Monday, July 15, 2013

Oops: Monday morning Sunday check-in . . .

Did I say my mother-in-law is visiting for two weeks?

Here's my late, late, late update. OK, it's Monday morning catch-up. But overall, so far, so good for this week's goals (my weekly goals are usually set on Sunday for the coming week, but not this week).

1. Finish revising Section 2 of Years of Stone (edit 6 out of 7 days). Done. Actually about half way through Section 3, the last section. Yippee! Also sent section 1 to my BFF who's going to design the book cover. She said she couldn't put the story down. Always encouraging to hear that, even if she is my BFF.

2. Work on Africa Presentation (draft 4 out of 7 days, find music/picture books at Library, review journals). Some progress in selecting pictures. Expect this to go into high gear in the coming week as the presentation is July 23.


3. Prepare Mermaids for Smashwords (revise 3 out of 7 days). No progress at all.


4. Remove clutter from office and e-mail. Organize and let go. Not too much is stacked on the floor, so that's progress of a sort. 


5. Read craft/research (3 out of 7 days). Made 2 days. Some progress here.


6. Read, learn from and encourage other ROW80 folks (4 out of 7 days). Again, some progress. Read 10 posts by others.


7. Blog at least one post to writing and one to travel blogs. Drafted half a blog. Does that count?


8. Other: Relax and let others take the lead as family arrives. Quilt a little. Clean house a little. Cherish quiet time. Really? Did I really say relax? My goal for the coming week is to gain no more than 3 pounds from stress eating!

Last week I tried WIPpet Wednesday and was so warmly welcomed. I didn't read around as much as I wanted, but I have today and tomorrow to do a bit more reading of others' posts.


Flaubert's rough draft
for A Simple Heart (Wikipedia)
A note re marketing as I continue my journey of trying to learn as much as I can: I read somewhere that it's a good idea to start requesting 'blurbs' for that all-important book cover well before the launch date. That you may get as many as 70 rejections before you get a single yes! So I sent out two requests to historical writers I respect. 

I'm amazed at the generosity of people I've met on the internet. One responded immediately, told me her current agent, and said when she returns from vacation, she'll happily consider reading Years of Stone. Hey, that's not a no!

Any stories about how you gained blurbs for your books?

Remember when we used to revise by hand???


3 comments:

  1. Hi Beth,
    Thanks for the heads-up about the Bible study site. Geesh. Here you are minding your own business and someone hacks your blog. It's odd though, the bible site only crops up occasionally, so I've ignored it. My linky works for IWSG, so I guess I have to change my blog name.
    Anyway, that's not why I am here. I am here to say, "Good Gosh you have quite the work ethic!" Very inspiring list and you go, Girl! Nice to meet you and feel free to stop by the nut-tree again for some tea and Bible verse.
    ~Just Jill

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  2. Hi, Jill. Thanks for visiting. Not quite sure how a blog gets hacked, but when I go to your site from the ROW80 Linky, I'm right there at the Bible study site. When I click on your name here on my site, I go to your Google+ page! That's OK with me because now I've got the "nut tree" saved in my ROW80 Bloggers' folder!!!! Glad to hear you're in the IWSG (which I definitely should join), but I'm trying that WIPpet Weds where a snippet of a work in progress is posted. Putting the writing (even at draft stage) out there for reader feedback is kind of fun. Have a truly fine week!

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  3. Beth, looks like I missed the excitement. You were hacked with a link to a bible site? How bizarre!

    I hope you're able to keep up with all your goals. Have a great week!

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