All posts by NewEngland_Muse

I'm a traditionally and self published author. I write in the genre of children and YA at the moment but working my way up to adults. I'm a sports loving, photo taking gal who loves to sing/dance to my own enjoyment. I love to laugh even at myself. I am also owned by 8 birds and 2 hamsters, and yes they know it. :)
Ramblings, Snafu, Writings

Panic: A Writer’s Snag

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I been staying busy with revising the sequel to my Jasper series while writing the third one. All my writings are handwritten first then typed. I find the creativity flows better for me this way. However a small snag came into play a few days ago. I could not find the sheets that I had written the first two chapters on. If you were within hearing distance of me you would have heard me say a few things.

“Where did I put those sheets”

“Oh good gosh I lost the first two chapters”

“Come on Sharon, calm down it didn’t walk off on its own”

“Shit did I throw it away by accident”

“Oh my gosh there you are, how dare you hide from me!”


It took me a few days to find the chapters to Jasper 3 and with them being written by hand it was my only copy. Just glad they have been found. In such a short amount of time I was trying to remember what I had written down. It was not fun at all, for I had figured out the chaos that was going to be written in book three.

 

The people who would understand what happened are other writers, who else would?

Author platform, Newsletter, Social networking

Newletters

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House with Chimney

Email marketing is something I’m new to in the sense I don’t have my own newsletter. I most definitely subscribe to a lot of them. For some reason I thought this might be a good idea to grow my brand. I asked some people, research a few sites and made a small list. I found one I liked that was free, if I had x amount of subscribers, call my name. It wasn’t easy since this was totally foreign to me. But hour after hour I worked on it trying to get something that people might actually like.

Signing up myself I did a test run and waited. When it finally appeared in my mailbox I was able to see where I had gone wrong. Just before I deleted the email something caught my eye at the end. My home address. Not wanting to shout to the world HERE I AM I immediately went back to the site to check this out. Turns out there is this thing call the anti-spam law that they adhere to as do the other programs. Contacting them by mail I was told I did have options. YAY!

I could use a business address. I work at home. Or I could get a post office box and use that. Hmm let’s see. I need to pay for a post office box to get my newsletter to a subscription population of one? Can you tell I was not feeling that? I was now dejected for I had high hopes I had high hopes. Anyone remembers that song? Venting to my editor she shot across a possibility of a place where you did not have to put your address on the page. I will be checking it out soon. They do have a free option, I am totally loving that. Hopefully this one will work out.

How badly do I need a newsletter especially one with one subscriber? I’m not sure. But it be fun to learn something else new that could help my brand.

2014, Resolutions, Writing goals

2014:Writing Resolutions

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It is now 2014 and the start of a new journey. Last year was pretty amazing as I learned and grew as an author. But there is so much more to do and so much more to discover. It’s a marathon not a sprint as the saying goes. Which brings us to the art of making a list of things to improve on. Resolutions are made every year. It varies how long I’m able to maintain them. I have never made one for writing. This year it will be different.

I will try to:

1. Revise Jasper 2

2. Write Jasper 3

3. Edit my NaNo book from 2011, “ A Woman of Color” which is a true story.

4. To cross promote with other authors as we help each other get the word out

5. To write at least 3-4 days a week. It may only be a paragraph but it is one more than I had the day before. I’m realistic. November is bad enough as it is when it comes to NaNoWriMo and that is a wear and tear that I willingly put myself through. But for the other months I will be happy with 3-4 days a week.

That makes five which is probably a few too much. I will be happy if I can accomplish at least three. For if I do so it means I was writing, a hobby turned craft, and a state of mind that I am very happy to be in.

May you all have a great 2014 as it starts to develops in your lives in a way that no one can see coming, until it has passed you by.