Rita Arens's Blog, page 37
January 21, 2013
I Shouldn't Have Shown Them Shark Tank
Last night I watched a few episodes of Shark Tank with the little angel and the neighbor girl. These two are infamous for starting and rapidly abandoning businesses. The little angel is building up a good inventory at Hoggin Crafts, so I thought we were through with the insane business ideas.
This afternoon they came back from the neighbor's house with a full-on PowerPoint presentation about a pet sitting business they were going to start. Included on the "what we sit" page were: monkeys, ho...
January 18, 2013
January 16, 2013
Author Marketing Stuff
So I just ordered a book campaign from Goodreads' self-serve beta program. I decided to tell you about this because I'll let you know how well it works. I've heard great things about Goodreads' ads. It's going to run from whenever it gets approved until thirty days later. We shall see!
I also ordered some bookplates. This is a way to get a book signed when you're not in physical proximity to the author. Since I am going nowhere on my book tour that doesn't exist outside of Kansas City, Missou...
January 15, 2013
Giveaway! Strong Like Butterfly: An Anthology
Recently I heard from Pauline Campos at Girl Body Pride. Pauline's been doing amazing things out on the Interwebs for years now, and I was delighted to hear she put together an anthology that is now available at Smashwords called Strong Like Butterfly: An Anthology.
Enter coupon code CW24A on Smashwords for 25% off the cover price through Feb. 13.
I'm always interested in helping out a fellow anthologist. However, I'm even MORE excited about this anthology (for which I was not paid to promo...
January 11, 2013
I Shouldn't Laugh
But this is how Kizzy gets punched in the face.
A Random Warm January Day
The little black cat started using his front paw again after twenty-four hours of solitary confinement in a room with low spaces.
He shot out the door the minute I opened it yesterday and now spends his moments torpedoing around the house, insane. We discovered he may be even younger than we thought, according to his growth plates.
That explains a lot.
Last night while we drove home from gymnastics, the fog was werewolf thick, and I could barely make out the headlights coming toward m...
January 9, 2013
Giving Away Three Copies of THE OBVIOUS GAME
Today my interview with my publisher is up on their website, InkSpell Publishing.
My favorite part of the interview is the reveal of THE OBVIOUS GAME playlist. The chapter titles are actually all album titles from the late eighties and early nineties for no reason other than it's my book and I wanted to and the novel is set in 1990 and nobody ever either a) figured out they were album titles or b) told me that was hokey and ridiculous and I had to take it out. I haven't actually pulled this...
January 6, 2013
In Which Goody Bag Hoarding Pays Off
The little angel has been working hard on the Hoggin Craft dynasty. I thought I'd share some pictures of the piggy banks because they are so hilarious. Because the little angel kept three old Harry & David boxes full of every piece of crap plastic she's ever received, we have lots of junk to glue to pigs now.
This is the pig for the jeweler's granddaughter. Notice the accessories. I didn't do any of this except the hot glue.
The little girl's name starts with an "E."
This is the trave...
January 4, 2013
Hoggin Crafts: Pig-Related Things
The little angel got a book over the holiday break on money management. I thought it was going to be a book about budgeting and saving and all that good eight-year-old stuff, but no, it was a book on MAKING money.
The little angel whipped up a business plan. She was going to sell something. She was talking margins. I remembered the failed craft sales she and the neighbor girl had on our neighborhood's garage sale weekend in the past. The times they tried to sell complete strangers used ribbon...
January 2, 2013
The Scary Thing Happened, and We Survived
Beloved lost his old job on September 28, 2012. He got an offer for a new one on December 21, 2012. He starts on Monday.
We are returning to the land of two incomes and kissing that unemployment debit card goodbye.
I am exhaling, finally. We aren't going to go over the fiscal cliff as hard as I feared when Beloved's unemployment benefits ran out in March.
Growing up, the fear I fixated on was my dad losing his job. It was probably a bigger deal than Beloved losing his job, because at the time...
