A Time For Everything

Image Courtesy of ChatGPT.

Sure, 2027 is still three months away, but there's a lot I want to accomplish between my writing and my Etsy store. I figured the best way to give myself the best chance at success was to figure out where I'm at and then determine where I want to go and how I want to get there.

I have so many ideas, but my biggest challenge is time. Always time. Monday through Friday, the day job takes priority even though I do have some down time to tinker with personal stuff. On the weekends, there are errands to run and chores to take care of and time to spend with DH and each of the girls. On top of all that, I'm running my writers group's contest again!

If you've been around here for any length of time, you know that in early-to-mid January, I blog about the goals I want to accomplish for the year. Used to be, I'd start thinking about my Fresh Start Goals in December of the outgoing year. For the last year or two, I've started thinking a little earlier since a couple of goals are getting a little more complicated and have a few more moving parts.

I'm trying to up both my publishing and my Etsy game in 2027... including some active social media marketing, which is not something I've done before. I started Pinteresting for my Etsy store around this time last year. To be fair, I'm not sure the growth of my Etsy revenue can be traced directly to Pinterest, but my pins are getting seen, so that's something at least.

The argument for Pinteresting for the writing / publishing arm of my life is stronger, so I'm going to give it a try. Preparing for that was actually a goal for this year, and I made really good progress on my cache of pins. My Pinterest soft launch for the books / writing / publishing is right around the corner. *fingers crossed*

To keep track of my responsibilities and stay organized, I've relied on spreadsheets for years. More so as time passes and I find new ways to utilize them. A week or two ago, I expanded my day-job to-do spreadsheet into what I affectionately call my Command Center. Instead of the one tab for the day job, I now have seven of them.

Before your eyes bug out of your head, only a couple of them get visited on a daily basis. A couple of them are there just to keep track of things rather than using sheets of paper I have to tote back and forth from work / home.

Having everything documented in a single place allows me to better stay on top of all the various tasks. Each tab has a slightly different layout depending on my needs for that particular responsibility. One thing each tab allows me to do is make notes. If I randomly remember something...I select the tab, make that note, and off I go. When I have time to work on something that's not day job related, I can pop through the tabs and see what the squeakiest wheel is. If there are no red alerts going off, I can choose to take something off future me's plate. So far, it's working like a champ.

I'm feeling excited about 2027 and my ability to accomplish all the things. I'll let you know what the specific goals are come January, but for now, I'm laying the groundwork so each and every one of them has a fighting chance.

Take care!

I made my annual trek to Omaha and back over Labor Day weekend...

The fam is still the fam. Quirky and chaotic and so welcoming of their Texas outlier.

The all day gathering marathons are no longer a thing, and I think my step-mother, my uncle, and I are all glad for the change.

It used to be I stayed at the house and the galloping hordes descended by 10 or 11 am, and there was a houseful until I could convince the visitors to leave by 9 pm--which was well past my bedtime. Sometimes I'd just have to go to bed.

Last year, I ended up getting a hotel and that was the best decision I've made regarding this trip I've made in a while. I can leave when I'm ready and the fam can stay and visit.

This year though...no one arrived on Saturday until 2ish... So Sunday I thought to enjoy a more leisurely morning, but got summonsed around 11:30 when the gray sheep of the family and her posse came to see me earlier than I expected. I still got to enjoy the view from my hotel room for a good forty-five minutes. And although it's hard to tell, a light rain was falling. A very peaceful start to the day.

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But now that I'm home -- that road trip closes out the middle part of my year -- it's time to look down the road to the end of the year for all the businesses I wrangle as well as planning for Christmas and into 2027 for my personal businesses.

This year I'm going create a more formalized business plan for both the publishing and the Etsy store. I won't be able to retire (yet?) on my royalty income, but I've been considering ways to expand my readership/customer reach and increase those royalties. Every little bit helps me reach my goal of financial freedom before we reach retirement.

There are lots of moving parts for both businesses so figuring out how to keep track of them is also part of the overall plan of attack.

I hope you enjoyed your long weekend and that this weekend also lives up to its potential.

Stay cool and stay hydrated...but cooler temps are on the horizon for North Texas, thank goodness.

Take care!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The world lost an amazing person this week with the passing of Dolly Parton. Not gonna wax poetic because there's plenty of beautiful things being said about her. But I love her music, I love her acting, I love her philanthropic endeavors. She was a soul without match.

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And there's really no graceful segue from Dolly Parton to "I've apparently decided I don't have enough to do," so I'm not even going to try.

I've been busy as heck between writing, publishing, and my Etsy endeavors. So naturally, I've added running my writers group's annual romance contest back onto the pile.

The Carolyn Readers Choice Award and I go way back. I was its first coordinator back in the day, then handed it off and watched other people keep it going. The most recent crew has been running it for five years, which is a long time to wrangle entries, judges, scores, deadlines, emails, and all the other moving parts that go into a book contest.

They were understandably ready for a break.

And somehow, here I am again.

The good news is that I'm not just stepping back into the old system. We're taking the opportunity to overhaul a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff and make the contest easier to run—not just for me now, but for whoever gets handed the reins next.

Which means I've spent an inordinate amount of time lately buried in forms, rules, category descriptions, judging procedures, spreadsheets, old files, and approximately eight thousand tiny decisions nobody entering a book will ever know had to be made.

Because apparently this is what I do for fun.

That's about all the chaos I've got to report for now. Catch you in two weeks—and until then, stay cool, stay hydrated, and try not to add any new projects to your plate.

I'll try to take my own advice.

...my sweet Karma kitty...

Not sure if it was taken in summer, bit it looks summery!

The words are coming along well since the retreat. I'm now past 24K, almost to 25K, which is halfway to my goal of 48K to 50K. I'm enjoying the writing of this book a lot--a little more than I usually do. I'm hoping to have the first draft done by the end of October.

AND! I made it to the Dallas Zoo finally. DD and I had tickets for Dollar Days last year, but I ended up not being able to go due to a last minute work issue. I almost thought I was going to miss this year but we made it work.

Here are a few pictures of our visit. The last time I visited the Dallas Zoo was October of 2019--only, Amber and I were there to see hockey players, not animals. :0) The Dallas Stars season ticket holder event was held at the Dallas Zoo that year and we went, of course, as I was still a season ticket holder. We saw a few animals while waiting in line, but as the evening wore on, it got darker and the animals went to bed.

A few pictures from this year's visit...

And that's about it for this post. I'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Take care and stay cool!!

Lake Texoma / Kingston, OK

This year's writers retreat was another fun time with my favorite writer peeps and a success for everyone.

We spent two full days and two partial days at a lovely VRBO rental, enjoying one another's company and writing, writing, writing.

I wrote just over three thousand words -- a count that would normally take me a good week, give or take. Needless to say, I was very pleased with the increase. My books usually finish in the 40K to 45K range. The longest book I've written, not counting the historical, was almost 48K, and I'm hoping this book will be closer to that.

And for the first time in several years, I had a bed and a room to myself, which was a treat. The room had a lovely, broken-in recliner that was super comfortable and didn't cause any issues in the hips.

As soon as I got home and sat on my couch, I realized that my trip to NFM for a chair suited to my size and comfort needs is now a priority. I almost offered the host money for that chair, but decided a new chair was probably a better expenditure.

From L-R: Chrissy, Clover, ME, and Gina.

Sadly, two of our regulars couldn't make it. Normally, there are six of us. And even more disappointing, one of those ladies is moving out of state, so we're going to have to replace her next year. We'll cross that bridge later though.

For now--stay cool and hydrated.

Catch you in a couple of weeks.