Michele Venne's Blog, page 2

The Little Things

Sometimes we don’t pay attention to the details until something big happens. Or if our attention is drawn elsewhere. Or if we have our gaze on the end goal and not on the journey. This week, I’ve found many instances where the details matter more than the big picture. It’s August here in the Southwest. summer is my very least favorite time of the year because there are too many days (and…

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Getting Clear of the Weeds

No new release to announce this week. Today, the first of August, marks a transition. It’s the official end of the summer client schedule. I have tomorrow off, then Sunday begins the fall schedule. It’s a ramp up to a full schedule. I’m anticipating days when I have one to three clients. It will be like days off, since the last few weeks I’ve had six a day. This time of year, my schedule is in…

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It’s Here!

I made my July deadline for releasing The Lost Gift, my newest holiday romantic suspense novella! The story bloomed from a prompt in a writing group I attended years ago. I’m happy that Sterling and Abby get a second chance at love. Here’s the book description: “When Fate hands them a second chance, will the past keep them from a happy future? Sterling Clark never thought a plane crash…

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Chipping Away in the Word Mine

Last week I announced the release of Building Fluency: Math Vocabulary. This week I have an update on the other two projects. The cover designers came through with a great cover for The Lost Gift. I asked for one change. I’m waiting for the new file. I have completed all but one of the little steps needed for publishing this romantic suspense holiday novella. I read it aloud and made some…

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New Release!

Great news! My newest math workbook, Building Fluency: Math Vocabulary, is live! Like all my projects, it turned out very different than what I thought. But I’m really pleased with the end result. I included 15 lessons focusing on math concepts. Each lesson starts with a page of words and definitions, then five pages of varied practice, a puzzle page, a journal page, and several pages of flash…

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Focused Attention

Sometimes I think my ability to focus for hours at a time on something is not a strength. However, this week my focus allowed me to finish the math workbook, Building Fluency: Math Vocabulary. It turned out much bigger than I planned. I should not be surprised at this, as every one of my projects has a life of their own. The details are with the graphic designer who will do the cover.

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Making Progress

After a week of work, I can say that progress has been made on all three projects. While at the writer’s retreat last weekend, I spent a few hours editing a couple of the stories from one of the writers in the anthology. I read, critiqued, and returned the four stories to the writer who has been absent for seven months. Hopefully it won’t take that long for the rewrites. It would be nice to…

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A Bit of Reflection

I’m excited for this weekend! It’s the second time I’ll attend a writer’s retreat for the group I belong to with the retreat ten minutes from the house. The presenters will center their talks around AI. I’m AI neutral. I don’t use it, except when visiting a website that uses AI and I have no choice. I don’t use any AI in my writing. The program I use for editing has AI, but I ignore it’s…

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Just on the Other Side

Just through this hole in the hedge lay the unknown. Perhaps a set of croquet balls and white wire wickets. Or a litter of puppies rolling in the grass. Maybe a cliff overlooking a placid blue sea with gulls riding the thermals. This is the way I feel about things. One writer sent her correctly formatted and completely edited stories for the anthology. Now there are two stories populating the…

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Cycles

Sometimes it’s not so much the ebb and flow, but the cyclical way of things. Around this time last year, I was granted the privilege of once again teaching Language Arts. Though I had donated and recycled most of my teaching materials since I left the classroom, I still have half a dozen tubs with resources I won’t part with. I used them last year. This week I rifled through the tubs and pulled…

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