Weds May 1: ROW80 Check-in

This week has been a bit hectic, but hubby is doing a little better in getting doctor appointments, that sun is shining, and it's warm enough now to go out walking. So here's a quick update. I didn't make all my goals, no quilting done, added a few new distractions, but the African Violets got watered and they look gorgeous.

WRITING: Made the quota of a poem a day (one day late) for April. Got totally distracted and put all my April poems up on SCRIBD just to see if this venue would work. Has anyone else done this? This week I miraculously recovered photos and PowerPoints from teaching humanities that I thought had been lost forever, so I may make them available via SCRIBD. I'm also pretty happy that the plot-hole-search for Years of Stone is complete for Sections 2 and 3. Now working on Section 1 by Sunday.

I'm calling May "Plot Hole Month" to complete final revisions on Years of Stone. 

Came up with a new writing exercise for writing BLURBS. Most blurbs I read sound slightly hysterical. Mine tend to read more academic, but I don't want to put a potential reader to sleep!  So I photocopied several blurbs from historical fiction I like, and I rewrote my blurb from scratch, thinking about the style, tone, and syntax of other blurbs. The result has been a blurb with hopefully more reader appeal -- and a little more dramatic.

Check out A Month of Poems at SCRIBD and let me know what you think of the preview (if you like).

BLOGGING: Several people commented on my April 29 post "What Impels You to Write?" over at the ROW80 Blog, which was very, very nice. A few e-mailed comments. Every step takes courage. Today was supposed to be recipe day over at my travel blog. Nada. But it's not midnight yet. Writing every day on the blog remains a challenge, but participating in various Blog challenges seems to help me. So far, the A-to-Z Challenge and NaPoWriMo are over. What are other writing challenges? 

MARKETING: Success! After months of nattering away and worrying, I finally posted reader questions for the Mermaid Quilt. In fact, this is how I discovered SCRIBD. The questions are up, the publications page is updated, and I learned a little more about promotion along the way. One author makes herself available to Book Clubs by SKYPE. Hooray for technology that keeps paving the way.

PUBLISHING: Not ready. No progress.

All else goes reasonably well. May spring bring you sunshine and good gardening and good progress on your WIP.

Mystery flower spotted at a roadside rest in Oregon. 

Any ideas?