Shining the light of God's word into our confused world.

Month: November 2012

The State of Me

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update on what’s going on in my life. That’s mainly because, apart from the writing stuff, there hasn’t been much going on other than working and looking for work.

The latter didn’t come as readily as I’d hoped it would when I left that job back in October, so for the last month or so we’ve been scrambling, and I’ve pretty much been throwing everything — every skill and bit of work experience and knowledge that I’ve got — at the freelance wall to see what would stick. The problem with that is that now I’m being pulled in so many different directions that I basically have no direction. The good news is, I’ve got some steady work lined up, and there might be a bit more around the corner.

Also, yesterday I had a meeting with a technical staffing agency recruiter who has two full-time jobs that he thinks I might be a good fit for. I told him that I currently have rather high standards for pay and benefits, and that if I go full time again I need to be paid well enough that I can set the freelancing aside and only have to work the one job. He didn’t seem to think that would be an obstacle, so we’ll see. He’s working on lining up the interviews for me.

As much as I love the flexibility of working at home, part of me really hopes one of these works out, because one thing I do not like about freelancing is the hustle. You have to constantly put yourself out there and sell yourself and your abilities and it’s an employment search that never ends, and it’s really quite exhausting. If I can be done with that for a while, that would be lovely, and then I could focus my spare time on my writing and maybe actually have time for a hobby or two.

But if they don’t, like I said, I’ve got two, possibly three, sources of steady income for the time being, so we’ll be okay.

Either way, I think it’s time to regroup and re-examine things, to let go of the things that haven’t stuck to the wall and narrow my focus and pick a niche and stick with it. Also, my book is almost ready to launch, and with that whole process winding down I’m beginning to have some breathing room again. Although I need to not waste any time getting the next book out there.

And with the weather turning colder, all I really want to do is eat and sleep and knit. Or crochet. Whichever. If I ever have the luxury of “finding my bliss,” it’s going to involve figuring out a way to combine writing fiction with knitting as something I can do for a living.

Anyway, that’s what up with me. What up with you?

Other Writer Wednesday: Open Thread

It’s the last Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means: open pimp thread! If you have a book (or anything, really) to promote, post your link in the comments.

And while we’re at it, I might as well post yet another link to my Dominion of the Damned pre-order-palooza over at IndieGoGo, which as of this writing is just $50 shy of the half-way mark with eight days left on the clock. I’m hoping to have the book finalized and ready to publish by the end of this week, and to start shipping out the pre-ordered copies next week. So place your order if you want to get the book in advance of the official release date, or get it in time or Christmas. You’ll also get a shout-out in the acknowledgments and get entered to win free signed paperback copies of all of my future books.

Cyber Monday Specials

It’s Cyber Monday! Being that I am a business-type person with multiple businesses, that means I have goodies and special today-only deals. Not all of them are in place at the time of this writing, so check back here for updates throughout the day.

New perks at IndieGoGo

Get your own amigurumi zombie--check me out at IndieGoGo!

See this guy? You can get your very own amigurumi zombie, hand-crocheted by yours truly, along with my zombie novel Dominion of the Damned. In addition to the original package pairing him with signed paperback copies of both of my novels, I just added a new and more affordable perk that gets you your own pet crochet zombie along with a copy of the e-book version. I also added an option to get a digitally autographed copy of the e-book. See those and all of the other perks you can get for pre-ordering and supporting my latest novel here.

 

Book Wrangler Deals

Today only, all pre-made covers in my Book Wrangler shop are $10 off! Is there an indie author on your Christmas shopping list? If so, you might be pleased to know that I’ve also added a selection of gift certificates that can be applied to pre-made covers or to any of my Book Wrangler services. Click here to visit my shop!

 

Blog Makeover from Bauhaus Online Creative

Do you have an ugly blog? Or maybe a just-plain-boring one that’s stuck on the default theme? I will make your blog shiny and awesome. You’ll get a custom-designed header and background, matching fonts and link colors, a favicon, and installation. And today only, you get all of this for a mere $60, so order today!

Friday Five – Thankfulness

I hope all of my readers here in the States had a happy Thanksgiving. I put so much food in my belly yesterday, I’m surprised I didn’t explode. I really thought I might at one point. Even though the holiday is over for another year and practically everyone I know has moved on to doing their Christmas shopping and putting up their trees and lights and whatnot, I thought I’d use my Friday Five to list a few of the many things for which I’m truly thankful.

1. My husband. We have our share of disagreements and times when we’re each just plain disagreeable, but the vast majority of the time, we truly enjoy each other’s company–which is a good thing, considering we both work at home and are up in each other’s business 24/7. But the rare times that we do spend apart, we miss each other and prefer to spend our time together. What can I say? He’s my best friend. We’ve traveled some really rocky ground together over the last few years, really testing out that whole “for worse” part, and it’s only made us closer and stronger. He always comes through for me, and I feel like I can face just about anything as long as I know he’s got my back. I love that man o’ mine, and I couldn’t be more grateful that he’s part of my life.

2. My mom. I’m so thankful that she’s here, and that she’s healthy, and I pray that she’ll stay that way for many, many more years. I’m thankful for all of our family and friends, and that each and every one of them is in relatively good health, and I’m thankful that everyone still lives close enough that we can gather together on the holidays.

3. My “frans” — my friends who are also fans of my work. They support me every way they can and help evangelize my work. They cheer me on and don’t let me get away with doubting myself or my abilities, something that I need way more often than I’d like to admit.

4. My dog. Of course I love all of our four-legged kids — we also have three cats and a box turtle — but our chihuahua, Pete, is such a little delight. His personality is about a hundred times bigger than his size, and he tends to be hilarious, not to mention so cute it hurts. In a lot of ways, he’s so childlike, and he goes a long way toward filling that particular void in our lives.

5. The talent God gave me. Without it… actually, if I didn’t have creative talent, I’d probably have an easier life. I would have made sure to get a practical degree in college, and I’d probably have a good job, and I’d put in my eight hours and then come home and watch TV or read and I’d be satisfied and so much less exhausted. And yet, I would still rather have the ability to spin stories out of whole cloth and write them down and occasionally have people tell me how my stories touched them, or made them just a little happier for a moment, or helped them through a rough patch. I am, quite honestly, terrible at speaking my thoughts, which makes me entirely grateful for the ability to write them down coherently. Also, having a writer’s imagination is a wonderful cure for boredom that I always have with me. So yes–I am tremendously thankful that God made me a writer.

What are you thankful for, dear reader? And did you have a good Thanksgiving?

Story-Time Tuesday Preempted by Election Tuesday

Happy election day (or at least, it’s bound to be for the majority of Americans; I sure hope I’m part of that majority)! My writing time this morning was taken up by doing this:

And so Story Time Tuesday and the next installment of Eucha Falls will return next week. In the mean time, if you’re here for the self-publishing stuff, you might be interested to know that yesterday I opened up a pre-made cover shop over at The Book Wrangler. Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll find there: