On Pushing Forward

     There has been progress made on all fronts in these past few weeks. The biggest being that I finally had time to spend a handful of hours in Winchester, following up on leads from earlier in the year and ones my brother had sent me. The outcome was a few good sales and an author event being set up for May 26th! It will be at the Winchester Book Gallery and details are on the novels Facebook page. I am still trying to sneak in time for more online promotions as well.
     This post is being written as I munch on fresh-from-the-dehydrator kale chips. Soon there will be swiss chard harvested and the late April crops being planted. The bizarre weather we've been having has made it hard to transition the indoor-start plants into the raised beds and a few other crops are a week or so behind as well.  I love being able to grow so much of our own food and it does my heart good when the grocery bill gets lower and lower as we preserve what is harvested for later use.
    Time seems to fly when I'm outside. Bending over those now-not-so-small plants, pulling weeds from around them, prepping the other beds for later use and monitoring the progress puts me in such a relaxed state. I take my MP3 player and the ever faithful Hobo-dog (who must guard me at all times, according to him) out with me. Sometimes the music isn't even turned on though, as I am captivated by the sounds of the hawks calling or squirrels chasing each other. The butterflies flying around the flowers along with the sunlight shining down soothes anything that may be upsetting me. It is a time of healing.
    We have some answers as to what is progressing with my connective-tissue disorder and changed treatment around a bit. There was an utter failure with one medication as I broke out into massive bruises within days, but the other stuff is working and the new back brace is an amazing help. With less pain, it means I'm able to get more accomplished during the day and lately even into the evenings! My speech is still a bother, but that will wait until another time to be dealt with.
    Entertaining at our house will be happening soon, that much I promise. After three years of hoping and saving, the floors are finally purchased and half have been installed. After being on sub-flooring for so long, I am all smiles when walking into the house. It is really becoming something to be proud of. Before then, the garden was the only thing on the property worth smiling about.
    More will be coming as I get another spare moment. I want to share something very important to me with all of you, but that will be another time and post.
   

On Slow Progress in a Busy Season...

     Spring is so very much here! Numerous hours have been spent in the sun either on the deck or in the garden. The early crops are planted and growing oh so fast. It never ceases to amaze me how seeds so small can produce such amazing beauty. A bit at a time, the raised beds are coming alive. Ever so slowly, the landscaping around the house is being repaired and planted. Being that once again time flew by so fast that a month has passed since my last blog, you can tell that things have been busy.
     The Culpeper Star Exponent interview made it to their front page. I was so excited. People I barely know were congratulating me on the novel and the history behind it. Apparently, the article also encouraged a few sales - as I just received an unexpected royalty check from Amazon for e-reader sales I didn't know occurred! Now to find time to promote up in Warrenton and get over to Winchester to follow up on those other offers. I'm also so very far behind with online promoting. Slow progress, but it is there at least.
     Book two is making slow progress. I'm about fifty pages into it right now and cannot wait until Spring Break so there are more hours to focus on it. Right now the writing is happening during random moments in Starbucks or those days I get a "planning" time at the high school. Once in awhile a page will get from my mind to the netbook right before bedtime, but those end up need a lot more editing later!
     Between the gardening, writing, household tasks, substituting near every day, various house projects, tutoring and mentoring my days are packed and come evening I'm exhausted physically and mentally. It is the hardest part of the day for me. I see so many things that should be worked on, but my physical limitations have hit the wall. All I seem to be able to do after dinner is some light work like laundry or animal care. I sit at this computer and talk to my wonderful online friends, play Star Trek Online (trekkie!) and catch up with my husband. Anything else hurts too much. Even during the day I notice that my steps are slower and the pain comes more than it should. The changes in my ability to speak quickly and precisely annoy me to no end. I've never had to sit and think for seconds at a time, looking for a word or phrase (those who haven't seen me in awhile, can you even imagine me speaking slowly...utter nonsense). I've never had so many words come out with poor pronunciation. The written word has come to mean more and more to me these last few months.
    Everything has to happen more slowly around here now. It is hard to accept. We are planning a two week trip this summer. It is a fine line to walk between pushing myself to get strong enough to hike or even handle something like a zoo or museum (possibly going back to the "I'm invincible" mindset) and limiting myself due to fear. Fear of another dislocation, another bad sprain, another setback. So, I am learning to go slowly and to push past the fear...but that is another blog for another time.

On an Early Spring

     You were all warned that this next post was going to be about all things green. I can't help it, the urge to plant, cultivate, and harvest runs deep in the DNA. My mother came from a farming family and she had us kids in our large garden from the time we could walk. I was helping to harvest strawberries and cucumbers before I knew how to read or write what they were. It is something we all took pride in, especially as we grew older and were able to help our elderly neighbor with his two acre plot of green goodness. Ol' Ben and I spent many long hours under the shade of two trees that sat smack in the middle of his yard. He'd be in his chair and I'd perch on the picnic table, all legs and full of questions. I loved that man as if he were my own grandfather and miss him dearly. Between him and my mother there was no chance for the green thumb to remain dormant.
     Even when I could not have a proper garden, containers filled with tomatoes, peppers, carrots and lettuce would line the porch. Now that my husband and I live on a beautiful three acres, my life is made so much more sweet. We have five 4 x 10 raised beds, with a sixth one going in this year. Out of those seemingly small beds we raised enough vegetables and legumes that, since November, we've only purchased one bag of frozen vegetables and no cans. Where my mother shied away from preserving in any form other than freezing, I have embraced the pressure canner and food dehydrator. Our kitchen cabinets and pantry are lined with various products of our labor.
    And now, it is starting again. Last week, the box of seeds was taken from its secure location. Packets were counted, lists were made, visits to the co-op and an online heirloom seed exchange kept the credit card active and the "master plan" was drawn on graph paper. On Saturday, the table and grow lights were set up indoors. A collection cardboard drink containers, the tops cut away and bottoms rinsed, along with various planters, were lined up. Out on the porch, a mess was being made as I painstakingly mixed a custom starter soil and hauled the tub of it inside. The seeds, preciously tiny promises of a future plant full of nutritious fruits, were pressed into the soil and lovingly covered. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cabbage, broccoli, marigolds, basil, parsley, and more are now burrowed in the ground, starting the birthing process and preparing to break soil and grow up towards the light.
     Next weekend, the first of the early outdoor crops will do the same. The beds have already been supplemented and turned over, thanks to the help of one very eager teenager. We built a second fruit bed, and the strawberries which I have carried from house to house for six years now are finally in a permanent location. Spring, it is my favorite time of the year.

    *Book update! I was interviewed by the local paper last week. We are waiting with anticipation to see the article. Sales have been steady and reviews have been amazing. I'm really hoping that this article will help with the next stage of breaking into the public. I'll be back up in Winchester soon too, following up with the bookstores who have offered signing events and consignment sales.*
   

On Time Flying

     Here it is, February second, and I'm wondering why it has been so long since the last blog post. Some of you may be thinking the same thing. Last month went by in a blur and, looking back, it was quite an interesting one.
     January seemed to have started off slowly. Working as a substitute meant I was home on most days because refreshed teachers, term one ending, and state tests meant very few were taking days off. Those days at home were emotionally frustrating. I wanted to be at work and was missing the human contact. However, it allowed me to start on our big computer room renovation. The house is still a mess from that, but the new wall-to-wall bookshelf will be up by this weekend. Did I ever mention that I love painting? Working on those shelves, doing layer after layer of primer and paint...it is something I really do enjoy. Once those early days were over with though, I've been in the schools constantly and the rest of the month seemed to vanish in moments.
      Those days off also meant I could start working on book two. Yes, I know that book one has only been out for thirteen weeks, but these things don't write themselves. It was quite the experience, starting the second book in a series. There is a fine line to walk between writing enough information so that those who skipped the first one are not totally lost and the other side of saying too much. The first nineteen pages took quite a few re-writes before getting to that point. Midnight to Morning has been entered into the Amazon Breakthrough Novelist contest and I am praying it makes it at least through the first round. Self-promoting takes a lot of time and January was a bit slow for sales. However, several new reviews were written and praise God they were all good. I'll be focusing this month on getting the novel onto some sites that are specifically for self-promoting and will be continuing my efforts to let the local public know about it.
      I've found other creative outlets too. Don't get me wrong, I am still mourning the loss of my original outlet, SWG, but I've found a few things to keep my ADD mind going. Minecraft is a seemingly simple, yet amazingly complex building and survival game. While I love playing on our multi-player server, I have found something even better. The game in creative mode gives you all the building blocks and parts available. My big project is building the underground bunker from Midnight to Morning inside this virtual world. Sadly though, that is an isolating exercise. For the social side of me, there is Star Trek Online. It is now a free-to-play game and some of my old guild members are there. FDWS (the guild) may once again rise from the ashes! When I'm not there, my dear friend and I have gone back to Shores of Hazeron. It is a early beta test, really buggy, colony game, but its completely addictive. The big difference with all three though, is I am limiting my time online. There is so much I want to do away from the computer, that I've been logging in late and leaving early to do those things. Yes, that surprises even me! It has allowed this month to go quickly though and also allowed me to feel like so much more is being accomplished. Looking forward to what this month brings.
     This month? Well it is February....that means the homestead growing season starts in just a couple of weeks. But that is for another post (one done after the deck greenhouse is set back up and my fingernails are dirt filled) **for a hint of what is to come, see my Amazon store...its linked to this site**
Clear Skies!

  

On Looking Back

     A new year is upon us. For many it is a time to make "resolutions" and for others it is just a point in time to look forward from. The tricky part is remembering to look back without dwelling on the past. It is a point to learn from and a place to see where thing are changing. While thinking back over this past year, I started to make the mistake of lingering on the negative. It took me going up to my home state and visiting not only with family, but reconnecting with friends and acquaintances from my more distant past before I saw how positive the year really was. From there I thought that the best way to write about it is to just go ahead and list those focus points. The following is somewhat in order and have a positive, negative or both sign after them to show how they were perceived:

• A online friendship renewed along with a lesson in forgive-and-forget +
• The first draft of Midnight to Morning was finished +
• I had several major lessons in the power of prayer +
• The dog who had been wandering the neighborhood and we had been working with became ours when the people who had been "feeding it" moved. +
• The garden was started early indoors and 90% of it was a success +
• All early crops went in on-time and the harvest was beyond expectations+
• Edits were being done to Midnight to Morning +-
• The virtual world of New Kestic (SWG) was thriving and although it was stressful, in-character time and stories were near constant +-
• Smaller compression garments for the lymphedema + Being in those garments -
• The SI joint in my left hip tore out again, with no way to call out on the long-term position I was in -
• It was four days before the joint popped back in again -
• An over-demanding friendship had to be critically damaged. There was no other way to get the person to see the levels of emotional frustration caused on top of the physical pain. -
• The garden continued to thrive despite the long periods of neglect while I was on my back +
• Surviving the rest of the school year while teaching in 3 different rooms on 2 separate floors and hobbling around with a cane +-
• Once school was out, and I was confined to the couch for six weeks, the depression kicked in...and it stayed all summer long -
• Feeling isolated due to the injury preventing a trip to see family, friends not returning calls, IM's etc -
• More lessons in prayer and learning to be perceptive to that whisper of a voice +
• Canning, drying, freezing the garden bounty +
• The announcement was made that SWG was being shut down in December -
• Learning to live with a cane at age 33-
• A very dear online friend pointed out my poor attitude, lack of hope and prideful compensating. It was like a slap to the face and I became determined to get myself out +
• School started back up again, despite the "Shake and Lake" (earthquake and hurricane) +
• The virtual world continued to thrive and the damaged friendship started to heal +
• 9 months after starting edits it was finished. The cover was designed and the book went "live" +
• Stories were finished, contacts were exchanged, goodbyes were said, and SWG was taken down -
• Seeing that the year, although difficult due to my health and loss of creative outlet, was really one of growth ++

Picking Up and Letting Go

     Things are certainly picking up on the "Midnight to Morning" front. Today, The Daily Journal out of Vineland, NJ posted an article about the novel. Being that it is from my hometown, I was so very happy to have the chance to let others know about the book. It was also the perfect outlet for me to say thank you to those who have encouraged me. Of course, it also brings back memories. Nearly every afternoon for quite a few years, my father would hand me the change to go into J&J's to purchase The Daily Journal. It wasn't until I was a teenager that we started to have it delivered. To those who are visiting this blog due to that article, a warm welcome and I hope you hang around The Mania awhile. Also, here is a direct link to the sites where the book can be purchased: Click here for the lulu site and here for the Kindle one.
    This Saturday will be my first book signing. I'll be down in Charlotteville, VA at the Family Christian Store in Seminole Square from 10am to 2pm. Frank, the owner, has been wonderfully supportive of this project. While the novel was written for the "mainstream" there isn't any doubt when it comes to the main characters faith. There are just enough references for the Christian marketplace to pick it up. Frank will even be sending a copy to the regional office to see if it can be sold in the other Family Christian stores.
     As to the "letting go" reference, we are now only 7 days from the death of my favorite creative outlet. Last night I actually started to cry over the loss. My skills as a writer, especially the ability to get into a characters head and develop him or her, grew exponentially because of the time I spent in SWG. I wasn't there to shoot-n-loot or run the near endless quests and instances. I was in the game to roleplay, to make a character from scratch and see just how far I could take her story. She is at her highest point though and will spend her last day contentedly sitting on the top of the hill which sits in the middle of her town. As for me, I'll be mourning. It will be hard to let go. There are people I'll miss, those I know who won't keep in touch as much as others. There are two things I'll cling to though. One is the fact that I will put Amandiona's story down into book form, along with those she shared her life with. The other is the wonderful friendships that will last through this virtual ending. We will hold each other up and perhaps meet up again in another virtual world.

On a wild ride...

      I have been meaning to sit down for over a week now and just write. There is so much in my head right now that it would be impossible to put any of it down in any kind of sense. As I said to Owen the other night, "My ADD brain used to keep my thoughts on train tracks. One train track would be on the novel, one on what to cook for dinner, one 'the game,' one on a friend who was having a hard time and so on. Now, it is all in a jumbled pile that is more cloud than anything organized."
     However, in that jumbled mess, a few things are standing out right now. The first being with how Midnight to Morning is doing. Three weeks have passed since it was published: Three weeks of teaching myself how to talk the book up. Three weeks of continuing my crash course in self-promoting. In those three weeks I've sold every copy I self-purchased and more are on the way.  There even has been a book signing set up.Unfortunately, there hasn't been a decent amount of online sales in either printed or e-reader form, and that is where the bulk of profit comes from. Another issue has been getting the word out locally. The good-ol'-boy network down here makes it almost impossible to get in the paper - even though I have seen them promot numerous local authors. My hometown paper up north said they would put in a blurb if I wrote it up, but it has yet to show up there either. So I sit and chant, "It has only been three weeks." and keep plugging away.
     The second standing out in my mind (and you all knew this had to come out sooner or later) is the astonishing amount of time I am spending online in-game. Well, chalk that up to my precious creative outlet being killed off on December 15th. There are people counting on me and people I am counting on. With all these years role-playing my dear Amandiona, she had to be given the happy ending she deserves. That means many more hours than anticipated are being spent multi-tasking. Take now for example. 'The Game' is up, as is two different instant messengers and I'm sitting here blogging! Now, look closely, I'm only going to say this one time. Yes, my SWG friends, I will put our story into book format. No, it will not be in the format you want. As it stands right now, making this a piece of fan-fiction causes a gag reflex. Lucas should not get any credit for the world we have written. I have years of notes, screenshots and memories. The lives of our dear "other selves" will be preserved in some form of printed fiction. I promise.
     With those things said, and the fact that Owen just walked in the door with dinner, I'll sign off for now. Clear Skies!