Family Parties

This past week was filled with the holiday joy of family parties. First, there was my great grandma's Christmas party last Sunday. I would have talked about it in my last post, but my dad didn't tell me until the last minute (as in the night before). So, yeah, yet another Christmas party for my family before Thanksgiving. This party is like a family reunion that happens every year so I was already prepared for it. Our family is large enough that we rent out a school gym for the party. It's also one of those potluck parties where everyone brings some type of food (pasta, meat, some people bring pizza) and shares it with the rest of the family. The little kids each get a present to open while the adults talk. My dad, being the incredibly social person that he is, went around the party telling everyone that his child published a book. Then, he grabbed my mom's Kindle and showed everyone. It got me some book sales, so that's pretty cool. I was busy working on my next book during the party. I'm not much of a social person.

Speaking of the holidays, this past Thursday was Thanksgiving, so Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I spent my Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family at my grandma's new retirement community. They had a restaurant there that we made reservations at. The buffet there had so much delicious food. After lunch, we all went back to my grandma's suite where some of us helped to unpack part of her sewing room while others watched football.

Seeing as it was Thanksgiving, I guess I should state what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for a loving family, my health, having a crazy but lovable dog, the people that bought my book, any fans that I have (whether it be with my book or fanfiction) and the ability to write the stuff that I do. Also my Keurig. I don't know how I'd survive in the mornings without coffee.

Four paragraphs? I think that's enough for a post. So, until next time, have a great week!

Write, write, write... What's this about a trade?

Got some coffee, listening to some music (right now, it's Monster You Made by Pop Evil), I'm ready to work on this.

This past week has been mostly about working on my book. I'm almost where I want to be, but I keep getting interrupted for the littlest things and losing my concentration. There was this one time where my hair looked like I had just transformed back from being a werewolf or something because I was so involved in my book over everything else.

But, at one point, my concentration dropped and didn't come back until the next day. That point was when the Tigers traded Prince Fielder to the Rangers. I dropped everything and went to see if it was true. Here's what my reactions were, in order: shock, excitement (more because something huge happened than the actual trade), acceptance (that this would make the Tigers better in the future), a bit of sadness (mostly because I saw that Miguel Cabrera was posting all those pictures of them together on Twitter and it made me realize that these past two years the Tigers had something special with the duo), awe (Dave Dombrowski has to be a wizard or something to pull this off) and, finally, back to excitement (mostly for the upcoming season and to watch the new Tiger, Ian Kinsler, and to see what other trades might be happening during this offseason).

Anyway, off of sports, we've been working on the book marketing this week too. You might have seen the ads for my book series on Facebook. It's brought the amount of likes to above 300! I've been smiling at random times because of that. To see something that I put work in being accepted really encourages me to keep working and make the next book even faster. So, if you're one of the people that's liked my book series, thank you! I'm grateful and excited for each individual like. Now, if only I can somehow translate this to sales... But, that's my problem, not yours. So, until next time, have a good week!

So Many Boxes... Just Box After Box...

Most of this week was spent at looking at marketing techniques to get my book more noticed in the public eye. The only thing that has been implemented so far is the Facebook ads. So far, it's working. I think. The Facebook page for The Hunters and Vampires Chronicles now has over 100 likes, but I have no idea if it's translating into sales.Through my Smashwords account, I only know the sales at Apple through the end of September and most of the other places are updated just as rarely. But, on the other hand, I am SO freaking excited that it's got over 100 likes! It makes me feel like I did something right, like I got an A+ on a project or something.

Speaking of projects, yesterday was kind of a project for me. The project consisted of unpacking boxes and trying to fit five giant boxes worth of stuff into a small kitchen with limited space. I volunteered to help my mom and aunts move my grandma into a retirement community. Her little apartment there is really nice since it was just redone for her. She even got to pick out some of the permanent things like the tiles for the bathroom floor. The place also lets her keep her dog and everything is connected so she doesn't have to worry about leaving the building to go out to eat since there's a restaurant in the building. Plus, there are people there that check and make sure that she's okay every day. It means that none of us have to worry about her living alone anymore. On the other side of my family, my great grandma who is over 100 is still living on her own. I guess people age differently.

My parents are going back there today, but I'm staying home to watch the dog. She was alone for most of the day yesterday and now she's clinging to me as though watching to make sure I don't leave again. Plus, this morning, she jumped around like a gazelle when she saw that I was awake. Keep in mind that this is a fully grown Dalmatian that, at her age, should be considered an elderly dog.

So, that's what happened this past week. Hope everyone has a great week and I'll put up another post next Saturday.

Almost Forgot This...

This week, I got into a severe writing mode. So severe that I could barely comprehend what other people were saying. I was THAT focused on my writing. My next book is coming along great. Not ready to reveal it just yet, but I'll give you a sneak peek on what I worked on mostly this week. Dragons. Yep, there will be dragons in my next book. Fierce, fire-breathing dragons. Anyway, I'm shooting for somewhere in January to be completely done with my first draft. Once I'm done with the first draft, I'll let you know. Keep all of you in the loop.

Today, I didn't get much writing done. Worked in the backyard, raking leaves. Gotta love autumn. In fact, I've still got leaves to rake out there.

I don't really have much more to say. Mostly, I've been locked in my room in a frenzy of inspiration, most of which I can't disclose. This post is more to keep up with the tradition of putting up a blog post on Saturday. I almost forgot and then realized in the middle of stuffing leaves into bags. So, I hurried inside to write this up. Just being truthful here. Since I don't really have anything else to say, I'll just stop here. Have an amazing week!

Happy Hall-Christmas? Wait a minute...

This past week, I FINALLY figured out how to fix the paragraph separators for my book so it'll look normal for Kindle. So, my book, Unnatural Alliances, is now available with Amazon (if you were waiting to buy it there). Next week, I'll probably figure out how to publicize better. I'm not getting many sales.

Hope everyone had a safe Halloween this past week. You'd think that a writer that writes about vampires would be out at a party for Halloween, but nope. I stayed home and gave out candy. We almost ran out. Had to put in a secret stash and, even after that, we were left with six pieces when we finally stopped. One of the first trick-or-treaters was a little girl dressed up as a Michigan State cheerleader. Another interesting kid was dressed up as Batman and faked a deep voice when he asked for candy. He then said 'Thank You' in his normal voice. I pretended to be surprised.

So, for today's post, I have to write fast because I have to get ready for a party later. Does this party have to do with the MSU/UofM game today? No. It has nothing to do with that. (Although, the game will probably be on the radio and we'll be hanging on its every word.) My grandpa and step-grandma (I don't actually call her that, but that's what she is to me) are going south for the winter. So, we have to have our Christmas party now because they won't be here for the actual Christmas season. They'll probably give us grandkids our annual Christmas card with scratch-off lottery tickets inside and we'll give them some gift cards because this is so last minute. My family's weird.

Because today's post has to be fast (and I have a lot of stuff to do before the party), I'm going to have to cut off the post here. So, have a great week and I'll write another post next Saturday!