Briana Vedsted's Blog, page 5
February 2, 2014
Winter
Happy Groundhog’s Day everybody! Six more weeks of winter! Yah! For us here in Colorado, that was great news to hear that the little critter saw his shadow, especially since we just finally got some much needed snow. God willing, the drought will be less harsh this year and we farmers will be able to get some decent crops. Hope everyone is doing well and the winter is being good to you all! ❄❄❄
January 29, 2014
To Read or not to Read
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. How many authors read their own book(s)? I mean, after the editing, formatting, editing, rewriting, more editing, and publishing the book, how often does an author go back and read the book? Just to read it. Not looking for typos or ways to improve the book. Just reading for entertainment. I have never done that. I feel like after being published, my poor books have been abandoned. I’ve been meaning to read one of my books, but haven’t set aside the time yet.
So what about you? Do you ever read your own books just for fun?
The dreaded ‘E’ word…
Yep.
Editing.
That’s what I’m doing today.
Luckily for me, I’ve discovered a way that makes editing much easier. It is the Read Out Loud function in my PDF document. It is awesome! Words that my eyes miss, even when I’m reading aloud, pop out when the computer is reading to me. (And who says grown-ups can have ”story time”?)
Like the word ‘leaving’. I’d accidentally spelled ‘leavening’ instead, and hadn’t noticed the mistake until the computer read it that way…
This has got to be the best tool for self-published, editor-less authors. I love it!
Okay, okay, back to editing…or story time, whatever… 
The Home Fire cover
After I finished re-writing my book, The Home Fire, I knew exactly what I wanted the cover to look like. Unfortunately though, I’m a terrible artist. But after finding a post advertising cover art, I was excited. I messaged the artist, Dani via her wordpress blog Fall’N Love Crafts and she painted the following cover. I was impressed. What do you think?
January 21, 2014
Ranching
I love ranching.
I really do. Funny, though, how just three short years ago I hated the very thought of being a farmer or a rancher when I ‘grew up’. I decided I was going to be a teacher instead, and then make my living writing books. Ever so slowly, I’ve come to realize that my roots are planted deep in the ranching lifestyle and I no longer have any idea about making my living any other way. ( But of course I still love writing and will continue writing books! )
Picture taken from Cafepress
So here’s my “schedule”
Monday and Tuesday morning: Keep re-writing my modern-day werewolf book. The afternoon will be spent outside (Yeah, even thought it’s January, we have no snow. It’s 50 degrees outside. What happened to winter???) with my sheep and goats, and checking and watering the cattle.
Wednesday: Go to the Sale Barn. Ever since I was little I loved hearing the auctioneers. And I still do. I will stay at the auction all day, watching the livestock sell, while my siblings wander around, sometimes coming back to join me, and then heading back outside to watch the guys on horses. Sometimes, my brother even joins them.
Thursday: Write a little in the morning. Then Its back out with the animals.
Friday: Out all day.
Saturday and Sunday: Either out with the cattle, hanging out with my friend and talking about our sheep and goats, or doing something with my siblings.
As you can see, writing has been mostly replaced with my ranching for now. Its a seasonal thing for me. I write when I can, but I don’t worry so much any more. If I can publish three to four books a year, I’ll be happy. Even if my books are all novellas. I do it for my own enjoyment nowadays. Of course, I still want to get my two series published eventually…It’ll happen one day.
Here’s one of my all-time favorite songs!!!
January 13, 2014
Finished Re-writing!
Drum roll please! I finally finished rewriting my newest western book, The Home Fire. Yippie! I wrote this book four years ago, so it was a good feeling to go back and refresh it. Of course, it’s another short story (30,000 words) but I’m confident it isn’t going to seem rushed.
Now I get to move on to the editing part… (Note that I’m less enthusiastic about this.)
January 12, 2014
1st Anniversary and book sale
Today is the one year anniversary of my blog. Yah!!!
To celebrate, I’m marking down the price of to 99cents for the next week, starting 1-13-14 through 1-18-14!
January 7, 2014
The end…
For my 300th blog post, I thought it was a good time to post a very important question that has been plaguing me for some time: When is the end of your book really the end? How do you decide when its time to stop? How do you end your story? (Fine, so that’s more than one question. Yes, I know how to count…)
What is the best way you’ve found to end a book? With a quote? A poem? A question?
How do you like other’s books to end? Do you want left asking questions? Or would you rather have every question answered in great detail?
The End
Amateur Art
Reblogged from Fall'N Love Crafts:
In need of some amateur artwork? Look no further!
For I bring you...drum roll please... some bits and pieces of my 'master pieces!'
(Yes, they are a little fuzzy. Sorry.)
This young woman is an artist of words, plates, and paper!
December 31, 2013
An award
A very talented author, Mike from The Eye Dancers, recently nominated me for an award that I am very honored to receive. To have been given the Blog of the Year 2013 award is a huge accomplishment for me and my blog. I can’t thank you enough, Mike! This means a lot to me.
The instructions for the Blog of the Year 2013 Award are simple:
1-Select the blog(s) you think deserve the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award.
2-Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen- there are no minimum or maximum number of blogs required- and ‘present’ the blog(s) with their award.
3-Let the blog(s) that you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the instructions with them- (please don’t alter the instructions or the badges!)
4-Come over and say hello to the originator of the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award via this link :http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/blog-awards-2-/blog-of-the-year-2013-award/
5-You can now also join the Blog Of The Year Award Facebook Page.Click the link here:https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogoftheYear
Share your blog posts with an even wider audience.
6-And as a winner of the award- please add a link back to the blog that presented you with this award-and then proudly display the award on your blog- and start collecting stars!
Who doesn’t love collecting stars? I can see a bright smile on your face and stop being shy. Come on! It’s all yours and grab the awards
Unlike other awards which you can only add to your blog once-this award is different!
When you begin you will receive the ’1 star’ award- and every time you are given the award by another blog- you can add another star!
There are a total of 6 stars to collect.
Which means that you can check out your favorite blogs- and even if they have already been given the award by someone else- you can still bestow it on them again and help them to reach the maximum of 6 stars! You can either ‘swop’ your badge for the next one each time you are given the award- or even proudly display all six badges if you are lucky enough to be presented with the award 6 times!
You can find all the badges and banners and information you need via this link: ‘Blog of The Year 2013′ Award Badges.
These three great bloggers have inspired me, encouraged me, and helped me along throughout my first year as an author. Please welcome my nominees:
http://legendsofwindemere.com/
Of course there are many other bloggers who deserve this wonderful award, but for now, I’ll stick to these three bloggers.
