Author: ccsocialcreative

Humor, Suggestibility and Covid

/ ccsocialcreative
Photo credit: josealbafotos on Pixabay.

Hey all, happy March! I know it sounds odd to say as I write this and it is only March 6th, but boy is this month flying! Why does it seem that January and February go on forever, (well, more January of course) and then March comes and boom, it’s almost St. Patrick’s Day already! I’d like to be upfront here and let y’all know that I tested positive for Covid (edited from the flu as I hadn’t taken the test yet) and have a fever, so I am not quite sure where this post is going to go, but let’s see what happens, shall we?

I have been going through some past posts and I realized something, there are almost no humorous moments in them. I find this rather disturbing as I am generally known to be a funny person. I love to make people laugh and even considered going into stand-up once upon a time back in my theater days. But here on this blog, which is supposed to be all kinds of personal and documenting not just my writing journey, but my own, I find my posts to be lacking in the humor department. Of course, now that I’ve put the pressure on myself to make you laugh, I am thinking I shouldn’t have said any of this ‘out loud’ as it’s like telling someone not to think about pink elephants and then suddenly that’s all you can think about. (Again, flu, fever, pink elephants just seemed like a fun thing to think about. Let’s all pause for a moment shall we?)

Annnd, we’re back!

So large, colorful trunk-faced mammals aside, the humorous component has yet to surface. Unless it has and I am just so used to my own quips that they blew right past me. Anywhooo, I have been reading a rather funny book by Emily Henry whose books I just love because I literally laugh so hard at times, I have to put the book down to compose myself long enough to get past the sentence that brought tears to my eyes and my inhaler to my lips and have noticed that I lack such segments in my own writing. Not that the novel I wrote (and am now editing) is supposed to be a comedy, but I was hoping to get a few of these little moments in there to keep the reader on their toes. (By the way, that rather long sentence above is basically how I speak in real life and it is no wonder I need an inhaler, just to get through such a mini-monologue.)

But I digress…I’m not saying that humor should be in every book. Quite the contrary. We need diverse offerings. But when I read something like this and it comes to me at the right time, like when I need a laugh the most and the trigger sentence sneaks up on you like a seagull waiting for you to drop that bagel in a convenience store parking lot, well then, it makes you not only literally laugh out loud but for a writer makes you think about your own writing and what can you do to improve it.

I mentioned in the last few posts that I had been reading a series for my February Cancer fundraiser and after I completed all 9 books (in the shortest month of the year thank you very much), I needed a change. I dove into my TBR pile to grab something a little different that would make me laugh and Ms. Henry’s books never fail me in that regard. The beautiful thing about reading is that for the writer, it inspires you. I won’t go into too much detail as I already discussed this very topic last week, but it never fails to astound me the level of inspiration I get while reading something I really enjoy. It doesn’t even have to be the same genre, just something that gets in your head and suddenly, ‘hey, there’s that hook for that one section that I’ve been looking for!’ Of course why it comes to you at that moment is always a mystery and frankly, it doesn’t even need to be while you are reading! Hell, I once wrote a crime noir short story after watching an episode of Friends. Who knows how the brain works?

Which brings us to suggestibility. I have the mind of a sponge and I think the advertisers out there are on to me. One of my favorite commercials that I could watch over and over again is the Haribo Gold Bears ad with the football players. No matter how many times I watch it, I laugh. So of course, while picking up prescriptions one day, I had to get the damned things because I could hear them talking in my head. (The football players, not the gummy bears. Just wanted to make that clear.) There is now a Lay’s potato chip commercial that was a popular ad during this past Super Bowl and used the Barry Louis-Polisar song, “All I Want is You.” It didn’t make me want to run out and buy a bag of chips, rather it made me want to watch the movie Juno again for like the 75th time because it is the song used in the opening credits scene. And really, the movie never gets old, so any excuse to watch it and I’m all for it.

I have a quirk where I can’t move past something until I’ve done something that’s in my head. I’m sure there are many out there who are also like this, but this is how I ended up writing the first seven chapters of the sequel to my first book that has yet to be finished on the editing side. Actually, it’s why I’ve started several other books because of this same reason. I could be doing something, like I’m doing now and suddenly an idea pops into my head. I have to get it down now or I will forget it. Granted, I have some neuro issues with my health that cause me to forget things quite easily, but that being said, I can’t just jot a note down about the idea. I have to full on begin the entire process of getting the story down in a draft for the future or it’s gone forever. Which is why it takes me so long to get through a first of something. ADHD at its finest.

I’ve found that the only time I can really focus on anything these days is while I’m either reading or writing. I love true crime shows. Love. Them. My Sunday nights are dedicated to the ID network and I’ve affectionately dubbed them “Serial Killer Sundays” but of course, that is just one day out of many that I’m glued to these demented shows about real and tragic things that have happened to people. However, if it is a two hour Dateline, I am screwed. Every Friday night for many years, I hit the remote to watch the weekly two hour episodes. (Unless it’s baseball season or I was going out, then I’d record it. Just want to make that clear. Let’s go Yankees.) I’d sit and get through the first hour on the edge of my seat thinking I’ve solved said crime and of course the big twists always happen in the second hour. About an hour and a half in, they lose me. Even though there are still massive plot points to reveal and moments of ‘oh crap I didn’t see that coming,’ I’ll have moved on to a game on my iPad or listing more vintage jewelry on eBay. (For some reason I find Keith Morrison’s voice soothing and motivational to get my work done on my listings.) But while doing these things, I lose the momentum of the show. I know it is not Mr. Morrison’s fault. If anything, I love his voice so much I want the man to read the eulogy at my wake! I just can’t stay focused enough to make it to the end without having to rewind sections over and over again until what they’ve said on screen finally lands in my brain. I used to have this issue with my reading. Turns out, it was part of the dyslexia I didn’t know I had until I was in my 40’s. But tv has been betraying me as of late and I am just thankful to live in an era where rewinding is possible.

We all have that thing though that we love, that we can spend our time truly focusing on. It can be music, it can be a craft, it can be a job you love, hell it can even be getting behind the wheel of a car and taking off for the weekend. Your focus is strong and that means, it is something that makes you happy.

While you may already have something like this in your life, be open to suggestions. Maybe you are on YouTube one day looking up how to fix that toaster that just won’t brown the bread on one side no matter what you try and a video comes up on airplane model building. Maybe it’s something you have wanted to try but never thought to look up! Maybe it sparks a creative side of you that, while it may not be  model building, but by the mere suggestion of it, has you thinking about buying that watercolor set you’ve been eyeing on Amazon or trying out that new dance class that just opened up downtown. Yes, these suggested videos can take you down a rabbit hole of doom scrolling to things you had no intention of ever watching and now your daily ‘for you’ on either YT or TikTok looks like a mashup of Martha Stewart flower arranging diy’s mixed with how to throw a ninja star with style and grace tutorials. In some ways though, that’s the fun! Maybe you’ve been restless and looking for something new to try, well, these side videos may just help you find that one thing you’ve been looking for.

Look, I’m not suggesting you go on a 12-hour binge on YouTube or TikTok. (Been there, done that.) I’m just saying, as focused as you may be on some things in your life you should also be open to the occasional suggestion that may come from a source you weren’t expecting. You really think that there is a correlation between Friends and a noir crime story? My brain tends to connect the dots in a rather strange way, but you get my point.

So this week, I challenge you to look around your space. Pay attention to the everyday. Do you walk past a building you never realized gave weekly classes in something? Do you like that donut you had this morning for breakfast and always wondered if you could make them? Maybe there is something you do that just doesn’t excite you the way it used to and you find yourself daydreaming of doing something else. Why not look it up to see if there is a call for it near you, or if you can find a video on how to get started! Or maybe, just maybe, fixing that toaster felt great and now you want to fix other stuff as well because using your hands in a constructive way can be so much more rewarding than sitting in front of a screen all day. (Plus the feeling you get every time you make a slice of perfect toast just gives you a sense of satisfaction you never thought you could achieve in life!) Give yourself the opportunity to explore different areas of life and you may find your own Haribo Gold Bears at the end of the rainbow!

Until next week my friends…Cheers!!

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Disclaimer, this post is not sponsored by any of the above mentioned goodies, but hey, if I’ve got you thinking of gummy bears and potato chips, click here and here!

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Need a good laugh? Try an Emily Henry book!

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Find me on eBay (as well as my other shops) if you are so interested: linktr.ee/stuffwefind

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Amazon affiliate links above, hope you’ll click to shop and support the site. Thanks for visiting! 🙂

Too Many Ideas, Stories From Nowhere and Thoughts to Fingers

/ ccsocialcreative
Photo credit: mohamed_hasssan on Pixabay.

How are you all doing this week? These past seven days have been a whirlwind of reading, writing and medical stuff. But I won’t bore you with the latter (this time).

As the month of February comes to a close (and my how fast it has gone compared to the endless hell that was January), I am proud to say that I have almost reached my final goal of reading all nine books of a series for my Read Every Day in February Cancer Fundraiser! I wish the donations would’ve been better this time around, but I still have a couple of days and there is at least some money there, so that’s something. However, my personal challenge was one I honestly didn’t think I could do.

Reading and I have been on a roller coaster my whole life. I was reading at a 2nd grade level in kindergarten and then as I got older, somewhere along the line, it all came to a halt. I have been such a slow reader for most of my life and it wasn’t until about 8 years ago I was diagnosed with a mild form of dyslexia. Quite a revelation for someone, who, at the time, was in her late 40’s! It really explained so much and for someone who only, again at the time, read nothing but non-fiction-mainly-histories, helped me to understand why one book would take weeks or even months to finish. I had no retention of what I was reading unless I wrote notes down which frankly took away from the enjoyment of the books unless I was reading for research.I have one book in particular that has been my white whale. It has taken me years to finish and I made a promise to myself that this would be the year I do it! However, once I figured out taking a bookmark and reading line by line and hiding the rest really helped my focus and retention issues. I do this for non fiction and extremely detailed histories and what an enormous help it has been. And because each line is so deliberately read, my retention of facts has been so much better.

Now, having said that, once I brought fiction into the mix? For some reason, I can fly though them! Especially the more lighthearted/escapist type of books. No bookmark trick needed for them, except to keep my place of course. Thus my going through the series I’m reading now so quickly. I think they have been an excellent distraction from real life and I’ve very much been enjoying being in another “mental space” while I read. I mentioned in previous posts how I’ve actually been learning from these particular books as well as the author has been sneaking in some great tips on publishing, book marketing and other creative processes for writing their own manuscripts. So all in all, this series has been a wonderful vacation/teachable moment for me.

I also find that when I’m reading a book that grabs me, I get inspired even more with my own writing. The idea for my first novel came to me while reading another book. Not that the stories were anywhere near similar but something struck a chord and the next thing I knew, I had my first six chapters written before I had finished the one I was reading! Apparently the current books I’ve been into have also upped my creative flow, as during this month I have been working a lot more on my own material. It has been the most productive month I’ve had in that respect in quite some time. I once wrote an article for LinkedIn called Creatives Inspiring Creatives and that is exactly what I am talking about.i

You have to understand something here, with all of my medical issues, I am on a lot of meds, many who’s side effects affect my train of thought. So to be in this more steady zone of building story vs editing has been a fantastic and long overdue journey!

This past week alone, I’ve edited five chapters of the first draft of my completed novel; written two more chapters of the sequel and written two chapters of another story that popped into my head. In my files, I have started to write so many other books because new ideas keep coming to me. I always assume they will just be short fiction stories that I could submit to journals and such. But then the stories keep flowing and the next thing I know, I’m several chapters in. In the meantime, I am more than determined than ever to get my first two manuscripts out because I have worked for years on the main story and am pretty excited about it!

I don’t know if you have the same problem where you could be in the middle of working on something that you’ve been so passionate about and then suddenly another idea pops into your head and won’t let go. Until you get it out, you cannot focus on your original idea. Thus, these stories/songs/art pieces, whatever is your own personal medium, from absolutely nowhere need to find a place outside of your head. Once they have? You can go back to what you were doing and all is right with the world.

A big issue I have as well, as do many, is trying to get your fingers to move as quickly as your thoughts. As fast as I do type, my fingers don’t move as precisely as they used to so I am constantly fixing typos along the way. A perfect example is that the last sentence. As I typed, it was filled with incorrect words and letters and it took me twice as long to complete it because I’m constantly hitting the wrong keys. Some of that again are medical issues, some, this particular week, is still getting used to my new keyboard (and now new keycaps!) and some, is that getting my thoughts to my fingers can be tricky. There is a constant disconnect between the two that makes my hands hit the wrong keys and the frustration factor is off the charts. I’ve always been a fast typist, but to express myself through writing can come out like stuttering when speaking. Brain works too fast, the execution, not so much. Sometimes I think it’s a pain and yet other times, I feel it is a wonderful issue to have. I say this because many creatives have so many ideas flooding their thoughts that sometimes the brain doesn’t know which to physically get out first!

I was at my neurologist’s office this week and one thing discussed with him is that I have trouble finding words when I speak. It can sometimes take me a while to get out a sentence during a conversation. My head knows what I want to say, but I can’t find the words to express the thought. So I go blank. I always feel bad for the person I’m talking to because they can see my wheels turning and know that what I want to say is right in front of me. They can see me searching for my statement like I’m looking for a cue card that someone is holding up next to them but of course, is not there. The same thing happens when I’m writing. But oddly, only when I’m doing something like this.

When I’m writing my book or a new story, it just flows. I don’t even know where it’s coming from and it’s like automatic writing. I’m often surprised when I go to read it the next day to see what I came up with. But when expressing my own thoughts and words in something like a blog post? Ugh. Each sentence is a challenge. The thought is there, but the errors and mistakes are constant and it takes me twice or even three times as long to finish a post than it should. I wish I could slow down just a bit, but I’m not hardwired that way so I just have to go with it.

Which brings me to what is the first point in this post’s title, that having too many ideas can be both wonderful and a curse! Having trouble focusing on one idea at a time is already a challenge for many, but when your mind is constantly going, well, the fingers fight back and cause you to constantly hit the backspace button to erase the mistakes you have made along the way.

You know what? That’s ok. That’s what life is, isn’t it? Making those mistakes, learning from them and for us creative types, it’s creating something you didn’t even know you wanted to do. Sometimes those typing errors may be thoughts that you had that have been trying to get out and they think that it’s their time to shine. For an artist, they may paint something they hadn’t planned to, but it seems to work in the piece they had been working on. For a musician, those extra notes may strike the chord that they had been searching for and for the writer? It is finding out that the words that come out may just be the hook that has been hiding in plain sight all along.

We may not be able to control the mind, (or the fingers) but we can embrace the mistakes. We couldn’t be who we are without the mistakes we’ve made along the way in life and your work wouldn’t be what it is without them either. It is all in how you deal with them and how you begin to learn that sometimes, those things that go the most wrong, can turn out to be the ones that are the most right.

Have a great weekend all! Until next week…Cheers!!

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Interested in reading the LinkedIn piece? You can find it and some of my other past works on: this page

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Come check out the Nantucket series beginning with book 1: The Nantucket Inn

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Looking for a new keyboard? While I got mine in pink, it does come in other color schemes. The new keycaps are perfect for Spring but there are so many fun ones out there to customize your aesthetic to how you like it. You spend so much time on your keyboard, make it more you! Actually, the keycaps came from Temu, but I found extremely similar ones on Amazon here. Keyboard link.

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Links to Amazon products on this site are affiliate links and help support the site. Thanks for making a purchase, any purchase through the links. It is greatly  appreciated!

Keeping on Track, Brain Fog and Opportunities

/ ccsocialcreative
Image credit: Ylanite on Pixabay

Hey all! Welcome back and thanks for keeping up with me. Been a weird week productivity-wise. I’ve gotten a lot done! I’ve actually edited quite a number of chapters (yay), have written a number of chapters and have also read 2 1/2 books since my last post last week.

In the middle of all of this, I had a few days of absolute ridiculousness.

If you have read my backstory at all, (about me page that’s a little old now), you know that I deal with several illnesses at once. I am on several medications and a pretty strict med schedule. But in late November 2024, while doing a good deed for my neighbors, I missed a step in the dark and came down hard on my foot and ankle. I heard a crack and what I thought were broken bones, my dr said might have actually been the tendons and ligaments snapping. If you think it reads bad, the sound has not left me since the night it happened.

Anywhoo, as I wait for my MRI tomorrow, they had me switch my meds around. Which is fine, I needed a shakeup. I’ve been on the same things now for quite a while and a switch now and then can sometimes help. Last time we did this, I purged my system of all the meds I was taking and suddenly could walk somewhat normally again. This time, it’s both helped and hindered my situation bringing on some old pain with a vengeance and also making my brain feel like mush.

When I tweaked them a little more, I was suddenly more productive than I had been in weeks! What a feeling this was! It was like being caffeinated and on some pretty high end speed all at the same time and because of it, I got into a great routine of reading for a few hours, editing for a few hours and then writing for a few hours! I got so much done in those couple of days I thought I was on a good schedule to have my first edited draft ready to go to the next step of reformatting and taking another read through for one more tweak, while also finishing the writing of my second book within the month. All this and I am now up to book 5 out of 9 in the series I am reading and hoping to finish by March 1st. It’s my personal goal for my February Cancer fundraiser. To say I was on a roll would be an understatement.

And then…

I ran out of one of my prescriptions. So I was making do with some more basic stuff and tons of Tylenol. The pain, not just from the foot, but my overall pain that I live with came back and it was to the point of distraction. I couldn’t concentrate very well. I could read a bit, but the writing and such had to be pushed aside. I found the prescription they had taken me off of when I hurt the foot and thought that might help. BIG MISTAKE. The one and only pill I took basically put me in an awake coma state. I was so tired, I could barely pick my arm up. Plus, it didn’t help the pain at all. In fact, it seemed to exasperate it quite a bit. I could barely walk, even just to my kitchen which is about 25 steps away. Standing was excruciating and I couldn’t wait until the dose was out of my system. I still don’t understand why it hit me this way when I had been on it for almost two years and it was one of the drugs that helped me walk and be more ‘normal’ two years ago before I had another setback.

So ok, no more of that one. I went back to the routine they gave me after the foot incident and while it’s at least helping me think more clearly and have more energy, it will be some time before the stronger pain subsides again.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, first, it’s my blog and I use it for a sort of therapy. But also because there are other folks like myself who are extremely sensitive to side effects and many don’t understand that. I am so sensitive that a high dose of Tylenol can knock me out!

So imagine being on multiple kinds of heavy pain meds at once and trying to read or write a book? Or even, trying to read a label on some food you are about to cook? Simple tasks become not so simple.

Then flip it…get a good combination and suddenly it’s like seeing the world for the first time! Your energy is up, your vision is clear, you can’t keep up with your mind that is going a hundred miles an hour and wants to do everything it possibly can but your body is not in the physical shape to do so.

The one thing I am so grateful for is my creativity. That’s not an ego thing by any means. For some they can go for a bike ride, some can get out and hike or drive somewhere special. I can’t do that. I am home in bed 99% of my time. So my outlet is writing and creating. I used to make jewelry for over 20 years but my hands can’t work the tools properly anymore. I have tons of craft supplies waiting to be used, but I always go back to my keyboard. While I do have to keep an eye out for how long I’ve been typing, (my hands swell if I do too much), I can still use it to punch out a few chapters of the story I want to tell or put together a post like this. One that gives me an outlet for my own mind but maybe may help someone else in the process.

To those who tell you, and yes I have heard this from doctors, “being overly sensitive to meds is in your head”, screw them. You know yourself better than anyone!

I’m lucky right now to have a group of doctors who actually listen to me. Two in particular are letting ME take control of the dosage of a med because there are some days that the high dose is just too much and I simply can’t function while on it. So they’ve given me two different strengths of it to use as I need to and it has been, overall, the best thing they could have done. You can also ask your doctors about this. NEVER BE AFRAID TO ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF! I have learned this lesson well in the past 8 1/2 years. I have learned to speak up, ask a ton of questions, go in with lists of things I need to talk about but are afraid I will forget while I’m in the room. One of my doctors just takes my phone and reads the list first, writes it all down and then we discuss it for an hour. THAT is what it’s like to have someone on your side. It has taken me years to have this happen, I have been told everything from, “there’s nothing wrong with you” to “you have six months to live, get your affairs in order.” (Btw, that was 15 years ago, jokes on him, I’m still here!) I used to be petrified to say anything if I felt what they said wasn’t right. Switching doctors? Ha! I’d go with one that was doing more harm than good because I was too scared to speak up. Not any more!

I admit that this post took a strange turn while I was writing it. I was going to talk about my progress this week. How well I’ve been back at writing and that I’ve finally been editing again. But you know what? Life is life and sometimes, that is the more important issue.

We do what we can. We get up every day and try our best. Am I mad at myself that for two days I did absolutely no writing or editing? Hell yes. I was doing great before I switched those meds up. But now here it is, two days later and earlier, I was able to do some things that needed doing around the house.  I’m now writing this. After I post, I will head back to my second manuscript and get in some more writing there as well. Am I still in pain? Always. I live with it 24/7. But I can focus and that, to me, is most important right now. When I can’t focus and get into the medicine brain fog, I lose sight of myself and it is frustrating. I know there are things I should be doing but can barely think or move. When I have the ‘good’ days of being able to function, I do as much as I possibly can and pay the consequences the next day. I already know tomorrow will be a tough one, but tonight? Proud of myself for doing…being…functioning.

I don’t know how many of you will reach this far and that’s fine. Again, I sometimes use this as my own form of therapy. Maybe I needed to get this out to clear my head so that I could write a few chapters tonight. Who knows? But what I said, I truly believe in. Never be afraid to be your own champion. Especially when it comes to your health. Don’t like your doctor? Switch! Meds not doing it for you? Ask if there is an alternative. And if you have days where you cannot move because of the pain, give yourself permission to rest and be ok with it. This last one is the one I have the most trouble with. I used to be on the go all the time so getting used to just having to stay in bed has been the hardest. But you know what? There are times that it is very necessary and hey, because of it, I was able to finally have the time to write a book!

Learn how to take the negatives and spin them around. Easy? Hell no! I live with depression, I know it’s not all motivational speeches and fortune cookies. But we have to find the opportunities that can happen. They may take time to find. They may be hidden in plain sight or they may have been right in front of us all along. Take a moment, take a breath and look at what is in front of you. Whether you are healthy or not, maybe you are looking for something different. Or maybe you have wanted to do something your whole life and never thought you’d get the chance. I always wanted the time to write a book. (Ok, so be careful what you wish for because this certainly wasn’t how I imagined the time would come to me.) But still, I had the time, I took a chance and I did it.

Sometimes opportunity comes to you in strange ways…don’t miss it!

Until next week folks. Thanks for sticking with me and following along my journey! Cheers all. 🙂 

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If you like journaling or would like to start journaling your own life progress, I have several blank journals that I have designed listed on Amazon. Some are just plain bulleted and lined books and some are done in a scrapbooking style that are non-traditional, but I created to make it a more creative experience: Click here for info

New Keyboard, Sequels and Learning from Others

/ ccsocialcreative
Image credit: lil_foot_ on Pixabay

Hey folks, how’s your week going? I have to say, mine is actually going ok! Spring training starts this week, we won the last quarter of the Super Bowl pool and I just got a brand new keyboard that has my fingers dancing over the keys.

I am new to the whole ‘hot swappable’ keyboard thing. Had never heard about it until recently, (I’m old, give me a break) but I actually heard about it first on ASMR videos! I love to watch/listen to people typing for relaxation and motivation for my writing and this one girl showcases a different keyboard in every video. She changes out her keys all the time and I was intrigued by this. To customize a main keyboard sounded intriguing and I was already looking for a new one as my other one was putting too much strain on my hands. So after a lot of searching, I found one that seemed cool and hey, it went on sale on Amazon for half off so, SOLD! I also picked out a cute set of keycaps on another site, but received the keyboard today and I can’t stop typing on it. What a different experience it is from my old one. Sometimes manufacturers don’t realize that some of us have smaller hands. So to find a keyboard that accommodates my hands is wonderful.

Ok, enough rambling about my new toy. (Although I’m really happy with it, can you tell?) I am happy to say that my writer’s block has cleared! In fact, I have been writing so much that I am now on my fourth chapter of the sequel to my first book. Yeah, yeah, I know I still need to edit the first one, but my heart is in the writing. The editing is like eating salads. You know you should do it, but you have to force yourself to sit and get it done. However, I got a spark of inspiration for the new story and wanted to get it down while I’m finally in writing mode.

I mentioned in the last post that I’ve been reading a series and I’d like to say, I’ve been learning a lot from it. I never thought I would read one let alone write one. But the further I go into the current series, the more I’m learning about how to shape the story around the first book. How to develop the characters more and to be sure to include details from the previous book for someone who may not have read the first one without boring the person who has already read it.

Case in point, I mentioned in the earlier post that I accidentally started with book three of the series. I had picked it up at a library book sale and only saw the author’s name. I like her work so I grabbed it. I was disappointed the story had ended because I really enjoyed it and then while looking for other books by her, only then did I realize I had read a book that was the third book in the series. So I’ve been getting the other books and enjoying them and while I’m invested in the story, I am learning a whole lot as well. There is a character in the book who is a writer. In the story he gives advice to another writer and I have been taking notes on it. There have been great tips throughout the books that I wasn’t expecting, considering it’s about a family on Nantucket! I stated in the last post to always look at acknowledgments at the end of a book for ideas on agents and editors. In this book, I’ve been learning more about the self-publishing process. 

I have taken a seminar on it at our library as one of the local author series they have. We are lucky to have quite a few authors in our city and one gave a class of sorts on how to get your book published. I have gone back and forth on the whole “to self-publish or not to self-publish” debate and never know where I will end up. So to find some great information in a fictional series took me by surprise. Not to mention the fact that I suddenly realized, the book I am reading, as well as the two others so far, look to be self published!

I noticed that she did not put acknowledgements at the end of these, (not necessarily indicative of a self-published book) but this time instead of looking to the back for information, I went to the front. I noticed it says, “created with Vellum.” I didn’t know what that was, so I looked it up and found it to be software for Macs for authors. You can write, format and create your book and then publish to print and/or ebook format. It does cost money and it is right now only for Macs but I didn’t even know this software existed! So ok, more research. I’ve found good things said about this particular software, many authors swear by it and it looks to be a good investment. Alright so I’m now saving up for my own copy of Vellum, although you can use it for free until you are ready to publish.

Now a tidbit that came from the series that I thought could be good advice, is that many new authors self publish the first one and then after they see how their sales are doing, go the agent route. I have been seriously considering this. I think mostly because I am very proud of my first book and I really want it out there. It has been a bucket list item for me for so long and I’d like to be able to say that yes, I do have a published book out in the world! So that is another point in the Vellum column. It helps get your manuscript ready for publication.

Then of course is the ISBN issue. This I learned about in the class and honestly, I was so happy this came up. I had never even considered this issue at all! From what I understand (and I will certainly correct myself if I have this mixed up at all):  If you self publish with say, Amazon KDP, they will assign an ISBN number for free for you; however, you cannot then sell your book anywhere else. Meaning, say you want to have your local bookstore carry your book but you did it by KDP with the free number,  the bookstore can’t sell it. For example, I have designed several blank journals and have them published through KDP with the free numbers. I can’t have my local bookstore order and sell these in their shop. But if I have my own ISBN number, I can sell the books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and even my local small shop. What I am still very iffy on is getting it published at another publishing house and how to get it listed on Amazon and the rest. But as a research junkie, I will figure it out and hopefully share it here.

Please also note that I was told by a bookshop owner that you must check a box that indicates returns can be done. This way if a shop orders say two dozen copies but only sells 10, they can return the unsold books to the publisher. However, if the box isn’t checked, the shop is stuck with them until they sell. I’ll post a link to an ISBN provider below that has more information on this and much more.

It’s a crazy world this writing business! It is not, despite what younger YouTubers think, where you can just fire off some pages, upload it and get tens of thousands of dollars in the first month! And I cannot stress this enough, it is also NOT about doing it with ChatGBT. I am someone who absolutely hates the idea of real writers getting outshined by people using AI to generate books. It is an insult to the writing community that you can even do this. So no, I will never be one of those people who uses fake programs to come up with story ideas and then publish and start selling them in a week. My first book took YEARS to finish. Yes, some of that was because of health issues, some was because of writer’s block and some was just the struggle with the process. But those who claim “writing a book is as easy as putting in a few ideas and having a program do the rest then watching the money roll in?” Lazy and stupid in my opinion. There, I said it. Let true writers be writers. My first full draft took an incredible amount of work and when I printed it all out and I saw my ‘small forest’ of paper for the first time, I was in awe that I had done it. That I had put my heart and soul into all of those pages. I don’t think you get that same sense of pride from an AI generated manuscript. But hey, that’s just me.

And that’s a subject for another day.

Anyway, my point is this. You never know where you might find the info you need. For me, learning about a writing program I didn’t know existed came from the front page of a book that I’d normally ignore. It came from a character in a book spouting real information on how to get started with a first novel. It has come from the acknowledgments in the back of a book I really enjoyed. Taking that information and then doing the research has been eye opening and as I always vow to learn something new every single day, this whole process has been like one giant life lesson that I am forever grateful for.

And on that note, I shall end this week’s post. I’ll be sure to throw some links below  on things mentioned in this post for you to check out if you’d like. I do hope you are getting something out of this and as I share my process and my own lessons. I am forever grateful for your hanging with me and reading this and hey, thanks for the likes last week! It has been a long time coming with that post and I was glad to see it got some reach. Hopefully the more consistent I get posting, the more we can grow together. I have been a writer for many years, but as a book author? There is so much to learn! So here I am sharing it with you both hoping you’ll get something out of it as well as a little online writing therapy for myself. 🙂

Until the next time, have an awesome Valentine’s Day and here’s to pitchers and catchers reporting this week!! Cheers all!! 

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I am still participating in the American Cancer Society’s Read Every Day in February fundraiser. If you would like to donate (no amount too small and every dollar helps!): Please Click Here

My new keyboard: Womier WK60 60% Keyboard Wireless, Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Hot Swappable Gasket, RGB Keryboard for Bluetooth/2.4GHz/USB-C, MOA PBT Keycaps, Pre-lubed POM Switches (I got it in pink but there are other color choices as well and again, you can customize the keys to your liking.)

Vellum Software for creating and publishing books.

Information on ISBN numbers and other publishing information at Bowker A great thing about this site is that you can buy either one number or a package of numbers to save you money. So if you are writing a series, plan on writing more than one book, or want to get them now for the future, you can get a good rate. (I am not an affiliate of this site, just love a good deal.)

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Please note: I am an Amazon affiiliate and any purchase made through one of my Amazon links sends a small commission my way. Other links are not commission based (for now) but I will always let you know when a link is an affiliate link.

A New Year, Writer’s Block and a Small Forest

/ ccsocialcreative
Photo Credit: jt.thararat

Hey all! Well, it’s been a minute. Actually, it’s been a year! (Ok, not exactly a whole year, but we did change years!!) I hope everyone had a great holiday season, January and so forth. I had made a resolution to write more on the blog this year and I have so far, failed miserably. But here I am, back at it and hope to keep up with it as much as possible.

I have been dealing with some crazy life stuff which has led to a strange case of writer’s block. Why strange? Because I haven’t been able to come up with a post for here but have managed to start several stories that are now sitting in my docs as unfinished pieces. I get inspired by something I’m reading and then start typing away only to stop and not pick it up again. I have thought of many things to write for here and yet, actually sitting down to type them out has been a no-go. Ever get this way? I believe it is all part of my ADD since I can’t concentrate on anything for more than a minute these days. Except for reading. I just get lost in my books. But life? A whole other story.

Speaking of reading, I’m still going through books like they grew on trees. (Too soon?) I continue to add to my TBR lists as fast as I am reading the pile that sits next to me. I had decided to keep the Winter/holiday theme for a while longer to keep the spirit going and had saved a bunch of holiday books for January…my most hated month of all.

Let’s talk about that for a moment shall we? Why is it that we go from the most colorful time of the year, September thru New Year’s Eve (ironically, also my favorite time of the year) with all of the decorations, colorful lights and leaves and then start the new year with dull, gray January? I am pushing to have people leave their lights up throughout the month to take away the blah. I mean, there is no law that says that holiday lights HAVE to be taken down at the rolling of the calendar year, right? So I say, leave them up! We do! We keep our lights up pretty much all year long. We just switch them up for the seasons…and yes, that includes baseball season as well. We just want to bring some life into the nights and remind folks that it is ok to be colorful. 🙂

Annnnnyway, now that it is February, it is still cold and snowy, but I’m ok with that. I’m a cold weather girl and I’m at my most comfiest when wearing hoodies and boots. Valentine’s Day is next week and I’ve just been getting my shops ready for the shoppers…or rather…adding stuff to my shops hoping for shoppers. When you deal with jewelry and gifty-type stuff, your idea of “holiday” is all about making sure you have customers. Now that we are a little over a week out, I get to relax a little on it and not push so hard for sales. I have been coming up with new ideas to create for one of the shops, hoping to have some more crafty/artistic items listed this year but again, ADD and Amazon don’t play well together and looking up supplies has led to some funky searches, mostly new books to buy.

Speaking of books, I went to my library’s recent book sale and made out great! I found a few by authors I had started reading in the last year and fell in love with this one book set in Nantucket. I read it super fast and wanted more. Then I found out it was book 3 of a series! I have mentioned before that I am not a series person. I like one and done and move on to the next types of books.( Although, admittedly, I have been loving the Laurie Gilmore Dream Harbor series.) This one as well has been changing my mind and I’ve just started book 1 on my way to going through all 9 with a smile on my face. What is nice about these particular books is that the first one I read, read independently. Had I not looked it up, I never would have realized it was part of a series. 

I have also just finished a few others based in Michigan and now find myself watching YouTube videos on the areas mentioned, looking for the places that the stories are based around and making bucket lists of places I want to go to when I get the chance. I want to look for Petosky stones along the shores of Lake Michigan, see the Tunnel of Trees, hit the Cherry Festival, go to the Goodhart General Store and see the mammoth ice caves formed by the lake itself. I’ve even found myself looking at real estate listings there ‘just in case’ and that is really saying something for this die hard New Englander! 

I have been on a roll with the reading and this month I am also doing another Read Every Day Challenge fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. I have done two previous ones and love doing this. I have talked about going through my own cancer situation and so this one is a personal one for me. Plus, I’m already reading every day so why not put it to good use!

As for my own book, I am in editing hell. I like to write, not edit. But I know that this first official draft needs work before I can find an agent and every day I look at this small forest of paper and get mad at it. It seems to stare at me, letting me know I need to do this but my inner denial angel keeps thinking it will somehow get done on its own and it will just magically get done. In the meantime, it looks like a rainbow threw up on the pages with all of the post-its, notes and flags I have on the pages color coded of course to let me know how much needs to get done once I’m done with the read through.

As of this writing, I have read 6 1/2 books so far this year and yet when it comes to my own, as much as I think it is pretty good (if I do say so myself) my critical self is stopping me from picking it up and getting past chapter 7 of editing. Ridiculous? You betcha! It will get done. I’ve set an internal deadline for when I want it completed and ready to be sent out. But I am one of the many procrastinators out there that works better under pressure. Not one paper in school was written early…but they were turned in on time regardless! So why is this any different? Just because this first book could potentially change my life? Ok, sure. There’s that. And I think that’s the problem. I am worried about the reception it will get. Will it be accepted? Denied? Ridiculed? Will an agent like it? Will I end up self publishing because I wanted it out there like yesterday and ready for Summer reading people or as this year’s holiday gift of the season?

I will say this, and frankly, I suggest this to other writers out there looking to break into getting something published…I read every single acknowledgement at the end of a book. Especially the authors I truly can’t get enough of. Why? Because if my book is going to hold up in a similar genre, then I want to know where these books were published. Who their agents, editors, assistants are. I have found great information this way. I am a research junkie and the more I look at the ends of books, the more I look up. Are their publishers taking submissions right now? Are their agents available for inquiries? Are they indie or large houses? Inquiring minds want to know!

I recently saw another author talk about this and she said the same thing. This is how she found her current agent. By innocently looking at who the author thanked at the end of their novel. You never know where your spark of inspiration is going to come from, so be sure to look at author’s ‘thank yous’, their websites, their social media posts.you may just find what you are looking for whether it be a new agent or a little tidbit about how they came up with their story. You’d be surprised at how much you learn and no classes needed! Hell, it’s even free information!

I will leave it there. This post has been months in the making and I never meant to be away for so long. I still have so many plans for this site including a more organized bookshelf page. I have read so many books since the last time I was here and still need to add them to the page for you to check out. But I’d like to do a bit of an overhaul or at least break up the “On the Bookshelf’ section into years instead of throwing them all up on one long page.

In the meantime, thanks for still being here. Hope you’ll stick with me and who knows what will come next! Happy 2025 all. Let this be a good one!! 🙂

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If you’d like to donate to my Read Every Day in February Challenge fundraiser for the American Cancer Society: Click Here and Thank You!! 

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Books read so far:

Bright Lights, Big Christmas – Mary Kay Andrews

A Wish for Winter – Viola Shipman

The Secret of Snow – Viola Shipman

The Wishing Bridge – Viola Shipman

Big Sexy Love – Kirsty Greenwood (No, it’s not porn. Get your head out of the gutter)

Nantucket Inn – Pamela Kelley (book one of the Beach Plum Cove series)

Nantucket White Christmas – Pamela Kelly (book three of the Beach Plum Cove series)

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Hope you will follow my page on Facebook! I post free phone wallpaper designed by me, (no AI) to download each season as a thank you for following. 🙂

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If you’d like to shop with me, I deal with vintage and estate jewelry, click the ebay tab: linktr.ee/stuffwefind

And also have my creative shops on etsy (hopefully not for long there) as well as Redbubble, Zazzle and Teepublic. The etsy shop has items designed and created by me the others are designs and print on demand shops with tons and tons of items to choose from. You can find all links here: linktr.ee/stuffwemade

Both linktrees as well as my personal one all link to each other. So no matter where you start, you’ll find ALL of my links!

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