing a Spotlight Author with you tomorrow. I hope you'll come back and meet Margaret Daley

All my Best

~ Angela

TOP 3 - Back in the Groove

Good afternoon, everyone!

Apologies for the delay in today's post. We have a glorious day in the Ozarks and I've been busy playing Suzy Homemaker. I have laundry on the line, carrot/ zuccini muffins cooling on the counter, buttercup squash ready to be mashed up for a casserole for dinner and dishes yet to be done. 

This is why consistency is a problem for me. I was raised with a 1950s housewife mentality. From the time I was 9, I was helping around the house. When most kids were watching Saturday morning cartoons I was helping in the kitchen, putting laundry on the line or dusting all the little nick nacks in our living room. When laundry came off the line, I would be tackling the ironing pile while watching craft shows on PBS or classic (now) black and white movies.  I will be 59 next week and that is still who I am. 

But I am also a crafter and a writer and I'm trying to mainstream my focus on those to avenues. 

To that end, where this blog is concerned, every Monday I'll bring you my Top 3 for the week as they pertain to writing.  I am so ready beyond concious thought to get back to writing. 

Share your Top 3 and let's bust this week together!

~Angela

MONDAY MUSINGS - The End is in Sight!

Happy Labor Day, everyone!
I hope you had a safe and blessed holiday weekend. Today 's the last day to kick up your heels. Please remember EVERYONE that makes your day a little better because of their job.

I am almost there!

Every chapter of An Ozarks Christmas has been polished to the best of my ability. I was amazed after doing revisions the second time, how many little things I found this past week in a 'final' read-through. Will be interesting to see what my beta readers catch.

I found the missing 13th Chapter and discovered that with the changes I've made, I'll need to do some alterations and fleshing out. So that's what I spent all of yesterday working on. Hopefully, by the time you read this I will be a day away from sending to betas.

I took some time on Saturday to go shopping for Scrapbook paper. I've found the cutest little booklets that I can make to hold my giveaway as well as provide the book info and my social media links. While I don't need them just yet, the book has to come first, I did want to take advantage of the 50% off The Paper Studio paper line at Hobby Lobby. They have some great papers and I'm going to need A LOT just to have gifts for my beta readers as well as the conference in October. Some are a Christmas themed while others are just a drool-worthy vintage background. I will show you those as we get closer to release.

Tomorrow I'm ordering book marks as well as the components for those giveaways. Later this week, I'll get my new business cards printed and continue the process of getting the workbook pages configured for my talk about Choosing Your Top 3 Social Media Platforms. I need to start promoting that so that maybe we'll get some last minute signups for the conference. We always have room for more!

Happy Reading!

MONDAY MUSINGS - Deadlines

Deadlines, whether self-imposed or given to us are important. They keep us on track and on our toes. I have to tell you, I will be like a ballerina for the next eight weeks. I have not one but THREE crucial deadlines that all come to a head the first of October in some form.

My main goal is to have AN OZARKS CHRISTMAS ready to sell at the Ozark Creative Writers Conference October 11-13. That means I have to finish the revisions, get my cover, pass inspection of Beta readers plus a final run edit then set up and copies ordered by end of September. Also, I'd love to have my cover by the end of THIS month so that I can have something to begin marketing when I'm on Tiereny James' Sizzle In the Kitchen at the end of this month. We're going with a Christmas in July theme (since those are the best pictures of my kitchen!) so a great opportunity to start building interest in the upcoming release.

Speaking of the Ozark Creative Writers Conference. When you register for the conference, you may enter as many of the individual contests as you want at no additional charge. I have a list of about twenty out of the twenty-six categories I'd like to enter. This gives me the opportunity to write out of my comfort zone, try out new story ideas and hopefully win some prize money. I REALLY want to enter the Oxbow Award which has been a long-standing category offered by Dusty Richards. This year, the category will be a tribute to Dusty as he passed away earlier this year. OCW just isn't going to be the same without the big guy. Those entries HAVE to be postmarked by August 25th! Yikes! Have I started? What do you think? LOL

I am speaking at the conference this year on selecting the Social Media platforms that work best for you. There is NO WAY I can cover everything in a 30 min (plus 10 min for Q & A) talk. So I want to have a companion workbook available to sell. Note that also has to be done by end of September so I can get copies ordered.

Are you seeing a pattern of craziness here?

To top it all off, I'd love to have the rough draft of Jayson's Range finished so that I can pitch the story to Tiffany Schofield. Tiffany has been waiting two years and I feel this is the year. Jayson's Range is the first in a trilogy set in late 1800s Texas. I plan to dedicate the series to Dusty Richards.

So.. as I exhale here and think I may have lost my mind, I'm off to kick things into gear. I hope to later this week introduce you to my Writer's Bible and how I'll be using the set-up to keep me on task.

Tomorrow, we get back to our Spotlight Author series. Addison Brae will be joining us for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.

In the mean time,
Happy Writing, Enjoyable Reading!

MONDAY MUSINGS - Writing Spaces

Making time to write is a challenge for most of us. Those of us with alternate lives, not solely focused on writing. That said, I know that to be a writer, we do need the ability to focus on putting words on paper. One way to accomplish that task is to have a routine, one that includes carving out a space for ourselves so that when we sit down to write in that one space... wherever it is... puts our brain into motion that the time to write is NOW. 

I am blessed to have a room all to myself where I can sit and write. I have a desk and all the tools at my finger tips yet I seem to constantly be testing other waters, places other than at my desk. Well, last week I may have discovered the problem.

I use the same space for all of my other work as I do for writing. My space isn't dedicated to focusing on my writing project. When I sit down at my desk, I have clutter from those other projects all around me. 

That is about to change. I'm going to 'work' anywhere else that calls me. Whether I'm at the work table stamping and writing creative blog posts or in the recliner writing music articles each of those areas serve a writing purpose. So should the place where I turn my characters loose and transcribe their stories. 

I've taken some before pictures of my space. I'm hoping to have my post next week showing the revamp of my space. I'm also using My Writing Space as a launchpad to introduce you to other author's spaces. I'm lining up writing space posts to run one or two Monday's a month. We'll see how fast spaces fill up.

So, here's what I'd like you to do.  Follow my blog as well as my twitter account... @AngelaDrakeA

I'll soon have a Instagram account strictly for my writing.  Tomorrow, I'll tell you more about why I'm making this adjustment to my writing life, and what's in the plan for you.  Until then...

Happy Reading!

MONDAY MUSINGS - Edits & Revisions

I've been working really hard to keep content here. Some days just getting on the computer is a struggle. But I'm trying. With all the negative publicity about websites and social media in regards to personal information, I really dread coming to this screen some days... to do anything.

That out of the way, I am actually getting around more. This Thursday I will be on Susan Palmquists blog - this writerslife  My topic is on Time Management... not in managing time per-say but finding YOUR optimal time for writing. Armed with that information, I hope you'll be able to better manage your time.  I've been working on following my own advice. I'd failed to remember that my 'hot spot' runs sometime after 4 p.m. until bedtime. Yet, after writing blog posts and what not all day long, I find I just want off this laptop completely by 4 or 5 p.m. This has resulted in my own novel writing - or in this case, revisions - suffering.

With Bob out on the boat for the next three-four weeks I hope to get my routine back... and keep it in place once he's home.

I have a couple more nights before I can dive back into revisions for A Christmas To Remember. I'm currently doing line edits for a writing friend. I'm hoping she'll return the favor when I need fresh eyes on Christmas once I've slogged through the revisions.

My guest this week is author Reet Singh.  I have read her book No Escape From Love and posted a review for Wednesday. I invite you to stop by tomorrow and say hello as she has a giveaway opportunity for everyone who visits.  On Thursday, Reet will wind up her visit with our Writing Tip Thursday.

I hope you'll stop in the studio. We'd love to see you!

MAKE-UP MONDAY - Review & Winner!

Okay.. so I'm on the slow side today. I got so caught up in creative business stuff - which is my official day job, I failed to get a review posted for Caroline Clemmons' Texas Lightning and to officially announce the winners of her giveaway last week.

Let's start with congratulating:

JUDY ANN DAVIS

SHEILA MAST

Judy, please contact me via the contact for on my sidebar or connect with Caroline via her website. Enjoy your copy of Texas Lighting! I know I have.

 REVIEW!

I fell in love with Texas Lightning the moment Penelope Terry rode like the wind, shooting her daddy's colt over her shoulder at her cousin Charlie. Caroline Clemmons didn't waste any time dropping us into the action and sending us from 1896 to 2017 right along with the heroine.. and into the arms of hero Jake Knight. 

As Jake and his family come to terms with the fact that Penny has time-traveled, they are fighting to save their ranch... Penny's ranch... just as she had been doing when she began her journey.  Penny's not having much of a picnic either. She finds her ranch no longer belongs to her and she isn't sure where she fits in.

Like all good hero's, Jake discovers he'll believe anything to keep this woman in his life. But will being her savior cost him the ranch they both love? 

Descendants from both families create for a gripping read and a sweet romance you won't want to put down. 

I look forward to the rest of the Texas Time Travel series from Caroline Clemmons!

Follow any of the links below to purchase your copy:

AmazonUSA    Amazon UK    AmazonCanada   AmazonAustralia  

You can visit Caroline on various social media platforms:

Website   Blog   Twitter   Facebook  Pinterest   Goodreads   AmazonAuthorPage