writing

Identity Crisis, Thank You and Quick Back Story

/ ccsocialcreative
Photo credit: Vilkasss on Pixabay.

Hey all, welcome back! I will start off with super quick but VERY sincere thank yous all around to those of you who made my numbers jump! I was more than surprised to see how many came to visit here over the past few days and I guess the saying is true, ‘if you build it, they will come.’ Or at least, I hope that’s the reason. Anyway, thank you all and I hope this means I am on the right track here. 🙂

I do have two quick apologies: The first, I am having all kinds of trouble accessing my comments and have no idea why. I cannot see them nor can I respond to them (just like twitter so go figure) so please do not think that I am not interacting with or ignoring anyone. The other is for the url debacle going on. Yes, you can officially use my ccsocialcreative.com domain but there are name server issues on godaddy’s side and that is also being dealt with as well. Alrighty, now that I feel better, let’s do this…

I have never had the issue that many writers, actors or directors have had where they say something like, “I hope to be the next Bette Davis/Paul Haggis/Jane Austen.” Nope. I just wanted my work to stand on its own and make a name for myself. When I was much, much younger and doing more journalistic pieces, I studied the different writings of sports and news columnists to true crime authors, with the mindset that I could take a little from column ‘a’ and a little from column ‘b’ and develop my own style that wouldn’t fit into any specific box. I didn’t want my readers to pick up something thinking, ‘yep, a chick wrote this’ especially since my main focus through high school was to become an investigative reporter. I wanted to create a neutral voice so that the subject matter was the main focus of the piece.

I had started writing for school newspapers young, including the first elementary class in our school to ever create their own paper! As I got older, I took political science classes and history extra credit courses and learned not only of the time periods and of course the facts, etc, but I also really paid attention to how these stories were written. Yes, I still did want to write the next great novel, but I was young, foolish and by high school, went off the rails quite a bit as far as the whole academic thing. I began being the angry news writer. My columns were directed at fighting the system that just suspended me again for cutting class or whatever my offense was that particular week. Good to know that my fallback position was a nice ‘steady’ theater dream that made those around me wince at the slight mention of it. (Although, not my parents, go figure!)

It was during those earlier years that I discovered my love for non-fiction. I wanted facts over fake. I wanted depth vs naivety and I wanted nothing, NOTHING to do with Shakespeare. I was somehow able to avoid the Bard somehow in both my writing journey and my theater work. As badly as I wanted to become a writer, I was never into the classics. I never read Jane Austen, but I will admit that I saw a version of Sense and Sensibility once! Damn my crush on Hugh Grant!

I had always loved the show Kiss Me Kate, we even did in high school. Once, when a PBS showing of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew was on (for which the musical is based), my mother thought I’d like it, sat me down and I got through maybe three minutes then asked if I was being punished for something.

Later, I had lost an opportunity to go to American University as a journalism major and fell back on something steady, like theater.  I was able to avoid Sir William’s work yet again and would opt not for monologues from say Romeo and Juliet but more from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I stopped writing for a number of years, a couple of decades really, then reemerged as a journalist with my own site. I coverered area events, wrote about local history and proudly earned my press badge, not working for anyone else but rather, myself. I then turned that into a job working for a tech company. With the creative freedom I had there, I loved writing for them. Unfortunately life took the turn that brought me here.

As time went by, I started to look back and see that I did still have the dream that I had as a kid. Write a book. But as we all know, the older we get, the less time there is to do things such as acting on our dreams. I say this, be careful what you wish for.

Quick backstory for the new folks…If you read my ‘about me page’ (see link in the top menu bar), you’ll understand my story a little more. My health took a header in 2016. I had to quit my job and the last 8 1/2 years (as of this writing) have been a roller coaster ever since. I went from being highly social and out all the time with friends to staying in bed 24/7. With the exception of a few months here and there when I actually felt good and got out and could walk the dogs and even run a little and play some wiffle ball, it would always follow with brutal setbacks. Each one gets worse and I end up back in my room. For almost a year now, that’s pretty much where I’ve stayed. However, having said that, from this bed, I’ve been able to create two businesses (nothing big and successful yet, but I keep trying!) and more importantly to me…I’ve finally had the time to write!

But write what? 

I’ve always been creative for which I am truly grateful. But decades of reading only histories, autobiographies and the like left me little room for storytelling. Just for the hell of it, I was searching on amazon to see if anything would strike a chord with me in the, dare I say, fiction section?! They say never judge a book by its cover and I didn’t. However the title intrigued me and for the hell of it, I hit the ol’ buy it now button. When it arrived, I couldn’t put it down. What was stranger still was that as I was reading it, a story of my own emerged.

That first draft took forever to finish. I was so sick in between chapters, it would literally be months before I could even look at it again. I’d have to go back and reread what I had already written to refamiliarize myself with the story, characters and setting. I had many setbacks during that draft and only finished the entire thing in early Fall of 2024. It…took…years. But my goal of finishing it was achieved and I literally cried when I printed the entire thing out to edit and that pile of paper was staring back at me.

As I also used this time in bed, the last two years in particular, to read dozens and dozens of books, more ideas have come about. Between current waves of illness and editing frustration, I’ve now also written half of a sequel and then put that down (writer’s block issue) and began to write the first 7 chapters of the book I’m currently working on. One that I am really excited about! This led me to yesterday…

After doing an Amazon search earlier for some new titles to throw into my save for later for the big book sale this week, I was thinking about how to search for what I wanted my next reads to be. This got me thinking about the future. How will folks search for my own book? I don’t want to be known as the ‘next’ anyone. My stories can run into different genres and each one has its own arc. However, I don’t think I’d mind seeing, say for a romance, “if you like Emily Henry then you’d like…” or something along those lines. Look, I’m not trying to be someone else. Just want to be a (successful) storyteller in my own right and be proud to see my name among those whose books I’m loving these days.

It’s funny,  thinking about it now, I don’t think that subject has come up in any of the author events that I’ve been to over the last few years. The question of pen names has, or the usual, “what gets you inspired?” But never, ‘do you mind being compared to anyone else?’ Maybe it’s out of fear that the author in question will then leap off the dais lunging directly at the person asking, then proceeding to stab said person with the end of the microphone? The world may never know. 

What I do know is this…I’m currently a 54 year old thinking she is still 35 and that’s enough of an identity crisis for me. I don’t need to prematurely worry about whether or not someone will call me the ‘next’ anyone. If anything, I should just be flattered if they read my work and think I’m as good as the established authors who are already killing it out there! They are the ones who have paved the way for myself and others and I thank them all for their work…including Shakespeare.

And that folks, is where I will leave you for today. Thanks for joining me here again and as usual, any relevant links will be below. I’m still trying to find the sweet spot for post times so I appreciate your checking back to see I’ve done so!

Until next time…Cheers!

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The book that reignited my writing journey: The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson (now on sale!)

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Amazon’s Big Book Sale runs from April 23rd-28th. It’s an annual sale so don’t miss out on this years deals!

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My links above and in the right side bar can be clicked to find more great deals as well as my shops. You can also find my social links for this site and more at: linktr.ee/promosocially

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New site updates coming soon and I just thank you for having made it this far. See you soon!

Moments in Time, Why Trolls Why and Chapters vs. Painkillers

/ ccsocialcreative
Photo credit: StockSnap on Pixabay.

Hey guys, welcome back! I only kind of slacked off this week with the posting having posted here just once on Monday, I did however make up for it by creating some extra freebies for my Facebook followers…so in one sentence I apologized AND gave a not so subtle hint that you should go and follow my site on FB as well. How’s THAT for an intro?! Btw, you can either click either the sidebar link or the link I’ll post below to access it. Just sayin’. 🙂

Anywhoo, here we are again and I’d like to officially start this post by letting you know that I have happily upgraded this site! So no more intrusive ads that I haven’t had control over on here and the new url is: ccsocialcreative.com

So happy that it is finally done and I’d like to give a special thank you shout-out to the complete stranger who posted a 50% off coupon code for WordPress that I used on this endeavor. (Something else I’ll add to the bottom of this post.) Truthfully, I’ve had the domain for a few years, but I didn’t want to commit it to a designated site until I had committed to it myself. Now that I’ve been doing that, the timing seems to be perfect and lo and behold, the new phase of this site has begun. Where is it going? I have no idea but I just hope you will be along for the ride! Now let’s get to the ‘actual’ post, shall we?

I don’t know about you, but I love a good routine. I think in my case it’s more because I have memory issues and by sticking to a routine, I can make sure I do every step. It’s something my neurologist thankfully told me is a good idea and doesn’t make me all kinds of OCD. Well, in this case anyway. I do have my moments. There are some designated times in my day that I stick to, mental checklist and all. My favorite time is when I’m making my dinner. I use the time for my nightly tea to steep and my food to cook to get in some book time. The fact that I sing ‘book time’ to myself is completely irrelevant and yet, still felt the need to share it here.

As big of a coffee lover I am, I had discovered this tea that now, I can’t have a night without. It is my personal ritual. My moment in time every day that I truly look forward to. I can escape into my reading while I steep to death my happy cup of tea. It is the break from the day that is all mine. No social media, no looking at notifications, no phone even near me! I leave it in the other room so I won’t be tempted to look at it. It’s 25 minutes of escapism that not only gets me back involved with characters I didn’t come up with, but also starts to get the creative juices flowing for my upcoming writing session later on. It both clears my head and entertains me all at the same time. And no matter what kind of day I’ve had up until then, it can shift my mood considerably. Tonight for example, I went into my ‘book time’ angry about something that I had kept turning over in my head. But once the whole routine had begun, once I finished reading one more chapter and once I had finished my cup of tea…my mood was lifted and I was able to get to work. Moments in time for ourselves are so important. Don’t miss out on yours.

So what gets this seemingly neurotic individual angry? Well, lots of things. But the last two days, I did what you are not supposed to do…I let an internet troll get to me. 

I hate reading comments on social posts. There will always be that one moron that has to stir things up and for some inane reason, I am not built to let it go. Whether I comment or not, just the fact that I read this person’s response, a total stranger mind you, can make me furious. So you can imagine when, in this instance, the anger hit when the comment was made directly to me! A complete stranger decided to jump on something I had said and was so incredibly rude I couldn’t believe it. All I did was comment on a video, of a kid mind you, a simple line like ‘way to go!’. Oh the horror!

The way this individual had ‘talked’ to me, all condescending and nasty? Had me seething. I have quite a temper when it’s released and frankly, it’s been a while since I’ve let someone have it. Therapeutically, it honestly would have helped since we went back and forth a couple of times. But alas, the internet. I had decided that since these were public comments, I’d kill him with kindness. I laid it on thick. I called him out in the nicest way possible and then closed with a simple, ‘have a nice day,’ when in my head I was dropping f-bombs left and right. Now, I may jinx this, but I’m happy to say, while his other two responses happened almost immediately, after my last comment, I have not heard back from him. The happy ending though? I received a notification just before I started typing this post that someone had apologized for him and told me that I was so nice for encouraging the boy in the video the way I did and that I shouldn’t let that guy get to me. It is very good to know that there are nice people out there who still stick up for others and who still take the time to make someone feel good. So to that person, I say thank you for restoring my faith in humanity.

As usual, this post has taken a turn I wasn’t expecting. When it comes to this blog, I tend to start out with an idea in mind and then just let my fingers type what they will. Ok, so I also write my characters in much the same way. I will, however, post here with a clear mind. My books? Well…

I’ve been pushing myself a little too hard over the last week which isn’t good with my medical stuff. It takes nothing for a setback to happen but when I do feel good, I like to use that to my advantage. To get things done I normally can’t do. I always pay the price for it the next day though which happened twice this week resulting in the need for the ‘good’ painkillers to make an appearance. 

Now cut to me getting work done on the new book. Staring at the screen as I type a million miles a minute thinking it’s all working. Until I reread it the next day, horrified as I do. Let’s just say, my imagination on these pills is scary. Not to mention, I had two pages of ONE sentence! As determined as I am to sit each night and churn out a new chapter, my biggest mistakes happen when I think I can ‘outrun’ the meds’ effects and try to write as much as I can before they take hold. But once I’m on a roll, I can’t stop. So half of the chapter will make perfect sense to the story. It will flow naturally and the writing is where it needs to be. Then, as I am rereading it, I can tell the exact word where the meds kick in. After that, it’s a free-for-all. Forget not even keeping with the story, but inventing new characters I had no intention of creating. The location suddenly jumps to another country or the story takes a turn that as I’m reading it, I suddenly burst out loud saying, “what the hell was that?!” 

I will admit that I find it comical to the point that I end up laughing at what I’m like on these things. (And so grateful no one else has actually witnessed such behavior.) While the other half of me then realizes, shit. I now have to go back and rewrite everything from say, page 5 and I’ve just doubled my workload. Ok, yes, I’m still laughing while I’m doing it because wow, my imagination is something ‘special’. But let this be a lesson for the kiddies out there…don’t write impaired. Or do and then EDIT like your life depends on it!

And that is where I will leave you for today. If you’ve made it this far, as always I thank you and I’m sure you are wondering if I wrote this particular post on the meds. I’d love to say that yes, I had taken them. But nope. Just a double ramble session because I only posted one other time this week. So thanks for reading my rambles!

Ohhhh before I forget! The BIG annual Amazon book sale is coming up! I’ll put the info below for you. 🙂

As usual, I will post all relevant links below and I welcome you to the ‘new’ ccsocialcreative.com! Thanks for being here and here’s to what the next chapter holds.

Cheers guys…until next time!

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Monday’s post can be found here

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All social links, as well as the tea I was talking about above can be found in my linktree and linktree shop.

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The Amazon Annual Book sale runs from April 23-28th but you can find some early deals now. It covers books, some devices and more so don’t miss out and be sure to stock up for your summer reading TBR now! You can click my link here for deals and to help this site when you shop with it!

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The WordPress 50% off coupon code I used to help me upgrade this site is: SPECKYBOY50

I have no affiliation with the person or company who posted this, I also do not know when it expires. I found it doing a google search and gave it a shot and just thought I’d share it here.

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If you’ve made it this far, I thank you! 🙂

Rainy Weather, Word Count and Late Friday Post

/ ccsocialcreative
Photo credit: ProfitRN on Pixabay.

Hey guys, welcome back! I’m a bit late in posting on this rainy Friday. I take solace in the fact that I am going against my own time table instead of a more structured one. Plus, I posted twice this week already…so really, I’m giving all the excuses. 🙂

It has been cold, rainy and windy here in the Northeast and you know what? I’m ok with that! I love the cold weather. I love reading and writing in the rain and if it delays Summer a bit longer, I’m happy. Sorry warm weather people, I am not someone for the heat. However, I do like Spring a lot and am anxiously waiting to see the flowers around here start to bloom. But how can you beat sitting with a good book, a cup of tea/coffee/cocoa (or whatever your hot beverage of choice is) with the windows open and hearing a good rain fall outside? It’s one of the things that makes life happy. And if it’s not your thing, that’s ok. As long as you have something that makes you happy, then go for it! (I do like to blast rock music when I know there’s no one around in any of the apartments around here when I need a good scream session. I’m not all books you know.)

Anywhooo, as I sit here cozy on my bed typing this, I’m watching my Yankees lose on a dreary night down at the stadium where they all look cold as hell. I’ve been to a few games in this type of weather and while it may have taken weeks for the chill to go away afterwards, to quote my father, “spending hours at the stadium in the rain is still better than not.” So there you go. I used to go to games all the time, but my last baseball game was 9 years ago. Went with friends, PERFECT weather and got some great photos from that night that I framed for my father. Because even if you can’t get to your favorite arena of choice doesn’t mean you can’t look at it every day!

So here I sit, writing for you and for myself. Actually on that front, I’ve done more writing this week than I have for a while and it has felt good. I posted twice here earlier in the week, which I’m thinking of doing more of. No more once a week posts, will try for a minimum of two a week going forward…if not more. And I am happy to say that I’ve been working on a new story.

NEW story you ask?

Why yes. Because my brain has decided to take a vacation on the books I’ve already been working on and while the writer’s block has been insane on that front, it did give me an idea for another one. Unfortunately this happens to me a lot and because of this, I now have about five other started novels. Some going as deep as 10-11 chapters! Once I get an idea, I have to get it out. Clear it out of my head so that I can go back to my original book which I have GOT to finish editing/rewriting so I can get the damned thing published because I really really really want to get it out there! 

I’m done. Sorry. Writer freak out.

I mentioned in a previous post this week that I’ve been reading a book about writers and have really taken note of their processes and daily life, etc. I was especially interested in their daily word counts. (Which is pretty funny considering it’s a romcom.) I talked about how the low numbers baffled me because I write as fast as I talk. I can’t stop until at least one chapter is completed and most times, my word counts are really up there. In the book, they talk about counts as low as 500 words for the day because of their own struggles with writer’s block. I get that. We all do our thing differently after all. Everyone works at their own pace. And if you have stuff going on in your life, that can also make it a challenge to get the words on the page.

This new story idea I’ve had this week though, boy has it wanted to get out. It actually started to come to me as I was writing my last post here! All of a sudden, I couldn’t type fast enough to get that post out before getting myself set up to begin writing a whole new book.

The first night I wrote chapter one in a few hours and my word count was 7568 words. The second night, I was at over 4500 and wanted to keep going but my fingers wouldn’t let me. (I have a lot of issues with my hands so I have to stop when they tell me to or else I would just keep going.) This day broke me because I am quite OCD about finishing a chapter before calling it quits and I had to stop short of finishing chapter two. But you can see by the counts how much I do when I’m on a roll. Again, this is just me. I appreciate that I am probably in a minority for such numbers and to me, even getting five words on a page is an accomplishment. Now imagine how I am when I talk! Lol

One of the reasons my usual Friday post was posted so late was because of all the writing I’ve been doing. My plan was to knock out chapter two and then write a post here. But after all the typing and hey, the sun came up, it was time to rest. I know I’m not on any kind of schedule here, but I put myself on one. So while I may have disappointed myself in that regard, I’m really excited about this new story and waiting to see where it takes me. Like any writer, the story is playing out in my head as I type this. As I sleep. As I have a conversation. As I make my coffee. It is never far from me and now I just have to get it down and hopefully soon.

I’ve been loving writing for this blog though. I’ve had this site for a few years but never truly dedicated my time to it. Now that I have and I see that folks are coming back time and time again to read it, it really is getting me inspired to keep going. It is because of YOU that I keep doing this and as I’ve said many times here, it is keeping me accountable for my own writing. Like having someone watch over me to say, ‘hey, you keep talking about it, keep DOING it.’ So I keep doing it.

By the way, if you’ve missed any of my recent posts, you can hit the ‘new posts’ tab on the menu bar. They will always be here. And you can always subscribe in the ride sidebar to get emails when new posts are up!

And that is where I am leaving you for today. If you’ve gotten this far, I thank you. I thank you for continuing to hang with me here and hope you keep coming back!!

Until next time…

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Come check out my social links and my linktree shop as well. I have the keyboard on there I currently use that has really helped my hands. If you have issues with arthritis, contracture, etc, this has a nice profile, hot swappable keyboard that is perfect for hands like mine: linktr.ee/promosocially

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Have a great weekend all! 🙂

Interesting Inspiration, Writers on Writing, Because I Can

/ ccsocialcreative
Photo credit: steve_a_johnson on Pixabay.

Hey all, welcome back! Thanks for hanging with me again. So happy to say that I may be onto something with changing my post times as this past Monday’s post was my most read and liked since I started this site! Grateful for that and I will work harder to post more when folks are actually awake. 🙂

Let’s get to it…

This year I had a goal of doing my own “52 books in 52 weeks” challenge and have been on track for even more. I’ve hit a wall trying to tackle my ‘save for later’ list on Amazon though, as I have a couple of expensive months coming up and need to save money for life stuff. (Hey it happens.) So, I decided to reread a few books that I absolutely loved last year, because, why not?

While I have interest in several genres: mystery, crime, reading about cults because that is an obsession of mine…lately, when it comes to novels, I have a tendency to lean towards stories about writers or that take place in bookstores, (yes I’m that girl). Here’s the thing about books like this…while cleverly disguised as romcoms, a writer had to write these books, right? So when writing about writers, I’ve been finding more and more inside tips about their own processes and routines. Odd sources for inspiration? Maybe. But inspiration can come from anywhere. A song lyric. A flower. Hell, even a meme can suddenly hit a chord! It just takes an open mind to let it hit you.

Ok so hang in there with me, ok?

I’m currently rereading Beach Read by Emily Henry. I had just finished her new book and I wanted to keep the funny stuff going #becauselife and I remembered how much I had loved this book the first time around. While it has it’s extremely light moments, this one also goes a bit deeper with the characters’ background stories. Without going into too much detail, it is about two authors who write in different genres and are both having writer’s block. They make a bet: each will try writing a book in the others respective genres and whoever sells their book wins. They also teach each other what it takes to write the stories they do. (Yes there is more to this, the whole romcom thing, etc but this is the gist.)

What I am finding is that because this is about authors, I am paying more attention to their different work methods. How they work daily life into their writing schedules; how one paces while thinking and the other plays solitaire waiting for the words to hit. Even the acknowledgment of their daily word counts stand out to me. They explain the research involved for their stories making sure everything is accurate. The discussions between the two, working out the next move of the story or character and even making up stories about people they see on the street. This book, romcom stuff aside, is a writer’s book.

I’m not here to review it. That’s not what this is and I don’t do reviews. What I’m trying to get across here is that out of all the books sitting next to me, I chose to read this particular book again. While I’m personally at a stopping point in writing my own novel, (I wrote myself into trouble), I’m taking it as my own sign that I need to step back and regroup. And maybe learn from these fictional authors how to find where my own characters go next.

For you see, a writer writing about writers gets it!

There is a line in this book that stood out for me in a big way: “…that feeling, that feeling of falling head over heels in love with a story and its characters as they sprang out of me, was unlike anything else.”

That is the heart of a writer right there.

Sure you can write about anything…being on a pirate ship in the 1800’s and sailing around the world stealing and pillaging towns along the way. Research is of course key to this. But you weren’t there. The details of daily life on that ship for example are lost.

But writing about writers? You have your own inside track there! Some of your own habits will trickle in and that is what I love about books like these. I like to see if I’m the only one who does this or that. If I only write a certain amount in a day/or don’t write for a few days,  does that make me a failure at the thing I love to do most?

I mentioned word count above. This one baffled me. You see, I write the way I talk. Fast and with endless run-on sentences. Think Eminem or Gilmore Girls and you’ve got me. (And that is what editing is for. The writing, not my mouth which gets me into a lot of trouble.) When I read that someone only wrote 500 words that day, I’m baffled by that. When I sit down to write, I do one or two chapters and write thousands of words at a time. I can’t stop until a chapter is completed. I don’t know if others write like that, I’d like to think I’m not the only one, but writing such a small amount, again to me, is something foreign.

The only time I wrote a small amount was when I wrote a few 100 word stories and my biggest hurdle there was getting my ideas down to those 100 words. I wanted to see if I could do it and I was so happy when they were published. That made me realize that yes, I can slash my work to bits in editing and be ok with it. I also learned how to take criticism from an editor and not want to throw something. (I have a temper and don’t take criticism well at all. I am going to need to learn how to, in order to make it in this biz so this whole experiment were many lessons learned. Also, I don’t really throw things. But I want to.)

So now I’m looking at my book pile to see what other books I’ve read that maybe I should read again, not just for fun, but to see if there are any other insights I may have missed. Not just the fun fiction ones and not just novel writers either. I know of one off the top of my head I read a few years back about a content writer I had interactions with years ago and she penned an autobiography about her escape from her father’s cult and how she created her business and learned to write for business purposes on her own. We all have our own backstories and we all write in our own ways. Learning from each other is so vital and I will personally never stop wanting to read about and more importantly, write about it!

I’ll admit that at first, I was sad that I couldn’t tear through my save for later list. There are so many books out there I want to read and some of my current favorite authors have new books coming out as we speak. But I’ll tell you this, the ones I read over the last year or two? Those stories still play out in my head. They pop up at weird times. Maybe the smell of my nightly cup of tea will bring me back to a book I read last fall, or I remember a line from another while I’m doing the dishes, whatever. So going back and rereading these books? I now have no issues with it. In fact, I’m rather enjoying it!

I was never one for having to read a book. I’d never join a book club because I don’t want to be told what to read or frankly, dissect it afterwards. I want to read because I want to. I read for enjoyment and to escape life. Because it’s something that looks interesting to me and I’m one of those who believes that the right book comes to you at the right time. I’m now finding that rereading these books is happening the same way and how cool is that?

It’s my current way of adulting. I can have a Devil Dog for dinner. I can watch a movie that I’ve seen 20 times. I can read a book over and over again. Why? Because I can.

And that is where I leave you tonight! Thanks again for hanging with me, putting up with me and coming back!!

Until next time…

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I always save any affiliate or relevant links for after my posts so they are not intrusive. Here’s a few to check out and I thank you for the support:

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Beach Read by Emily Henry

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My 100 word stories can be found by hitting the ‘Past Works’ tab in the menu bar up above the post!

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Woman Rising: A True Story, Julia McCoy’s amazing book about her journey from escaping her father’s violent cult to creating multimillion dollar content companies is so inspiring on many levels.

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Like to document, review or just keep track of your current reads? I designed a blank Book Journal for Amazon. (More designs to come, but really happy with this one.) It has blank, lined pages to use as you’d like.

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My linktree for this site has links for my social pages as well as a new linktree shop of stuff I love to use. Always more to come, but I think it’s off to a great start and you can shop right from the linktree: Linktr.ee/promosocially

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If you’ve made it this far, thank you and will be seeing you soon! 🙂

Surprise Post, Backwards Clock and Timing is Everything

/ ccsocialcreative
Photo credit: Myriams-Fotos on Pixabay.

Hey all. Surprise, it’s Monday! I know normally I post on Fridays but I wanted to shake things up a little and had some thoughts rummaging around this head of mine so figured, why not do another post. Hell, it’s my blog and I can post if I want to! (Apologies to the great Lesley Gore.)

I have been doing social posts for many years and yet when it comes to promoting, I suck at it…and this is coming from a former social media specialist. Let me clarify something, I am good at promoting others but have never felt comfortable promoting myself. I can do it with my vintage/estate jewelry business, there I’ve gotten much better. But with my creative business? I would fire me as a marketing manager if I could. And as for here? Well, last week’s post having almost no views after finally starting to creep up in the analytics department was a slap of reality that I need to do more.

Part of that is timing. I know that I had a set schedule when I worked for a tech company and did their social. I had a grid of designated times that would work over those that didn’t and even that was broken up into the platforms for each: i.e. 1015am FB page, 1:30pm Instagram, etc. I started to see the numbers climbing when I found what was the sweet spot for each platform, (pre TikTok days) and as far as this blog goes, I am far, far out of practice. So this past week, I learned that maybe not posting at 4:30am wasn’t such a good idea and I really should have scheduled it for later on. I forget that no one besides me is up at that hour.

Something I don’t think I posted about here, although maybe in a post far, far away, (apologies to Star Wars fans), I may have mentioned it…but I have a reverse clock. Meaning, I sleep all day, wake up when it’s dark and stay up all night. There are days, although I try not for this to happen, that I am up until noon. Yes, this is all doctor approved. Yes, this is all ok. And no, it is not because of my current medical situation. This is how I have always been. Even in elementary school, it would be extremely hard to wake me up, (I’d be up all night ‘hiding’ under the covers reading) and then would get to class, check in and head to the nurses office to go to sleep for a while and join the class later. I still got high marks and did very well, it’s just that I was born with a reversed internal clock and it wasn’t until these last few years that I FINALLY had doctors tell me it was ok, that everyone is wired differently and that I’m not hurting myself or anyone else. I don’t know, maybe it was being born on Friday the 13th, who knows?

Everyone works differently and as much as I LOVED my old job and still miss it every day, even 9 years later, I wasn’t exactly doing the healthy thing. It was the only place I worked that I got up early because I was so excited to go to the office every day. However, I was always armed with two jumbo Dunkin’ coffees to start out with, would head there again at lunch, (they were next door, a lethal combo), would have soda, tea, anything caffeinated at lunch and to get me through my next break where I’d go back for more coffee. At home, I’d have to take something to help me get to sleep early and so I wouldn’t be up all night per my usual hours and this meant missing a lot of baseball that year. You don’t know me, that’s a huge issue.

In a job I had years ago, I was working well over 100 hour weeks. I lived on Vivarin (you may need to google that one), cigarettes and double shot cappuccinos to get me through the day and night. To this day I still don’t know how I didn’t have a stroke or a heart attack for what I put myself through to keep going.

Now that I’m home, I can finally deal with the schedule I was always meant to have and for me, it works out fine. Until I hit ‘publish’ on a blog post at 4:30am and then not so much.

So here I am trying to make up for it. Plus, the more I read about the whole blog-o-sphere, the more I understand that to build a following, I actually have to post more consistently, so here I am. I do hope you will bear with me as I learn as I go and try to make this something I am proud of.

My last such site wasn’t so much a personal blog as one I did for my town. In that case, I wasn’t really writing about myself, but rather I was writing about the happenings going on around here. I was writing about the history of the city. I was publicizing local eateries and promoting dj’s and live bands, so again, I was able to promote it better because I never felt like I was promoting myself vs the acts or venues themselves. So here I am trying to get my footing again with things like, hey, did you know you can now have more than one link in your IG profile? Or that ironically, photo posts do better than videos in TikTok for some reason? I mean, isn’t that what IG was in the beginning? Just photos? It gets confusing but this was my life for a long time. I lived and breathed social media and I loved it. But now, I have a hard time getting up the enthusiasm for it the way I once did. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still on it all the time, I am one of those people who has to share about a million funny animal videos a day. I have just learned to take a step back on some of it and unfortunately for my creative business, have forgotten about it altogether. Because of that, my sales are nonexistent. I own that though. It is my fault. And as much work as I put into the designs I do for it and all the ideas I have for it, I can’t get ahead without promoting. So here I am, trying to promote myself a little bit.

HEY WORLD, I HAVE A BLOG!

Ok had to get that out. Lol

Having said all of that, I have been really enjoying my time here. I feel like by writing about, well, my writing, has kept me on track. Has made me realize that by making my journey public, I have to get things done. I have heard from a couple of folks who are going through something similar. Whether as writers or as career changers, it makes me happy to know that I’m striking a chord out there somewhere. I may be horrible, (HORRIBLE) at getting back to emails, (sorry) if I can make someone smile when they need it, or give them that ‘oh I am so glad I’m not the only one’ moment they need, well then, I’m doing something right.

I took a few days off from working on my own novel or its sequel to read a couple of books I had been looking forward to, but sometimes we need that. To regroup. To get inspired by others and because I did this, I came up with new story ideas and a new direction. I am always thankful to other authors who can give me pure escapist tropes that keep me from knowing what’s going on in the world and my own drama, because frankly, I’m tired of it. I’m not reading the classics or any of my (many) non-fiction-history-bios-deep-thinking-books right now. I did that for oh so many years. Rather, this is my time to just relax with books that make me laugh and make me happy. Because there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I will eventually work a little Teddy Roosevelt, CT history, Yankees memoirs, Dave Grohl and Geddy Lee back into the mix. For now, I’m just enjoying my time with the ‘will they or won’t they’ types that have funny stories getting to how they eventually ‘will’ and loving every page of it. I hope you have found a way to decompress and forget about life for a while, because it feels so good when you finally find that thing that clicks. It really does. 🙂

And that is where I will leave you tonight. Once again I thank you for bearing with the rambles of a cooped up night owl! I appreciate every single one of you who takes time out of your own crazy schedule to read my posts. It honestly means the world to me that with all of the thousands upon thousands of blogs out there, that there’s even one of you who likes it and keeps coming back! You guys rock!!

Have a great night and be on the lookout, because you never know when the next post is coming. 

Until next time…

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 Be sure to check out my linktree for my social for this site as well as my new linktree shop that I will continue to add to as time goes on: Linktr.ee/promosocially

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Latest book read: Emily Henry’s Funny Story

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You can find all of my shop links for both my vintage/estate jewelry biz and my creative biz by going to either one of these linktrees: linktr.ee/stuffwefind or linktr.ee/stuffwemade

There’s a lot to see on both and I invite you to come and check them out. 🙂

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If you are at all interested in my previous site, you can click the ‘Stamford History’ tab in the menu up above. I keep the site up as an archive as well as for any who would like to read my local history related posts.

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As always, the links in the sidebar are clickable and will figure out this whole ad thing as time goes on. Thanks for reading this far!