Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click the image to learn more or sign up.
Monthly Question: What steps have you taken to put a schedule in place for your writing and publishing?
I’ve written and blogged on a rotating schedule for years. Of course, that means I’ve started schedules I haven’t stuck too. This year I’m keeping things simple. I have an extremely small window of my day not devoted to sleep, my day job, or basic life functions. It’s between 4:30 and 9:00 on weekdays and Saturday. I don’t count Sunday because it’s my day of rest. If I happen to do some writing that day, it’s a blessing and or task from God. Outside of my brief window, I’m not going to stress about writing or blogging. I either get to it or I don’t.
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Now on to the personal updates (you know, year-end stuff).
I read 56 books last year and reviewed 54 of them. Two of them aren’t currently listed online to be reviewed, but I’ll get to them eventually. I surpassed my Goodreads Reading Challenge.
I said good-bye to Reading Indie and hello to A Small Gang of Authors, to which I’m currently working on a blog series on music and writing.
I totally dropped the ball on my YouTube channel, but I’ll give it another go this year.
I’m taking my writing in a new direction which caused me to put a halt to all my active WIPs. We’ll see how things go with my new direction before I give any updates on that.
Lastly, I’m currently about to finish The Weekend Novelist for the IWSG Book Club. Looking forward to our discussion.
Well, that’s enough about me. Here’s some cool stuff to check out.
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Flaming Crimes Blogfest
Prompt: What is something ridiculous you would save if there was a fire?
After making sure my husband, dog Margie, and tortoise Betty were safe, I’d probably go back inside to save my favorite vinyl records, comic books, and my Kindle. I’d also try to grab personal editions of books I wrote along with some of the art work my husband has produced.
Series: Disaster Crimes #4
Page Count: 304
Digital Price: 4.99
Print Price: 16.99
Author Rating: Spicy (PG13)
BUY LINKS:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble
The Wild Rose Press
BLURB: Beth and Donovan are now happily married, and what Beth wants more than anything is a baby. Her dream of starting a family is put on hold as fires burn dangerously close and Donovan becomes a victim of sabotage.
Donovan escapes what could’ve been a deadly wreck. Their past enemies have been eliminated, so who is cutting brake lines and leaving bloody messages? He vows to find out, for the sake of the woman he loves and the life they’re trying to build.
Amidst a criminal mind game, a fire ignites next to their home. They battle the flames and fight to keep their house safe from the blaze pressing in on all sides, but neither of them expects to confront a psychotic adversary in the middle of the inferno.
Their lives may just go up in flames…
About the Author: Chrys Fey is the author of the Disaster Crimes Series, a unique concept blending romance, crimes, and disasters. She’s partnered with the Insecure Writer’s Support Group and runs their Goodreads book club. She’s also an editor for Dancing Lemur Press.
Author Links:
Website / Blog / Goodreads
Facebook / Twitter / Amazon
Before you check out some other stops on this blog fest, be sure to scroll down and read below, for another tasty treat.
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‘Electric‘ because they are ebooks.
‘Eclectic‘ for the various styles, genres and authors who write them.
And ‘Novelettes‘ as not to mislead readers they are anything other than short, sample books; introductory books to new authors and new genres.
Electric Eclectic books are written by some of the best indie authors in the world, each Electric Eclectic Novelette delivers wonderful and entertaining storytelling to a high standard.
People searching for their ‘next favourite read’ can rest assured in the knowledge that Electric Eclectic Novelettes have undergone a rigorous selection process, ensuring the stories meet or exacting standards.
This means you do not need to read through a bunch of ‘hookey’ or substandard books, or spend out on a random book hoping you will enjoy its content.
With each Electric Eclectic book costing, just 1.00 (dollar/euro/pound), it is a small price to pay to ensure a thoroughly entertaining read and an introduction to your next ‘favorite’ author.
Once you have found the right style of stories, the ones you love, you will have found your next favourite author and can start to work your way through their full-length books and novels knowing you will thoroughly enjoy their writing.
Download a handful of Electric Eclectic Novelettes and give yourself a literary treat?
What is more, Electric Eclectic Novelettes are easy to find.
The first way is to visit the Electric Eclectic website where all the Novelettes are shown, along with author insights and links to their personal books and pages.
The second is to go to Amazon books and type ‘Electric Eclectic books’ into the search bar. (In the USA you will need the Amazon.com Kindle search page.)
Alternatively, if you are on Amazon.co.uk you can follow this link: http://amzn.to/2BnYe7u
Website link: https://goo.gl/q2zwTS (This site is available to view, but not fully functional or edited. Estimated date of completion Mid-January 2018)
Email: EEbookbranding@mail.com
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Are you going to try a schedule for your writing this year?
What are you grabbing on the way out of your burning house?
Interested in Electric Electic Novelettes?
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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Tyrean Martinson,
The Cynical Sailor,
Megan Morgan,
Rachna Chhabria, and
Jennifer Lane!
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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #57).
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords
33 replies on “#IWSG January 2018: Schedules, Blog Fests, eBooks, oh my!”
Wow, 54 reviews! That’s impressive. I need to get better about leaving reviews for books I read.
Someone else mentioned that they’d grab their Kindle. I’m thinking that I might grab mine too, along with any chocolate chip cookies that happen to be lying about 🙂
Didn’t think about grabbing food. That’s probably a wise choice.
That’s great about getting all those reviews written. I have a small stack that need attending to. As for Kindle…it’s been AWOL for a few weeks. I’m getting a little worried.
Oh no. I hope you find your Kindle soon. As much as I don’t like to admit it, it would really hard for me to survive without it anymore.
Your writing window is about what mine is. I don’t have all of it to commit, but that is when it can happen. I figure a goal of an hour a day for my own writing works. I can do more for short bursts, but my house gets really dirty. And impressive job reading! I tend to like the 1000 page tomes so a book every other week is about all I can manage.
Don’t let my numbers fool you. Some of those titles were children’s book or grahic novels.
Old comics. I didn’t think about those.
Last year was some changes but sounds like you have a new pattern and path. And that’s a great amount of books read.
I don’t think that any of them are worth a whole lot (some are worth a little), but if I hold on to them long enough, who knows. It’s hard to let go of some of them because they weren’t easy to obtain.
Those are all great things to save.
I read 55 books last year, but reviewed very little of them only because they had hundreds of reviews. I like to post reviews for lesser-known authors. 🙂
Thank you for participating in my blog hop!
Happy New Year!!!
Thanks for hosting such a cool hop. BTW- love the new book.
The things you’d save in a fire sound irreplaceable. I can certainly understand your desire to make sure they didn’t burn.
I know. I try to tell myself that survival is most important, but some of our memories and accomplishments are critical to us thriving and thus, are important to survival, if we can manage it.
Wow! You read 56 books. Fantastic. When did you sleep? Proud of you Toi. I read 36 but that was difficult with all that I had going on. So happy to hear you’ve got peace about your writing and blogging. That is so important. and I look forward to reading the book you’re completing for the IWSG The Weekend Novelist.
As to what would take in care of a fire, my passport, my iPad, and my iPhone.
Wishing you all the best in 2018.
Shalom aleichem,
Pat G
Oddly enough, I read a lot before going to bed. With my Kindle, some books I used text to speech on my work commute, and some days I simply chose not to do anything else but read, because it makes me feel good.
I once survived three days without my iphone…
I downloaded a lot of various communication and social media apps on my Kindle during that time. 😉
I’m so envious of your challenge! I barely made my 40 books. Now I’m scared to commit to another year. Good for your. You’ve inspired me.
I mixed it up a bit. I started reading outside my genre more, joined a book club, read short books, and started reviewing children’s books and graphic novels (actually only read a little over 30 novel-length books).
Good luck with your plans for 2018. Another fine year behind us. 😉
Anna from elements of emaginette
Thank you. Happy New Year and best of luck with your year too.
Sounds like you stayed busy. Wishing much success in 2018.
Juneta @ Writer’s Gambit
Thank you. I’m working on something for you. I’ll be in touch soon.
I’m a procrastinator so I just started reading The Weekend Novelist today! I’m hoping to read a lot of books this year.
Good luck with everything this year!
Doesn’t matter when you start; you started. Some people never do that. Best of luck with your reading goals.
What are you grabbing on the way out of your burning house?
My cat.
Wow! Impressive 56 books read last year and 54 reviewed. I will check out the Electric Eclectic books.
Happy New Year
Yeah, you want to leave behind any of your loved ones, furry or not. 😉
I don’t blame you for dropping the ball on YouTube. It’s harder than it looks to be consistent on there. :-/
PS all the best for 2018!
Thank you. YouTube IS harder than people realize. All the best to you for 2018 as well.
I like your attitude about what gets done, gets done. Not stressing over what you didn’t get done makes life easier. Congrats on meeting your reading goal. I love that Goodreads “knows” that I finished a book. Before, I’d forget to mark a book as read. Writing reviews does take time. If a book is good (4 or 5 stars), I like to share that with others. If it’s not that good, I don’t finish it. I don’t have time to read books I don’t like. I hope you have a great 2018.
Hopefully, with a focus on family and keeping stress down, 2018 will be the year I’ve been trying to have for the past few years. I rarely DNF a book, but it has happened. I’m actually working on a way to write meaningful reviews that are also short so I do better about posting in a timely manner. Thanks for stopping by and best wishes for 2018.
I’ve been slowly transferring my vinyl to mp3, so the stack I’d have to save is much smaller now. Which is good, as we had over 300 albums and 500 45’s at one time. LOL!
You know what’s funny. The few times my husband had ordered a record from Amazon, it has come with an mp3 download. 😀
wow that’s a lot of reading and reviews! That’s so awesome!
If I don’t like a book, I tend not to finish it. Too many good books out there to read and not enough time.
I have been know to DNF a book, but I try reall hard to research a book before I read it so there’s a greater chance I’ll like it.