Category: Writers Cafes

Wednesday Writer’s Cafe 2/10

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

Greetings and Salutations dear reader. I have been busier than a one legged man in an @$$ kicking contest. Back in September I thoughtlessly told the current co-president of my son’s coop that if she couldn’t find someone to step up by January, I would consider being co president for the 2016-2017 school year. So of course by January she hadn’t found anyone, so I signed on. Then last Monday she approached the pair of us co-pres and asked us to step up now as she needs to pull back and the other co-pres just left. Um….my nicely staggered responsibility arc for this year just slammed into overdrive.

Earlier tonight I was accepted into the FreeValley Publishing cooperative. This is pretty exciting news. I now have access to a number of marketing events over the course of the year. I need to order more books. If you’re local to the PacNW keep tuned in, I’ll be posting about events. The first of which is NorWesCon the last weekend in March.

I’ve decided to report on my stated 2016 goals each Wednesday at cafe for a little prod of accountability.

– Research marketing locations for the next free giveaway for Scripting the Truth. Figure out the Reddit problem. Fine tune my categorization on amazon.

√ I abandoned the Reddit problem. They can kiss my @$$. Yes I am feeling a little profane tonight, I’m too tired to think of better descriptive words. FVP should help with marketing. Plus I just crossed the magical ten reviews line on Amazon. I can now take advantage of a number of marketing options. More on that soon.

– Write 2500 plus words per week on my 2015 Nano novel til completion. (Only another 5-6 weeks to go on that, I think.)

√ Done.

– Participate in one flash fiction challenge per month.

√ I need to do something for February. There’s a short story competition I was thinking about getting something together for but I just don’t think I have the time to make the deadline. See the commentary about being co-president. I didn’t even mention I’m still on the scheduling committee for this year. And on the board at the club. No wonder I don’t have time to work my writing career.

– Prepare and teach “Nano to Publish”.

√ January was good. February is in the works. Less preparation for this month. I want to have lots of time to interact with the class because that first critique can really hurt.

– Edit my 2015 Nano Novel for 2016 publication.

√ First critique is pending. So far I’ve heard it’s not as good as Scripting the Truth and he knew who the murderer was ten pages after the body was found. Well bleep, bleep, bleep.

– Any time I am not actively working on my 2015 Nano Novel, write 2500 words per week on my spy novel until it is done. (After four years, it’s time to put this mess to bed.)

-Non Applicable at this time.

Non writing goals

– Prepare and teach two classes at the coop for the 2016-2017 school year.

√ This got complicated. I should know soon though if N to P is going to happen. And then there’s this other nebulous maybe class, it’s messy. LOL. That should be my new tag line. My life is messy.

– Take better care of my body, ie. stop compulsively painting, crocheting, and writing until my back or shoulder is so tore I can barely use either. Which leads me to …

√ I did good this week. There was one night where I spent too long at the table working.

– yoga daily.

√ yeppers. Only one 90 minute bout again. It’s hard to squeak out that much time. But soon the kiddo will be done with his two lego classes which means I will have only one morning a week that I need to be out of the house by 9A. That gives me some breathing room.

Breathing room. Sounds divine. God knows I could use some.

Wednesday Writer’s Cafe – 2/3

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

Cafe is preempted because I am in Portland with the kiddo, G, and her kiddo M. This trip was planned for last month but the stomach flu derailed our plans. So we went this week.

We left Tuesday after Lego class for my kiddo and Pilates for G, she is in wicked good shape. First stop was the Mount St. Helens Volcano Museum. We’re home schoolers, every trip must include some education. LOL

Of course when we got there it was closed. Yep, even though the website says open 9-5 daily, daily no longer includes Tuesday and Wednesday. So we took a short hike to let the boys get the wiggles out. Onto Portland.

Checked into our hotel, got rooms right next door to each other, nice accommodating hotel. Lemon verbena soap. Headed out for sushi at Bamboo sushi. Tasty. Kiddo was mad his California roll didn’t have fish roe on it. Sigh. But a trip to Powell’s made everything better, 80 dollars later…but I found some sets of books that are like Bob books, but star wars. Score!

Flight Museum at McMinnville. They have the spruce goose. I saw it in long beach when I was a kiddo so it was cool to take my son now. We ponied up the small amount of extra duckets to take a private cockpit tour. We caught the fighter pilot documentary as well, all about red flag at Nellis. Very cool. In between we kept popping out to the car to enjoy the bounty of tasty treats we picked up from kyra’s bakery on our drive out. Totally gluten free facility, heavenly taste. Cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, sammies, quiche. Hard to say what was the best although the raspberry cheesecake I’m nibbling right now might be winning.

Tomorrow we hit the Oregon science museum, sub tour, and a few paleo food trucks before we head back home.

I’ve decided to report on my stated 2016 goals each Wednesday at cafe for a little prod of accountability.

– Research marketing locations for the next free giveaway for Scripting the Truth. Figure out the Reddit problem. Fine tune my marketing strategy.

√ working on it. I really need more reviews, hence my new give away on offer. Review Scripting the Truth and get an e-copy of my murder mystery free when I publish it later this year.

– Write 2500 plus words per week on my 2015 Nano novel til completion. (Only another 5-6 weeks to go on that, I think.)

√ done until I get my first critique back.

– Participate in one flash fiction challenge per month.

√ it’s February. Another sorry will appear soon.

– Prepare and teach “Nano to Publish”.

√ I suppose I should get started on the February class, lol.

– Edit my 2015 Nano Novel for 2016 publication.

√ Houston, we’re in a holding pattern here. First critique is out. Waiting for it to come home.

– Any time I am not actively working on my 2015 Nano Novel, write 2500 words per week on my spy novel until it is done. (After four years, it’s time to put this mess to bed.)

√ I should be working on this right now but I’m using the time to get to some other important projects of the ground.

Non writing goals

– Prepare and teach two classes at the coop for the 2016-2017 school year.

√ there’s some stuff brewing, it looks like I might be teaching much more than n to p but we’ll see how it shakes out.

– Take better care of my body, ie. stop compulsively painting, crocheting, and writing until my back or shoulder is so tore I can barely use either. Which leads me to …

√ two thumbs up.

– yoga daily.

√ made it to daily this week with one 90 minute session. I’d love to get that up to a couple of times a week.

Wednesday Writer’s Cafe 1/27

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 6 Comments

I have a serious case of the I don’t give a f*** funk, as yesterday’s post demonstrated. I am just out of sorts all over the place. I need vacation from my life. Anyone want to swap with me for a couple of weeks. My husband is pretty hot. And my son, despite being an energy drain, is really sweet. I have a well behaved cuddle bug of a dog. My friends are pretty awesome. My house is gorgeous. And I live in a stunning environment.

I know what you’re thinking? If your life is so flipping awesome, why do you want a break?

Duh, so I can appreciate it again. Absence and all that.

Anyway, bailing on write in tonight so I can get a massage which I think I need.

 

I’ve decided to report on my stated 2016 goals each Wednesday at cafe for a little prod of accountability.

– Research marketing locations for the next free giveaway for Scripting the Truth. Figure out the Reddit problem. Fine tune my categorization on amazon.

√ Bleh, I don’t have time for this sh*t.

– Write 2500 plus words per week on my 2015 Nano novel til completion. (Only another 5-6 weeks to go on that, I think.)

√ Bleh, it’s done, as bad as it is.

– Participate in one flash fiction challenge per month.

√ Bleh, it’s still January. I did January already.

– Prepare and teach “Nano to Publish”.

√ Bleh, Taught the first workshop. Have given no thought what so ever to the second workshop. I better get on that.

– Edit my 2015 Nano Novel for 2016 publication.

√ Bleh, edited the rest of the chapters this week to finish my first soft pass. I have sent my novel off to my critique partner for his review by February 20th for the next workshop. But in reality there are already a four or five locations where I know it says “fill in some stuff here later” and I need to get cracking on what I plan to put in those spaces.

– Any time I am not actively working on my 2015 Nano Novel, write 2500 words per week on my spy novel until it is done. (After four years, it’s time to put this mess to bed.)

-Non Applicable at this time.

Non writing goals

– Prepare and teach two classes at the coop for the 2016-2017 school year.

√ Bleh.

– Take better care of my body, ie. stop compulsively painting, crocheting, and writing until my back or shoulder is so tore I can barely use either. Which leads me to …

√ Bleh.

– yoga daily.

√ Bleh.

Wednesday Writer’s Cafe – 1/20

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

Good evening from North Bend. It’s cold , wet, and raining – in other words situation completely normal. I love it here. I really do.

Oh mi god, so tonight we were talking about Powells and how heinous their parking garage is and my friend S tell this story about the time she put a ding in her car. She was not at Powells but in Vancouver in a super tight parking garage and she accidentally bumped a pillar. Somehow it manage to put a little dent right where the door close sensor was so her car started dinging that her door was ajar. She put a “ding” in her car. ROFL. We were all dying laughing.

They were all trying to convince me to start the Downton Abbey train. I’ve been resisting. Mainly because everyone thinks I should watch it. I am so mulish that way. LOL

I’ve decided to report on my stated 2016 goals each Wednesday at cafe for a little prod of accountability.

– Research marketing locations for the next free giveaway for Scripting the Truth. Figure out the Reddit problem. Fine tune my categorization on amazon.

√ Still reading every marketing bit I can get my hands on. I have a long list of things to try when I get to ten reviews on Amazon, most things make that threshold. I am considering strongly running a little promo to help with that. Stay tuned.

– Write 2500 plus words per week on my 2015 Nano novel til completion. (Only another 5-6 weeks to go on that, I think.)

√ This is done more or less. I am well into my first pass of editing.

– Participate in one flash fiction challenge per month.

√ January is done. February still to come.

– Prepare and teach “Nano to Publish”.

√ Taught the first workshop and it went so much better than expected. Tune in Saturday for a recap.

– Edit my 2015 Nano Novel for 2016 publication.

√ It’s on like Donkey Kong. I edited I edited 15 chapters this week. I’m finding some funny parts. I’m liking it better and better. I have my first first pass critique partner assigned and we’ll see what he has to say in the upcoming weeks.

– Any time I am not actively working on my 2015 Nano Novel, write 2500 words per week on my spy novel until it is done. (After four years, it’s time to put this mess to bed.)

-Non Applicable at this time.

Non writing goals

– Prepare and teach two classes at the coop for the 2016-2017 school year.

√ Both done and working on it at the same time. LOL. My proposal is in. I won’t know if they want the class until later this year. But I am still picking and choosing youth appropriate literature for the class anyway.

– Take better care of my body, ie. stop compulsively painting, crocheting, and writing until my back or shoulder is so tore I can barely use either. Which leads me to …

√ Excellent week for listening to my body.

– yoga daily.

√ Every other day. Sigh. I need to really look at my schedule closer and see what I can do to rearrange things. On the plus side I’ve been getting so into my writing I run out of time to yoga some days. So that’s good-ish. LOL

Wednesday Writer’s Cafe 1/13 – late

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

Last night’s cafe was preempted by an emergency meeting at my son’s coop. Why does everything have to happen on Wednesday? Serious? There isn’t another night in the week that people could make things happen?

So there were some issues with the financial future of the coop which the board is now  handling in an appropriate manner in my opinion. And there are a lot of open positions at the coop that need filling. But all in all it will survive for another year. LOL.

I’m on the scheduling committee, which I love. I love to put everything in it’s place. It’s that OCD part of me that would have allowed Napoleon to take Russian, even in winter. LOL. Went out with the other ladies on the committee last night after the general assembly which is why I didn’t get about to posting til I slept that off.

 

I’ve decided to report on my stated 2016 goals each Wednesday at cafe for a little prod of accountability.

– Research marketing locations for the next free giveaway for Scripting the Truth. Figure out the Reddit problem. Fine tune my categorization on amazon.

√ Finished “How to publish a best seller” This week. A post on it will be up this weekend. I’ve also been following a number of blogs where bloggers detail marketing options and sites they tried and their response to formulate a list for myself to try out as soon as I get to ten reviews on Amazon.

– Write 2500 plus words per week on my 2015 Nano novel til completion. (Only another 5-6 weeks to go on that, I think.)

√ I think I finished writing my first pass this week, I’m not really sure though. There is so much clean up work to be done but since I am kicking off the Nano to Publish year long workshop series this Saturday, I will allow it to be done. As a humorous side note, I apparently gave my main character a dog in a throw away line at the start of the novel and never again mentioned him. As I sat on my couch one morning I actually said “I have a dog?” when I read the line and my dog lifted his head and looked at me. Never a good sign when your own dog thinks you’re an idiot. LOL Words: 1534 written and 2 chapters edited with about an even trade: words removed = words added.

– Participate in one flash fiction challenge per month.

√ Finished my flash fiction for January and just on time. LOL Posted last Friday. You can find it here if you missed it.

– Prepare and teach “Nano to Publish”.

√ Preparation underway. Outline and handouts for the class are done and waiting for Saturday.

– Edit my 2015 Nano Novel for 2016 publication.

√ Just started first pass editing, 2 chapters done this week.

– Any time I am not actively working on my 2015 Nano Novel, write 2500 words per week on my spy novel until it is done. (After four years, it’s time to put this mess to bed.)

-Non Applicable at this time.

Non writing goals

– Prepare and teach two classes at the coop for the 2016-2017 school year.

√ I actually wrote my proposal last weekend. I submitted Nano to Publish. I was thinking that was going to be it but after talking to the scheduling committee last night, I will be writing a proposal for a cooking class today for submission as well.

– Take better care of my body, ie. stop compulsively painting, crocheting, and writing until my back or shoulder is so tore I can barely use either. Which leads me to …

√ One incident of excruciating shoulder pain because I painted too long. sigh.

– yoga daily.

√ 3 out of 7. Ouch. This week was rough.

Wednesday Writers Cafe 1/6

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

I met with my good friend S tonight before Cafe to hash out the outline for the class I am teaching next Saturday, with her assistance. We keep joking it’s my baby but she’s playing Doctor Spock. Ha-ha. So the class is actually a year long seminar/workshop series called Nano to Publish. Basically we are taking anyone who shows up through the process of turning their raw Nano novel into a published quality novel by Nano later this year. So that’s been a lot of this week.

I also came to the shocking realization that I am almost out of book reviews. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I did very little reading during Nano and since then I’ve been reading my way through the Flavia de Luce series, but I already reviewed the first one in the series. I need to read some other stuff pronto. Except I’m already reading a homeschooling guide, a marketing guide, and a craft book right now. Ahh what I wouldn’t give for five more hours in the day.

We all actually worked at cafe tonight. I was sitting next to R, who was all about her laptop which made it easy for me to be all about mine. Some nights I love that and this was one of them. I needed to get work done. And I got it. Thanks, R, come sit next to me every Wednesday. LOL

So tell me, when you want beta feedback from someone, what are the three most helpful things they can do?

 

I’ve decided to report on my stated 2016 goals each Wednesday at cafe for a little prod of accountability.

– Research marketing locations for the next free giveaway for Scripting the Truth. Figure out the Reddit problem. Fine tune my categorization on amazon.

√ Reading “how to publish a best seller” right now. 2/3 done.

– Write 2500 plus words per week on my 2015 Nano novel til completion. (Only another 5-6 weeks to go on that, I think.)

√ A little low this week as I got a cold right after New Year’s and needed some extra rest to kick that down to livable. ~1500 words. I will have an exact count going forward

– Participate in one flash fiction challenge per month.

√ Need to write the one I promised to Dan Alatorre this week. 500 word story in the adventure genre, containing my obituary, staring “a courageous 39 year-old woman, who comes from a wealthy background, lives in a fisherman’s cottage and tends to be a bit forgetful” invoking the emotion guilt. Oof. I’ll post when it’s done so you can laugh. This was put together using some random generators. Not my choice.

– Prepare and teach “Nano to Publish”.

√ Preparation underway. Lots of new research. Outline for the first class half done.

– Edit my 2015 Nano Novel for 2016 publication.

– Non applicable at this time.

– Any time I am not actively working on my 2015 Nano Novel, write 2500 words per week on my spy novel until it is done. (After four years, it’s time to put this mess to bed.)

-Non Applicable at this time.

Non writing goals

– Prepare and teach two classes at the coop for the 2016-2017 school year.

√ well, since one of them is Nano to Publish, I am kind of working on this as I go.

– Take better care of my body, ie. stop compulsively painting, crocheting, and writing until my back or shoulder is so tore I can barely use either. Which leads me to …

√ I’m doing ok more or less on this, this week anyway.

– yoga daily.

√ Not to channel Meatloaf but four out of five ain’t bad. LOL

 

Wednesday Writer’s Cafe

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

Good evening my friends. First off I have to say thank you for all your support yesterday. It’s nice to hear I am just a standard insecure writer basket case as opposed to a special blend of crazy.

And what a difference a day can make. I wrote more than 2000 words today on my Nano Novel. At that rate I’ll finish this puppy by Christmas. Because we all know it works just like that. LOL. Snort. LOL.

On the way to write in tonight I saw a motorcycle with a fully lit Christmas tree in the side car. How freaking awesome.

Speaking of awesome things, if you’ve been waiting, the time is neigh. The kindle version of my novel, Scripting the Truth, will be a free download from December 23rd to December 27th. I’ll post a link when it’s available. But save the date now.

In the mean time, I think I need to go home to bed. My explanation of why I need to stop writing for the night was so convoluted someone wrote it down to add to their work in progress.  Um, glad to know I can be so amusing when I make no sense.

 

 

 

Wednesday Writer’s Cafe – Not

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

So my book came out last Friday. Yeah, me! And what does any writer worth their salt do after launching the first book they have ever published? They go on vacation. So I am gone.

While I am gone however, things will continue to tick over here. Tomorrow I will have my last Virtual Book Tour blog stop. Weekend workshops and Monday Book Reviews will continue to appear with the well oiled functionality of wordpress’s scheduling service. LOL.

I’ll tell you all about it when I get back, in time for Nanowrimo, I promise.

Wednesday Writer’s Cafe – The coolest thing ever

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

Today was so cool. First thing today I woke up to an email that said this:

Congratulations! Your book “Scripting the Truth” is available for pre-order in the Kindle Store. It is available for customers to pre-order here.

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

After I got done dancing and prancing about like a maniacal idiot, I realized I still have so much work left to do. So then I buckled down and answered a ton of questions for my interviews, I sorted through my novel to pick out excerpts that will move through the book without giving too much away, and contacted my blog stops to nail down some dates.

Whew.

And while I was at it I found somewhere new to board my dog for our upcoming vacation because my previous boarder announced she was overbooked when I tried to set up a drop off time. Makes me ask why the heck she said yes to me 4 months ago if she couldn’t but I digress. Thanks Krista for coming to my rescue.

Nine days. Nine days. My book will be born in nine days. Damn, the last time I was like this was when I was nine months pregnant. At least this birth won’t involve excruciating pain. Right? Right? gulp.

Friday Fun – Woot, Woot, Woot

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

My proof came in the mail last night. I was so excited I practically threw the other mail at my girlfriend Patty who was walking my dog with me so I could rip open the cardboard packaging.

It is beautiful. I was so happy last night.

Today on the other hand…

I have been told my font is too hard to read for my title. Bleh.

And then I started going through things, from the back, one sentence at a time backwards (I’m explaining it badly but it is a viable editing method.) and I keep finding mistakes. Crapola. Pardon my language.

So back to editing. It has rather taken the bloom off having a copy in mScripting the Truth Front Covery hand. LOL

My countdown meter reminds me three weeks to launch. Eek. So to tantalize you a bit….Here is the front cover….what do you think about the font for the title?