Hey guys, welcome back! It’s the weekend and feeling more Fall-like here in the northeast than the last weekend of May. (Which is just fine with this Fall loving girl!)
Over the last two weeks, there’s been a few milestones happening in both my life and those around me. This weekend alone, both my mother and one of my closest friends hit milestone birthdays. (You know, the kind with a zero at the end of the number?) Of course both act decades younger than they are, so there’s that. 😬
The other milestone that happened was that I have actually cut over 100,000 words in my manuscript! With the average submission word count requested being between 80-130,000, I’ve literally cut an entire book from my book.
It boggles the mind that I wrote well over 400,000 words in a matter of months, let alone now trying to edit those words down into a story that makes sense after those cuts. But the fact that I’ve done this much makes me realize that I’ve done a lot more work than it feels like I have.
Let’s face it…when doing a task for a good length of time, after a while it can feel as if you’ve been standing still and not making any progress at all. When I decided to run the numbers after the fourth edit was complete last week, I was in shock. However, I was also so happy that I decided to run those numbers. I’ve been so frustrated thinking that I’m just not getting anywhere at all. Turns out, I really have been making a difference. Even if it’s just been 10 words here, a paragraph there. Inch by inch, I really have been productive. It was the first time I let out a deep breath in a long time.
Now on my fifth edit, I stalled a little again when another story came into my head. Thankfully, this is not just my own problem. I’ve been in touch with other authors who deal with this as well. (Always good to talk to others who are on a similar path for just such support.) So I started writing that one down, am now six chapters in and now that it’s cleared my head out a bit, I can now get back to the task at hand. I’ve worked too damned hard over this past year+ to just abandon this book.
I also have another completed book that I need to edit. That one, oh boy, that one means so much to me and I would love to get that book out as soon as I can. But just as this post has become a stream of ramblings, imagine what is inside my head and why I can’t do just one thing at a time.
Dealing with attention issues is a part of my journey. Thankfully I’ve started to work on that to help my focus and try to compartmentalize what I need to get done. Is it working? Eh, still trying. At least I’ve been able to recognize what needs to be done and how I can take the steps to continue down this road I’ve started on.
In the meantime, I thank you for letting me use this as a kind of therapy session. If you take nothing else from this post, I hope you take this…keep going. Even if it feels as if you’re not making progress? You are. Sometimes even the smallest steps can move you forward.
And that is where I will leave you for today. Until next time folks…cheers!
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If you’ve gotten this far, I thank you so much and will see you soon! 🌸
Hey guys, welcome back! I hope everyone out there is doing well, doing some things that make you happy and just doing you. I am very happy to say that I’ve gotten back to my old routine and the two weeks of ‘floating’ have gone away. I’m now back to my rather OCD, Groundhog Day existence and really happy about it.
It’s funny, I used to be one of the most social people out there. For many years, I was out, every day/night, enjoying my friends and was always excited to get up knowing I’d be with them soon. I was also the one that organized many of the parties and reunions (I also did that as a job so I got damned good at it) and the best thing said to me by a friend after he flew in for one of our yearly get togethers? “I would never miss one of your parties!” If I haven’t said it lately, my friends are the best.
Things have changed, a lot. Since I got sick almost ten years ago now, I have trouble with being outside of the house. And since my recent relapse that started in August? I have gotten much worse.
I dread leaving my home. It’s not that I don’t want to see people I care about, I do. It just takes a lot of pep talks to get me out the door. I will lose sleep for days before I have to be somewhere, including doctors appointments. I’m not proud of this because I need to go, but I have been known to cancel an appointment because I stress out so much about being out in public.
Last week I had two days of testing. One was a reschedule because I had canceled the week before. I HAD to get these tests done. I had to. So I made the appointments close together, got my ass out the door and did what I had to do. I barely slept all week, but I got it done.
The thing about this is, once I’m out, I’m ok. I will chat up the uber drivers, the receptionists or if at a gathering, I will enjoy the hell out of myself reconnecting with friends and extended family. It’s the getting out the door part that is the issue. I break out into a sweat, breathe worse than I normally do and try to come up with excuses of why I can’t leave. And not just that…I’ve been getting worse with responding to texts, DMs and emails. I just freeze up and this is so unlike me in so many ways. (My friends can definitely attest to this.)
Yes, I have been on anti anxiety meds in the past. Unfortunately they put about 50lbs on me and when you are under five feet tall? Well, let’s just say, I looked like an Oompa Loompa…or more like Augustus Gloop. You know, the kid that fell in the chocolate river and got stuck in the pipe? Yeah, that was me.
Anywhoo, I’m really trying to work on it. Not that I can do anything right now the way my health has been, I’m pretty much stuck here. But with the warmer weather comes more local gatherings and I’d really like to be a part of them again. I’ve missed going to little league games. Yelling and cheering in the stands while laughing with the parents. I’ve had plans for a 20th reunion of my friends in the works for a bit and even though I’ll be putting it together, it would be wrong of me not to show up! These are just the things that plague me daily and again, I am trying to work on it all. I think the fact that I can’t do anything right now has just gotten the best of me and once this passes (and it will pass, I will accept nothing less) I’ll be right back out there. My anxiety waves have come and gone before and I have no doubt that this one will as well.
Anyway, enough of this therapy session, let’s get on with something else now, shall we?
I said earlier in this post that I’ve gotten back into my routine. This has been so good for me as any deviation from it? I spiral. So getting back to my editing as well as reading is so important to me and I’ve been doing better with it.
The one thing about working on my own manuscript is that I keep getting discouraged. I had wanted this book to be a romcom but it’s taken on a more serious turn. Don’t get me wrong, there’s funny aspects of it, but just like life, it can’t all be funny.
I had a bit of a lightbulb moment just last night while reading the second book of a series I started last month. These books are so damned funny, I’ve had nights where I was afraid I’d wake up my neighbors laughing. However, this second book took a very dramatic turn that made me finally realize that yes, you can marry the dark with the light.
I came damned close to chucking half of my book. Just deleting it outright to change the direction to be more comedic. But as I’ve said in previous posts, this story that I’m writing also deals with issues that I feel need to be discussed and deleting that storyline would kill me.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still so over my word count that a ton still needs to go. However deleting the drama to get to the laughs isn’t what this book needs. I still plan on writing a total romantic comedy after this. I will never let that dream die. But this is the story that I need to tell now and I can’t see myself deleting it after working on it for a year. So onward I go.
I’ve seen a quote many times that fits so well here: “Sometimes the right book comes to you at the right time.” How true this is. If it wasn’t for reading the one I’m reading now, I would have made a major mistake and now I can see where I need to go with my own book. There really is such a thing as an ‘a-ha moment!’ Go figure.
And that folks, is where I will leave you for today. Thank you as always for putting up with my ramblings. To anyone I owe messages to, I hope this explains my mindset lately and I’m sorry if I’ve been distant.
Also, I’d like to take a second to thank those who have supported my site through my Ko-fi link as well as shopping through my Amazon affiliate links. I’ll be putting together my storefront soon with recommended books and items that I hope you’ll check out and will keep you updated when it goes live.
Until next time…cheers!
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To follow me on socials, shop my links and more, click: HERE
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If you’d like to check out the Lucy Score Story Lake series I’ve been reading, click: HERE
Note: There’s two books now but a third will be out next year. Romcoms with a touch of drama and a touch of spice. I’ve become a huge fan of hers and this is now the fourth that has had me laughing and escaping.
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If you’ve made it this far, I thank you and will see you soon! 🙂
Hey guys, welcome back! It has been a rather busy week here and all of it was medically related. However, it is now the weekend and I get a break from it for a bit. Through it all though, my mind has been kind of wandering.
The testing I had done this week kind of threw off my already rather strange sleep schedule. Which frankly, has my mind drifting around. I mean, if I’m going to be awake, I’d like to be writing, delving more into the book that I’ve been reading or designing more things for my shops. Instead, I’ve been completely zoned out. With that ‘zoning’ though? Has come thoughts of music that I haven’t listened to in a long time.
While my favorite bands are Rush, Collective Soul and Foo Fighters, (yes, I’m a chick who likes Rush. We are a rare breed.) I also love songs from the 90’s thru about 2020 or so. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up with 80’s one hit wonders and am one to have a memory reserve for their lyrics, but the 90’s had a vibe all their own. Chris Cornell for the win, amiright?
Anyway, I’ve been revisiting some old playlists lately and one thing I forgot about was that the 1990’s were an INCREDIBLE era for women in music. I mean, come on, it was the decade of Lilith Fair after all!
I can still remember where I was when I was listening to Joan Osborne, Meredith Brooks, Sheryl Crow and Melissa Ethridge (the latter two I sang at karaoke). I remember being in my friend’s car as she introduced me to the Indigo Girls while we were on a work adventure. Janet Jackson showing what she could do without her family, that she had grown up and having us all trying like hell to mimic her dance moves. So many talented voices that brought back messages reminiscent of the 60’s both with folksy tunes as well as their own power ballads.
Music is escapism at its finest.
If I hear Oasis’ Wonderwall? I’m back at the Irish pub I hung out in with the soccer team drinking baby Guinness shots in celebration of another win. (For the record, I wasn’t a player, just hung out with the team.) Jumping ahead to 2007, put on some Rhianna Pon de Replay and I’m working my ass off at the gym. 2016 having my work playlist that included some Nine Inch Nails and my beloved Collective Soul that I listened to every single day while I wrote blog posts for my company after lunch.
Songs, lyrics, instrumentals…they are instantaneous memories that will make you forget where you currently are and take you to a time in your life that meant something to you.
It really is an amazing thing isn’t it? I can’t think of another, what, medium(?) that can do that. That can take your mind on a ride and make you relive a part of your history that maybe you forgot about. Even if it was something as simple as just listening to a cd in a living room by yourself, not all memories have to be monumental after all.
Before this last week or two, I hadn’t been listening to music like I used to. Music was a constant in my life and one that I’ve neglected for quite some time now. It’s been fun listening to old playlists and reliving those memories. The good ones of course, don’t need to relive any bad ones. It’s a great way to turn a day or night around. Bad day? Dance it out! Good day? Keep it going with a favorite album.
This is nothing you don’t already know and I understand that. It’s just, when you forget about something you used to love and find it again? You want to share it. And maybe in the process, remind someone else out there that there is a way to turn things around. Even if it is just a mood. Because that could be a way to get things started, to motivate the next chapter to come. And if not, I refer you to the previous paragraph and dance it out!
And that is where I will leave you for today. Thanks for reading and hope you’ll put your own favorite playlist on soon!
Until next time…cheers!!
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To follow me on my socials including my #booktok click HERE
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If you’ve made it this far, I thank you and will see you soon! 🙂
Hey guys, welcome back! And hey, welcome to May!! I’m still in shock that we are already five months into this year. It still feels like February to me.
Anywhoo, there has been a lot going on, which explains my staggered posts as of late (sorry) and I missed the year anniversary of when I began writing my current book. Btw, I say ‘current’ since the first one, that needs a ton of editing, was finished a while back.
So here it is, a year later. Hundreds of thousands of words written and thousands cut and lately it seems I’ve really been making some good progress on it. I think one of the things I’m starting to allow myself to do is take a night off here and there. I started pushing myself so hard to try and get this finished, that I started to lose the spark of the story and it felt more like a chore than anything else. After having to take a few nights off because I wasn’t feeling well, I picked it back up again and suddenly I was able to rework and cut a lot of stuff. After that happened, I realized that there would be nights I just didn’t have it in me to work on the book and told myself that it would be ok if I put it away for the night. The next time I opened it back up again? More progress. So see, there is a reason to take time off from things. To relax and recharge!
Now for some news of the odd persuasion and warning, there will be four letter words coming…in the last couple of weeks, I was suddenly contacted by someone using the name of one of my favorite authors. I will not say which one because I don’t want the real person to have to deal with this, although she has been alerted.
I’ve mentioned before that I have a great love of TikTok. That I’ve met online some wonderful people out there all doing the same things I have. For my small business account, myself and other owners have chatted and learned from each other about suppliers, or tips and tricks that have really come in handy. And on my #booktok account for this website that you’re on now, I’ve followed and am followed by other authors and we’ve had fun commiserating on editing woes and character issues as well as learning about new releases and book recommendations. So imagine my surprise when I got a direct message from one of my favorites!
Yeah it’s not her.
I’m acquainted with several scams on social by those trying to push fake small business help, always starting with messages like, ‘hey I went to your shop and I love your products!’ You know, utter bullshit.
Now I’m not going to lie, the first time I was messaged by ‘fake author’ for half a beat I got hopeful. She/he/whoever it actually was started off strong. ‘I like to talk with other authors’ kind of message. Sure, right? I mean, I talk to others, why can’t it be her? However, without letting out too much, because I don’t want this to be a ‘how to scam 101’ class, it was so blatantly not the real person it was astonishing.
You may ask, how did I deal with such a person? I had some fun of course. I played the part of uber fan girl. Acting about 30 years younger than I actually am, swooning over said author and making it sound as if I was so honored that they reached out to me. (I had a lot of fun.)
It didn’t take long for the sideways sales pitch to creep in. Without saying too much to me, the questions began. How long have I been working on my book? Who does the marketing? Who is editing? Who is designing the cover? Who designed my website? Who is doing the book launch video? You know, typical things a famous author would ask a complete unknown while oddly, never talking about her own work. Just a barrage of questions sent my way. (Insert eye roll here.)
Let me also tell you this, I follow the real author on her other socials. And the kicker of all of this? Something I wasn’t sure I wanted to make public because again, I don’t want to give this person any tips on how do fake someone’s identity. But it was this…as of this post, the real author? Is not on TikTok. She does the occasional videos for her publishing house, but that’s it.
That’s not to say she won’t in the future, but as of now, she’s not on the platform.
The faker is stealing her graphics though, which really pisses me off. Frankly, the whole thing pisses me off. If you want to scam people, then don’t use someone else’s identity. Especially that of a woman who has worked damned hard to get to where she is now! Scamming leads to reputation hits and some idiots out there ARE going to believe that this is the real woman messaging them. If you do real services such as editing, etc, why pretend to be someone else? Do it legit. Don’t take down someone else because you are too chicken shit to do it the right way. And if you don’t and are just trying to get some unsuspecting person to pay for nonexistent services? Well then that’s just crap. Oh and remember, karma is a bitch.
I did block her so there’s that.
I find it funny. I live my life in the dark hours and in bed 99% of my time and yet, I still have opportunities to live some crazy adventures. And not just in books either!
Yes, always trying to look on the bright side of things, because why not?
And that is where I will leave you for today. Thanks so much for coming back to visit with me and if this is your first time here? Welcome! I hope you’ll come back again. Oh and be sure to check out the links below the post.
Until next time…cheers!
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To follow my socials including my #booktok and to shop my linktree shop click: HERE
Btw, you can also click the product links around this site as well. You’ll find the blank journals and apparel I designed, as well as book recommendations that yes, I need to update to add lots more.
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If you’ve made it this far, I greatly appreciate it and will see you soon! 🌸
Hey all, welcome back! So I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been absent lately. I keep thinking that it’s only been a week since my last post, but as my last post was on St. Patrick’s Day, this week will hit a month since I’ve been here. Sorry to let you down, however, here I am!
There’s a few reasons I haven’t been around, nothing major. However, I do put some of the blame on Daylight Savings Time as it does a number on me every Spring. As someone who lives her life at night, the extra sunshiny hours have been messing with my head a bit and sometimes a step back is needed. (We vampires like to keep it dark you know.)
I haven’t been idle though and have recently hit the one year mark of working on my novel. The only update I can really give is that I’ve cut a few more thousand words from it and I’m pretty proud of that. Still so much to do on it though and I’ve been getting rather frustrated with the process. My determination to finish this book is still driving me and come hell or high water, I will finish this thing!
In the meantime, I’ve been thinking a lot about numbers. Not just the word count I’m dealing with, but numbers in a different way. It hit me after my last post. Almost no one read it. Frankly, I was a bit surprised. I thought it was good, gave a bit of my back story and for once, wasn’t about my writing. Looking at it now, I realize that it may have been the title’s fault. Just stating that ‘St. Patrick’s Day is Here’ gave no indication to what the post was about. So ok, lesson learned and no hard feelings. This was all on me.
When I worked in social media, I had to keep track of lots of numbers. Follower count and best times of day to post to what platform, etc…I dreamt in digits. I also had to figure out what posts worked and what didn’t and then troubleshoot the lower tallies as well as try to decipher algorithms.
While that was ten years ago and pre-TikTok, algorithms still elude me. Trying to get something seen has mystified me since the dark days of social media. Not just blog posts either. This goes for my blog posts, my videos, my photos, my print on demand, Etsy and eBay listings, the list goes on and on.
I was most recently baffled when a video of mine on my #booktok account jumped my counts from hundreds to thousands. Before and after this video was posted, I had numbers that ranged from 109 to 906 views with an average of about 349. Still very low but at least seen. Then I posted this one video about a book I had been reading that had misprinted and uncut pages and had to be sent back in the middle of my reading it. My viewer count at the time of this post? 3065.
Are hashtags the key? The material? The fact that the book was recently released and was taking Booktok by storm? I have no clue. What I do know is that I haven’t been able to duplicate it since and it’s driving me crazy. I’ve had other videos jump past 1000 views which I was always happy with, considering that I currently only have 1068 followers on my NewChapterCove account. However, I’ve also had views as low as 23. Seriously. 23.
Being honest, I don’t have super high views here. That’s ok as this is still a growing site. Sometimes, both posting in a specific niche and not having consistency in my posting as a whole has led to such low views. Again, this is all on me and I take responsibility for it. This isn’t the first time I’ve had such a site, albeit, this is the first one I’ve really posted about my personal life. But in this case, I understand the number counts, which is why I am grateful to every single person who reads, subscribes and shares my site. I know that I don’t make it easy to keep following and I accept that.
But when I’m posting more consistently to a platform in very similar ways to others, using similar subject material and I’m still getting just a handful of views while others get thousands? This is where I lose it. I’ve tried different times of day. Different hashtags. Different filters. Different tags. I took suggestions from the platform itself to post photos instead of videos and then vice versa. And still, the view counts are low.
I think what makes this all the more frustrating for me is that I once made my living knowing just what to do and how to handle the low numbers. I’m not out of touch with social, despite how different the landscape is now compared to when it began. But like many, I learned as it grew and became much more than the old message board and MySpace days. (Dating myself here, but you get my point.) Social grew because of its users and we grew along with it.
As stymied as I am by all of this, I will never stop using social media platforms. There are days when I would gladly throw in the towel and escape it completely. But it is my link to the outside world. While keeping in touch with friends and family this way has been good for me, I also like social because for someone like myself who is trying to promote both products and a blog, these outlets are basically free. I will never be someone who buys follower counts or hires an ‘influencer’. As long as I can keep posting without paying anything, I’ll keep going.
Having said all of this though, it still comes down to how to get the messages out there. Take my last post here. Again, I left a simple title up and unlike all of my other post titles, it gave no indication of what the post was about. Just that Paddy’s Day had arrived. Now had I added a few words? Had I done what I normally do and use a phrase (or paraphrase) something from the post itself? My numbers would have been better and my story would have been read by more of you. Again I say, this one is on me and I know better than what I did…I’m also changing the title today to see if that changes anything.
Basically I need to figure out how to get the algorithms in my favor so that my posts and products will show up more without shelling out money for them. Because it isn’t just social…if you go to say Etsy, Zazzle or Redbubble (as examples) and try to find my products? Chances are that unless you have a direct link, you won’t find me. It’s discouraging too because I have hundreds of designs on thousands of products and sales are few and far between.
Let’s look at my facebook feed. I once, ONCE clicked on a book recommendation ad from Amazon that popped up. Now my entire feed, no matter the time of day or night, is filled with similar ads, with the ads outnumbering the actual people I’m connected with. Granted, I’m interested in the genre and have accumulated quite a list of future books to download, but how did that first title get to my feed in the first place when I’ve never talked about such books on FB? Inquiring minds want to know.
I know I should be better at this. It was what I did for a living. It was what I was good at. I used to keep daily tallies on a white board and post-its at my desk. Watching the numbers grow gave me a sense of accomplishment and drive. Now I feel like it’s a game of roulette and what is barely viewed one day will go viral the next and that the system is set up to have us fail more than succeed. Oh and for the record, I will never rely on AI to try and get me higher view counts. Yes, I’m one of those that despises it.
So here I am. Continually trying to figure things out while I sit, edit, read and contemplate the inner workings of this internet thing. Some days I like the challenge. I love it. Trying to prove myself wrong and finding that post that gets out there? It makes me feel like I’m still doing it right. And then, some days, I step away and pull a Scarlett O’Hara, “tomorrow is another day.” (It works for me ok?)
And that is where I will leave you for today. I hope you are all well and thank you once again for hanging in there with me. I welcome the new followers that have joined over these last weeks and to those who continue to come back? I appreciate you so much.
Until next time…cheers!
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To follow me on social, including my #booktok and to shop my linktree shop (now with a book rec’s section that I will continue to build): Click HERE
New Chapter Cove 