I've just spent an entire morning--with my story calling me--cruising through stock photos. Since I'm loving what artist NajlaQamber has done on the first 2 books, I'm hoping for an appropriate match. Or killer cover. I love these covers! Tip: The more ideas you can give a cover artists, the better.
Holing up while writing this book hasn't been possible and you'll see the stuff below that has interfered during The Bride's Basket's creation. I'm still hoping for November publication. :) During this book, running on a parallel timeline I've:
- traveled/visited family
- took care of a sick relative
- learned a whole lot* from Joanna Penn/TheCreativePenn *Priceless info for the business side of writing, which most of us do not totally enjoy. However, to save our dimes, a lot of us do our own slave labor.
- dug in and learned basic WordPress enough to re-establish my actual website. During a stressful family time, I had to transfer my name domain to my blog. Time-saving, you know.
- worked more with Dragon and a podcasting microphone, recommended by JoAnna Penn, and excellent interviewer and podcaster. Excellent. I have the recommended mic, so therefore I must also be excellent--right? :). I had Dragon on my PC, but shifting to Mac, had to relearn some stuff. Mac has a good built in mic, but this mic helps a lot. I'd used a headset before and if I purchase another mic, it will be a headset. It's what you're used to using.
- Purchased and fully love Vellum, software that does amazing things. It takes a Word file and formats it for all different major ebook sellers. It also does epub, so useful with SmashWords and others. I love VELLUM! It truly is gorgeous! It is only for Mac at this pt--or so I understand--however, TheBookDesigner (Joel Friedlander) offers packages that do both ebook and paper layouts. If you want to learn more about Fonts, do check out Joel's blog. (I prefer to handcraft my paperbooks. I'm just that way. :))
- Worked more with Scrivener--no simplistic software, but excellent organization and story-ware. If you're writing series, the hottest thing going now, you need an organizer. But it does a whole lot more and formats. Try the trial version. Got one for my Mac and just now IOS came through for one for iPad. Haven't tried the iPad version yet. I am truly hoping to do more with Scrivener in a new series I'm laying out now. Yep. Western guys again. I hope. :)
- Then the everlasting downsizing--not fun, people. Sorting, packing, selling equals a big UGH!
- One of the best experiences recently was working with Ryan Zee to promote my enewsletter subscription. If you're not on my enewsletter, you should be.:) I'm learning more of shipping free books to contest winners via BookFunnel and other ways.
NOTE: I wish I could run away from DOWNSIZING, but I guess it's my monster to tame. I'm skipping canning and making jams this year, but I may freeze zucchinis/summer squash for stews and for zucchini breads.
Please do join my enewsletter for more? The Egg Basket's beta readers came from my enews contact and I truly love those 6. I hope they have time to read my other work. :)
