Life in progress

Tag Archives: advice


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Can You Believe It?

Don’t waste time. There is money to be made and advancement is within reach. A space at home to develop your ideas will help you increase your income and stabilize your financial situation. Invest in yourself and your talent.

As tired as I am, I can’t help but feel the motivation from my horoscope today, especially considering the thought I had last week about taking some university courses. And heck, what writer doesn’t need a space in his or her home to work? It’s like this was written for me.

I don’t usually put too much stock in horoscopes, but there are times like these when they really hit the target. My biggest problem now is choosing where to really focus my efforts. If I’m to take the courses, I still have all summer to myself to work on my novel. I’m still trying to decide if I should just self-publish without trying to find an agent/publisher or if I should brush up another project and give the whole self-publishing thing a go to see what is involved. Maybe some good, honest critique of my novel is what I really need before I make my final decision.

In the meantime, I’m psyched. I have a dream. I have a work-in-progress that I truly believe in. And now I have a cheap newspaper horoscope telling me I’m on the right track.

Can you believe it?


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Cheer

I’m a generally cheerful person. I try not to let things get me down. No, the situation in which I live is not ideal, but it’s really as good as it’s ever going to get. I have enough people and things in my life to make me content. I do my best for those I love, and though I could probably use a little more time off, I manage quite well, given what I have.

Yet I’ve found myself complaining a lot of late. If I was to stand back and have a frank word with myself, I’d say, “If you don’t like the way things are, change them.” So that’s what I’m going to do.

Here’s a photo of three poppies.

poppies

I think the one on the right is playing peek-a-boo.

What I really need is a vacation away from here. I want to get away – to get out of my miniscule world and experience something different. Not exotically different, necessarily, just off the block, out of town, to see new faces and unfamiliar places.

I want to break free, damnit! Thank goodness the Queen concert is coming up.


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Social Media and Cover Art

It’s official – I think I’m everywhere now. I just signed up for a Pinterest account today. Since starting this blog, I’ve added my name to Tumblr, Goodreads and Twitter … times two.

I created my second Twitter account for my novel… which brings me to a request.

I will be looking, I suppose soon, for an artist to render the cover, assuming I go the self-publishing route. I need someone who can draw or paint a realistic portrait. The picture I have in mind is pasted across the header of my novel’s Twitter account, here: https://twitter.com/thegreatdagmaru (Feel free to follow me while you’re there. 😉 ) For two reasons I can’t use this actual picture: one, it’s not mine, and two, because there are changes I’d like to make to it. It really just gives a general idea.

Among a couple of other things, this is the photo that inspired the novel. In my mind, some rendition of it must go on the cover.

If you know anyone who might be qualified and interested in doing some cover artwork, please let me know in the comments. Again, not in my immediate plans, but I’ll certainly contact anyone who is recommended.

In the meantime, if anyone would kindly explain to me how any of the above social media sites actually work, I would be truly grateful. I have no clue what I’m doing anywhere but here on WordPress – and even that’s questionable.


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Everybody’s Different

Diversity is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? Well, not always.

If you’re at all sociable: whether you go out of the house, or stay in and spend your days on the internet, you’re bound to meet someone who gets on your nerves. I remember when my ex and I started dating. Everything was flowers and wine and laughter… and then I found out he was a morning person. I, on the other hand, am not one for more than a grunt if you’re lucky before my first coffee, so the singing coming from the direction of the shower was enough to set my teeth on edge.

While that wasn’t actually painful, I do now at times feel physical discomfort when I come across someone whose nature is completely different to mine. Take, for instance, people who live in a constant state of drama. I have enough real life problems to even consider worrying about who has pissed off whom and how they’re going to badmouth them until everyone else hates them. And it happens everywhere! Social media, high schools, offices and even old-age homes.

What I don’t understand is, why do people do this to themselves? Why can’t people just live and let live? So what if so-and-so is pissing you off? Ignore them. Don’t let them pull you into their world of misery. I certainly didn’t let my ex get the best of me with his early morning glee, and since he was still serenading the shower head when we broke up, I sure didn’t do anything to stifle him. Then again, maybe by that time he was doing it just to get on my nerves.

I know I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: life is too short. I think if we can all accept that not everyone is the same as us, that we all have our quirks, our opinions, and our preferences in life, we could all be so much happier.

Stop trying to change people. Embrace their differences. Just not necessarily in the shower.


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A is for … About

“I’m writing a novel,” I say, with trepidation.

“Really?” they reply. “What’s it about?”

“Well, it’s about a girl who leaves home and meets a magician.”

“Oh. That sounds … nice.”

“But his family has this deep dark secret.”

(Best case scenario.) Their eyebrows lift a notch. “That sounds intriguing!”

(What usually happens because I lost them after the word ‘magician.’) “What? I was paying attention to something else.”

Explaining what your story is about can be the most difficult thing. From what I’ve discovered by experience, it’s even harder than writing a blurb – because at least with a blurb, if someone is going to bother reading it, they’ve probably committed themselves mentally to paying attention to at least two sentences – one more than you’ve got to grab them with in conversation.

Trying to explain what I do, off the top of my head, is never easy. I don’t have a natural gift for talking about myself. That’s why I write. And so I’m thinking that this may be one of the major reasons that it’s not a good idea to talk about being an author at all.

Before I do, however, publish my novel, I’ll be sure to write myself a sentence which I will recite verbatim whenever anyone asks.

For the short fiction that goes with this post, please visit my fiction blog here: A is for … Aarin, the Topless Pirate.


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Missing the Magical Switch

Greater, more successful writers than myself (not a stretch) state that in order to be a writer one must dedicate one’s effort into writing: a writer must write. Here lies my conundrum.

I have no qualms over calling myself a writer. It’s what I do constantly – if I’m not physically typing on a keyboard or writing little notes, I’m composing something in my head with hopes that I’ll remember it.

But being a single mom, 80% responsible for two kids (meaning that I get to sleep 15% of the time and the other 5% is when their dad takes care of them) and having to be always within calling distance of my own mother, I don’t have time to write. What might take me three months more of full-time editing on my novel to render it publishable is, at the rate I’m going, bound to take me three years. Frustrated doesn’t begin to describe it.

I imagine there is, somewhere in the universe, a switch that can be flicked which could cause me to be able to stop merely calling myself a writer and become one. I realize that I cannot expect to ever take on a full-time job; my life is with my children, and taking care of them is apparently my job and mine alone. Would I want it any other way? Absolutely not.

Yet writing is also my life. I don’t live for my children – anyone who says they do, in my opinion, is in for a huge let-down when their kids leave home for good. I live for myself and I am a writer. I have a story that I feel needs to be told, of a world where I hope one day people will be able to escape, as I have. It’s inside me, it’s on my screen and it’s on paper, and all it wants is to be polished to a bright, shiny tale that many will love.

If only the magical switch to make it all come true wasn’t so far out of my reach.


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Made You Look!

Now that I have your attention, let’s conduct an experiment together!

Since I wrote my last article on how to get and keep followers on WordPress, I’ve been thinking a lot about what really gets a reader’s attention. Part of my musings are in light of a comment I received that many blogs attract their audience by being “acerbic, critical, cynical,” (thank you bethbyrnes) but I think that’s really only the half of it. Opinionated Man, for example, gets his following from not only writing excellent, easy to read posts, but he keeps his following by being friendly and generous with his advice. Despite what he might say about not expecting anyone to re-visit his sites here and at HarsH ReaLiTy, we do.

But what really grabs people’s attention in the first place? A little of it is site design (and that can work both ways – I rarely stay on a page that takes more than twenty seconds to load) but most of it is what immediately stands out – the post title and opening lines. Those are what people see in their reader, after all.

What sort of content attracts us? Certainly something that promises to be helpful. But human nature dictates most of what we will click on. These are the three things I narrowed it down to:

Kittens, car crashes, and nudity.

Sex has been used in advertising for around a century, according to Wikipedia. It’s almost everywhere, whether overt or subliminal. From experience I can say that erotica gets noticed.

Car crashes: rubbernecking is the number one reason for slow-downs on the highway. In the blogging world I would equate an auto accident to just about any sort of bad news that makes me think to myself, “It could happen to anyone, and that’s a scary thing,” or “I’d never do that! What were they thinking?!?” If you’re into that sort of thing–talking about the news, or just relating a story about what happened to yourself or someone you know (which is something I often do)–then you’ll probably find you received a fair bit of attention for it.

Kittens, as well as puppies and bunnies of course, are what the internet was made for, wasn’t it? 😉

I’m sure there are many more examples of things which gain plenty of attention: giveaways and contests; awards; rants; articles that deliberately make people angry or raise their eyebrows … care to add to the list?

Here’s your part in the experiment: I want you (yes, I’m looking at you) to write below in the comments, the title of your most popular post other than your about page. What was your opening sentence? Heck, go ahead and post a link to it. Let’s see what really gets the most attention, shall we?

This might be something we can all learn from! 😀

Originally posted at A Good Blog Is Hard To Find Apologies if this is a repeat post.


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EDDD 20 – All I Want – World Peace

It’s Day Five of “All I Want,” and today I’d like to ask what you would do to make the world a better place, if you could.

The wish for world peace, to feed the hungry, to end poverty and abuse, and to rid the planet of disease is an ideal for many of us. Some have a favourite charity; many like me find it hard to decide on just one.

We’ve all heard the adage, ‘Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he’ll feed himself for a lifetime.’ Given this, I’ve pondered what, if I could teach enough people, would make a difference in the world. I came up with one idea.

I would teach people to choose their battles wisely – to not sweat the small stuff, so to speak. For instance, if something someone is doing isn’t going to hurt anyone, simply let them get on with it in their own way. On a purely domestic level I believe to do so would create peace and harmony in homes, in neighbourhoods, and in towns and cities. To teach people to live and let live may not end wars, but it would certainly make many places in the world a better place to live.

What would you do, if you could, to make the world a better place? Would you teach the world a skill? Would you build a shelter in your own neighbourhood for people who need it?

I want to hear from you.

Blog post of December 20th, in honour of Every Damn Day December. Check it out!


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Sleeplessness

I couldn’t sleep at all last night. Not one single wink. So I got up and had my breakfast, the kids are gone to school and my papers are done. Great, I thought. The rest of the day I’ll spend sleeping, until the first school bus arrives.

Wrong. I lay down in bed… nothing. Still awake. After an hour and a half of trying (okay, maybe the two phone calls didn’t help) I’m up and trying to figure out what to do next. I have two blog posts I want to write… except doing anything is difficult because I can’t think straight and I can barely see straight. If I couldn’t touch-type I wouldn’t be writing this.

What does one do when they are too exhausted to sleep? I’m not sure how the hell I’m going to be able to look after my kids when they come home. I’ve never experienced such a thing before.


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The more

Contentment. Who has it? Put your hand up if you have everything you want. A new computer? A better place to live, of your own perhaps? A new car? Perhaps a mate? Even more followers on WordPress? Or for someone to acknowledge your brilliant work? Yes, most of us are guilty of wishing for more of that.

With the internet came this wonderful tool for being recognized. Faster, further the more people the better.  And more and more. As a society we’ve become greedier than ever before. Recognition has become the new consumer’s must-have. People are coming out of the woodwork to publish their photography and their art, their stories, and regardless of how good or how bad it is, it’s being consumed by those who want reciprocation.

Will it ever end? Will we drive ourselves into the grave staying up til all hours, sitting on our asses pounding out our work while the blood clots in our veins, eating too much or too little until one day someone finds us with a smoking keyboard… ‘But he did some great work!’ they’ll say. They may appreciate us when we’re dead. Only we died in discontentment, wanting more.

More fiction