So the new year is upon us. Hope this finds you all well and happy!
I, for one, am jubilant 2016 is over. I’m still waiting on the closing of the house, but that is all snafu’s and so on. Thankfully my parents are the ones selling us the house, so they are willing to wait. All I can think is that since we started this in 2016, some of the bad luck of the year is following over? I hope that will be all that will be followed over!!
I would like to congratulate Darkest Falling Star for winning the First Place on the Banner contest I host for the Kittyinaz’s Facebook Group each month.
Our very own Padfoot won 2nd Place, which is used on the Kittyinaz’s Author page:
Unfortunately, the Gif won’t work as the facebook cover, but she did such an amazing job I asked for it to be a new signature for me… lol
As most of you are aware, I put the site on vacation while the holidays are going on, since I am usually overwhelmed, and I suspect others are also. But once the holidays are over, I still have the site on vacation, but I normally get some stuff done.
Like what you ask?
Generally, we start shuffling things around for the new year, open up the new year for Banners and so on. General Site Maintenance. If there is something you like, let us know, and if there is something you would like to see, do let us know.
I also spend this time just floating around and seeing what I did bad and good the previous year for writing. It is always a learning process to figure out what worked and didn’t.
I do know I will never release a whole story at once on the site since I get told over and over that no one knew about Crossing the Fine Line.
Forcing myself to write is not a good idea. I didn’t do so well for stories last year.
I need to go back to my way of working before; it was not perfect, but it did produce more results.
Do banners as I edit. It may seem small, but I seriously spend a lot of time adding pics and banners at the end. Now, I am going back to where if I send the chapter to the betas, I will be ready to push publish. I used to do this so that the beta could just hit publish and let me and Robin know, so we could add in any links that were missing. I have no idea where I got away from that, but I need to go back to it.
Publish either one day, or set days. But only if I can do what I said above. I like having people knowing that something will be released on set days. It also helps me with my depression and getting out of bed to work on things knowing you guys are waiting on it. I sometimes need the motivation.
Work when and how I want. It seems like a repetition, but I will tell you why this matters soon.
Most importantly, have fun!
Not much, but you see, I started a story I had been meaning to write since they announced the Dr. Strange movie was coming out. Nothing big, I just wanted the idea out there. But thanks to the people in the Kittyinaz’s Facebook Group who went gaga over the chapter I asked if they would read it, and many huge kudos to TB Viking Addict, who inspired me to keep writing. I finished it.
Yes, I worked and finished it. Now, for some reason, the Marvel stories seem to come in shorter chapters, but still. It is finished. For the Marvel, I am waiting to see where things go, though I may be working on the sequel to Tired Wings.
I am working on finishing Tempered Grace, for those that are Skyeward fans. And that one is NOT short. Too many things have changed to stick to the Marvel ideas anymore.
So while I am working on at least a chapter a night for Tempered Grace, I am rereading Sacred to finish that one, so that I can go back and finish some others without my muse constantly tapping my shoulder about it. It’s quite an annoying feeling, so I am not going to ignore it.
I will say, during this time I lifted all restrictions on me with writing writing, there are now at least one chapter or more, waiting for I Never Did and others.
All I can say is it is a learning process. I want to finish stories, but ignoring the muse lead to last year having really nothing done. Though I did finish Tired Wings, I didn’t finish editing it. Oops…
And technically I should be editing Sacred as I read it, but since I am near the end of what I wrote, I think I will finish reading then go back and start editing.
But seriously, when I wrote six chapters in one night vs. struggling to write one, I think I can see what I need to do.
So I will still be working on getting things done, this year will be odd, with the remodeling we will be starting once the house is ours. It needs to be done ASAP on the front of the house for cost savings, and to make it more ours. But at the same time, in anticipating this, my hubby got me a laptop so that I will have a way to write still. It has helped the last week and is where I wrote all that I did….
Hopefully, I will see you soon!!! I have chapters done for the Alice stories, and for a couple of others. I am going to work on sending others soon. Hopefully, the cooler weather starts again. Difficult to believe this weekend was deep freezes for the South (My hubby will be happy that the Devil plant as he calls it, can be trimmed back majorly!) and now I am in flip flops and it is in the high 70’s. I’m a sad panda…
Everyone who enters the writing challenges are winners.
Seriously.
It is hard to enter contests. I still get all nervous and rethink my entries and so on. It is easy to publish a story, you know your fans will let you know what they think. And I cheat by giving my Facebook group teasers to see what they think of any new ideas I have.
But to submit a piece of work anonymously and see what strangers really think of it?
That is brave.
So, congrats to the ones who entered the Christmas Challenge. It was close, I had to look a couple of times to make sure I had the right person since the numbers were only a couple off from each other.
However, as is usual, I have a 1st place and 2nd place. Congrats to GeezerWench who is our 1st place winner with her awesome Gifts & Wishes.
The other entries are as follows:
Authors, you are now allowed to answer to any reviews. If you want your Banners altered for your preference of an actor, let me know. And if you need them for other formats, (i.e. Fanfiction, Better for Texas or so on) let me know. Also, let me know if you want your story to be linked back to your site, or you are continuing elsewhere. Unless you contact me, I think it is all hunky dory. I’m forgetful so even if I follow your story, it might be from my iPad and I forget to link them when I get back to my computer.
As for the next contest, it will be a random one, since all the others are going to be one of two popular challenges from the past. The Angels in the Fire, and the Fairy Tales. The Christmas one is an annual one so it will be done closer to time. But for the first quarter, I will probably do a picture inspiration.
I’ll see you guys later for an update on what is going on.
I am staying off of social media except for the Kittyinaz’s Group for the time being. I am also going to be working on my dream story, which may not be very long, but we will see. Mostly I am trying to end the year with minimal stress, and hopefully the excitement of owning a house here in the next couple of days.
Right now, I am just too overwhelmed with all the things happening in the world, that I think we all need some breaks. Once I get this story out of my head, I will be editing some chapters so that 2017 will have some chapters to go for you guys in January.
I am also going to warn you that the first couple of weeks is a lot of looking through the site and seeing what needs to be done for 2017. Adding banner contests and so on, seeing where we are funds wise, and so on.
So while I don’t have anything for you now, I have plans. Manageable plans. Hopefully, the Muse will work with me.
I am hoping you are all having a wonderful season of holidays!!!
I’ve been busy on my own, a lot with Christmas. At this moment in time, I am done with everything, but Friday I will be baking a Banana Bread for my nephew who asked for it. I am on the wall about making my pumpkin roll since I don’t have enough pumpkin for that and 2 pies.
But I have been busy over at the Food Blog, I made sure all the recipes I used were live, and then came back to tell the ladies that the Eggnog Fudge is freaking awesome. I am still getting rave reviews from people on it. I don’t even like fudge much, I end up nibbling on it for weeks since to me it is too sweet. This is nowhere as bad, and the eggnog flavor explodes in your mouth.
I did spend Saturday making a mountain of cookies. see?
That isn’t even all of them. I made Snickerdoodles, peanut butter cookies, no bakes, peanut butter rice crispies. cap’n crunch bars (don’t knock them until you try them, everyone ends up eating them!), Soft gingersnaps, butter (oatmeal and coconut cookies), Chocolate covered Pretzels and the eggnog fudge. Then on Monday I made: Pumpkin Cupcakes (it’s a 2 ingredient recipe that freaking rocks!) and my brownies that people love for some unknown reason.
Needless to say, I was tired. I slept mostly Sunday, then back to work. My presents are wrapped, I have a couple cards to give to the boys with their main gifts in them.
The house buying is coming along, it looks like we will be homeowners for the new year. I am already excited, as we talk about the changes we will be making to the house. Just to clarify, this is the same house we have been living in, we are buying it so that we can own it. It’s an old house and has issues, but we are thrilled to have it since we are getting a huge freaking deal on it. We will be here for a long time, if not forever. It is big enough to satisfy our needs, as well as once we are done renovating it, won’t be too big for us to keep up.
The dogs are being…well dogs. Murphy got to experience opening presents as he removed each of the presents under the tree that were sent to us by people in AZ to the back yard and opened them. He didn’t chew up the presents, just opened them, and any boxes they were in. We ended up calling to make sure we had them all, but it is now funny. Yesterday, not so much.
The cats have mostly left the tree alone. We have it spinning and the only things that have been bothered is a ribbon wrapped around the tree, and I fixed that, and one ornament. Now the tree skirt? That thing has all the animals BUT Connor in love with it. It has stayed under the tree for 2 days so far. A true record!!! The longest before this streak was 2 hours. They all want to sleep on it, so fight over it.
I have started something, that has been lurking in the back of my mind. I am not publishing it since I have no idea where the story is going. But that is how most of your favorites have started. But the prologue is a story all by itself. The general consensus over at Facebook is that for me to write it out, and when I am done, look back at the prologue to see if it should be a story on it’s own. If you want to know about it, join us over at the Facebook Group.
I know it is late, but please do remember to use my Amazon Link to shop, and you can use it all year long. Using my link costs you nothing since it is me referring you to the site. It helps waylay the price of Grammarly, Photoshop, and The Google Drive. It also goes toward my virus protections and so on, since I need to keep them up to the highest level with me on the site so much. Plus I research a lot, so I end up all over the internet, especially the Wiki sites for fanfiction. All this you help me pay for by using my link to shop at Amazon.
If you are curious on the finances of the site, please click here. I will let Robin know that it is done so that she can put it where you can find it normally. If you look at it all, there is a lot of times that we pay out of pocket, Robin more than me. Luckily last year a snafu happened on my side and McAfee accidently charged me the wrong amount so I got this as a free year. This year I will be paying the $70+ out of the Amazon funds. We truly do NOT make any money on your donations or you using our link for Amazon.
Lastly, don’t forget the Christmas Carol Writing Challenge! After this year, I am going to do the contests once a quarter. I will be bringing back the Fairy Tale contest, as well as Angels through the Fire Series. Seems you guys REALLY liked those. One will the Annual Christmas contest, so I will be using the last as whatever I come up with.
I am off to see what I can do while doing the chores. I think tonight I will be in here for awhile. For those not in Texas, we are having whiplash weather. 2 weeks ago, it was flooding. Enough to make us glad we have the home we have since we are a pier beam house. While we are not as high up as this shows, we are the lower blocks…
I figured those not on the coast will not know what that means, but it means that the house is up on blocks. They are NOT the stilt houses but are perfect for our area that floods often. We had a moat around the house 2 weeks ago and thankfully we didn’t have to worry about anything but getting out of the house. Then we had a week of 75+ temps. To only have us drop into the 40’s this past weekend. By Christmas, we are supposed to be up to the 70’s again, with another snap of cold weather to be coming our way.
For me, it is perfect. But a lot of people are getting sick, and everyone is going to bed early in my house with the cold weather. Today we are beating the 50’s by getting into the 60’s.
Man, do I miss my tea maker!!!!!! And of course, when I got it, I gave away to everyone the other tea stuff I used. Hopefully, Santa brings me one?
Ah well. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! I hope to touch base with you guys after Christmas when things will be slightly calmer. Well, slightly. We have the house signing soon to do.
For the Banners are made, the poll is ready for you to vote for your favorite story.
Yes, the Christmas Carols are ready for you to read! There are some really long ones in this batch, that took me longer than normal to read. That with the holiday season and the purchasing of our first home took more out of me than I expected.
Sorry.
But please read these submissions, leave a comment behind for the authors to read. You have until the 30th (since I am busy, I am thinking others are also!!).
So settle down with a comfy blanket, some snacks and a beverage of your choice. Pull up your reading device and read some awesome stories.
Authors, grab the participation banner and let your readers know that you participated!!!! You just can’t give any hints away!!!!
And also, if you are looking for more Christmas Stories, The Fangbangers Anonymous is doing their Advent Calender, The awesome miss Carol E Stweart has a Christmas story for you to read with Eric. And I have my story from last year called Carolized… Click on the banners below to be taken to each of these awesome event(s)/Story(ies).
If I don’t see you before then, please have a wonderful holiday(s) that you celebrate…
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