New Year resolutions started a month ago

"Happy New Year!" conjures up memories of bubbles floating to the top of non-alcoholic wine in colored stemware, party hats, and noisemakers ushering in the new year while watching the ball drop in Time Square from the comfort of our living room. New Year's Day is spent curled up on a couch with a notebook rewriting our lives with resolutions to become better people in the coming months.   For me, this year was very different. When my supervisor told me our shift was working on New Year's Day I realized there was no reason for me not to work. Celebrations to usher in the new year with goals and plans to move ahead seemed counter productive since I basically started that over a month ago.   The changes began in October when I got back from Nigeria. I had decided my work schedule needed to change, as well as my pay grade. Weekends off were a rarity in retail, and weekends were when my husband was home. For a few weeks I tried to accomplish those goals through changing positions within Home Depot, but nothing worked. Drastic measures were in order.   I put in an application for a job that would give me longer shifts, the ability to work fewer days in a … [Read more...]

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Exciting week

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you were so excited you were shaking inside? Tell me about it!   … [Read more...]

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Book Launch Celebration went well

Wow! The last few weeks have been a whirlwind! (Silence... Staring... Fingers perched on the keyboard...) That just about says it all... Two exciting things happened the week of July 29. Actually, one was not so exciting. I received my first copies of "No Time to Quit" and found out I have shingles. I'm not going to go into all the gory details of shingles in my head and eye, but suffice it to say, navigating through the details of moving forward with the book was much more difficult. I couldn't even schedule a book launch celebration because of not knowing when the symptoms would be manageable enough for me to function. The shingles did put a damper on the excitement of receiving the first copies of my first book, but I was terribly excited anyway. Holding a book in my had that has my name on it as the author has been a dream of mine since I was a child. The day I found out the book was available online at WestBow Press I was so excited I couldn't think the rest of the day. I was supposed to be working on publicity ideas and writing a press release. Within days, the book also was on the Barnes & Noble website, as well as Amazon. And Mom had been selling so many books … [Read more...]

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I’m onto the next step!

Decisions have been made, edits are done and the manuscript for "No Time to Quit" has been submitted for formatting! After the last few weeks doing nothing but working, editing the book and basic survival necessities, today was an exciting day! Maybe I should back up a little bit. The manuscript went through an editorial assessment where an editor at Westbow Press looked it over and did a sample edit on a few pages. Then she wrote a report about the manuscript's merits, as well as improvements that could be made to make the book stronger. She used words like "compelling", "inspiring" and "engaging" when describing the book. She also made some valid points and gave me wonderful changes to work on. To be honest, I was nervous about that part of the process. I didn't know how the manuscript would be received, and whether or not someone who is not invested in the story would really like it. The editor's comments pleased me. I put her sample edit next to the original and went over it one sentence at a time. The changes were minor, and they made the book stronger. The next step was getting an estimate for Westbow to provide the content edit she recommended. It was $1,200, and … [Read more...]

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