Ellie Di Julio's Blog, page 18

CORA RILEY cover reveal and giveaway!

Ladies, gentlemen, Doges of all ages.

You funded it. Desz created it. You’ve been patiently waiting since October. And now the moment is here at last.

Without further ado, I present the cover for The Transmigration of Cora Riley.

Average family. Average job. Average existential crisis.

After thirty boring years, nothing about Cora Riley’s life has measured up to her childhood dreams of being truly extraordinary. It’s too bad that the night she decides to seek out her specialness she crashes on a...

Experiment: A week without a car

As you may recall, my dear, sweet Ford Focus is officially in her dotage. Then she refused to start in the Buffalo airport parking lot until I burst into tears and begged her not to do that to me in half a foot of snow so far from home.Then the engine light came on over the weekend. And she’s due for new (expensive) tags and an emissions inspection before February.

Put it together, and you’ve got a pretty convincing argument for retiring the old girl.

But I’m a natural driver – I’ve had a car s...

Word of the Year 2014: Faith

Leap of faith

Building faith

Having faith

Acting in good faith

Keeping the faith

Trusting faith

What word will guide your new year?

Looking ahead: 2014 insider survey

*peeks head out from under pile of blankets* Is 2013 over? Is it safe to come out?

*buckles on adamantine armor just in case*

So, logically, this post should’ve come out yesterday, what with the beginning of a new year, yaddayaddayadda, but knowing you guys the way I do, you were either too hung over, too confused from trying to figure out where you ended up after the NYE party, or too apathetic to do anything that day.

Thus, we discuss the future on the second rather than the first. You’re welc...

TA DA! What I accomplished in 2013

If you’ve been around long enough, you may recall that I used to do a daily TA DA! list on my social media. I’ve stopped doing publicly it since I left lifecoaching behind, but the practice is still a super rewarding one.

The idea is simple: You write out what you’ve accomplished in a given period of time (for our purposes in this post – in the year 2013) so that you can see exactly what you’ve done and be proud of yourself.

It’s so easy to discount all we do in pursuit of what we haven’t yet f...

2013: Best Posts of the Year

I published over 50 posts in 2013, and, like everything, some of them are better than others. The seven below are a mix between the ones you guys liked best (i.e.: commented on and visited most) and my personal favourites. Revisit old friends and maybe discover some greats that you missed. Enjoy!

Express yourself! A letter to a blue-haired pixie

I lived in an extremely small town (2000 people) from 7th to 12th grade, and I was always looked at as the “weird girl” because I had short hair and li...

Joyous whatever you’re celebrating

Hannukah, Yule, and Festivus are past. Today is Christmas. Kwanzaa starts tomorrow. The new year looms.

And, while I’m away from the internet this week on my yearly trek to see my family, I wanted to take a minute to celebrate with you, whatever holiday you’re observing (and even if you’re not). The light is on its way back to us, and a fresh slate lies ahead – those things, at the very least, are worth getting warm and fuzzy about.

Much love, dear reader, all year long.

2013 Review: 12 New Things

It’s become a standard part of my new-year planning to challenge myself to have twelve totally new experiences. One a month, that’s it – totally doable. (Except that I almost always fall sadly short, but let’s ignore that for now.)

This year’s list was sort of sidelined by my surgery, even though I tried to tailor it for that. Things like painkillers derailed some of the goals, money chucked out others. But I did get a couple of things done! Let’s check out how I did for my “12 New Things” lis...

10 books I just can’t shake

You’ve probably seen this wee survey/meme/NSA-data-collecting ploy floating around on your Facebook timeline recently:

[List] 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take more than a few minutes and don’t think too hard-they don’t have to be the “right” or the “great” works, just ones that have touched you.

A shitload of people tagged me to participate, and while I don’t usually bend to that sort of peer pressure, I was genuinely curious about my own answers. You win this time, in...

Give indie books for Christmas!

I don’t care who you are, you know someone who wants books for Christmas. Maybe it’s your mom, your kids, a friend, or just yourself. Regardless, there’s a sea of choices and it’s not always easy to know what to buy.

Let me sway you.

Independent and self-published authors are on the rise, producing some of the best and most overlooked work on the market. So what I’ve done is ask the indie authors that I know personally to show me their favourite book-baby so I can share with you in hopes that y...