Goals: October 2016 (Plus Giveaway Winners!)

PIC1068506062We have now entered my favorite time of the year. Everything about October 1 thru December 31 sends delightful shivers through my body. Eee! Okay, I’ll calm down for now. As much joy as I get from these next 3 months, there’s still the matter of business and life.

Stay tuned at the end of the email for the winners of the giveaway!

September Goals

Last month, I had a wide variety of items on my goals list. Thankfully, I accomplished at least part of most of them. Did I confuse you there?

I did start getting up at 6 a.m. like I intended, but not every day like I wanted. Enough that I know that I like that routine and will continue to make it a priority.

My blood sugar is not under control yet, but it is a lot better. Taking my medicine and watching my portions has helped a lot. Now to rein the rest of it in and get those numbers to where they need to be!

I did plan a block schedule for my work. I’ve been working out the kinks and am excited to see how it works this month!

Obviously, I finished Bellanok and got it off to my editor.

The handbook from Realm Makers is done, and I got a jump start on the website, but it still needs work before we reveal it to the public. Soon, I hope.

So, I think September has been my most productive month of the year as far as goals go. I got a good jump on several projects and am excited to see what happens in the next 28 days!

How about those of you who shared your goals last time?

PAM: 1. finish revising my fantasy novel
2. plan and schedule some book events for Realmscapes
3. finalize everything for my fantasy picture book series, which a friend and I are indie publishing
4. attend an Artists in Residence weekend at Highlights
5. celebrate my granddaughter’s 10th birthday! “I’m gonna be double digits, Grandmom!”

CINDY: 1. Relocate to Iowa
2. Start my new job
3. Get the OCR text for A Suitable Arrangment settled
4. Do a couple marketing events (Book signing, a couple online things, etc)
5. Get busy on Christmas present crafts

GRETCHEN: 1. Finish my rewrite so I can plot in October for NaNoWriMo.
2. Keep up my morning quiet time.
3. Train for a half marathon the first weekend in November (my second one this year so continued training).

KELLIE: 1. Finish polishing book 1 before September 22.
2. Edit “The Lost Chapter”, which I plan to put up for free on my website in either October or November. (I’ve already got my other free chapters on there! That’s at least one August goal done!)
3. Battle that beast of a book 2. It needs a major rewrite.
4. Do all this around my three jobs. It’ll be tricky, but so far getting bits done on the commute to and from work and during lunch seems to be working.

 

Tips for Goals

Make your goals challenging, but achievable. They should not be so easy that you can achieve them with little to no effort. But if you make them too hard, you will find more discouragement than motivation.

 

14516388_1109048352477241_2121187037269415336_nOctober Goals

1. I need to work in some low carb recipes to help my husband and I get our blood sugar under control. This week, I’m going to plan out the month of recipes so that I can start shopping with purpose rather than on impulse. Though I don’t think I can get rid of pumpkin rolls . . .

2. Get Realm Makers website up and running while planning out some reveals for October and November. I need to get the website done this week so we can start adding the new stuff!

3. Plan and execute the launch of Bellanok as a complete ebook and paperback. (If you’d like to help, let me know!) I know there will be a blog tour, an online launch party, and other fun stuff. Yay!

4. Prepare for NaNoWriMo! I already know the story I’ll be writing, I just need to do some outlining and character sketching and all that jazz.

So, there you have it! All my goals and only 28 more days. With God, all things are possible!

Share your goals in the comments, and lets keep each other accountable! (I’ll be following up with you on the November goals post.)

Sign up for my newsletter so we can keep up with each other!

 

thankyou_circles_noto_email_us-main-_cb268957429_Giveaway Winners

A huge thank you to all of you who participated and helped to share the giveaway. I always have so much fun organizing these kinds of things. I won’t keep you in the dark any longer. The winners are as follows:

Heather S. won 9 Strategies to Build & Grow Your Author Platform.

Gabrielle Compolongo won Heir of Hope.

Sarah Grimm won the $20 Amazon Gift Card.

Congratulations, ladies! If you would just email me your physical addresses, I’ll get the books out to you.

Have a fabulous October, everyone!

Fab 5 Friday: Announcement Edition

14199261_1277057505661832_8474678322673298450_nWow! September is already halfway over. I can’t believe it. I’m so ready for cooler weather, colorful leaves, sweaters, boots, and all things pumpkin. Yeah, I’m the white girl in yoga pants. 🙂 I know my summer-loving friends are glaring at me right now, but I’m clickin’ my heels! As if the approach of my favorite time of year isn’t enough . . .

Homeschool got off to a good start last week. The kids and I are getting into a new routine, which takes time. But we’re all enjoying the new year so far. And there’s a field trip to a local farm later this month–another family fall favorite!

Well, I have several fabulous announcements for you today. So, let’s get to it!

 

a-sword-is-just-a-sword-i-am-the-weapon-1

FREE THIS WEEKEND

Hurry over to grab Bellanok: The Paladin’s Hope while it’s free this weekend. And please share it with all your fantasy- or adventure-loving friends! Find out what happens as the demon horde is closing in . . . after all, they have the ultimate weapon. How will Brian and Fauna save the island? Will they even be able to? Guess you’ll have to read it to find out!

 

 

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COVER DESIGN WINNER

Earlier this week, I had my Facebook followers vote between 2 Bellanok covers the fabulous J.L. Mbewe had designed for me (not the final copies, but design plan). And–ta-da! The side graphic  is what the general look will be! I’m so excited! She did such a great job, and I love it! And yes, I’m going to use lots of exclamation points for all the love!!!!!! What do you think of the cover?

 

NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

Now, I don’t usually go out of my way to say, “Hey, sign up for my newsletter!” However, I have so much coming up over the next few months–and I want you all along for the journey!

Over the next 6 weeks, there will be some information and opportunities that come up with the release in October of the full version of Bellanok in both ebook AND paperback.

Plus, I have some fun holiday plans coming up that include a couple of parties, some giveaways, and fun opportunities for everyone to participate in! Did I mention all the giveaways? Yes!

So, sign up now so you don’t miss out on any of it!

 

realm-makersconference-audioonly-149-99REALM MAKERS AUDIO

As many of you know, I am the Marketing Director for Realm Makers. Realm Makers is the premiere, faith-friendly conference for speculative fiction writers. And the session audio from the 2016 conference is now available!

You can download workshops from amazing teachers/speakers like Thomas Locke, Mike Duran, Steve Laube, Tosca Lee, Patrick Carr, and more. There’s over 30 HOURS of content with the full session audio.

Of course, you can purchase individual workshops as well. But, for the rest of today (9/16) only, you can get $25 off the full session audio, using a code on the webpage.

(If you’re a writer and you enjoy speculative fiction–fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, etc.–then you should like their Facebook page, even if you don’t write spec fic. You’ll still get a lot out of the posts, the fandoms, and the camaraderie!)

 

WHAT’S NEXT?

Now that Bellanok is just about done, I’ll be moving on to other projects. Soul Seer is a supernatural suspense that I need to revise. It’s in pretty good shape, but I need to add some layers in, deepen the plot, up the stakes. You know, the fun stuff.

I am actually planning on doing NaNoWriMo this year. If everything works out, I’ll be writing the first half of a new futuristic fantasy series that’s been on the back burner for a few years. Tentitavely titled, Cortesia’s Calling, it involves nephilim, demons, and a Joan of Arc type heroine and her band of underdogs.

 

There’s so much going on, and I couldn’t be more excited or more blessed. I hope you’ll join me for this journey of life and stories.

What big plans do you have coming up for the last quarter of the year?

Goals: September 2016

After a summer full of conferences, vacations, and fun surprises, I can hardly believe it’s September already! Everyone’s kids are back in school (or almost), fall is in the air, and my schedule is slowly down ever so slightly. How about yours?

After a week-long work trip, I took a day to relax and refresh. Now it’s time to kick my brain into top gear and get going on all these goals and plans I have for the rest of the year. I need to break the big goals down into smaller, more attainable chunks, so I can stay focused and get more accomplished.

PIC1068506062One of the big concepts I walked away with from ACFW is allowing for flexibility in all areas of my life. Flexibility for what? For God. I want to walk closer with God, and if I am making all these plans, it has to be WITH Him. I want His plans to be my plans, but I want to be listening for His cues because His plans may not always line up right with mine, right?

But I know there are some things I need to be doing to walk closer with Him and to be able to do what He needs me to do. Hence a few of my goals this month.

September Goals:

  1. Get back into my early morning routine. You know, I always feel better when I start my day with God, in the Word. It seems to give me more patience for the day, more focus and purpose. I’ll talk more about my routines in a different post, but this is one I’m definitely picking back up and making a priority.
  2. Get my blood sugar under control. Although weight loss is important, I’m not going to be doing much of anything if my blood sugar numbers don’t come down. This month, I am focusing on portion sizes and eating more veggies.
  3. Plan a block schedule for my work time. Between writing, editing, and other work commitments, I need to have a clear schedule so I know how much time I have to devote to any project on any given day during any given week. Time management has been a weakness of mine as I have struggled with homeschooling and health. But if I want to do all of this, I need to step up and do what needs doing.
  4. Ralene Bellnock 1 The Reluctant SaviorGet Bellanok compiled into one book, revised and polished, and ready to send to my proofreader/formatter by September 20. (October 14, folks . . . be ready!) I have 2 hours, M-F, plus a few hours on Saturdays, to devote to getting this done. If I can focus, might only take me a couple of weeks!
  5. I’m fresh from the Realm Makers planning retreat with a host of projects to work on over the next month. The main 2 projects being our handbook (for the planning committee) and a new website. I’m excited about finishing up both! Realm Makers will be part of my block schedule as well!

 

So there you have it, folks. I’m ready to tackle September and come out on top. What about you?

 

What are a couple of your goals for September?

 

Janeen and Sara, how did you do on your goals from the August post?

 

If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet, now’s the time! There’s lots of fun stuff coming up this fall, including the release of Bellanok and more Confessions posts!

Novel News: July & August 2016

Where did the summer go? It has been crazy busy around here, and I feel like I’ve been getting nothing done. And the muggy heat has been beating down my energy levels, which is never any good.

At least I still have my books. And writing. And friends. Now I get to share some novel news with you!

 

New Releases

Bellanok4Bellanok: The Palandin’s Hope

The final part of my novel serial is HERE! I’m so excited to wrap up this book and see where Brian and Fauna’s adventures take them.

The demon horde is on its way, and Brian and Fauna have no way to protect Bellanok. They must pull the island together to rise up against the evil overtaking their numbers. But will it be too late? After all, Brian doesn’t even know the extent of his paladin powers, and Fauna still can’t talk to the Creator.

 

FrayedFrayed (Dark Trench Shadow Book 1) by Kerry Nietz

You know, the guy who wrote the Amish Vampires in Space book . . . Now he has a new series, Dark Trench Shadow. Here’s the blurb for Book 1:

ThreadBare is a debugger. He’s property, one of the Imam’s vast pool of implanted servants. He lives in a smelly, greasy garage on the boundary of the battlefield known as Delusion. All he wants is to complete his tasks, exceed his rival BullHammer, and stay alive. Possibly get a promotion.

When an atypical chore brings Thread into contact with Sandfly and HardCandy, things get complicated. Day by day and task by task he struggles with the life he’s always known. Ideas plague him, brutality vexes him, and women distract him.

Then there’s the list of offline debuggers, those who’ve quietly disappeared. Through datamixes—dreamlike records of their lives—Thread tries to uncover the truth. Where did they go? What does it all mean? And what can one forgotten debugger do about it anyway?

 

LegacyLegacy Rewound by Kat Hechenback

I read Finding Angel, the first book in the Toch Island Chronicles and really enjoyed it. I need to add Seeking Unseen (Book 2) and Legacy Rewound (Book 3) to my TBR list. Here’s the blurb:

Melinda knew Kalek’s music created powerful visions, but it wasn’t supposed to actually send her into the past! It definitely wasn’t supposed to bring someone back to the present with her. Especially not someone tied so tightly to Melinda’s own past, someone to prove, once again, that her family ancestry was made up of psychopaths who should never have existed. Now it’s her chance to change her lineage–and history–forever.

 

ThirdHeaven

 

The Third Heaven: Realm of the Dead by Donovan Neal

I just met Donovan at Realm Makers this year. I haven’t had a chance to read any of his books but they look interesting! Here’s a taste of his blurb:

Lucifer holds captive the archangel Talus as a prisoner of war. Will Lucifer’s powers of temptation and torture, turn his brother to his cause? Or will Talus remain faithful to the end?

 

 

Wrath

 

Wrath and Ruin: A Chilling Anthology by CW Briar

Another author I’ve known through Realm Makers. I love the cover here!

Some monsters are nightmarish beasts with fangs and grotesque bodies. Others come in the form of bad decisions we dread or regret. Both kinds haunt and stalk us while we are alone at night.

Wrath and Ruin is a collection of nine stories with a focus on fantasy and sci-fi threaded with quiet, traditional horror. Monsters, both literal and figurative, lurk in the shadows of this diverse anthology.

 

 

RopesOn the Ropes by Hallee Bridgeman

Okay, so here’s a non-spec for those of you who enjoy romantic suspense. I like one every now and then, and Hallee’s just a great storyteller. Here’s the blurb for this novella:

Blow after blow, she hides her face and fights for her life.
Doctor Ruth Burnette has everything she has ever dreamed possible: the perfect job, a twin sister who is her best friend, and a fiancé who is retiring from professional boxing as the middleweight champion of the world.

Then came that fateful night when she witnessed a mafia execution. When her sister is murdered she knows she’ll battle to the last round and never, ever throw in the towel. Now she’s down for the count, in witness protection, anxious, alone except for the faithful company of her German Shepherd at her side.

As the time draws near to when she has to leave her safe little corner she stays on her toes. She has to testify against one of the darkest criminals in New York, she shores up the courage to face the accused from the witness stand. Unexpectedly, he’s not the one who worries her. She wonders what coming face-to-face with his son, VICTOR KOVALEV…her former fiancé …will bring.

Will Ruth have a fighting chance against the Kovalev family, or will Victor keep her pinned ON THE ROPES?

 

Writing Update

Now that Bellanok is complete, what’s up next on my plate?

Well, I’m going to compile Bellanok into one novel, and then make it available as an ebook and a paperback. I hope to release that sometime in October. In the meantime, I’m going to be running some contests and giveaways in anticipation of that release!

At Realm Makers, I got a request for my YA fantasy story. So I polished up the proposal and sent that, along with the full manuscript off to this publisher. In the meantime, I begin my massive overhaul of a supernatural suspense, now titled, Soul Seer. I’m pitching it this week at ACFW. Pray for me! Depending on feedback, I may consider it for another self-publishing project.

 

Other News

13835825_10209189383505598_284719027_oRealm Makers had their conference at the end of July, and it was fantastic. It just gets better and smoother every year! I heard lots of good feedback from attendees. Now that this year is over, though, we’re looking forward to 2017. If you haven’t seen the news all over yet, Realm Makers is going to be in Reno, NV, July 27-July 29.

If you’re a published author in speculative fiction (or if you know someone who is), be looking for more information on our annual Realm Award and Genre Awards toward the end of the year.

 

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What was the last book you purchased? Have you read it yet?

Writers, did you have a novel release this month?

Please feel free to share in the comments!

Goals: August 2016

PIC1068506062So this post is a few days late, but my recovery from Realm Makers and my crazy week prevented the post from coming out any sooner than, well, today!

I didn’t do a goals post in July, so I don’t really have anything to follow up on. I did manage to get everything I wanted done in July done, except for finishing an edit on my own story. I’m okay with that, though, because I still pitched it at Realm Makers and got a request for a full!

Back to August–and my quest for world domination. Actually, this month, I’ll settle for dominating my to-do list. It’s kicking my rear!

So, here are my goals for August:

  1. I need get a jumpstart on my revision of Dividing Spirits, which is now being aptly retitled, Soul Seer. I need to get the first 3 chapters polished before ACFW.
  2. Which brings me to my 2nd goal: prepare for ACFW. I have to design a new one sheet for Soul Seer and get all the papers printed out. Yay! Plus, I need a newsletter signup/contest sheet for the freebie table. And I need snacks.
  3. Start on my diet. I’ve actually already started on this. Yay! My friends Amy and Michele are jumping in on the quest with me to lose weight and get in shape before Realm Makers next year. Plus, there’s the being healthy part, which is important too. 😛
  4. Get on a homeschool schedule. Yes, I only have 2 weeks to homeschool before I leave for a week, but I think it’s important to get everything together and organized and work the kinks out. That way, AFTER I get back from ACFW, we can jump in to the routine, rather than fumbling about for another few weeks.

And that”s all I’m giving myself this month. I think it’s important to focus on a few things at a time. And this is plenty. Especially since there was only 3 weeks between Realm Makers and ACFW.

What are a couple of your goals for August?

Let’s keep each other accountable. I’ll keep a list of those who respond, and we’ll all check in the beginning of September! Sign up for my blog/newsletter so you can check back in with us!

ACFW . . . and Realm Makers

Wow! What a whirlwind ACFW conference this year! I really felt like it was here and gone and left me in a cloud of dust. As that dust clears, though, I think this may have been the most inspirational ACFW conference I’ve been to.

For those who may not know, ACFW stands for American Christian Fiction Writers, and they have an annual conference where hundreds of Christian writers from all genres gather together to learn, worship, and fellowship on a long weekend.

11200796_10207617348136891_6678106449078097704_nHighlights for me this year:

Meeting my roommates and spending time with them. (I didn’t know them beforehand, not even much from Facebook.)

 

Sharing with my agent and my hubby that one of the publishing houses requested a proposal for my fantasy trilogy. (Squeeeeeee!)

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Hanging out with my fellow spekkies from Realm Makers AND finding that there were several speculative fiction writers there who had not hear of Realm Makers and therefore getting to tell them about it! (Yes, that was a bad sentence.)

 

12004088_10207610882215247_5009947617500223860_nListening to the keynote speaker, Bill Myers, who is such a source of inspiration, laughter, and wisdom. I truly got the most out of his sessions than any other part of the conference this year.

 

Next year, the conference is in Nashville, much closer to my home. I’m so excited for that one!

 

Speaking of next year . . .

And about a completely different conference.

We now know the date and place for Realm Makers 2016!

 

And on that note, I’ll leave you with one last thought that I gleaned from Bill Myers.

2016-announcement-copy

“The key to my success is that I’m a crybaby. I’m a coward. And I’m a moron. But I always say YES to God.”

 

This quote is going up on my wall tomorrow and will be my inspiration for the rest of the year. Amen!

July 2015 Goals

PIC1068506062It’s that time again. We’ve got 4 new weeks to get some real work done! Who’s with me?

I’m still on vacation, so I’m not going to write out a normal post. Here’s my goals for July.

1. Finish and edit the first segment of Bellanock. My agent, who is also an editor, is going to edit for me, and my friend, Jennette of Master Design Solutions, is going to do the covers. Yay!

2. I’m working on a new business venture, which I can’t tell you all much about at this time. The hope is to reveal all at Realm Makers next month. In order to do that, I have to get the business planned laid out, the website at least started, and some marketing materials drawn up. The good thing with this is that I’ll have help!

3. I have 2 edits and a critique scheduled for July. I’m going to keep on target and finish all of them by their respective deadlines!

4. I think I have a husband and kids who still need attending to. No, seriously, my husband and I have decided to finally bite the bullet. He’s going gluten-free as soon as we get back from vacation, and so am I. I’d like to see if that helps some of my stomach and fatigue issues. It could be my diabetes not being under control too. Hopefully, it’ll help both!

So those are my big goals, and frankly about all that I can handle!

What are your goals for July?