Celebrating the Small Things

Wow, these Fridays really creep up on me; it reminds me just how out of touch I am with reality at times. Anyway, I'm here again as part of a blog hop created by one of my fabulous blog partners, Vikki. This time I included a link below so that you may sign up from my page if you're interested. It's a great way to cheer on your fellow bloggers for their accomplishments, no matter the size!

I obviously missed last Friday's because I was in Mexico, but believe me, there were a lot of small things I had to celebrate. Sun. Friends. Daiquiris. Good Food. Cantinas. Music. You get the picture. Cabo is gorgeous and was a ton of fun. I just wish I could've brought the warmth back with me.

This week I really don't have a lot of things to celebrate career-wise, except for that fact that I did get my fourth book off to the editor before we left on vacation and I know it's in good hands as we speak. Otherwise, I've been taking it easy, beta reading for a friend and trying to catch up on things that were neglected during my last major rewrite process. I signed up to take an online refresher course in grammar since I have come to rely so heavily on my editors. And I may have found my first writer's conference to attend in Madison, Wisconsin, where hopefully *fingers crossed* I will get to meet one of my blog partners for the first time!

In my personal life, I'm celebrating the fact that my daughter, who had a high fever for nearly six days, tested negative for mono, the flu and strep, and was miraculously better after a dose of antibiotics. For a while there I was worried she would be spending time in the ER. Whatever it was, she seems to have kicked it as she's obnoxiously running around and yelling as I write this (keep in mind she's thirteen).

Also, I picked up Beautiful Creatures to give it another try. I first started it last year and couldn't get into the story for some reason. After seeing the amazing movie trailers, I know it's something right up my alley, so I should love it, right? I'm happy to report that round two (or is it three?) is going much better and the story has really grabbed my attention this time.

So there you have it, my things to celebrate aren't so big this time, but they're still mine. Hope this Friday finds all of you having something to celebrate!

Celebrate the Small Things

Once again, as part of the blog hop tour set up by the fabulous Vikki at VikLit, I'm spending this Friday celebrating the small things that happened this week.

The first thing on my list is the fact that I successfully created a synopsis to go along with my book cover release for this coming Monday! Yay! Those little buggars can really be a pain in the rear to come up with. How do you summarize 75,000 words into a little paragraph without giving too much away? I promise you, it's a lot harder than it would seem. With the help of my fabulous blogging partners, I was able to whip up one that I think will grab your attention and have you drooling for more.

Another great writing accomplishment this week was that my major re-write of Cheating Death fell together in a major way. Sometimes there are pieces of a story that need to somehow be connected. When those pieces fall together it's enough to make a person want to dance around in their underwear.

And since this blog is celebrating "small things" in general and not necessarily writing-related things, I would like to add that I scored tickets to see Alice in Chains this May. They're one of my favorite bands and I haven't seen them in 20 years! I may have had a total freak out when I told my step-daughter and son-in-law that we were going and I may have frightened them a little.

Also, my daughter once again made the 'A' honor roll! If we didn't look and act identical 99.99% of the time, I would swear in a court of law that she was switched at birth. I hated school and was lucky to get passing grades (then I went on to college, actually cared about school and made the dean's list). Regardless, I'm extremely proud of her!

February is off to a great start!

Celebrate the Small Things Hop

One of my new blogging friends, the fabulous Vikki of VikLit (I totally love that I have more friends overseas now), came up with this blog hop idea to celebrate small accomplishments and share them with others! Since I just posted an update the fourth novel I'm working on and how well all of that is falling together, I will post about a different accomplishment - a real presence in social networking!

As of today, I have nearly 1,800 followers on Twitter. On Facebook I've almost hit 600 likes, on Goodreads I have almost 600 friends, 600 followers on Tumblr and 300 followers on Pinterest. YIKES! (Don't think I missed the fact that I just posted 600 three times in a row - my freaky mind is going to town on that one, wondering what it could possibly mean!) That's a lot of people. And a lot of work.

As most indie authors know, getting our name out there to promote our books can feel like a full time job in itself. Sometimes it hardly leaves any time for actual writing. I remember when I first started out on Twitter and wondered how on earth all these people gained thousands of followers. I remember being thrilled when I hit 100. Yes it has made me a bit of a social flake (I can't ever go very long without checking notifications on these sites) and yes I hardly get a fraction of the sleep I once used to get, but I really feel like I'm starting to get noticed and my book sales are steadily increasing.

So this Friday, I celebrate all my hard work and lost hours to the Internet. What small thing do YOU have to celebrate?