writer

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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What I Did On My Summer Vacation (a life update)

/ ccsocialcreative

When thinking about this post, I could have easily gone with a myriad of titles, but I decided to use one that hasn’t graced a page since elementary school. I don’t get technical “vacations” anymore working for myself, and I’m not really a Summer person, but nevertheless, here we are!

This year has been a bit strange and the fact that it isn’t over yet has me both happy and not happy all at once. The ‘ber’ months are my favorite time of the year and some years it seems to take much longer to get to September than others. This was one of those years. But that aside, this Summer, I did hit two goals that I was pretty proud of.

To say the Summer started off horribly is an understatement. The last days of May, we lost our dog Kiwi. He was my boy and I am, (and probably never will be) not over it. Even though he was our second senior rescue, it was still unexpected and he will be my boy forever. I tell you this, not to bring you down or to dissuade you from continuing to read any further, but you must understand the mindset I was in. I was a mess.

I was already dealing with some health issues of my own, a relapse was starting to occur of my previous illnesses, (see first post for context) and was having a hard time. When the little guy suddenly got sick, it exasperated my condition and it has been a slide since. Walking is not really an option these days and as someone who has a history of depression, I needed an escape or end up diving further down the abyss. So escape it was!

The beginning of May found me taking part in my second “Read Every Day’ fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. I had done one in October of ’23 and it was a great success! I doubled the inital donation goal and had hoped to do it again. While I didn’t quite reach it this time, the fundraisers really reignited my love of reading.

For years, I prided myself on only reading non fiction, history in particular, my genre of choice. Being someone with authority issues, the last real time I read fiction books was back in my school days when I was forced to for the purposes of grades. I am one who tries to go against what I am told to do or do things in my own time. Call it ptsd of school days, but even in my 50’s, this is why I can’t join a book club…I don’t want anyone else dictating what I read.

About two years ago, a book title caught my eye on Amazon and decided to order it. Set in a bookshop, it had a little mystery and great characters and it became an instant favorite and also sparked a new genre love for me, books taking place in bookshops! (Because why not, right?) After I read that one, I would occasionally sprinkle in a fiction read in between my normal local history and Doris Kearns Goodwin volumes.

When the opportunity came around to take place in the first fundraiser last October, I added a new book to my stack. The month of reading a little something every day got me to read a little more. And then it tapered a bit with the holidays and life stuff. I was able to get one or two more books read at the beginning of the year, but again, 2024 showed it’s ugly side early and reading really wasn’t on my to-do list. Enter May.

The next fundraiser event was about to start and I went to Amazon and filled up my cart with new titles to sink my teeth into. I started to read just a little every day, thus the title of the event, and by the last week of the month, I had about 3/4 of a book done. I was never a fast reader and for this month, I wanted to at least honor the tone of the event. The month had brought around some life things that made it a little hard to concentrate on the pages in front of me, but I was true to the event and was proud of myself. Then came the end of the month and my world was turned upside down.

I started to realize that the only time my mind wouldn’t wander to Kiwi (and the only time I would stop crying) was while I had my nose buried in a book. I started reading all the time. I was also adding to my Amazon cart’s save for later after looking up books I thought would make great summertime reads, or by authors I had only just discovered. I decided to make a goal, I would read 7 books before September 1st.

I know there are many who could do that easily, but I’ve never been a fast reader. I am also mildly dyslexic, something I was finally diagnosed with only a few years back. But there was something about these books that had me focused and even staying up all night to finish.

So there it was, a goal set. Well, one goal set.

I had something else in mind for this Summer and having the time while laid up, I decided this would be the time to complete it. I started something a few years back and it was a project I was passionate about…a novel. But not just any novel. A novel I was writing!

Only a handful of people knew about this and I had given out the first few chapters to them to guage their opinions on just after I first began. While it was something I had always wanted to do and had planned on doing my whole life, it became something that was getting harder to finish, especially with my health the way it is.However, I refused to let it be something I started and never completed. This was going to happen no matter what.

I had started to attend local author events including one by a local Stamford thriller author about how to get a book published. I was the geek in the audience who went old school with a real notebook and pen, vigorously taking notes and making sure to meet the author afterwards. When she hosted another event at the library, I made sure to reintroduce myself to her and the other author who was there for a book signing and take more notes. I have always been committed to finish but like any writing, or really, any project you do, you need the inspiration.

My story in the beginning had started to write itself. I would easily write 3 chapters in one sitting and did that for a bit. But again, that life thing kept getting in the way. Besides the outside world invading my brain, I was in pain and was put on meds that made my thought processes all fuzzy and distant. I couldn’t focus and would start to look at my laptop like the enemy. I became severly blocked and had no idea how to get the story going again.

They say artists influence other artists and musicians to other musicians, well, so do authors to other authors. I noticed that when I started to read these books, my own story was starting to pop back up in my mind. Soon, I was pulling out the laptop or my ipad with my shiny new retro style keyboard and churning out pages again. Thus, the second goal of the Summer was marked down…finish this book.

So that is how the Summer went. I’d read a book, write a chapter. Write some more, start a new book. The chapter and page numbers started to get higher while I wrote and more books on my tbr (to be read) pile, would be read. All of this while creating new designs and listing new things for my online shops and of course, watching the Yankees and 90’s era reruns. I may have been laid up, but I was still busy as hell.

When it got down to the last two weeks of August, I still had two books to read to make my goal of 7 and I was determined to do it. I had developed a habit of what is called ‘mindful reading.’ I learned this from a small business youtube creator who, while much, much younger than myself, has taught me so much. One of these lessons was taking the time every day to read for a bit to gain inspiration from others as well as tuning the mind out to the life stuff. I began reading a chapter or two while waiting for my dinner to cook every night and would find I was really making a dent in whatever book I was reading. Then, without realizing it, at least one weekend night each week became all about finishing whatever story I was on. This is pretty much how the Summer went. And lo and behold, at 10am August 31st, I finished my 7th book. (I have always been great at meeting a deadline in the last hours.) Ok, so one goal down, one to go!

Those last two books really had a grip on me. Like any good story, it took a little bit to get my head out of, well, in this case, upper Michigan as ironically both of the final books just happened to take place there. Two different authors, two different stories and each had me wanting to book a flight to see the Tunnel of Trees, take a cottage on the lake and go to the the cherry festivals there. But I digress…

I came out of the Michigan fog and started to write again. This time, my second goal was on my mind and now it was serious. In the past, I had hoped to finish and publish my novel in time to have ready for holiday presents, for Winter book clubs, for Summertime beach reading, but now, I just wanted it finished.

I would write for hours on end one night and have to take a break the next because my fingers hurt too much to continue. Then start writing again the night after. Soon, the pain didn’t matter anymore and I would just play through the pain. The twist to this was that because I think in what I call, ‘constant spirals of parallel thought’, I had two other story ideas pop into my head. So there were a couple of nights when I veered off of my original novel and began to write two other books that had nothing to do with this first one, ironic since I had always planned that the first would turn into a series of at least three. These new stories were new and oh, did I mention I’ve been working on a local history book at the same time? No? Well, yeah, that’s for another time.

Anyway, I buckled down, got back to my original story and got myself on a schedule, which is something I just try to avoid like covid. I had started reading a new book, would spend time on that. Eat. Watch a few shows, then at 4am, the writing would commence. One thing about keeping reverse hours than the rest of the world, (up all night, sleep during the day, dinner at midnight) is that I have none of the normal distractions of those with 9-5 lives. I’d write for about 4-5 hours at a time and soon, I could see the end in sight.

Then, last week, after having started this several years ago and after almost 6 straight hours of writing without breaks, I FINISHED!

Now, here is the funny thing about finishing such an involved project. I thought once I hit that last word, that final sentence, that ending chapter, a ticker tape parade would commence like it did in 2009 (last time the Yankees won the World Series). But you know what? It didn’t. It was after 10am. I had typed continuously for 6 hours and my eyes were killing me from staring at the screen for so long. In a nutshell, I wanted to just go to sleep.

The next hard part has of course now begun, the editing. The self criticism. The changing of character names and plot points. And that’s ok! What is so damned important to me here is that I finished my first book. That first draft is everything I have always wanted to do and more and damn it, I did it. (I REALLY DID!)

So to the person who coined the phrase, be careful what you wish for? I have to thank you. While I had always wished for time to write, I indeed got it, but at the cost to my health. However, I didn’t want that to be my legacy. I wanted to write a book. Ok, I want to write many! But the first one is always the hardest they say and I have now completed that first one.

So, what did I do on my Summer vacation? I lived in a literary world for several months, both reading and writing. It is now 3/4 of the way through September. I have now started my third book of the month and have started editing my own manuscript. What will the next few months hold? Not sure. But I will forever know that the Summer of 2024 started off rough and ended with my accomplishing something that many do not…I wrote a book.

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For Kiwi 🙂

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To check out the books I read over the Summer as well as tons others in my personal library, head to the ‘On the Bookshelf‘ page of this site!

Click here if you’d like to make a donation to the American Cancer Society. (As a survivor myself, it is greatly appreciated.)

If you are in the Stamford, CT area and are thinking of adding a furry friend to your family, I ask you to please check out our friends at Red Leash Rescue. They work with mainly senior and hardship dogs that are always the hardest to find homes for. We got our Kiwi from them as well as our previous pal, Murphy. Both seniors and both we would take all over again if we could.