New Ideas

 Sometimes I feel like this little meerkat. Just sitting alone and thinking about the day, upcoming plans, and as all authors story ideas. Over Christmas I have had so many fun thoughts on projects. Of course the next volumes in a new series that's been playing in my mind for years, but also some new stuff. Maybe a children's series about a grandma and her grand daughter and their adventures together would be fun. Maybe a look at race issues from a white woman's perspective--dangerous I know. Maybe a fantasy children's series based on the fantasy world my grand daughter created (she has said she'd like to write the stories down). So many choices...and yet I find myself nervous to share the ideas with fellow writers.

How many of us fear that someone will take our idea and run with it? I know I do. I've had ideas for other projects stolen by someone I shared it with, so why not a story line? I know several authors who are fearful of putting the idea out there because of idea theft. I find it very sad, but still I don't think I would go into an on-line writing group and put my ideas forward (in detail) out of concern that someone will take it and run with it. Anyone reading this ever feel this way? Do you think it makes me pathetic for having these feelings?

As I'm sitting here writing this short blog, I'm aching to share some details of my ideas with actual people. I'm aching to get feed back and other people's thoughts...because I really do love brain storming and sharing ideas. With Covid, however it's hard to get out and chat with folks. Granted I have a few author friends and non author friends that will listen and discuss, but I always thought it would be fun to sit in a writing group (in person) and just share and be able to see the excitement in other people's eyes as they let their imaginations run. I hope we can get back to that place because I am tired of being that little meerkat, sitting alone pondering plots. I want to run wild and have a bit of fun with fellow "imaginateers". :) 

Hopefully, soon writing groups can meet in person again and things can get back to normal. I'm ready. Anyone else feel this way?

I pray blessings and joy and much imagination to be with everyone!!!

Creative Grandchildren

Here I am, enjoying the pre-Christmas week with my grand daughter Kyleigh. We have made pies, and gone sledding, and played games, but one of her favourite things to do is go to her magical world of A'all. To get to A'all she must go through a portal she drew. The journey involves jogging around the downstairs until she has arrived. ...Since I am the Queen of the Fairies I can magically appear in A'all or the real world at will. 😉 

When Kyleigh arrives in A'all she becomes the Meadow Sprite and sometimes is the Goddess of Animals. Grandpa is usually the Ogre, her daddy is a werewolf, and her uncle Zac has recently joined our group as The Bard. Usually during her visits to A'all she goes on adventures to slay bandits or people stealing the magical animals for zoos or to take to other worlds. She uses a light saber as her weapon of choice and always bring the perpetrators to the Queen (that's me) to pass judgement. Usually it's a hundred years in the dungeon where she prepares butterfly egg stew or on a special occasion powdered tomato soup  made with buttermilk. (She believes those are pretty awful tasting dishes.) haha.

A couple of months ago, in A'all, we created 7 different potions. Dew Drop potion for levitation; Pine Drop potion for sleep; Sun Drops potion for fire (you do not want the sun drop potion used on you); God potion for super aid; Imagination Drop potion for giving spooky visions; Rose Drop potion for calm; and the Happiness potion (which is the only one that is a powder). Using essential oils and food coloring and baking soda for the powder, she imagined a rainbow of colorful elixers to give her power on her quests.

Yes, all in all, A'all is a fun place to be, albeit dangerous from time to time. But the imagination of a child is a wonder to behold. All the wonderful places and scenarios Kyleigh makes up. I know a lot of people don't think children should be allowed "magic" but really how are they supposed to understand or accept the things of science or even God if they are never allowed to let their minds wander to things that could be. I LOVE watching Kyleigh grow, and know that someday she will outgrow A'all (except maybe to write stories about it if she follows her grandma's footsteps) and imagination, but for now, I enjoy all the wonder in her mind and her stories. 💓

Christmas musings

Hi All! Since I finished the series on my publishing journey, I thought I'd take a lighter stance for the holiday season and share some of my Christmas thoughts...after all, I've been told that fans enjoy learning details about their favourite authors, so here goes.

When I grew up I LOVED December. Christmas trees, Christmas carols, the manger scene, A Charlie Brown Christmas on TV and Frosty, and Rudolph, and Santa!!! Thank GOD the elf on the shelf didn't exist back then. I don't like those. ...creepy! 😒 When the tree went up, Dad would put on Bing or Nat and we'd decorate the tree and sing songs. It was wonderful! The anticipation of Santa coming was always exciting...and Christmas eve candle light service was the best (how often do kids get to hold candles?)

My brother was a great "snooper" so by the time I was 6 and he was 8, Mum and Dad would booby trap the hallway so we couldn't "peek" out and see what Santa was doing...although we knew that if we didn't go to sleep Santa wouldn't come, but that didn't stop my bro from getting up and taking a look after midnight. 

Usually around 5 we would go out and check out our Santa gifts...in our house Santa always brought us one gift that was opened and ready to play with...I guess he was thinking of our parents getting to sleep in while we quietly enjoyed our gifts! Finally, after Mum and Dad got up we would go about the business of ripping open all the other presents under the tree...those being from family, not Santa. I knew that he brought lots of presents to some of my other friends, but only the one to us...but we didn't care. haha

Then we'd have a nice Turkey dinner with all the trimmings and Mum always had apple pie and pumpkin pie for dessert. It was a wonderful tradition and I have many great memories of those years.

As an adult, I liked celebrating the Christmas traditions with my kids. My husband and I continued the traditions of Santa bringing one present all ready to play with, and while he isn't a Christian, I always got the boys to Candle light service. It was always nice.

After the boys grew up, however, there was a bad experience with Christmas for me and the idea of decorating or anything just didn't excite me anymore. I was sick of hearing Christmas songs starting in October. Tired of Christmas before Thanksgiving and just...eh, tired of it all. It just seemed pointless. Except of course the Christian element. I always looked forward to the first coming of Jesus and looking for His second coming. God was never boring to me, just the "trappings" of Christmas.

Then...*drumroll please* Kyleigh came into our lives. Kyleigh is my grand daughter, and someone to once again have fun with Christmas. There was turmoil in the family when she was young, and I still had not lost my "funk" of being tired of Christmas, but in the past few years something has changed. This little person, so joyfully loves to sing Christmas carols (albeit WAY out of tune) and loves to decorate and most importantly loves to hear about Jesus! It's funny how God works. He always comes full circle. So now, while I still love Church the best when it comes to Christmas, the joy of the "season" has climbed back into my life! 

I pray for all of you who read this a Merry Christmas and blessed Advent! And if you celebrate Hanukah or Kwanza or nothing at all, I also pray blessings upon you and your family. God is good all the time! And all the time God is Good!!!

The Final Path (so far)

 Well, it's been a long journey but we have finally come to the end, or at least to the present...does a journey really ever end? After my nightmare into the world of hybid-publishing, I finally decided to listen to a local author friend, Jay Foreman, and looked into KDP (formally Create Space) on Amazon. It was relatively easy once I took the tutorials, and best of all free.

As I said in my last post, once I removed all my old books from as many places as possible I began the task of reformatting the interiors of all my books, so they matched, and changing and touching up the covers. Now THAT was a task in and of itself. Thankfully I was able to purchase my completed book files back from Tate, BUT I did not realize that while I was allowed (and expected) to change the barcodes and Tate emblems the PDF was completely set. 

Thankfully I have friends who understand making changes to PDF files and gave me several options for programs to make changes to those files. I downloaded a program that allowed me to make the changes. It was another learning curve for this computer illiterate author. It took several tries (that means weeks)

to move and change the things I wanted. Not to mention that the Tate logo that graced the spine was some kind of mad puzzle of massive squiggly lines that had to be removed one at a time. That took a good few hours to remove all of it.

Because of my many mistakes along the way, I was nervous about uploading. I think I took a week of "should I or shouldn't I" before finally just doing it! The actual upload was easy as could be. It's a process of setting up background information on the book, prices, and exclusivity, but in the end I had a product I was happy with...or was I? hahaha

Thankfully I decided to order proofs and noticed the cover wasn't quite right and there were minor issues inside. But, instead of paying $100 or more to a self/hybrid company, I just went into my files and made the corrections myself. I chose to order author copies after that and they were exactly what I wanted!!!

I haven't made massive sales yet, but I have sold a few books (softcover and ebooks) each month and get a direct deposit exactly when promised. I can check daily sales and also get monthly reports. WAY better than the other companies I worked with. I'm looking into marketing ideas and options. With Covid, obviously book signings are difficult, but I am not giving up! I believe in my novels and totally get that you just need that "one" break to get noticed.

With my next series and a few one off books, I am going to try and get an agent and do the traditional route, but I know that I can always self publish and get the work out the the few fans that I do have. I'm thinking of trying Book Baby to create some hard cover versions of book II and III because I do have quite a few of Book I sitting in my closet...and I have a fan who would like the final book in hard cover. He was lucky enough to get only one of the two hard covers created by Tate.

I hope my journey has inspired someone out there. No matter what, if you believe in your "magnum opus" you can get it out into print. Just keep trying and working. Failure is just a way to learn and move forward. I bet there isn't a writer out there who hasn't made a mistake or gotten rejected many times. I'll have to figure out what my next blogs will be about, as I am going to keep trying to write weekly. If you have any thoughts that you would like me to tackle leave me a message. I'd love to hear.

If you'd like to check out my books or some of my personal story go to my web page at kimsauthorspot or my Amazon author page at kim's author central

Sorry

 Sorry for not posting this week. We had to have our roof replaced and now we have the satellite guys recalibrating the sights. And I'm feeling tired after the Thanksgiving week festivities (my grand daughter spent the week here. :) I will be posting again next Monday. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend.!!! 

 A moment of shameless publicity! Books make a great present so feel free to purchase the series! 😊  Order books