Michele Venne's Blog, page 16

Throwing Jax

When I was in elementary school, we played Jax during recess. We all carried a little rubber ball and some metal game pieces that were like 3-D X’s with an extra leg. After tossing a handful of jax onto the sidewalk, we would bounce the ball. Before the ball came back down, we had scoop up one jax. On the second bounce of the ball, we aimed for 2 jax, and so on. The quickest fingers...

Source

New Ideas

Rolling with the wave of inspiration, I worked on clearing out my paper calendars from the last 6 years. I write quotes, names of books and authors, ideas about marketing, page numbers of manuscripts I’m editing, phone numbers, promotions, royalties, and so many other tidbits of information. I write them down for the moment in order to capture their importance. I used time this week to compile the...

Source

Little Breaks

Some part of me knows something my conscious mind doesn’t: when a project is done (or I’m waiting to hear from beta readers or my cover designer), I take a break. I don’t plan them. They’re not in my calendar. What I believe I (can/should) do on the next day is pick up the next project and carry on. It’s in my calendar. And yet, something besides my action-driven, accomplishment-desired self slips...

Source

Momentum

With The Bookie and Building Fluency: Advanced Number Sense published and available on all platforms, and my third audiobook (Of Objects and Obsessions, Book Three of the Tanner Trilogy) completed and distributed, I moved on to the next project, Desert Zydeco. I finished the first episode and have the three parts scheduled to go live on Patreon this month. I had fun writing this.

Source

Another Check Mark in A Box

Know thy self, know thy artist. After my 4-month plan loaded with experiments, I returned to writing my manuscripts in a spiral notebook. I finally finished Desert Zydeco! I won’t list the many steps from handwritten draft to published file, but it amazes me every time how many pieces must come together before one of my books is released into the wild. And since DZ is also an experiment...

Source

Transition

Maybe it comes from understanding how life is, because when things are rolling along smoothly (and I recognize most moments when this is true), a part of me quivers, waiting for the next crisis, the next big decision, the not-so-smooth time that balances out those opportunities where I catch my breath. I wrote last week about things coming together all at once. It still seems I’m balanced on that...

Source

I Shouldn’t Be Surprised

I know it’s not just in my experience that several issues/tasks/things come up/together/are due at about the same time. A couple of weeks ago, I finished two books right around the time I was dealing with a few personal changes. And it seems like that trend continues. I typed all I had written for Desert Zydeco to see the word count. I was ready to dive back in and finish the first episode.

Source

Coasting

This week was a blur. Having finished those two HUGE projects, I was still in the flow. My monthly newsletter turned out to be heavy, so I decided to split it into two parts. A large section of my personal life needed a transition, so that took 3 days and some mental gymnastics (not too much). Then I received some unexpected news which led to more shifting in my thinking… maybe I’m not lazy.

Source

Enjoying the Accomplishments

I met my deadline! Both HUGE projects are published by the end of September! First, Building Fluency: Advanced Number Sense is a math workbook I’ve dreamed of doing for years. I’m grateful I have a new computer. Equation Editor and Word would have given me so much trouble on my old machine, I never would have finished it. I have author copies on the way to give to those who took their time to give...

Source

Too Close to Call

The second audiobook, Of Hoof Prints and Heartbeats, is done! It has been approved and uploaded and is ready for purchase on all retailers (as soon as the retailers approve it), including my website (already approved!). One more to go in the trilogy! I’m finished with all the edits on the nonfiction, Building Fluency: Advanced Number Sense… just waiting for one last beta reader to peruse the pages...

Source