Inspiration and Determination

Life is tough. Doing what you love to do takes not only desire, but determination to overcome any obstacles in your path.

For fourteen years, Clayton was a part of our lives. Almost on a daily basis.

He became one of my husband’s closest friend, perhaps his best friend. (Next to me, of course. 😛 )  Not positive I could say that my husband was Clayton’s best friend…one of his best friends perhaps.

He was just that kind of guy. All heart and room for so many.

For me, he was inspiration. A hero of sorts. For our daughter, he was the big brother she never had.

Clayton held down a full time job, ran a cattle ranch, auctioneered, taught future ranchers, and so much more.

Pretty much from a wheelchair. He had a disability since birth, but you could never say he was disabled. Not even when things progressed to where he had to use the wheelchair all the time and couldn’t even function with crutches.

When life gets you down. When there are obstacles, physical or mental, threatening to not let you be who you want or do what you want. When you find fear moving in. When self confidence threatens to stop you.

Think of this guy.

Forge ahead. Find a way to make it work.

Be like Clayton.

 

Check out this youtube video about Clayon to see why he influenced hundreds of people during his short life. This was an interesting find for me because my husband was actually with him when the call came through about his house burning down that’s mentioned at the first of the video.

 

Link to the recent story about his death here with another video.

 

***Featured image is one of Clayton’s favorite cows.

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May Flowers are Drooping

The weather is settling into our 90 degree steamy summer season. While it’s a welcome sight after the winter that would never go away, the plants are feeling the stress during the afternoons.

The flowers by the garage get too much sun, a poor place to plant them. They’ll be gone whenever the builders come in to tear down the old garage and put up a new one.

The flower garden arrangement between our house and neighbor’s house that gets shade during a good portion of the day is doing well. This is also where I put my potted herbs. They seem to love it there this year.

The winter wore me down, work was slow going. Slower than I wanted and needed it to be, but now I have found my rhythm. The work, the words, and the business are flowing well. I expect much this year.

The Health Update

Latest doctor’s visits have told me that I’m doing very well on my health. No signs of anything to really worry about.

My blood pressure has been in the normal range for a number of months now. Mostly through responsible eating and responsible coffee drinking, of which I’m a bit of an expert on.

In fact, I was dizzy quite a lot for awhile. Enough that the doctor sent me to the ENT, who gave me a clean bill of health. The dizziness abated, and we surmised that my body was so used to extremely high blood pressure for so many years that it had to adjust to handle normal blood pressure.

I do have occasional dizzy issues, but we feel it’s because I need my eyes checked. I have not done that. My glasses that I don’t need all the time are way out of date. It’s possible I need to have glasses when I work now.

I can’t take drugs that help cholesterol, but my habits to fight that have resulted in that coming down. Let’s hope that continues.

And I lowered my risk of diabetes.

I haven’t relaxed in any of those areas and will remain vigilant as ever.

Weight loss is still happening slowly. Too slow for my goals, and my doctor would like to see more. A little more quickly would be nice. I am on my last 50 pounds, I believe. I would like to see two more sizes down by the end of the year.

Eating habits aren’t the problem. Exercise is a bit of an issue.

One of my main hidden conditions is an inherited misalignment of bones in the one leg. It throws everything off, which has caused me to be laid up for a few times. Luckily, while in therapy I had an excellent therapist who showed me how to care for it at home and do the therapy on my own.

The bad thing is, I can’t ride my fit desk as often as I like because of it. I need uneven pedals and it just isn’t feasible. So, the fit desk is for short periods of time to promote knee joint movement and circulation only. Not a real form of exercising.

Also, walking hasn’t been real easy this year. And, just to be safe, if I do any walking, I take my big knarled walking stick with me.

Walking IS actually better now. I’ve broken down and purchased good walking shoes from the shoe store versus the cheapos I have been getting. Helps a lot.

The truth is, I haven’t seen my bone as far out of alignment as it is now. A by product of allowing the weight to come on and adopting a lazy lifestyle.

I’m very familiar with this condition, as I’ve grown up with it. And my mother still deals with it. I know what would happen at the specialist, and where it would lead in my case.

Reconstructive surgery in my future.

I don’t want reconstructive surgery. There’s too many problems with such things. And no guarantees it will work.

So, I researched things and found that there are specialists who deal in a much less invasive and less problematic procedure than reconstructive surgery.

Of course, none are local to me so this is something that takes some planning on my part.

My goal is now to spend the next twelve months losing my weight, building up my muscles, and setting aside a certain amount of my income for expenses. Then, go get analyzed by one of the specialized doctors and approved for the procedure.

Biggest challenge now is getting core muscles in shape. I’ve lost enough weight to have very lax muscling and flab. Time to tighten that baby up.

I’m also starting some yoga to see if that’s something I want to keep doing. Not sure. I actually found another I think I’d rather do.

The Business Update

Being a writer is one of the most rewarding careers a person can have. I know this. I feel this. And my business is no where close enough to my goals for anyone to believe me in this.

The best thing is that I’m close enough to see the results of what I’m doing, even if it isn’t here yet. And close enough to know it’s a very, very believable outcome to what I’m doing.

The thing about goals is that often when you make them, you only half believe they’ll come true. Sometimes it’s because you’re so far at the starting point when you first set your goals up that you imagine all the things that can go wrong and keep you from achieving your goal.

Sometimes it’s because you have the wrong idea about your goals. There’s too much of this idea that you should go after your dreams. What you want out of life is your dream.

No, that’s wrong.

Dreams are just that. Dreams. We know that. They don’t come true. We wake up from dreams.

So when we set up our dreams and go for them, instead of setting proven achievable goals and going for those, we set ourselves up for doubt and then failure.

Then, we don’t surround ourselves with people with the same ambitions and goals in life. Often, we surround ourselves with people who believe you have to take whatever job is there and not step out to make things happen the way you really want them to.

Then, they gripe about it.

Then, they pass judgement on those who have the “better life.” Especially those who have the better paychecks.

I don’t surround myself physically with like minded people. They’re pretty hard to find in my neck of the woods.

My like minded people are online. Writers and graphics artists in the same fields. Creative people in the places I hang out.

Finding accountability partners at my same level is tough. Partly because I’ve done so much on my own that I’m a bit in between of  where the others are.

Last year, I made the leap and got a business strategist to coach me in monthly sessions. This keeps me on track. Not with the learning, but with the doing.

Took awhile for the momentum to kick in, but it has now.

I expect things to move in leaps and bounds this summer. I expect to hit or even exceed my goal by the end of the year.

I have a business building retreat with my business strategist and a dozen other people in October. I have a goal to hit by that time. I would not be surprised if I exceed that goal.

Just Be There

The number one, most important thing to attaining your goals.

I can’t say this is what I’ve learned this year…I’ve known it for much of my life. But this is the first year where I’ve felt this habit really sink in to my thick head.

If you’re going to run your business. If you’re going to obtain your goals with your business.

You gotta show up.

In running a brick and mortar business I’ve never had an issue with this. It just happened naturally.

With running online businesses this has been a constant struggle for me.

Think I’m finally cracking it.

The Fiction Publishing

Not sure what to say here.

An artist has not answered the last two emails to her and three books are tied up with her for the covers. In a meeting, it was opted that we may just write that expense off as a loss and move on.

(Not all the fault is on the artist. It’s been quite difficult to get our schedules to meet up for various reasons.)

I’m rebuilding and moving websites and finishing up some files. When I finish I’ll do one more attempt to connect and get what we need. If there’s no response after two weeks, we’ll republish old forms of said books and stick with those versions.

A lot is moving forward for my fiction books, but that’s all I’m at liberty to say for now.

We will reveal a lot more in the late summer and fall time.

Non-fiction Publishing

Most of what was planned through the press has been canceled due to health reasons of the writers for those projects.

I will have a lot of pieces coming out though from now on in the forms of reports, ebooks, and print books.

Most of mine will deal with responsible coffee drinking, the coffee industry, and coffee marketing. With some general small business marketing thrown in.

 

That’s it for now. Take care of yourself and those around you.

 

No one is promised tomorrow. But I can keep my promises for each day God does give me. ~Carmen~

 

 

When You Think You Want to Be A Freelance Writer

I’ve been at this writing thing a number of years, and have noticed a few things beginners to this career do. Some do more of these things, some just one.

1. They assume what they know is enough and don’t strive to be “better.”
2. They read promises of what could happen and get scared off, believing it’s hype and too good to be true.
3. They suffer information overload, burn themselves out before they even get started, and decide to wait on tables for the rest of their lives.
4. They battle information overload, but follow the wrong mentors.
5. They tell themselves they’re not good enough and quit.
6. They get started, but undervalue what they’re worth.
7. They believed it was going to be easy.

First, I’m going to tackle the last one.

While freelance writing may be the better answer for you, let me be perfectly clear. Being a freelance writer is NOT easy.

But we’ve all heard the timeless saying: Nothing word doing is ever easy.

If you think being a freelance writer is easy and you fit in the first category where you believe what you know is enough…well, get over yourself.

You’ll need to learn MORE and improve.

You’ll need to grow from “working for the man” and “become the man,” so to speak. It doesn’t matter if you led a big team with little disruption from upper management. It doesn’t matter if you were involved with the budgeting.

It doesn’t matter if you’re the best writer in the world.

You’ll need to alter your perspective in some areas and learn how to operate in others. You’ll have duties you didn’t have before. You’ll have to learn how to speak the way others speak so your words connect with them.

If you come from a position of prestige and self importance, you’ll need to find humility empathy. If you came from a position of self employment or reliance, you’ll need a drive to become “better” for your clients’ sake more than your own.

For people in category two who believe this is too good to be true. Well, frankly, if you completely dismissed the writing life because you couldn’t see past the hype of what can be achieved, either you don’t believe in yourself enough or want it badly enough.

You need to step back and fix that first. It’s okay to not fully believe in yourself at first. Confidence comes with time, with the more jobs you do, and more connections you make in this profession. But you must be resolved not to let that cripple you. Even if you don’t believe in yourself at first, decide now to be willing to believe in yourself and forge ahead, with guidance.

A close family friend of mine gave up his inherited business. He was honest with himself. He said, “I don’t want to be a boss. I just want to work.”

And that’s okay. There’s no shame in not wanting the duties a boss goes through. As a freelancer, you become the boss. Be sure you want it badly enough to be able to deal with the duties you’ll have as the boss.

When you operate your own freelance business, you’ll have to deal with the same issues as any business owner. You have to show up and be available for clients when you say you will be.

You may have to fire someone. Yes, I’ve had to fire an editor before. You have to worry about taxes, budgets, broken equipment, bad clients, people who don’t like your business, etc.

Yes, we are a fickle society. We have those who disagree with anything and everything. They will appear and try to ruin your party.

And you’ll have two other things to deal with:

1. People won’t believe you really work and have a real schedule.
2. You will have to learn how to say “No.”

It’s funny. People read words all the time, yet they don’t believe anyone has the job of writing those words. Perhaps, in 50 years, no one will and computers will do it all.

But for now it’s us. And we get paid for it. Until you make it big (whatever that means to you) and can live by your writing, people may not take your work or work hours seriously.

Even after you make it, many won’t take it seriously. They believe because you work for yourself, so your time is your own, and it’s easier for you to take time off at a moment’s notice. Of course you won’t be able to if you’re running your business seriously.

You will have to develop the ability to say “No.” Sometimes to some very important requests. Sometimes to even yourself when you think, “I’ve got time. I’m going to take a break and do [something other than work.]”

During my early years a mentor said something very important. “You’ll work longer and harder for yourself starting out than you ever did working for someone else.”

It’s true. Oh, the 4 hour work days for writers with a bigger income do really exist. But it doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen for everyone. It took them time to build up the right clientele, and they usually work in an area that come with royalties that go on for years.

Can you create a six figure income? Sure. But it’s not easy, nor does it happen quickly. Not as a rule anyway. I’ve observed a few work their butts off specifically aiming for that income and it still took 2-5 years to get to that point.

I’m not saying there are exceptions. I’ve seen one get serious about her career and within a year be a six figure income copywriter. She also works a full work week. No four hour days.

Don’t kid yourself. It’s competitive out there and making it won’t be easy.

It IS entirely possible to enjoy the “writer’s life” as some companies call it. What that means to you is your choice. This could be a five figure income or a six figure income.

The trick is to decide what your desired end goal is when you get into this business right away. Then be prepared to learn what it takes to achieve it.

I’ll tell you now that I’m not at my end goal yet. I really didn’t start seriously working towards it immediately. By my calculations, I won’t achieve my end goal for another few years.

The incredible achievements I’ve seen in my business over the past several months have boistered my confidence though.  I know now for sure that my end goal will be achieved. I may even make it sooner than I anticipate.

IF, and only if, I do the work. This is the time I have to really get serious and work harder for it.

Steve Roller describes the process of realizing what it will take to make it in this business as coming from the dark side to the light side. He says it so much better and more completely than I do in his new book, The Freelancer Manifesto.

I highly recommend it. I strongly suggest you buy it and read it BEFORE taking any courses for starting your freelance career. Make sure you’re willing to work hard for your better working life.

If you’ve invested in courses, but you feel discouraged or lost, yet know you still want to work for yourself, his book’s for you too. Reading about the dark side will help you reaffirm your desire to have this career and your willingness to do the work.

You’ll find renewed confidence that you’re on the right path by surviving his rendition of the dark side of freelancing. You’ll find discover new ways to define and achieve the goals you want in the rest of the book.

Buy Steve’s Book Here

Watching Shows and Listening to Books

We rarely watch TV anymore. It’s more there for when the kids come over to play their shows. The idiot box gets more attention during foul weather to keep track of storms than any other time. And then it’s less than it used to be.

We spend a lot of our show watching time in Amazon Prime. We’ve become attached to shows like 800 Words and the The Heart Guy lately.

I watched a series called Mayday this last week. It’s a show about how a girl’s disappearance affects this community. Suddenly everyone is wondering who did it, knowing the chances are that it was one of them.

Everyone has their weird sides, the little quirks in their personalities that are odd. Usually we live with one another and accept them as they are. Mayday illustrated how those individual oddities are amplified when everyone is under suspicion.

Love the part about the rocks. Not saying any more. You’ll just have to watch the show to see what I’m talking about.

Years ago, I worked as marketing manager for a publisher who had to close after a short business life. I met Michael Hultquist then and started to represent his book with the publisher.

We stayed in touch since then. He runs Chili Pepper Madness and creates awesome recipes. I bet I use one of his recipes for our meals once a week. I’m a sucker for poblanos and jalapenos.

Michael is one of the writers for a movie called 12 Feet Deep that released last week. I rented it through Prime. (With rentals, you get access to the show for a period of 7 days, to start when you first play the movie. You have 30 days to start the movie on the rental plan.)

I’m used to movies with multiple locations and a lot larger cast of characters. I expected to see a movie that’s written well with a good storyline, but slow moving.

I was wrong.

This movie is great. It didn’t drag one bit. Kept my attention the whole way…it was intense! I love how the sisters’ back story was woven throughout the experience to give it more feeling, and more intensity.

People are commenting on how the movie makes them a little fearful now when they visit their local swimming pool. LOL  I’m more concerned about the people working at the swimming pool after watching this movie.

Thrillers that go deep into the characters personalities and stories appeal to me. Sometimes more than thrillers that also provide a lot of action or special effects. This one gave me all of that.

Another long time author friend of mine recently had one of her books published into Audible. For her, I got a membership.

I met her when Arthur of her futuristic Authurian legend series was just being developed. Her writing fascinated me back in those days and it still does today. Her books are ones I read more than once.

I’m still making my way through the audio book for Darkspire Reaches, but loving it. Julie Hinton does a wonderful job of getting the characters’ personalities to come out. You team this up with C.N. Lesley’s wonderful words and it’s a very entertaining book to listen to.

She gets deep into the character’s emotions and helps you feel what the character is going through. Action is well paced, settings and scenes so wonderfully illustrated. Beautifully read by Julie Hinton.

I’ll be looking for more books read by her when I need to get the next one.

 

A Random Observation and Thoughts

He was a gruff looking individual with the clean jeans and white shirt of a well-bathed outdoors man. His baseball cap and medium length, grizzly gray beard spoke of the typical macho man.

But his body language and walk were the opposite. He walked tiptoes first, as a woman does in high heels. His smile was a little too perky. The smacking of his lips as he talked took away from his masculinity.

His personality and manners were bold and confident. With no fear of talking to women or men alike, he moved through the room saying hello to everyone.

This man’s appearance, mannerisms, and body language revealed a much more complex individual than the stereotypical male.

This man behaved as if following two separate rules of what being himself meant. Perhaps due to an alternative lifestyle at home. Perhaps due to being raised by and around people of multiple lifestyles.

Whatever the truth, his confidence said he was comfortable in his own skin, and surrounded by people who accepted him as he was. It spoke of a man who lived as he feels right to do, and of a society that let him.

What is the secret to this personal power?

The community in which one lives? A society who allows people to develop and grow as they see fit without judging. Perhaps a society that does not bury itself in devices, hearing the repeated outcries of the self proclaimed oppressed. That learns to relax and just BE.

My confidence has grown as I’ve become more educated. As I’ve taken an interest in myself to be the best I can be in health, business, and spirituality. As I live to please myself and live by my own standards, versus living by the standards of others.

Working 60 hours a week seemed way too overwhelming at first, but my education and experience has advanced me to new levels. I appreciate my potential and my ability more.

I hang around people online who are on the same path as I am, some a lot further along this path than I. Many of these people I’ll meet in person in October, some I’ve met with via phone. Others I will still meet on phone, skype, or even in person before then.

I’ve begun meeting with business people in my industry niche. Many opportunities have come my way. I feel many more coming.

Negative people don’t belong in my life now. No matter where their paths lie, the people I’m with spend their time promoting what’s right, not what’s wrong. They see something wrong in their pathway, they do something to help improve it.

 

May the 4th Edition

Let’s try a more longer blog post update style, more along the lines of Hipiers style.

I’m so busy in my daily writing life and my family life that a daily personal blog isn’t that realistic.Truth be told, I may offer my help to others on their social site writing and upkeep for businesses, but when it comes to personal social sites, I’m not a huge fan. The most active people seem to be the idiots anymore. More trouble than they’re worth to deal with. I’d rather go walk the dog for 1/2 an hour than spend the time reading their stupid words and responding to them.

Sometimes you get these people in business accounts, especially active ones. But by using tact, such things can be turned around in the business’s favor. Thankfully, most people are smart enough to not be fooled by idiots.

As a writer, what burns me the most is idiots who can’t be bothered to educate themselves well enough to spell, yet are willing to spout out lines of rubbish to speak down onto others. Today I looked at a thread retaliating against a comment. The comment was one the writer should have kept to himself and just ignored the first writer. They just do it for attention, which they got.

The commenter is a well educated writer. The ones attacking him are not, and the worse I’ve seen of the bad spellers so far. I’m pretty sure every other word was mispelled. It was exceedingly painful to read. Not because of what they said, which would have been bad enough. Because the horrible writing was like fingernails dragging down a chalkboard.

Social sites were designed to share things with your friends and family. Alongside that, it’s a wonderful tool for a business to connect with their prospects and customers. When done right, it’s like a community.

Mostly, personal social sites are done wrong.

• Let’s discuss everything we disagree with and alienate our family and friends by calling anyone else who disagrees a bad name. (This does NOT promote good feelings from your reader. Most of which, they’ll keep to themselves if they’re wise.)
• Let’s rejoice in bad things happening to others because “they deserve it.” I’m not talking about people who did acts of atrocities…every day folk. (Why would you? Why? We could do with a bit less hate. And even if your friends are silent, they very well may just unfollow you so none of your posts and comments show up. Way to lose your following there.)
• Let’s push our causes onto our family and friends who are wanting to connect with us, and not our causes. (And wear them out by doing so.)
• Let’s push our political views onto our social site, citing multiple times a day things that are wrong and what we HAVE to do about it. (Who cares if someone on our list hates politics and needs to “shut things out” for a few moments.)
• Let’s push our religious beliefs onto our social site. (I know pastors who are friendly with this and can manage just well without calling someone else a sinful disgrace who’s going to burn in hell. Too bad, more of us cannot. Okay to express your beliefs as a way of sharing, not okay to belittle others for their beliefs.)
• Let’s set up conditions on how our friends and family should act on their own profiles or threaten them with unfollowing or unfriending. (If you dare post your political views or religion or if you dare not respond to any of my posts and not show you care, I’m done with you!)
• Digital equivalent of chain letters: hated them in snail mail, hate them in email. Definitely hate them in social site. No, I don’t believe sharing this will make me lucky, or mean that I don’t believe it if I don’t share it. It’s actually insulting to tell me what I do or don’t think. I prefer to read actual updates about YOU, or useful, verified information for daily living, writing, and business. Cute animals is good, let’s just not overdo it, okay?

I tend to keep my mouth shut and just click to “unfollow” such individuals in my news feed. I don’t unfriend them. I don’t publicly threaten to either unfollow or unfriend.

Keep in mind that often what you like and comment on also gets shared to your friends, just as if you shared it. We used to be able to turn this off, but facebook, in that all too familiar genius way of theirs, must have taken that ability away. I couldn’t find it.

Such a shame. I’d like to not have my friends comments show up on my threads. Sometimes those comments reveal more about our friends than we like and we find ourselves in the awkward situation of not knowing if we want to call this person a friend any longer.

Wrestling with this issue now.

Sometimes I’ll comment on someone’s post. But mostly not. I’ll only comment on private groups for my business and my own pages most of the time. The private groups only show up for members.

I tried to find a way to only see actual posts from one very busy friend on my end instead of her comments and likes too, but did not. Haven’t unfollowed this friend because she likes, comments, and posts really interesting stuff. I may have to unfollow here though. Seeing all her likes and comments is way too time consuming!

Who I thought was a good friend did unfriend me after threatening to see too much she wasn’t interested in or to unfriend people who didn’t respond to her posts. She spent a lot of time whining about her troubles and lived off of the attention it gave her. I was sad. Still sad to think about it. But let her go along her way silently…for she said NOTHING personally to me before doing it. Still, it was her choice, and I respect that.

Now, I did unfriend a lot of people when I switched to having a private profile. But I contacted each separately first, and invited them to join me on my pages. Some did. I did this because there was a lot of bad family news coming that I had to make sure only close friends and family saw. And my list was too large to manage properly.

Since then, I just unfollow when the wrong stuff comes up in my feed. For me, it’s racists remarks by those too close to me to unfriend, causes being shoved in my face too often, politics, the few people who can’t be bothered to learn how to spell correctly, people who talk down others, bickering with one another, etc.

Lately, I unfollowed someone who openly threatened to unfollow anyone who talks about politics or religion on their profile.

Right. Okay. Gotcha. She didn’t say forcing these topics on one another…she said talking about it. Big difference there. Out of respect I unfollowed her, since I do consider her a friend. But she has a habit of verbally blasting some things I love periodically, and gripes about little life’s events isn’t something I want to see every day either. She’s a good lady I have on my list to check out once a week, and I watch her on twitter too.

Another friend I need to consider unfollowing for “being mean” in comments. This way, I can check my friend’s profile and those comments won’t show. Minimize the damage done to my thoughts.

Now, I just have to remember to go through my list once a week or so, and visit their actual profile pages to catch up. Something I do for some people I’m not even friends with.

I keep telling myself to unfollow everyone except business associates. That’s truly my daily read. But I do have a few friends who post awesome content, and wonderful cousins with social site finesse I’d like to see daily still.

Facebook’s the worse, so the above is more geared for it. LinkedIn is getting there too. Which is crap. That’s supposed to be more professional of a network, but everything gets ruined at some point it seems. Twitter’s not too bad, as it seems the follower varies from being more picky or the feed too busy to see the riff raff.

I’m working on my own goals. This is what I’m aiming for in my content:

• Informative: I write coffee. I write business. I write fiction and non-fiction. This stuff, and if I know someone who’s actually following me and listening is interested in a topic, I’ll share it.
• Positive: No griping. No airing the dirty laundry. My dad recently passed. I shared his information for family, and I shared pictures as a way of remembering him. In a positive way, not “crying on shoulders” in the virtual sense.
• Good news: Tired of how all the news reported has to be bad. In all my channels, I’m working on promoting things to be happy for and about. Even thought of making a magazine of nothing but happy stories.
• Fully read and researched: If I pass it on, I read it and researched it. RTDA (Read The Damn Article) Too many people share something just for the headline and don’t bother to see if the information is true. Same for memes. Research the words claimed in it FIRST!!! OMG, this drives me nuts. I used to call people out for this all the time.
• Useful: Something people listening can learn from or use in their life. Or learn about me, in the case of close family gift ideas, without having to actually ask me at last minute.
• Sharing: sometimes a few of us are sharing information about something. Or showing off our creations. (I tend to use my pages more when it comes to facebook for this. To allow my followers to choose what topics they wish to show up in their feeds.)

My main twitter is more of a catch all, as is my google plus. But I do have side accounts for more specified categories of interest. Useful for me because of advertising efforts.

For years, when books are at full advertising runs, I get a good baseline of 10,000 people I share to. Not much in the grand scheme of things, and poor results did have two authors thinking I didn’t do my job. I told them. They didn’t believe me. One even said I hadn’t done one thing.

Well, glad you noticed the 20 hours a week I spent at promotions.

Anyway, water under the bridge. And all the other authors were happy and grateful. Made it worth the effort.

Speaking of authors and promoting, I discovered one key thing. Potential readers and current readers truly don’t care to hear from the publisher a lot of the times. They really want one on one attention from the author.

One on one is a loose term. Best thing I can think of is write a blog where you write to your reader as if you’re writing a personal letter to that person.

Out of all the authors I was honored to work with, one stood out. She spoke to her readers personally via her facebook page, and she made efforts to attend local festivals several times through the year. I’m talking ones where people from all over the world attended.

She nutured her author network on a personal level.

We learned to work the advertising attempts together. I’d run an ad, or social site post campaign, and she’d back it up on her end. This increased response greatly over me doing it alone as her publisher. And made a slight increase in response over her doing it alone.

Still, more often than not, I’m going it alone with the book advertising these days. Not so bad. Now it’s time to concentrate on my own writing and stop helping others with theirs, for the most part. Now it will be both the writer and publisher pushing the books.

Speaking of…I know I have it down and I had it planned for publishing The Key of Wendom in March. Obviously, that did not happen. For health reasons and technical mishap with the cover artist, it is delayed even more.

This is unfortunate, and hopefully will be rectified before I’m forced to make some hard decisions on the covers I need with this series. The artist is a very close friend so he has been getting extra consideration.

I am changing gears with what order publications will come out this year to accomodate him, but brainstorming some things to do until then. Can’t comment, since I’m still brainstorming. But something free I can give people to fill the time until the releases actually happen.

I’m now a verified copywriter. I’ve been a copywriter for many years, but only became “verified” this week. This means a company wanting to make sure I’m actually trained as I claim can actually click something to verify my information. Or they can actually call the institution and hear it from a real person. Next week I put those logos up for potential clients to see.

This is a huge milestone in my career for me so a big deal. Happy.

Personally, I have a few other milestones I’ve achieved. Namely, I lost 8 pounds in about the first 15 weeks of the year, and my blood pressure is down to normal. Just last November it was so amazing high I’m surprised I wasn’t sent straight into the hospital. And I haven’t had normal blood pressure for many years.

There’s still some milestones on this journey to make, but I’ve got a good start now. I need to do more biking, and try to do more walking. (another hidden condition is hindering me and hope further treatment won’t be necessary for it)

After this weekend, I’ll pick up the pace and see what happens.

Tomorrow is my dad’s birthday. This year we lost my father-in-law first and then my dad. Rough start.

I’m going to spend dad’s birthday with Mom. Hopefully it won’t be too sad.

As I write this, I see our neighbor’s 10 year old sitting on the porch reading a book. I always like seeing that. We need to encourage our kids to read more, write more, and learn more.

Here I’ll take my leave. Be back sometime. Not sure when. I have a ton of websites to update and a bunch of copy to take care of after the weekend with Mom. All that will have to come first.

Be well.
More ways to keep touch with me:

My personal writing website Serenity Myst, where I post updates in the news as they happen.
My twitter account, where most of my blogging is directed towards, and I do share from my other twitter accounts to this one as they happen @dianacacy
My facebook pages:
Author Page @writerhawkins http://fb.me/writerhawkins best for updates from me personally
Marion Margaret Press Page @marionmargaretpress http://fb.me/marionmargaretpress updates for the press I run
Tempest Myst Page @tempestmyst http://fb.me/tempestmyst updates for the game inworldz that I’m in
Coffee and Biscotti Page @coffeebiscotti http://fb.me/coffeebiscotti updates on my coffee site
Copy Confetti Page for some reason, this does not qualify for a username…just a page I sometimes share useful links for business owners and copywriting.

It’s About Being the Best I Can Be

A few months or so ago, I bought a fit desk for my office. It’s not the ideal space, being a little small for work and a stationary bike both. But it works.

I have a few conditions people wouldn’t know to look at me, or talk to me because I normally do not speak of them. Last year, these things made it rough to do the walking. Many know me from my walks around town, which slowed down a few years ago, thanks to back issues. Not to mention, the weather discouraged me in one form or another.

That’s an excuse, not a reason. I know it, and told myself it numerous times but never listened. Of course, nothing ever improves if you do not work at improving it, and that’s what happened with me.

Finally, I got tired of getting “stuck” halfway down the stairs time after time in our house. My knee, my foot, or my hip where the back injury was would leave me “stuck” on the stairs. Or all three. I’d have to use the rails to shift weight and struggle back up the stairs.

I decided to take a different approach to getting over this hurdle. I cleaned out my office to make space for the fit desk and ordered one in. It now was part of my daily routine.

It wasn’t easy. The back thing made it very difficult to get on and off. I used a step stool and my walking stick in combination. The seat really hurt. I went through trying three different type of seat cushions and covers. Funny how the best one turned out to be the simple sheepskin cover the fit desk manual suggested.

I also purchased padded biking shorts, but haven’t made it to the point where I’m on the fit desk long enough to wear it.

That’s not to say I won’t get there and that I don’t use the fit desk. I do. Three to four times a day throughout the work days, usually Monday through Friday. Unless I’m out of the house for the day.

I’m typing while on it right now. Oliver’s on the floor watching me in his curious way. Normally I seem to ride while he’s downstairs or sleeping on the couch, so this is still new to him.

At first, the most I could do was a few moment’s time on the fit desk. And getting on and off was a bit scary. I was afraid I’d rejolt that bone, get stuck, or tip the thing over and end up getting hurt another way. But I kept at it.

In time, that few moments became 5 minutes, then ten, then fifteen. I’m at a point where 15 minutes at a time is my normal, but it feels like I could make it longer. I feel I’m close to getting to a point where I can be on it for 1/2 hour sometime.

Actually, I think I made it to half and hour today while writing this, without thinking about it.  I did stand for a few minutes in middle of routine thanks to sore biking butt syndrome.

The biggest change I’ve noticed is that I can zip right down the stairs now like I used to before my back injury. That in itself is joyful enough to keep me on the bike.

It seems that my hope in using this fit desk has been fulfilled. I needed to walk but had foot/bone issues. I had hoped that the fit desk would encourage increased circulation to my feet area to help with that. I’ve noticed improvement in walking.

Now, getting on and off of it is not as scary. I’ve learned how to shift my weight and I do still use the step stool, although I no longer need to use the walking stick. Partly because of the tight space in my office. It’s possible I can do without it, but the step stool helps me deal with the confined space. Not trying it. *grin*

And if the seat hurts, the work platform makes a great standing desk when it’s pushed forward. I can alternate between biking and standing.

Almost two months ago, I became serious about this fit desk for real. My doctor told me I was very close to being diabetic and encouraged me to use the fit desk. At that time, I made sure to fit the biking in my routine, or walking when I’m out and able, plus I took on eating more closely to a diabetic diet and using diabetic recipes in meals.

Plus a whole vitamin regimen, also encouraged by my doctor.

I also added a few more helpful dietary adjustments in to my routine that I know are good for me. I get turmeric and other useful herbs in when I can. I try to get a serving of plain greek yogurt in per day. My favorite is making a smoothie of banana, honey, and plain greek yogurt. I also like a serving of fruit on top of yogurt.

I’m not sure what progress I’ve made, but I’ve been told I look skinnier in the face. My shirts aren’t fitting as easy anymore, often sliding off my shoulders, and my pants really are looser. Some close to falling off.

More importantly, I feel a lot better. My other hidden condition has tamed down a lot. This one would interfere with my daily life more than I like. If I missed a zoo trip with the family, you know it’s got to be for a good reason!

It’s not about living longer. I doubt I can escape whatever predetermined day that is. Just way too much evidence from my own family history, and what I’ve witnessed of others going before old age. I won’t take my life for granted. But even if it’s next week, I’m darn determined to go out the best person I can be on that day.

On the flip side, assuming God lets me have another 30 plus years, I’ve been thinking hard on what type of aging grandma I want to be. I think the best description is in the movie Runaway Bride.

There’s a scene with grandma walking out somewhere from shopping, or some such thing. A well-built shirtless jogger goes by as she walks towards home. Her eyes get really big. She turns right around and starts a grandma jog after him.

Yep, that’s gonna be me one day.

The fit desk description says it’s a partial recline, but not sure. Think of it more as an upright stationary bike. Easy to assemble though.

 

Shows With Music As A Feature

Music doesn’t pay a crucial role for me in whether or not I like a show, but there are two shows I’ve gotten into this year where the music does influence me. I go more for British shows, but also ones in New Zealand and Austrailia.

The Brokenwood Mysteries is more of a laid back small town murder mystery show. The detective inspector loves his country music and the show is full of it. Unlike many series featuring country music, you don’t find Brokenwood full of cowboys and ranchers. The scenery has a lot of vineyards. And a lot of beautiful outdoors: woods, mountains, beaches, etc.

Then there’s the ever popular Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries featuring the 1920’s era, with all the fashion and music of the times. This is more of a series mixing the excitement and social challenges of the time.

Miss Fisher is becoming a sort of cult classic all over the world. A strong woman living life as she chooses and not caring what the men or even the other women around her think. It helps that she’s rich and has the means to push her way into any situation.

I watch these with my Acorn subscription. As much as I can. For some stupid reason, I have to pay extra for season three of Miss Fisher’s Mysteries. I won’t. I watch what I’m able to with my stream subscription and don’t pay more for individual shows. I will order in the dvd edition of season three though.

I am sad to know there won’t be a season four, but thrilled to know there’s three or four movies to continue the series with coming. They’re going to give her a more Indiana Jones style of adventures. Very fitting for this lady detective.

And a spinoff tv series coming with another actress playing an 18 year old Miss Fisher. Depending on how good the actress is, this could be a fun series to get into.

Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd talking with the deceased.

As for Brokenwood Mysteries, it is confirmed for a fourth season. This makes me very happy.

Positive Thinking Produces Results

On closing out the new year, I find it necessary to keep reminding myself of all the good that happened in 2016 while watching so many around me curse 2016 for all the bad things.

Positive Thinking Produces Good Results. Dwelling on the bad stuff does not.

• Yes, we had an election from Hell that did not go well.  This COULD bring us terrible things ahead.
• Yes, we are seeing people wrongly harmed and treated in deplorable manners in the name of corporate greed.
• Yes, the number of people who have died before  old age this year seems higher than usual.

But we do not have to give in to these bad signs and let them deter us from doing good, moving forward, or believing in the greater good. My faith and personal will power helps me do this.

• There could be a positive reason the election had to take the turn it did. We do not know the final result of this yet.
• In my opinion, the terrible things being done are not just done in corporate greed. There’s something deeper at work. But good will prevail. Prayer and steadiness will win out in the end.
• We’ve had a few deaths in our friends and family too in 2016. We have a few at risk, some close to time, some in a little scary situations. But we were blessed with more time than we thought with loved ones too. We expected a lot more to go in 2016 than have.

Unlike so many around me, I refused to end 2016 by telling it to jump in front of a bus and die. I choose to be thankful for the opportunities it has given us and to trust that God has a plan in mind.

Like Frodo says, “There’s some good left in this world. And it’s worth fighting for.”

Remember that. Frodo’s words ring true not only for things that happen around the world, but also in our own lives.

The bad stuff won’t stop when 2017 comes around. There’s no guarantee that 2017 will be better. It could even be worse.

We’re not always in a position to join a fight for good, due to our individual circumstances and limitations. But we can pray for those who are.

We may not understand why things go a certain way, but we can fall upon on our faith to trust there is a reason. And do our best to lessen its effects in our own life, for ourselves and those connected with us.

We don’t know if we have one day left, or ten thousand days left.  Live each day in gratitude for being alive one more day. Do at least one productive thing each day to prepare for the rest of your life as if you have ten thousand days left.

Stepping into 2017 with a positive outlook.

I’m refusing to give in to anxiety and dread of those things I have warnings of. Giving in to anxiety only serves to deter me from success. There will be enough failures that occur naturally, for you cannot have success without going through failure.

I’m thankful that I am not one who needs medication to do this. Being thankful is one thing we should do all year long.

A lot of opportunity has come my way in my career building. This is both fun and a little scary. Not only does it mean I stand to move forward in leaps and bounds, it also means if I do not exert self control to move forward and fail, it’s a total fail in this area of my life.

So I won’t fail. Means controling my “stage fright” and pushing my introvert nature at times. But I keep reminding myself I’ve proven that I have the ability to do what’s needed numerous times in my past already.

Death. It’s coming for those around me I’m sure. Who, we can’t be certain at times. And I can’t be certain it won’t come for me. But no use dwelling on it. Whether I have 5 or 25 years left, I’ve decided to make the most of it.

Health. Kind of goes along with above. I face a few challenges this year. But they can be overcome, with work and determination. And if something worse comes along next year, well, a healthier me stands a better chance at dealing with it. I won’t go down without a bit of a fight in this area.

Tasks for 2017:

• Meet the career goals. (Be THE Coffee Copywriter. Rest of details not for public view.)
• Meet the health goals. (Lower BP, Lower Cholesterol, Ward off Diabetes, Influence others to improve.)
• Marion Margaret Press (Take it to the next level with new line of books from me and more from Sandie Bergen.)
• Horses (Get back into the action. Figure out what to do with Tyme.)

Note: I don’t get into political or religious debates and this post may encourage others to give their thoughts and opinions on this. Not the purpose of this post – it’s about facing bad things with positive attitude. For this reason, comments are closed. Anywhere I share this post I ask readers to respect this and keep their thoughts on politics, conspiracy theories, and anti-Christianity to themselves. Thoughts on positive thinking welcome though.

Something Good is Bound to Happen

On this rainy day, I thought I’d write something a little inspiring. Stepping out of one’s comfort zone takes a bit of facing fears for some, courage for others, and a bit of both for some. Often, it’s a question of not realizing we can face new experiences and overcome the obstacles those experiences place before us.

Certainly, we’ve all had to face uncertainty and didn’t have a choice of whether or not to meet the challenges that came with it. Maybe when you’re faced with stepping out of your comfort zone to take the next step in your career or domestic life, you need to remind yourself of your past achievements.

For me, it’s stepping out to commit to years of responsibility to jumpstart my career at a time when others have said I should perhaps slow down or do something else. That I’ve wasted enough time without getting a strong enough return.

Sure, I let this process take longer than it probably should have, but I don’t think I have completely wasted my time. I believe I’ve been laying the ground work for something greater. For something that will make a positive change in our lives. We’ll be able to have better control over the choices in our lives, and to rid our life of some damaging circumstances.

This is something that requires me to remain steady, to stay positive.

I doubted that I had the courage to stay on the course put before me, that I’ve proven I will not do it already. I almost didn’t take this leap in faith for something I know I want and need. Then, I remembered a time in my life.

I had lived life as a sheltered only child at home for most of my life, being 9 years behind my youngest sibling. I was taken care of, and the safe paths were laid before me to choose from. But I stepped out of my comfort zone then because I wanted more, just like now.

I quit college and joined the Air Force. This took doing things I wasn’t very‌ interested in doing. Traveling alone by bus, then being examined and scrutinized by strangers. Then being accepted and having to stay alone in a strange hotel with many people I didn’t know, and then flying in a few scary airplanes to an even scarier place.

While in basic training, I did what I was told. I followed the pack. I allowed 15 inches of my hair to be cut off. I became a pack mule and did exercises every morning way earlier than my mind and body claimed was natural. I did kitchen duty while defending myself from cockroaches bigger than my dog.

I had one goal once basic training started. To make it through in one shot so I could have a normal life again. We learned the dreaded word “recycle.” No one wanted to be recycled through basic training and relive the stressful time all over again.

By my wits, determination, and quick thinking, I avoided being recycled a few times.

While performing night guard duty, I missed a security step and allowed a Sergeant instructor in the door before I should have. He ripped into me with a vengeance over that. But I got another chance because I held my ground and stood firm, looking right into his eyes. Trust me, he was not kind to me and his verbal attack would have had Hercules himself cringing in fear.

But I willed myself to stay strong, and in the end he respected that. I was given the chance to make up for that mistake and I did.

Another day there were a few members recycled for not staying still. We were in this parade on a very hot day. We were to stand at attention for a long time during one part of it. Our instructors coached us on how to stand so we don’t pass out, and drilled us over and over again how we cannot move an inch, no matter what. That dreaded word “recycle” was put upon us again.

We couldn’t help our buddy next to us if he or she fainted. We couldn’t flinch at anything near us. We were not to sneeze or cough even. NO MOVEMENT.

I was determined not to be one of the recycled ones. It came close. A fly, almost as determined at ruining my life as I was at living my own life, tried to bring me down. This vile creature buzzed around me, took a joy ride around my earlobe, landed on my cheek, and enjoyed a casual stroll around my face. Never had creepy little insect legs tortured me so.

I stood there. Solid. Not moving one muscle. All because I made myself believe I could. I kept my mind on the goal I wanted to achieve, which was to get out of there and on my path to a normal daily life again.

Then, later, just before graduating from basic training a friend and I made a major mistake. We missed saluting an officer, not just any officer, but a General. This could have ended very, very badly.

I learned something about myself that day. I learned that I have a really good instinct for dealing with tough situations.

Anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m a quiet person who does not do a lot of small talk. But that day, I did a lot of fast, coherent, intelligent talking to that general. While we were lightly reprimanded, we were not recycled.

My friend, who panicked and froze, thought I had super powers. I didn’t. I just gave myself the chance to let my own internal power out to lead me. We often stop listening to our best guides inside us who tells us how to deal with tough situations and get through them better than we entered.

Each day, I let that guide inside me motivate and direct me. She gives me faith, helps me open my eyes to opportunities that come to me each day, and tells me to stop being idle when I get lazy or procrastinate. She has a tough job, for I am lazy and I’ve perfected the ability to procrastinate.

When you doubt or fear, think back to memories of what you’ve faced in life and how you made it through them. Find the sources of your strengths. Find the proof of your abilities that you’ve never given yourself credit for and work on making them greater. Let your internal guide out.

Something good is bound to happen.

My new inspirational bracelet I made for myself.