March In A Nutshell

 – Premise –

Greetings, my lovely citizens!

I wasn’t feeling well for most of the month and then I got a cold . . .  Consequently, I didn’t get nearly as much done this month as I would have liked.

But we shall at least endeavor to gather the few scraps of news.  Onto the nutshell!

 – The Mousetrap –

The Cumberland County Playhouse is a really fun venue that we try to attend now and then, and typically their productions are very good, but I have to admit, I was disappointed with The Mouse Trap.

There was nothing really intriguing about it.  Essentially, it was a lot of people wandered around on stage talking about nothing and hinting at rather unpleasant pasts.  It was rather dull, definitely downbeat / morbid, and peppered with some inappropriate moments that make me say . . . I wouldn’t recommend it.

 – Reading –

I’ve reached 46 books on this year’s challenge of 150 books.  So while I am closing on being a third of the way done – I ALSO ONLY READ / FINISHED 8 BOOKS IN MARCH?????

SOMEHOW THIS MUST CHANGE.

On a nice note, the first reading quarter of the year is over and I will have a post with my favorite reads of 2018 up shortly!

 – Writing –

I hardly got any writing done at all this month.  Partly due to the fact I wasn’t feeling well, partly because of lack of focus, and partly because I was distracted by editing / rewrites and partly because I just didn’t.

However, I did a decent bit of rewriting as well as planning, and I’ve got some upcoming projects and ideas that I’m really excited about.  *hoping they will happen*

AND – there is one piece of exciting writing news –

I GOT PUBLISHED AGAIN!!!!  *screams*  I AM SO HAPPY.  I have been trying to get another piece of flash fiction published since last October/November of last year and it finally happened!!!

I was literally doing the dance moves below when I opened my inbox and saw the email.

Ironically, it came just at the point where I was going to give up on this particular magazine – Splickety.  I had approximately eight pieces of flash fiction turned down by Splickety and I was starting to think I’d just let it go.

I was actually about to temporarily set aside my pursuit of getting published in magazines for a while (I was definitely going to set aside Splickety for a while) but now I’m being lured in again and rethinking all my previous plans.  

So yeah, lots of reevaluating and new plans.  As usual!

 – Re-Writes –

Thank you to my very talented alpha reader (my twin) who is patient enough to keep providing me with great feedback!  I am still immersed in rewriting The Goose Girl.  I’m focusing on not getting frustrated, but there are moments when I feel like I’ll be rewriting this thing for forever and I just want to be DONE.

The inward dialogue looks something like this:

Voice 1:  I don’t like rewrites.  I want to be finished.  Will this ever be over?

Voice 2:  YOU JUST STARTED, YOU SILLY LITTLE BOYSENBERRY.

Voice 1:  I can’t do this!  I don’t know what I’m doing.  This is terrible!

Voice 2:  Just wait till you have to rewrite one of your 200,000 word length novels a gazillion times!

Voice 1:  DAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

And then somewhere at this point I step in and tell them both to be quiet and attempt to simply forge ahead.  It must be done!!!

 – Editing –

As I mention on a previous post, I am determined to submit The Reluctant Godfather to a professional proof reader / copy editor to have it polished up to perfection for the second edition.

And I finally did.  After procrastinating and getting really nervous, I finally bit the bullet and contacted six different editors for sample edits.  I should have started earlier in the month that way I could have been proceeding with the edits by now but, hey, at least I did it!

Four proof readers got back to me, and after carefully considering their sample edits, I have almost selected a proof reader and I am about to send my book off to be polished.

While I am sinking a bit of money into this, I am committed to making The Tales of Ambia a tip-top, professional product.  Indie publishing is not an excuse for a sloppy product – we should strive to be just as professional as traditionally published authors!

 – Beta Reading –

My Goose Girl retelling is in the hands of my beta readers as we speak.

– Bits & Pieces –

More snippets of cleaning and purging.  It feels so good to get rid of stuff, guys.  It’s freeing to go through piles of stuff (and piles of books I didn’t really want) and just let it go.

Let’s see . . . .

At one point in March, cake was involved.

Milky Way Cake. Yes, I said Milk Way, as in the candy bar.

I also added that fancy, scrolled, divider thingy to this most recent blog post.  Surprise!!   #awkwardgrin  Tell me what you think!  Keep it or nix it?

And that’s all for March – except that I finally made a gif for my signature quote / sign off for my nutshell posts.

So what about you, my dear readers?  What was your March like and what happened?  I’d love to hear all the juicy details!