A Time For Everything

No that's not a typo or a brain fart. The rain is gone and it's hot here once again.

I'm referring to the words. They poured out of me yesterday afternoon while waiting for my oil change and again this morning during my usual writing time.

Oh, what a feeling. It's awesome.

They're not awful words, certainly not great (yet), but now that they're on the page they can be fleshed out, tweaked, edited. Made better.

My synopsis for the next anthology was "approved" the other day and the notification came along with some comments and suggestions. I'm not generally one to be contrary, and when working on a project like this or, say, writing for an official publisher, an author generally does what the editor says unless he or she feels really strongly about an issue and can logically refute the change. It is the author's story after all and s/he should have some control/say so even when it's being published by someone else.

Okay, so it's a Valentine's Day anthology, coming out--you guessed it--next Valentine's Day. Now, the original V-Day anthology had to be postponed because not enough people made the deadlines and that was before I came aboard for the second anthology, so I have no idea what parameters were originally set forth.

This time the info was basic, timelines and deadlines and such, but for newcomers like me, the requirement of the big moment happening on Valentine's Day would have been helpful to know going into the project. It might seem like an obvious thing to some, but not to me. I'm feeling a bit disgruntled about the whole thing, but making that happen--aside from the fact that hockey games are played on Feb 14th and one of my heroes is a hockey player--won't take much work.

The other won't take much work either but coincidences do happen, right?? But when two people point it out, you have to stop and reconsider. I ended up giving both my heroes type one diabetes. Originally, just the hockey player had it--

Don't forget  it's an anthology featuring heroes and heroines who deal with some sort of disability in their life.

--but then the other guy had it too. When a friend commented on it and then the coordinator commented on it, well. I could dismiss one person's concern, but two people's and one of them the coordinator? A little harder to brush off.

So now I have to ponder the logistics change. It's doable. Fairly easy even, but ugh. I don't want to.

Oh, well. Suck it up buttercup, right??

Anyway, have a great weekend!!

So I participated in my first Facebook Takeover Event to celebrate the release of the anthology I participated in. The book is 99 cents for purchase with proceeds going to Pets for Vets.


I'd never done a Facebook Takeover Event, but the gist is you takeover someone else's FB page or a group page for some allotted time period. I hung out all day trying to support the other authors, but they were thin on the ground during time slots not their own and so were the other 220+ members of that group. What a shame.

I did learn how to do one though, so there's a bonus. I learned what would lure people to participate and what wouldn't. GIFs of celebrity crushes for the win; hockey talk, not so much, lol...

Anyway, that's it for today. Catch you on Friday.

It's been a while since I sat down to write a blog post with absolutely no idea as to the topic...

But it's Friday and it was a four-day work week, so today and this post crept up on me.

So let's see...what's happening -- or should I ask-- what *else* is happening in Jen-land...?

Well, in celebration of my writing group's 30th anniversary, we put together another anthology. Group members were able to submit a short (3K) story and see their name on a book cover.

I'm proud to announce the release of Deep in the Hearts of Texas for free from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/318132 The Kindle version doesn't look like it's available yet, though the book is listed on Amazon for $3.85 for a print copy (that's just the cost of the actual printing). It should show up soon. And yes I have a story in this one too!


Cool, eh?

What else, what else...

Oh, yes, we're hiring new employees at our company. I'm a little leery about this prospect. Mainly because cash flow hasn't been that great. But without more workers we can't increase cash flow, so it's a catch 22. We do have some reserve and fireworks season is coming up, so we know we'll make so money there if we need to utilize it. And also pay two weeks in arrears, so that also gives us time to ramp up jobs. The first new guy starts next week. The second guy comes along in a couple of weeks.

And as I mentioned Wednesday and previously in this post and probably some other time--fireworks season is just around the corner. Selling starts the 24th. The men will head out the weekend of the 15th. This season is going to be very scary because our main competition on the corner went out of business. Plus DH has a billboard and is taking out a half page ad on the back of the local Thrifty Nickel. We doubled our usual take last season and are hoping for similar this season. The fact that the 4th is on a Thursday is going to skew everything a little though. But we're still going to end up being busier than we've ever been and are going to have to bring in reinforcements. So DH is supposed to call some of the local high schools and see if any of the booster clubs are interested in earning some $$ for their groups. I'm hoping we get the band--you know how marching bands hold a special place in my heart.

And that my friends is all for today.

Have a great weekend!