You toil for years and years, quietly putting words on the screen, deleting them, putting them on there again… kind of lonely, but it’s your life. Then one day, everything happens at once.
Disappointment was quickly replaced by relief when I learned my first-published story, The Last Straw, wasn’t coming out until November 13th. Ah, I said, leaning back in my chair, linking my fingers in front of me and stretching my back. Plenty of time to figure out some promo ideas. More like pick a few ideas out of a gazillion available in this writer’s sphere that has gone from quiet and lonely to tweetingly, bloggingly, noisily busy.
Well, my publisher (love saying that) just released The Last Straw for a 3 month exclusive on Kindle Direct Publishing! (The book will go out to all retail outlets 11/13.)
What’s that popping sound you hear? Yes, it’s the champagne.
Not only am I celebrating the release of my book here today, I’m also am celebrating…
A blogger award!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!! The Versatile Blogger!
This beautiful nomination was bestowed upon me by the fabulous Gynji, whose brilliant blog domesticgeekgirl makes me laugh and learn and catch a glimpse of what it’s like to be young (which I no longer really can claim to be), pregnant (which I never could claim to be) and married to a fabulous Navy man (which I usually can only experience through Romance novels)!
The rules for this award are as follows:
1. Display the Award Certificate on your website/blog
2. Announce your win with a post. Make sure to post a link back to me as a ‘thank you’ for the nomination.
3. Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers
4. Drop them a comment to tip them off after you have linked them in the post
5. Post 7 interesting things about yourself.
7 Interesting Things About Me:
1. I’m collaborating on a novel with another author, a first for me, and I love it. I know a pair of authors who collaborate and always wondered how they did it, why they did it and thought I would never do it. They are an amazing team, though, and now I know why they do it. See #5 below.
2. I left my day job last September, a dream come true.
3. I started writing novels in 2001 and tried to quit many times over the next 12 years.
4. Quitting didn’t stick. I thought I was over it, but I started writing again 3 days after I left my day job. The story that was just published yesterday!
5. I actually loved my day job! I was a project manager and worked with really great people. I was sad to leave, but I’ve found I’ve recreated many things I loved about work: I have a critique group, belong to a couple RWA chapters, and now I even have a writing team for my novel(s). (It’s a series!)
6. I’m not a fast reader because I subvocalize. I think I’m an auditory learner. Or I just really like the sound of words. Both, probably.
7. I forget a lot of stuff but remember a lot of conversations verbatim.
Now for the best part, getting to acknowledge more hard-working bloggers!
- gwenniesgarden.com celebrates the joy of gardening and has lots of tips as well as photos from her travels.
- Want pictures from all over the world? This one’s versatile! toemailer.com
- Ren X. Kyoko delights and amazes with her funny and fascinating not to mention brilliantly illustrated posts. I cannot stop reading one of her posts, once I start. Can. Not. Stop.
- You must see beautiful pictures and the beautiful island of Patmos offered by Manos, Flora and Marinos.
- For a brilliant travel blogger offering a humorous theme and plenty of info, see Traveloops. (Isn’t that a great blog name?)
- Check out the happy themes and get inspired with challenges here: Ese’s voice.
- Getsetandgo produces very informative as well as beautiful posts on travel; learn how she gets in and out of exotic places on a budget.
- I appreciate lachlancathy.com for great photos and for telling about his experience of living with a chronic illness. His blog is down-to-earth and inspiring.
- This blog lives up to it’s beautiful name: thehourofsoftlight.
- Scott at scott2608 has gorgeous photos of a variety of subjects.
- ronscubadiver offers amazing photos from all over the world on his well-organized blog. That link will take you to Haleakala, for example.
- Just about everything you need to know about traveling to Costa Rica is available from this team: costaricatravelblog.
- Trinity is a wonderful and versatile artist who I bet will inspire you as much as she does me: creativetrinity.wordpress.com.
- There are so many ideas and recipes to enjoy and keep you healthy at Moveeatcreate, and some fun ones like the second link provided here for whiskey sours.
- And now for something completely different: The Leadership Freak. If you work on teams even if you’re not a project manager, I highly recommend his blog. Every post is brilliant.
Nicci Carrera 