Hi, everyone! Hope you’re having a great weekend. Time for my Sunday ROW80 check-in! So how did I do this first week? As the above title suggests, I got “knocked around” a little…
My goals:
1. Post twice per week on my blog: a ROW80 check-in on Sundays, and an original post mid-week. During my blog tour, my total weekly count will actually be three times per week, as I’m scheduled to guest post twice a week through the beginning of March.
Well, I got the Sunday check-in done, and while I didn’t post during the week (except for my Wednesday ROW80 post), I have been writing the posts for my upcoming blog tour.
2. Send out five new email requests per week to book reviewers who have indicated they are available and interested in reviewing books in my genre (mystery). I don’t want to spam anybody! And if you all have suggestions about reviewers to contact, I’d sure appreciate it!
Lots of time spent on Amazon’s top reviewers list, writing emails, and corresponding on Facebook with other writers to get advice. After going through 10 screen pages of Amazon reviewers, I found three who looked promising (cozy mystery interests). Two of them have already shot me down and haven’t heard back from the last one. I joined a GoodReads group (thanks Sheila Seabrook for the suggestion!) that reviews author-donated ebooks, so we’ll see about that. There were also two nice peeps on the “Murder and Mayhem Cozy Mysteries” Facebook group who have offered to read and review the book. Thanks to those gals!
I can see this is going to be a slow, time-consuming endeavor, though.
3. Visit, comment on, and tweet posts from ten bloggers each week.
I got a late start on this, but I hit 12 different bloggers and 14 posts!
4. Write and publish three SocialIn posts during this 80-day period.
Not yet, but I’ve narrowed down the possibilities of what topics to write.
5. Exclusively dedicate four hours each weekday (probably in 2-hour increments) to writing the second draft of Unseemly Secrets.
I got “knocked down” a lot on this one. With that lovely polar vortex we got last week, the kids’ school schedules were all messed up: late starts two of the days, and completely off from school another day. It was the right call for the school to make, but it wreaked havoc with my writing time. The good news is that I did get one day with a big chunk of uninterrupted time, and bearded the lion in his den…aka, opened the file I haven’t seen since early November. More good news: the first draft doesn’t stink as badly as I feared! 😉
Okay, there you have it: my progress this week. I hope you other writers out there have had a better week, and the non-writers who may be reading this have had a fab start to 2014!
I leave you with this wonderful slap-stick Carol Burnett compilation, set to Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” Enjoy!
Until next time,
Kathy
Overall, you did great this week, Kathy! That storm was horrible. Feel proud of all you accomplished! Good luck with the upcoming week!
Thanks Marcia! Hope your week went well. 😉
Fantastic goals. I hope you achieve them all. And Carol Burnett is just about the funniest woman I know, except maybe for Ellen. Love those ladies.
Thanks for sharing.
Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt
Patricia, thanks bunches! These goals may not be much of a stretch for some, but they definitely are for me. 😉 Thanks for stopping by.
You’ve got an amazing list of goals here, Kathy, very detailed and elaborate. The review one seems to be such a challenge for authors. I’m involved with a beta read/review group where the review slots filled up with days of being opened but there are still several beta slots free…
I can understand somewhat. I stopped writing reviews last summer. I love reading, but likes are such subjective things that I always felt wrong trying to tell people what to read. But reading mysteries…. oooooo!
Hi, Eden. I tried to make the review goal – the number of folks I asked – something under my control. But you’re right – it’s a tough area to break into, and we certainly can’t control the “no”s of peeps who won’t be able, or aren’t willing, to review our work. Many thanks for stopping by!
One of the cool things about homeschooling is that we’re never subject to school closings.
One of the challenging things about homeschooling as a writing mom is that, well, I am pretty much always with my kids…that’s gotten easier as they’ve gotten older.
I can see how the disruption of schedule would make getting to those goals a trickier matter. I’ve learned to mostly work on things that can be interrupted, unless the kids are well occupied with their own things, or asleep, or not at home.
It helps that I don’t sleep much!
Still, it sounds like you managed a solid week, and, hopefully, this one is progressing more smoothly.
Every situation has its pluses and minuses, right? I don’t know how you manage to get anything done with homeschooling your kids, but more power to you! My summers are tricky in that regard. What I did last week was set aside my WIP on the disrupted days and wrote guest blogs, did little admin kinds of stuff. Thanks so much for stopping by, Shan!
When my kids are home, I find it much harder to work on the novel, but somehow manage short stories and blog posts okay. I hope your weather cooperates. (It was 60 degrees here yesterday! Uncharacteristically warm, even for South Texas.)
You had a great week overall. I’m sure you’ll tackle the novel soon, and you did that thing Kristen talks about (What is it? Eating the ___ first? You know, the stuff — like trudging through reviewer info — that is less exciting than writing?). Hope the rest of your week is marvelous!
Julie, thanks for the enouragement! Yeah, the whole reviewer thing is tough. Muddling through…