Gotta Love Royalty

I received my latest royalty statement from my publisher this week and I chuckled after reading it. “They might as well keep the money”, I’d mumbled to myself. Yes, it was that bad and for a moment I felt terrible. Luckily, it was only for a moment. I quickly remembered some things that immediately made me feel better. This was the first piece of work I’d sold and it has taught me a lot, and truthfully, I’m still learning. Until I made my first sale, I didn’t realize that being author is like being in a popularity contest. I now know I need to learn how to be more popular, aka learn how to market myself better and use social media effectively. So, I’m going to suck it up and learn. The royalty statement also reminded me of my friend Sarah’s words. She told me that I can only get better at selling books. I wouldn’t have balked at making the NY Times bestseller list my first time up at bat, but now I have the goal to sell even more books my second time around. And having a goal gives me a chance to focus on something other than the things I may or may not have gotten right. Thank you Sarah for those inspirational words! And of course, one day I’d love for my writing to pay for vacations and a vacation home. But the reality is I’ve already been paid enough for The Love She Wants. No check could be worth more than the feeling I had when I’d told my dying father that I’d sold my novella. That moment was priceless and even now I am warmed by that memory.

Royalty statements are one measure of success but they can also remind of us where we’ve come from and point us to where we want to be. Hopefully the royalty statements in your life remind you of the good and inspire you to do better!

Hallelujah

I am so happy to report that I've finally finished the rough draft version of Eli and Mia's story. The working title is Love's Holiday. If you are asking why, it's because the story takes place throughout the holiday season from Halloween through Valentine's day. I'm still working on bringing the holiday theme together. But that is the good news, I've finally come to the point where I can edit this story. I'm both excited and scared. It will be a lot of work but I can't wait to see it all come together. Next month I hope to report lots of progress of Love's Holiday. So in celebration of me finally being able to move forward, I thought I'd share with you an oldie but a goodie. Take it away CeCe...

Love is a Losing Game

I hope everyone had a lovely January. I enjoyed doing some writing, and basking in some downtime since last we were together. In fact in my downtime I've been catching up on flicks. I just finished watching the Amy Winehouse doc Amy. I love love love Amy Winehouse, but it had been a while since I'd listened to her music. Just a few minutes into the doc and I was missing her and her music like crazy. It must have been fate that I'd watched Amy today because I'm coming on to my black moment in Eli and Mia's story. And there's no one who can make you feel the pain of love like Amy. Amy was so good at describing it and Love is a Losing Game is definitely the theme song for this black moment. Just listen to Amy and you'll see why she's so inspirational! Enjoy and see you in March. I hope to have good news by then.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I had intended to write this post last week prior to Bowie's passing, so please forgive the title of this post if it offends you. I suppose that is what I get for procrastinating and not writing this post earlier! As I pointed out when last we met, I've been blogging once a week about something I love. This is a new year, so I've decided to do something different. For 2016 I will be posting the first Sunday of every month. Hopefully I'll use the other time to write, use other forms of social media or just refill the well with a good book. To start off the year, I thought I'd share a photo I love. Enjoy the rest of January and I'll see you in February!

Feeling Good

. Nina Simone said it best, it's a new dawn, it's a new day, and I'm feeling good. Here's to 2016.

A Year in Review

This is the last week of 2015, and so I thought I’d reflect on my resolutions for the year. As I reread some of my posts from January, I see that I had a lot of goals, which is great. It is always good to have aspirations. But as I review those goals I realize that for many of them I have fallen short of the goal line. We won’t even focus on the ubiquitous weight loss goal. Let’s just say that I’m still a work in progress. But you’ll be happy to know that I’ve bought not one, but two Beachbody exercise programs to whip me into shape for 2016. I know, I know, but hope always springs eternal. Now onto writing, I thought I’d be done with writing Eli and Mia’s story, but I’m not. Life got in the way, as did laziness, if I’m being perfectly honest. My new goal is to have it finished and ready to send out to a publisher by June. My writing group helped me to work out some of the kinks, and I hope the new direction will make for a better story. As for my western, my plan was to edit it throughout the year. Sadly, I’ve not really looked at it. I think part of the problem is that I’m focusing on its flaws instead of its great potential. Maybe in 2016 give it another chance and fall in love with it again. My last resolution was writing this blog. I had committed to posting every week about things I loved, be they about the written word or not. I’m thrilled to write that I was mostly successful. There were only two weeks that I failed to create a post. Now that I’m at the end of this journey, I wish I had been able to report back that I had posted every week. Not that it had been always easy. There weeks I wracked my brain trying to come up with a topic, other weeks ideas were rushing at me. However, without knowing that I had made a commitment to my readers, I don’t think I would have been as determined to blog every week (almost). I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog as much as I have had in writing it. See you next year! Oh, and long live resolutions!

Things to Love about Christmas

Christmas is almost here and though it isn’t my favorite holiday (that distinction belongs to Thanksgiving) there are still plenty of things that I love about the holiday season. I love getting Christmas cards, smelling my tree after a long day, and getting gifts doesn’t suck either. Here are the three things I love most about Christmas. I absolutely adore Advent calendars. I’d never even heard of them before going to college. Then during my freshman year, my French roommate got a care package from Paris. I can’t remember all of the goodies she received, but I do remember being entranced by her colorfully decorated paper and cardboard calendar. I was absolutely charmed as she got a chocolate treat as she did a daily countdown to Christmas. I wanted a calendar so bad. Now I have an Advent Calendar of my own and my honey leaves treats for me to find every day. I love me some Donnie Hathaway, Mariah Carey and Darlene Love and I love them even more when they are crooning their Christmas hits. But, as much as I love secular Christmas songs, my absolute favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night. After Thanksgiving I hear it all the time over the radio and in movies, but when I was young the only place I had heard O Holy Night was in my church. It was sung by my mother. I’d be so proud hearing her beautiful voice singing words of love for the Christ child and giving justice to the author’s words. Now when I listen to it, it reminds me of my mother as much as it reminds me of Jesus’ birth. Lastly, yall know I love movies and television right? So I think it is fitting that my third most favorite thing about Christmas is a movie that got famous from being on television all of the time. No, not A Christmas Story, (though I do love that movie), but It’s a Wonderful Life. How can you not love George Bailey’s story of sacrifice, family, dreams deferred and friendship? My honey has never seen the movie and I’ve just bet her that she can’t sit through it without crying. I know that George, ZuZu and Clarence will move her and make her appreciate life and the Christmas season as much as it has made me appreciate them. And yes, I cry every time I watch it. I hope that for this Christmas you get a chance to enjoy all of the things that make the holiday special for you. From the bottom of my heart, have a very merry Christmas and an amazing New Year!