Thanksgiving has always been a large feast of a meal for me.
I spend days ahead cooking.
Sometimes traditions change.
The last couple of years have been bad because I have not been able to do the big meal. So I am doing it again this year. With minor changes.
We have to adapt to changes or they will wipe us away.
One of the Changes for me is the inability to make my favorite dishes. We have several Diabetics at the table so making so many desserts is a bad idea. Since I cannot make it, I wonder what recipes you are making, or cannot make.
Yes I realize it is really early for this… but I kinda am in the mood for the conversation.
We do yule. It is a wonderful thing where we celebrate the time together more than anything else. Yes we do presents but we don’t make it a big deal. Most of my gifts to my daughter have been homemade for years. I try to get the rest of the family something that will make them smile.
So much of the people end up feeling like they have to go into debt to get the best gift for the holiday thing… for me the best thing about the holidays is that I get to see some of my family that are too far away to see otherwise.
This time of year is so niche. First the artists in September/October are all doing all sorts of nifty art challenges. Then in November the writers all start talking about writing challenges. Not a writer and curious about what the challenges mean?
well For Poets there is a P.A.D. Challenge. This is fairly simple and easy to explain. It is a Poem A Day Challenge. The idea is to write at least one poem everyday in November. (I am trying to do 2 or more but that is because I already do a poem daily as one of my daily goals. The idea is to challenge yourself after all.)
The other Major challenge that goes on in November is NANOWRIMO. Which stands for National Novel Writing Month. The Idea is to write 50000 words during the month of November. (preferably all in one manuscript. but some split it up into shorts and other ideas just to get the writing done.) In order to accomplish this you would need to write at minimum, you should be writing 1,667 words a day, or approximately 11,700 words a week. That can be daunting.
I am not doing Nano, but I am trying to boost my daily writing activity. I am hoping to make the habit stick. What challenges do you try to attempt? Are you a Writer or an artist? There is also art challenges throughout the other months of the year. April also generally sees a PAD challenge for National Poetry Month.
I am curious what other challenges people put themselves through. I end up having to explain the PAD challenge and Nano so often I wonder what challenges I may be missing out of ignorance.
I wanted Halloween Music. I came across this List.
I love it. When I had searched for the same sort of thing on Movies…Well I found I was disappointed in the list. Scary movies most of these are not…at least not to me. Boyfriend says I am desensitized.
He might be right. I was reading horror books back in elementary school – like real ones. Steven King and the like. My parents did not limit what I read. (I was reading College level by time I hit 4th grade.)
I remember being scared by some really well written stories.
And My imagination is far richer than most movies.
So, I end up being disappointed by the movies because they can not live up to the full richness of the stories in my head. I get people who get mad at me when I say that I am not a video person…because the shows rarely are worth the time I have to spend away from my books.
And I have no way to explain that without sounding strange. I love music. I love books. Movies and television however often disappoints.
Old radio programs and Theater shows are amazing however…
I love all sorts. Today I am going to introduce you to one of my favorites.
Give me the Brain. You pay $4 get a pdf and print some cards. it’s neat as all get out. this is how I did it. The game is so fun. the concept is you are zombies running a restaurant. There is one brain between you. Some tasks require the brain to do. some don’t. The winner is the one who ends up with no cards.
There is a version of cards already made on Amazon…But I like my printed cards best. We went and had them laminated. Found a fake brain at the dollar tree that we keep with it and a six sided dice. (You need the dice) It has been hours of fun for us.
A single game usually takes around 15-20 minutes to play and can be anywhere from 2-10 players with no problems. The flavor text on the cards are a source of humor…and it really is good clean family friendly fun. (we got the deck when my daughter was around six. She loves it.)
I normally do Wow Wednesday…but this week is going to be a crazy one for me…and I am likely to be late next week on being able to schedule my blog. I am going to be out of Internet ability next weekend.
I will try to get it up, but I cannot guarantee anything.
I have things planned for every day this week. EVERY DAY.
Monday I am taking my girl and we are going to Spirit Halloween to look around.
Tuesday there is doctor appointments. Multiple ones.
Wednesday (Today) I need to go help my sister go through her storage building – with possibility of my walking away with a new keyboard (musical type). She is needing to condense it down and wants me to take stuff I want. So I really am looking forward to spending the day with her (Even without the storage building being involved) and the adventure sounds fun.
Thursday I am supposed to be packing/ getting ready to go out of town.
Friday I am going to my friends camp and spending the weekend. It is a nice camp, but I will be out of reach. No cell signal. No internet. So Techno geek me – panics. But we promised we would go.
We will return Sunday…but it will be forever….ya know?
If I don’t have my usual posts next week – that is why. I will have the Drawtober posts regardless. I have already scheduled those through October. (I went ahead and did the art for it so I did not have to worry about things like this.)
Help me choose what my new volume will be? I have less than 10 poems in Echoes left to write. Each of these are supposed to be Free Verse with no theme….
The writing on this new one will probably be done in November but the volume itself will not be ready for release until next year.
So Jenny Elliott – Friend, Intern, all around I cannot live without her in my life type person…asked me what the list was for the anthology publication. (The To-do List that is)
I told her it is the same for each book…and I sat and thought about what that means for the anthologies, for my books, and for each book I work with.
I need a front and rear cover to work with.
I need a clean formatted and edited manuscript to work with.
I need a blurb, and an author list.
I need a Release date.
I often am the designer for the covers my company publishes. That makes having them easier. There are a couple of authors that provide their own covers but most just go with the ones I make.
The authors often just send me the written stories. I put in the formatting and edit it as I go. Many of them have the writing edited before I see it, but not all. Formatting is putting in order – Title page, a copyright page, Contents, Chapters, About the Author, About the Publisher.
Some authors write their blurbs, some expect me to write it. Either way, It is not as difficult as writing the entire story. The author list is an obvious thing…
The release date is based on how many others I have in the calendar at a time. The limitation is mostly me. I can only do so many of these at a time.
Okay I have the manuscript…now what? I use Draft2digital, Amazon, Google Play Books all for Ebooks. D2d has the best expanded Distribution. Amazon has the best reach in general. Google….well…why not? I do Not Like D2d’s Print. So for print I use Amazon and Barnes and Nobles press.
Then I have to deal with Marketing. I try to do the same type of images for every book. Do I always manage it? No, not really. I have way too much going on…and often this is where I drop balls. Ideally, I want for each book to do a cover reveal image set. I want to do 3 teaser images. I also want to share an about the author image for each book. Now the last one can be made once and often reshared for multiple books. An Author does not often change their bio. Mine has changed perhaps once a year. Mostly because I have changed where I am focused. Some authors never need to change theirs. I also like to occasionally do “Coming Soon” images…for example….
It’s simple and really only gives the link and the cover. This gives people the urge to go check it out. Then once you have them…spread those images everywhere.
So I have started working on Serena’s Gathered Bones.
I have also started working on her Heaven’s Forgotten Tales. Which is basically a gathering of stories and poetry from her that she has published in various places. Much as Apocalypse athenuem is.
I realized that I am writing more – both as Patricia and as Serena Mossgraves. That I am doing a lot more daily work than I used to. So I might actually go through the future volumes I have prepared covers for…
So I am considering doing some covers for the fun of doing the cover design. And I am wondering if I should plan a future volume for Serena as well as for me.
It ends up being a little bit of a question as to whether or not I have been playing with the poetry with her or if she should continue to write it.
Pattimouse 