MONTHLY UPDATE

 Good morning, friends

As I sit here planning out September I realized this is the last day of August and time for an update.

Sadly, there is no update on the writing. I really want to finish this book but life keeps happening. I'm so over interruptions.

I was almost to the point of having the studio in a workable order and already had my desk space to layout the scene printouts and begin putting the final phase of the draft together when this happened:

Above my paper storage we discovered I have a serious leak. Now, this did not surprise us as it's just an extension of a roof leak we've been dealing with for at the very least, a couple of years. We've tried everything tofind/ fix the issue. Bob was sure it had to do with the chimney because that had been an issue before we bought the house. The only time the leak affected us was when we had a pelting rain from the northwest. Well, over time the leak has become a stead drip with any rain and apparently running down a channel and into the addition - my office. 

As you can see, we removed everything from the shelf and now we have this:

Bob thinks he's found the issue and fixed it for real this time, but we won't know until we get a good rain and he can actually see.  So we wait through the next couple of weeks as we are in for nothing but sun and close to 100* temps for the next week or two. 

In the mean time, stuff from those top shelves are all over the office, the living room, and my roll-top desk in the bedroom until we find out. All the spaces I'd sorted/ pitched/ cleared now have those items on them and I'm back to no place to work but the dining room table.

I'll be back to work on the manuscript for a couple of hours each night this week as I ask Earth Mother for rain. 

What life interruptus do you deal with in your writing life? I'd love to commiserate with you.

All my best!

~ Angela

CONFERENCES - Between The Pages Conference Recap

 Good morning, friends!

I'm in the office and back to work after an amazing six days in Springfield, Missouri; primarily for the BetweenThePages Writer's Conference.

Since diving hard back in to Book 2 of my series I decided to take a couple extra days on either side of the conference while at my favorite hotel in Springfield (Comfort Inn South) to work on the book. 

I packed up and headed in on Wednesday, checking in around two p.m. and just spent the rest of the day settling in, getting the writing area and coffee bar set up then kicking back with lasagna and garlic biscuit I'd brought from home. 

BACK HATCH

folding table for coffee bar behind the bags

L to R - extra cooler, computer bag, story bag, coffee bag, cold items, 2 cases of water

BACK SEAT

From Front to back - personals bag on bottom, iPad, desk decor on top

Far back - suitcase on floorboard, dry food bag tote on seat

TIP: Save yourself money by bringing leftovers or quick foods that can be heated in the microwave. I also packed my Copper Chef 5-minute cooker. HOWEVER -  Check to make sure your hotel HAS A MICROWAVE. I'd thought about staying at the conference hotel next year but they don't have microwaves in the rooms and the refrigerators are half the size of the one at Comfort Suites. Unless you want to spend money eating all of your meals out, do your research. 

Registration opened up on Friday afternoon. We also had a speaker, who was excellent!

COLIN CONWAY

Colin Conway is the author of the Cozy Up series and is the creator of the 509 Crime Series

He covered a total of three sessions on Indie Publishing including developing the mind set of an indie author as well as running an Indie business and marketing. Lots of great information. Once I heard him speak, I traded off a couple of breakout sessions to hear everything he had to say. The other two breakout sessions were, Running An Author-Indie Business and Marketing Your Books.One important thing he brough up was to make sure YOU BENEFICIARY has access to your business. 

JENIFFER THOMPSON

Jeniffer Thompson was our keynote to kick things off on Saturday. She is one of my favorite people. I've learned so much from just hearing her speak. She is an absolute beautiful person. She likes to help and is patient with your questions. This is the second year I've had the pleasure of listening to her. She also offers assistance in many forms of author branding through her Monkey C Media, The Premise Podcast, and the San Diego Writers Festival Podcast. You'll find Jeniffer by clicking on any of the links included in this paragraph.

SHERRY ROBERTS

Sherry Roberts was the session I chose in the first round of break-out sessions. An award-winning children's book author, she spoke about the responsibilities we have once our book is available. One of the most valuable pieces of information I received from her presentation was how to get into B & N! 

XAVIER POE KANE

Xavier Kane was the speaker I was most interested in hearing, then didn't LOL. Xavier spoke on the difference between writing general characters and Veterans. Since An Ozarks Homecoming features a Veteran Army officer, I wanted to hear how his take. See if I was honoring our heroes correctly. However, he was dropped into the same session as Colin Conway and after reading his topic I realized he was talking more about current Veterans and not deceased. Understanding, Xavier was kind enough to do a one-on-one with me to help me see if I am on the right track. According to him, I appear to be doing everything right. 

Those were my picks for the conference. We also were able to do a Q & A with a panel discussion with all of the speakers including the following:

BEN S. REEDER

Topic: Owning Your Creativity

His covers are GORGEOUS! Be sure to check them out on AMAZON

Paul McSorley

He is an audio book performer

Topic: Took the first 5 submissions and make them into an audio file so you can see what your work will sound like as an audio book.

AMY LILLARD

Topic:  Back to the Basics of Romance 

Christian & Clean Are All The Rage In Romance.

NOTE: I will be spotlighting Amy in an upcoming post as well as reviewing her latest Amish Romance release so stay tuned!

Jeanne Devlin from Roadrunner Press also took pitches. Check out her publishing house by clicking on her name.

NANCY ALLEN

Miss Nancy closed out our session Sunday morning and this home-town girl BROUGHT IT! She was entertaining as she talked about her journey from being an attorney to co-writing with James. (that would be THE James Patterson but they're on Book 5 together so she can call him by his first name... she said so. LOL) If you get the opportunity to hear her speak, RUN to the first row and enjoy the ride!

That's going to do it for me today. I managed to pop a couple of ribs this morning as I washed up the conference laundry so I might be out of commission for a day or two but I'm not going far.

All my best!

~Angela

MARKET MONDAY - Twitter Part 1

Twitter is one of those Social Media platforms... you either get it or you don't. I have to ask. Have you given Twitter a chance? Do you know how to use Twitter effectively? Speaking from personal experience, my music business grew exponentially within six months thanks to connections I made on this particular platform. Let's start with your page.

If you have a branding platform in place, this step is super easy. The header on your page should be your current release. The inset photo should be yours. You want to bring a personal approach to your page. Build your fan base while letting them get to know the face behind the author name.

The second is the information on your page. Cluttering the space up with #s is not effective marketing. Give a brief - I love writing sweet stories with happy endings. When not writing, I enjoy....  That's it. 20 words or less should be plenty.

The other thing you want is a website link. Give them a landing page to find out more about you, your bodies of work and however else you have your website/ blog configured.

That's it! Your Twitter page is complete. Well, almost. READ THIS before going any further in creating your Twitter page.

Twitter is going to ask to ADD everyone from your contact list. Don't Do This! This is a business page.. not a family reunion. Sure, you want some of your family and friends to follow you BUT you get to choose. Some of those people on your contact list were probably auto-added at some point or another and could care less.

This is your opportunity for a fresh start.

So, let's make friends.
First -  People you want to network with
        Authors
        Publishers
        Editors/ Agents
        Organizations

Second - Do a search for people with similar interests. In the search bar type #(insert one of the interests from your introduction. You will get a HUGE list. Don't follow them all at once. Pick 4-5 then type in the next interest and repeat. If you follow too many at one time, Twitter will think you're spamming and could lock you out of your account for a set period of time. That's not how you want to start ;-)

Work on that this week. Next week we'll talk content.

Creative Blessings!
Angela

MONDAY CHECK IN and WINNER Announcement!

While we did not get this much snow over the weekend, the skiff we did receive was a gentle reminder that winter is upon us and the holidays coming fast.

I did not do as much writing as I'd hoped over the weekend, though I did add about 700 words to my JANO 2015 Branson story. What I wound up doing was lots of shopping. And some decision making.

Before I get to that, let me first announce our WINNER in the American Mail Order Bride Series -
Lottie - Bride of Delaware from author Kit Morgan.

Using Random.org (I never can get that screen shot to work right), The Winner is -

Cindy Jones!

Congratulations, Cindy! Kit will be contacting you regarding your Free Download.

This Wednesday we have Shanna Hatfield joining us. Shanna will be sharing her book - 

Dacey - Bride of North Carolina.  Shanna will also be giving away a copy of Dacey's story to one lucky person leaving a comment. 

* * * 

My week is harried - as always. I want to add more to the JANO book. Sadly, the Nano project has tanked. But I'm not concerned. I just think Trevor and Kim's story isn't ready to be told yet. I can wait. 

Other than the American Mail Order Bride posts that will run every Wednesday, I will be finished with personal Blog Posts after Friday. I always take the month of December off to enjoy my family and prepare for the coming year. 

Many Blessings~!

Angelay