Robin McElveen's Blog, page 2

I’ve Got Great News!

Welcome!

I’m so excited, y’all! I can hardly concentrate to write.

I got professional author portraits done. While my husband is a photographer, his best work is done outside and focused on the sky. (You can check out his YouTube channel to see his lightning photos and videos, among other things.) But when it comes to portraits, he’s still finding out what works well for him.

Enter Steph. She’s been a friend of ours for several years now and we love having her over for some coffee and a chat. She’s been taking photos for a few years, less than we’ve known her, but I’m not sure how many exactly. Looking at her work online, it’s easy to see she’s found her niche and loves what she does. Do check out Beautiful Blessings Photography and you’ll see what I mean.

When I asked her if she would consider doing author portraits, she was excited since it was the first ones she’d done. And while we both had ideas to try out with lighting and set up, she’s the one who worked the magic. The two photos she sent us to give us an idea of how they were coming along were amazing and I know the rest will be pretty awesome. I can’t wait to update my photos online with clear, beautiful representations of who I am.

Ripples is in with my proofreader. I’m looking forward to getting that back into physical circulation and updating the current version to reflect a few necessary changes. With the new cover and the changes, I’m certain I have a winning combo. If you’ve read the book and haven’t had a chance to review it yet, please consider leaving a review. It would help so much!

Writer’s Life

Here’s the latest life update.

I rented my first PO box today. After talking it over with my husband and our youngest, we’ve brainstormed ways we could create some passive income. It seemed prudent to have a PO box we could all use for business-related items.

It’s been several months now and I still miss my little buddy Spartacus. He really is living his best life now, having some furry friends in his new home. I’m so happy our son’s family was able to take him in. We still get to visit him this way.

Big changes keep happening and I must confess to feeling so out of it. I’m getting to add new fruits and veggies into my diet to see which ones I can tolerate and which ones to stay away from. So far, only kale has been rejected, but even the reaction to it wasn’t extreme. I could probably tolerate it every once in while. But the victories keep adding up and encouraging me on that front. As of now, I have coconut, chard, & Scharr sourdough bread added to my diet and cabbage is looking like an OK addition, too.

Another big change is in my work area. I’ll share more on that next week. And we’ll finally have a working half-bath after being reduced to only a shower and kind of being able to use the sink for several years. I’m so looking forward to that!

You made it all the way through!

You rock! Thanks so much for stopping by today. If you’d like, leave courteous comments below. Anything other than courteous isn’t allowed. If you saw something here that might encourage or help another person, please share it! The more the merrier!

Until next time,
Keep turning pages…

Embracing the New

I’m so excited! It’s been literal years since I had a dedicated website and functioning domain. I’m back in the game. Woot! Please take a look around and see what you think. Let me know in the comments below if you feel like sharing.

The blog address might’ve changed but the content will be much the same. I’ll keep on sharing things I find helpful, useful, encouraging. The only difference is that I might post more about my faith journey, too.

If you want to stay updated on this writer’s life, then subscribe to the blog. If you want to get some fun freebies, including a short story about a side character which takes place right as Ripples begins, and updates on release dates, cover art, and more, then subscribe to my newsletter.

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your visit and look forward to having you here again soon!

Moving Again! Please Take Note

 Welcome to Robin's Scenic Route! I'm excited to be getting back into the writers life mindset. With that comes a few major changes. Read on to find out more.

Author Journey: Getting it Together

I will admit to slacking over the last few years. It's not because I really wanted to, but more that I was so burned out from writing solidly for four years. I mean, all I did went into my author life. I just couldn't keep up because the pace was too heavy for me. I hadn't figured out the healthy balance. 

In any case, I'm trying to get that back on track now. To this end, I've set up my custom domain and am working on getting my website together. You know...a real and official website that has my name in the site title only...not the hosting service, too. 

I chose Squarespace because I felt it gave me the best overall options for the price. I'm hoping to have it live by the end of the week. I'm really excited, y'all! It's been so long since I've had such things. My newsletter will be revamped as well, and I hope to get those out monthly. Things are finally coming together and I feel revitalized and encouraged by it all. I'll keep you all posted so you'll know when the site goes live and you'll be able to follow me there.

 On the editing front, I'm up to chapter 29 of the Ripples edit. I'm hoping to re-release it in August, but the way things have been going, it may be September. There's another Camp Nano event happening next month and I'm gearing up for that. And I still have several chapters of Surge to edit. 

On a positive note, I think I may have found an editor I might be able to work with. The price is right and I'm hopeful. 

Writer's Life: Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've been so focused on getting the edit of Ripples done and getting my new website/blog/ESP set up that time seems to speed by. I have had some time to do other things, though and I'm happy to share those with you. 

There was a car show near where we live last weekend. My husband snapped this photo of me and our youngest with my favorite vehicle at the show. The only thing I didn't like about it was that (as far as I know) it wasn't a manual. 

Who doesn't love Miyazaki's tree spirits and mushrooms? I was able to purchase a set of these little cuties to decorate my work area. When the plan is complete (which will take a while), I'll share photos. I gave these four to my oldest daughter and the same amount to my husband and youngest daughter. I can't wait to get the others in place!

My husband and I have a morning Bible study routine. It's been so encouraging being able to start the day with him in the Word. Especially since I'm still dealing with dietary issues and trying to nail down what actually sets off my system. Last week, I added Swiss chard to my diet with some success. This week, the adds are coconut, kale, and possibly ginger. 

Why is that important? Well, it's easy enough to make a mock latte with regular dairy milk. But when it comes to coconut milk, there are some challenges. I looked it up online and found out you have to add a little coconut oil to the warmed coconut milk. I found out through experimentation (and accidents) that it works best when the milk and oil are hot and you use a handheld frother. The froth seems to last a good bit longer that way. 

I'm so glad y'all keep coming back. It's great to have you here and I hope you'll follow me to my new website and blog to keep me company on my continuing journey. 

Until next time,
Keep turning pages...

Progress! It's So Good to Make Progress

 Welcome to the scenic route! I'm happy you took this little side path today. There's some good news I can't wait to share with my readers. Read on to find out more...

Author Journey: Progress on the Ripple Re-Edit!

This week presented ample opportunity to get a major chunk of Ripples re-edited. I'm so ready to get it back out in physical print. The progress I made this week has energized and encouraged me. I can't wait to get back at it today. 

Pro Writing Aid has been such a great tool in this project. It's one of the best investments in my author business I've ever made. If you need guidance in the self-editing process, I highly recommend it. (They didn't pay me to say that. I genuinely like the product.)

Writer's Life: Birds, Busyness, and Other Things

Guess what! One of the smaller birds in our area perched on my mom's kitchen window today. It looked curious about what was going on in the kitchen. The little songbirds are so cute and I love having them around. I miss them in the winter, though we do have cardinals around for a long time. 

Two of our friends as well as my uncle had medical procedures this past week, and my mom had a checkup with her cardiologist. All of them got good reports and we are praising God for that. 

Our farm cat, Atticus, had kittens a few weeks ago. They've been living quite the adventure for certain. One of them is white like Momma. The other is a soft gray. That one reminds me of Dusk, and it's nice to see that color pop up again. We're praying they survive and thrive. 

Thank you so much for stopping by for a visit. I hope you found something helpful or useful here today. I know it's a quick update, but it's all I have time for today. Check back next Friday. I hope to have another post ready for you then. 

Until next time,
Keep turning pages...

What a Week!

 Welcome to the scenic route! I'm happy you stopped in for a visit. It's been a week of learning and working for me. Read on to find out what's been happening. 

Author Journey: You Learn Something New Every Day

Or so they say. My husband watches a whole lot of videos in a day. He's always learning some new recipe, or finding out new tips and tricks for business or photography. Sometimes, the things he finds are helpful for me, too.

... Like this video about managing your time more efficiently for your particular business by Ross Harkness.

I watched this with some skepticism, because I've seen a lot of these kinds of videos but they've just never had a method that made sense to me. I was pleasantly surprised when his method was loose enough to fit my needs. 

At the end of that video, he shared the link for this other video which I also found super helpful. 

They took a little time out of my day, but I think it was worth it. Now if I can just get into the habit of using my calendar/planner like I hoped to do this year. I do so much better with checklists and goals with tangible markers. 

I've never been great at keeping to a schedule because every time I've tried, something has happened to mess with what was on my list. Whether my scheduling was too rigid, or my mindset was (thanks ADHD and possibly autism), if the least little thing happened off schedule, the entire schedule was nixed for the day. Sad, but true! 

I'm hoping with this method, having something visible I can see, write down, check off the list, that maybe I can improve the amount of progress I make in a day. 

These videos helped me and I hope you find them helpful, too. 

In other news, I'm strongly considering a Patreon page where I'd share digital art, printables, short stories, sneak peeks, and, hopefully, audio recordings. I'd love to hear what y'all think of that. 

I recently switched to using iphone. I would love to be able to use it to blog when I'm away from my desk. I'm considering moving to Squarespace for blogging, as well as getting a new domain. I'll be working to move everything over to there and get all my links adjusted in all the places where readers can find me.  

Guess what? I finally got more ISBNs! So in release news, I'm hoping to get Ripples re-released in physical print by October 30th of this year, the hard copy versions of The Tale of Outh'n Durr out by November 30th of this year, and Surge released as soon as possible in all formats except audio. 

I'd love for all of this to happen before the end of the year. That's why I needed to watch those helpful videos I shared above. It's gonna be a tight fit. 

Writer's Life: What's New on the Home Front

Well, it's pretty much the same old, same old with a couple of the usual twists. My son and daughter-in-law went on a cruise this week and we got to watch over our granddaughter. 

We also had quite the deluge on Wednesday -- 9 inches of rain. We've had worse in the past. In 2016, we got 22 inches all at once and ended up with major flooding. As it is right now, the bayous are running high and fast and low roads are flooding. And there's more rain in the forecast today and tomorrow. Oh, well. It's Louisiana and we kind of expect rain. 

I think my dietary issues are getting better. This is the third month of taking a gut health powder supplement, L-glutamine, and a super limited diet, but it seems to have been worth it. I've been doing a castor oil pack for my liver and that seems to be helping, too. 

It'll be great to not have to take that powder next month. But, after that, I'll have to probably start using some other kind of powder to help me digest fodmaps so I can eat more variety. We'll have to see, I guess. 

So that's what's been up lately. I'm so glad you joined me today. Did you see something helpful or interesting? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time,
Keep turning pages...

Better Early Than Late for a Change

 Welcome to the scenic route! I'm so happy you joined me here today. I've been working hard and look forward to updating my readers about it. Check it out!

Author Journey: It's Past Time for an Update

I know it's been at least two weeks since my last blog post. So much has happened and has been going on. I just haven't had the mental focus to get everything that I want to do done. 

On the writing front, I did manage to meet my Camp Nano goal with flying colors. I finished an edit on the fifteenth, well within the goal time. 

So I started another one... accidentally. Yep. You read that correctly. I was working my way through the story to put a glossary together (because I realized I had missed that part) and caught more errors. Just when you think your manuscript is ready... 

That's where I'm focusing today, too. I still have half the manuscript to work through. But I'm hopeful I can get it done today or tomorrow. It helps that I have nothing scheduled on my calendar for either day. 

As you can see above, I hit my goal. I also rearranged my writing area so that I could hang my cuckoo clock up. Poor thing is really particular, though. Right now, she's about five minutes slow, or so. I'll have to adjust the pendulum. But I love having it above my desk. It'd been so long since she ran, I wasn't sure she'd work. I'm so happy with it! 

I might've posted this one before... Anyway, this is my new setup. 

Writer's Life: What's Been Going On? 

All of the things, all at once! That's what's been going on. Well, it seems like it's been that way. I've been working on preparing my daughter's paperwork for college. She's finally made a decision on where she wants to go and which field she wants to focus on. And wouldn't you know it, I can't figure out how to get the transcript to them. Gosh! Tell me how you hate homeschoolers and are discriminatory toward them without actually telling me. Louisiana doesn't have a setup for this instance. So far, I've found three states that do. Out of fifty? Hmm... 

There's another way she could apply but it's seriously cumbersome and she wouldn't be able to get her application in on time for the summer semester. She's already had fits and starts with a different college and area of study in the past. We want to get this nailed down ASAP. 

If any of you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them! Please share in the comments. 

There's been more going on, but I'm pressed for time. My to-do list has piled up, so I need to stay mindful of how long I spend on any one item. I'm trying to improve my time management skills, as well as my listening skills. 

Stay tuned for more updates as I continue to work towards publishing Surge this year and reissuing Ripples. I also want to look into changing my ESP, so if you're on my email list, you may need to resubscribe when that happens. All those tidbits and more, coming soon!

Until next time...
Keep turning pages.

New Month, Renewed Purpose

 Welcome to the scenic route! I'm glad you stopped by today. It's been a few weeks since my last post and I have a few things to share with you. Let's dive right in!

Author Journey: It Boggles My Mind

It boggles my mind how easy it is to forget to blog. I've been fighting with my diet, headaches, rearranging furniture, getting projects done, medical appointments, and more. Blogging just took the back burner for a bit. 

On the bright side, I'm moving right along on my WIP for this month. As you may know, Camp Nano 2025 is going on right now. I chose to work on a short story I've had in my work stack for a few years. 

It's going well, I think! I'm almost three-fourths of the way done with my edit.

 

I posted a my first reel this week to share a snippet. There's a particular line I was pleased with in there. If you're on facebook, you can find it here. If you do check it out, give it a like and/or comment. If you really like it, please share it with your friends and give me a follow on the site. I purposely limit my time on social media, but I do my best to respond to comments/questions when I am online. 

Remember the mention of rearranging furniture? Well, my workspace used to look like this:

Now it looks like this: 

And you'll notice the cuckoo clock above my TV... that's the reason for the shift. I wasn't sure how I'd like working right in the middle of the room, but so far, it's been ok. Our cuckoo clock hasn't been run in years and it's insane to have a working one and not have it cuckooing at you all day long. 

In other author journey news, I created a Discord Group called Robin McElveen's Readers. I was probably in a rush while creating it. Please don't judge me for the uncreative, leggy name. I really just have just left it at Robin's Readers... 

Anyway, I wanted it to be a place where readers and authors could connect, ask questions, toss ideas around, share inspirational things, etc. I hope to build that over the next year and that it becomes a better way to connect with my readers. 

So that's where I am work-wise. Are you working on something creative? Why not share in the comments below? 

Writer's Life: It's What's Happening

If you've been with me on my journey for a while, you know about my dietary struggles. I think I'm finally seeing some improvement. Yea! I've been eating a carnivore diet (mostly...I do eat spinach and blueberries because I can still tolerate them fairly well) with my husband. I lost a lot of weight, got down to two pounds above my healthy high school weight when I was a junior. (My senior year, I stopped lifting weights and dropped to 105. I'm thankful I'm not that weight anymore. I don't think it was healthy.) I'm starting to pick back up and thankful for it being for good reasons. 

I started a three-month, slow & steady, liver detox. Because coffee was giving me a little trouble and because it can also mess with liver function, I opted to just stay off the coffee for now. Tea has been troublesome, too, so my cozy, warm mug times are limited to warm buttered & spiced milk. I know better than to have too much of that! But it's filling and almost like having cinnamon toast. 

 I know I mentioned that we had to rehome our cat. Spartacus is living his best like with my son's family. Check him out during Bible study time! 

As y'all can see, he's quite content. 

I think that's enough for now. I'll try to blog again next week. I'm determined to do better. Y'all please keep me in your prayers as it's the Lord God Almighty who keeps me going. 

Until next time,
Keep turning pages...

Just Your Average, Sporadic Author Journey Update

 Welcome, Readers! I'm so happy you're here. There've been a few things going on and I'd like to share a little of that with you today. Read on for more...

Author Journey: Where Am I?

I am in Y'Dahnndrya. XD No, really, I'm in the editing portion of the work on Ripples which required me to use Pro Writing Aid. I need to complete that so I can re-release it in print form and offer an update to those who purchased the digital version previously. I was making fair progress last week, but this week's editing got sidelined by dietary issues. More on that later... 

In order to help me get more work done more efficiently, I downloaded several organizers. One is for health, one for my specific diet, and one to map out my writing year. 

The latter is called the 2025 Author Planning Quickstart Guide by Audrey Hughey. Check out her website if you want to know more. This planning guide is comprehensive and specific. I love it, but for someone who usually just flies by the seat of her pants, it's overwhelming. Still, I'm trying to do better when it comes to my writing. This is surely something that could really help me get things together.  

I also found another free printable organizer which might be helpful to some. It's called "Goal Workbook" and you can find it at thehousewifemodern.com blog all the way at the bottom of the page. The cute pastel stars on the cover caught my attention. You can also find her free printable 2025 planner (at the top of the page). I've been using the latter to track my health goals and progress. But it could be used to help with writing goals, too. It was super easy for me to make it my own and make it work for my needs. This homemaker/blogger had several helpful downloads, so be sure to check the site for other types of things.

What kinds of organizers do you use? Why do you like them? I'd love to hear about it!

I know this is short, and I've skipped a whole section, but my diet issues have me in a general state of kerfuffle. I wanted to update y'all on that, but I'm beat. I just wanted to let y'all know the work continues and I won't stop until it's done. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Until next time,
Keep turning pages...

Better Late Than Forgotten

 I am going to get better at this. I am. My health hasn't been so great over the past couple of months. I've been struggling with a few issues. Add to that normal chores, plus wanting to clear clutter out of our home and having to rehome our precious cat, it's been something else. 

Author Journey: I Have Been Working!

I'm happy to report that while my blogging has lagged somewhat, my work in Y'Dahnndrya has picked up. I finally got around to running a better edit on a story I posted here on the blog several years ago before Ripples was published. If you've been following the blog since the beginning, you might remember the story - Purpose - which was about a secondary character in the novel which followed. I've since edited it to read like a PDF book and plan to also create an epub version. Those will be available to subscribers soon via a Google drive link which I will share only in my new newsletter. 

Yup. You heard me correctly. I'm switching email service providers to hopefully feel a little more confident in sending out relevant information to those who'd like to keep up with special sales, get freebies when I create them, and more. I'm also toying with the idea of creating a Patreon page. This might be easier for some to use than other platforms. I'm just trying to figure out the tiers and what I'd offer on each one. I'll be sending out a newsletter from my current email service provider to let subscribers know of the coming changes. Some of them don't follow the blog. 

Writer's Life: So Many Changes in So Little Time

I mentioned earlier that we needed to find a new home for Spartacus. My son and his family gladly took him in and he's settling in well from what we hear. I miss him so much, but our youngest daughter seems to be developing an allergy to cats. Imagine our dismay when we figured it out. Still, to be on the safe side, she's going to get some allergy testing done to be sure exactly what she's allergic to. 

On a positive note, my mom seems to still be improving. We're so thankful for that considering how sick she was almost two years ago now. 

However, I'm the one struggling with health issues now. So we've been hard at work trying to pinpoint things which could be disrupting the normal functioning of my system, starting with diet. 

I set a goal on January 1 of this year to read more nonfiction books. I wanted them to be books which would help me improve my knowledge of theology and writing, mostly, but also some biography. I have since added a few which cover topics on health. I'm currently reading The Elimination Diet by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre, MS, CN. I like what the book is saying...and I also dread what I'm learning. I'm getting ready to start the detox process and get down to the business of discovering which foods I need to say no to. And all this after I thought I knew those things. It's been frustrating to me since I'm hungry almost all the time, but can only eat super small portions and almost always end up having some kind of reaction, no matter what I eat. Your prayers on my behalf would be appreciated. 

Now I need to get back to work. I still have a lot to do before I can publish Surge (Children of Y'Dahnndrya 2) later this year. 

Until next time...
Keep turning pages.

(p.s. I linked the book to Amazon. I'm not an affiliate or anything. I just wanted to be sure you guys could find it easily if you wanted to.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Welcome to the scenic route! I just wanted today's post to be a quick one. Here's hoping I can actually do that. 😆

I'm sure I talked a little about how my health has been kind of up and down. Since I like to do things in a more holistic way (as much as possible), I've been having to do a lot of research on my own with some guidance from my NP and our local HFS owner. I'm happy to report what I feel is some improvement, but there's still a lot to find out. The research takes a long time and as such, I haven't written much this week. 

For those who have been praying for my mom, thank you so much! She is almost back to where she should be for her age. She has a little way to go, but she's probably 90% to where she should be. Your prayers are appreciated!

There's one other writing related item I'd like to let you in on. I created a Discord server for readers and writers to chat and share knowledge. It's not for promoting anyone's work or career, though I do have a separate channel with specific rules so no one is inundated with promos/ads. It's invitation only and you can join by clicking here >>> Robin McElveen's Readers on Discord

I'm still working on switching to the new ESP, but for now, MailChimp is still the one I'm using. I needed to make a budgeting choice and had to use the money on a different item. 

That's the update for this week. Please stop by next week. I hope I'll have more things to share with you related to my writing and some good news to share about my health. I am pretty optimistic at this point, and your prayers are, once again, much appreciated.

I'm now off to plan something special for my husband and me. I might share a photo if it turns out well. Stay tuned! I pray you all have a safe and happy Valentine's day, even if it's more of a 'hanging out with friends' kinda day. 💗💛

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