Hart Johnson's Blog, page 8

Whereby Life Swallows Me Whole

Sorry I wasn't around last week... And it is looking like this is the only appearance I will make this week. Or next.



The news is mixed. Good (son graduating and gearing up for college, family visiting) and bad (some health stuff, not serious, but clogging my head with incoherence) and a family issue, which I won't go into here.  So I am going to take a hiatus until summer (June 21-ish) when the seas should have calmed.

Whereby Life Has Gotten Away From Me Again

You may or may not have noticed I didn't manage to blog last week. I will just say day job and leave it at that. We get crazy in summer and I was given a last minute project finishing somebody else's thing, then my own thing, and erm... yeah.



And then there is life...



LAST weekend was AWESOME. I went to Chicago and got to meet a few writer friends in person...





Back: Leigh T Moore, Dawn Ius, Jessica Belle, Bryan Wilson, Susan K Quinn; Front: Me, Rebecca and Samantha



So much fun to meet people in person that I've known for years. Jessica and Leigh, in particular, are some of my original writer friends. Also met with my long time friend Andie who I hadn't seen in probably 20 years.



And then...



My son was at Leadership Camp to prepare for college this weekend. It is just the first of a string of prep things for graduating high school and leaving for college. I am sad and excited for him and a little nervous about how life will change.





In the mean time my daughter, an adult, but still navigating life on the long road, got her wisdom teeth out Friday, so instead of near maintenance activities for my baby who doesn't want to be a baby, I got to pamper and baby the grown up. It was so nice to have time with her—the swollen face the only thing that could keep her from being off acting the social being that she is. Instead we binge watched this season's Orphan Black, caught her up on Game of Thrones and rented three movies via On Demand. I made mashed potatoes for the first time (hubs is normally our cook but he was off golfing) and sold her on my favorite soup (a tomato-red pepper soup from Pacific).







Writing



So while I had been baby stepping my final edit of Medium Wrong , I got stopped up in a new scene that needed writing. I'd gone through the full hard copy edit and was just entering, but “Write this” really stops up momentum. There were two of those, but yesterday I finally hammered them out. It is done... query and synopsis next... 9 days to get 10 query letters sent.



In addition, I really need to find all my plotting notes and organize them... 8 days to BuNoWriMo...





Home? What spring cleaning? That is what I have to say about that. And what gardening? I already gardened this year—two days in a row—total of a half hour. Nobody can say I didn't. And I am trying to learn some new cooking stuff...





So those are my excuses and my “well I'm neglecting everything else, too”s...





But the entertainment has been excellent! Season Finales, shows I really love... that doesn't help my blogging time, but it keeps me from being homicidal at work, so I will take it.



Anybody else feeling overwhelmed?  Got a time turner you can spare? How's everything going?

May Mish Mash

Mother's Day, Prom, Progress, College Looming, and 3 weeks to BuNoWrimo



So there. Tired yet? Maybe I will give you a bit more so you can then decide.



First, I hope all of you who ARE Moms or HAVE Moms had a great Mother's Day! (that was easy)





Senior Prom



(and now for the bragging portion of this blog post)



My son had his prom Saturday. He and his group of friends all got together with their dates for dinner at a country club first, then the dance, and the after party was at one of the girls's houses (a house that seems to always host many of them—I asked my son what was so welcoming and the house is large and they always have good food. So there you go. The trick to being the host house...





Mine's the tall one. A few are missing, but this is most of them.





My son and his date. I hear she was excited to go with him as it allowed her to wear her 6" heels.





The full group





And a windswept pose.





And no arrests or suspensions!!! Erm...





College Prep



So this month son needs to get his dorm sorted, attend leadership camp and June 2 we go to orientation... It's coming too fast!!!





Writing Progress



About two thirds done the LAST fix I am going to do before querying Medium Wrong. It's going slow, but going at all is an improvement over the last few (many) months. I want to get queries sent THIS month (10 is my goal) then July 1, after BuNoWriMo, I can add 10 more.



*muttering about synopses goes here*







And Finally... BuNoWriMo



Who wants to write a book in June!? We manage it HERE and on Facebook and we'd love it if anyone wants to join. My Writing Group began this in 2016 and yes, I know there is Camp NaNoWriMo now, but we had June first... plus, there is no rule that says you can't do both. The nice thing about BuNoWriMo is it is a bit more personal... smaller, so people interact and get to know each other. (we also run during NaNo for that personal touch)



Here is the Facebook link if anyone wants to join there.

Getting my CHEESE On!!!

Hey friends, I am visiting Crystal Collier over at her Blog of Cheese today! Erm... I mean her author feature.... Come see us! Play two truths and a lie with me and see my thoughts on CHEESE!

Parallels Release Day!!!

So I'm late today, but still have some excitement to share. I've shared blurbs from all ten stories if you want to check out these posts:

LG Keltner and Yolanda Renee

Cherie Reich and Crystal Collier

Michael Abayomi and Sandra Cox

Melanie Schulz and Sylvia Ney

Tamara Narayan and Me



I also interviewed Dancing Lemur's Founder, L. Diane Wolfe



So today is the day!!!



You can find everything you need to FIND AND PURCHASE Parallels: Felix was here, HERE.

Z is for Zite

This was my daughter's high school mascot--seriously. Only rainbow zebra in the country.

Seriously, what is this? I put it in my file for ideas with each letter and I can't remember even where I saw it.



Anybody use Zite?



What does it do?



Is it easy or difficult?



Does it sell books?



Please! Enlighten us!!!

Y is for YOU

And by You I mean Yibus... the collective you... All o' y'all.



We can't sell books without readers, and who better to reach readers than MORE readers... Duh!



But how do we ACTIVATE this YOU?



I see authors with enthusiastic street teams... I want one. But HOW?



So I am asking YOU how to activate YOU!!! (see what I did there?)



How does a person recruit and utilized a group of individuals to be their voice in the Out There? Anybody know?

X is for X-ing Ts (and dotting Is)

Because seriously, what word actually starts with X. But this is an important point...



Whether you are submitting to agents or publishers or are self-publishing, it is so critical to cross (X) your Ts and dot your Is...



What this means is READING ALL THE DIRECTIONS



Research who wants what



Frame all this PERSONALLY for whomever the gatekeeper is.



Have your work checked, rechecked, edited, proofread...





Can YOU think of other Ts that need X-ing or Is that need dotting?





And gang... only two days left!!!

W is for Wattpad

So I know a few of you use this. And I get the impression one of the things you do is share some of what you are writing? And this idea stresses me out... I somehow can't get myself to share any until I have edited ALL...





Wombat wisdom

That said, this is the full extent of what I know about Wattpad... So I am asking YOU!





Do you post writing on Wattpad?



From in progress stories or only done stories?



Has it built readership for you?



Has it helped sell books?



How does one go about getting involved?

V is for Virtual Bookcase

So this is a service where you pay a fee to have your book listed. And that is the full extent of what I know...





I would just pretend my books were going here... (Prague)

Has anybody used this before?



Does it help sell books?



Who is the typical user? (like is it good for particular markets or genres?)



Do they have standards they require? (some quality test?)



It seems like a great idea, but I have absolutely no clue about the utility of it, so would love it if somebody could share their experience.





ALSO... I plan, next weekend, to go through all my posts and create a "best of" ideas post. Probably it will get posted the 2nd or 3rd, though the 3rd is also release date for Parallels, so I will have to see what works, but I wanted to let you know it was coming.