Blogging

As an author, it never occurred to me before why I created a blog. As I sit here at my desk working on several stories at once, yeah my mind is that busy, I glanced at my favorites bar and saw my blog. At first it was because, well I was following the crowd. But then there was the daily tasks of keeping up with an added item on my long list of items I already needed to keep track of. In the beginning, this is very hard, as any author will tell you. Many have schedules to keep themselves on track, a progression board, an outline for all their stories and I can honestly say, I am not so organized. I should be and at some point if I want to make this my main source of income, I REALLY need to work harder at it.
No I am not writing this for sympathy.
No I am not writing this to get attention.
No I am not writing this to bash anyone else in the industry.
I applaud all who work tirelessly to get their name out to the masses in any way they can. I even look up to them. Not the best sellers. But many whom I knew through social media and now are on their way to reaching a NY best sellers list or even USA Today.
I know there are no handouts in writing.
I know there are no shortcuts to success.
And yet, most times I don't have the will or the energy to do all social media, a blog, online web store, hiring someone to make a video, paying someone to post, asking others to review my work and then sit down to write. Some days I don't feel like writing.
Sorry, was working on my other stories. Where was I going with this.....Oh yeah.
Reviews are the hardest to get. Amazon gives you a boost when you get a certain number of reviews, but again, they are hard to come by.
You hand out book after book and wait patiently for the eager reader to finish the story and post their thoughts. Beta readers are also hard to come by. Of course everyone under the sun will apply for a free book, who wouldn't? I cant even begin to tell you the number of free books I have on my kindle I haven't even begun to glimpse at, but its the beta readers who actually do what they say and read the work giving you the feedback you need. Feed back is the fuel authors need to let us know if a book we've written gives off the right vibes. An author doesn't want people to read a scene and laugh when they are supposed to be crying. Unless its a scene they are supposed to be laughing so hard they end up crying.
 Don't get me wrong, I do my hustle locally and I spend a long time in the post office. I have enough stories to keep me going and if I run out of the ideas I already have mapped out, then reading a few books will give me more.
When the mood to write hits me, its pretty much a busy day for me. I get up from the chair every few hours to stretch but then I'm on my phone emailing myself any other ideas I may have about the story. I can type for 18 hours, or 3 and call it a day. It all on how the Muses feel.
All in all, I enjoy the ups and downs of being a writer. I enjoy the occasional interaction, and the momentary distraction of social media. I don't mind helping others in their beginning steps of publishing their work. I know what it was like to not know as much as I do now.
If I had a chance to do it all over again, of course I would do it differently, or would I?

Swimming with Sharks. Part 3 Renting a home

By now I can relate renting a home to buying one. With buying a home its all about who has the most money. With renting its all about whose background looks the best. Either way its a toss up when it gets down to the wire. So another three applications and fees and I was losing my grip on reality. I came up with other options. We didn't have a family to be able to stay with. Most of our family members rent homes themselves or live in a place already to small for them. There was the idea of placing our stuff in storage (shelling out more money but of course we would need to stay in a hotel) and then within a few months our scores would go up enough to buy a house but we wouldn't have the extra money to spare again.
My realtor told me to be patient.
She told me to trust her.
So I replied. 'I waiting on my rock.'
A week went by and call after call was another reject.
This was depressing. It was stressful. As a writer, I can tell you, it wasn't helping my skills at all.
But then one night while I was packing away, clearing more space, I got a phone call. Another realtor calling to ask me questions. I don't know if she noticed the weakness of my voice or the tiredness of answering the same questions over and over again but she said a few things no one else did and my ears perked up. She asked the questions, and then a few more and when she gave me the breakdown of terms, I informed her I needed to discuss this with the family. Granted our kids were not helping with the rent. But I had them involved in every step. They are teenagers, this is a life experience they can learn from. So I called them into the dining room and explained to them what was asked of me. I answered all their questions and made sure we all were in agreement. When I got the answer, I talked to the realtor and she said the place was ours.
My heart sang!
I THANKED GOD for all, thanked my realtor, and the other agent.
As I let out the heavy breath I had been holding I texted my realtor with the good news.
'Fought the shark to the buoy and sent up a flare. A boat rescued me!'
She called me right then and we laughed about it.
With the results of finding a place behind us, we went to the office to fill out the paperwork and place our deposit. The new place is bigger and so are the rooms. Counting down the days until we officially get the key, I can honestly say I have learned a valuable lesson and so have our children. I am wiser when it comes to spending. I make better choices about what we need as opposed to what we want. For now, groceries are sparse because I don't want to move furniture and food. I like to stock up after the move. So I have money set aside just for that purpose. Next year, we will be ready. We will have all we need to buy the house we will spend the rest of our lives in. Making friends with my realtor, she will already know what I want in a place before we begin searching.
I will have to fight the shark again, but by then, I will have a spear and provisions.

Swimming with Sharks Pt. 2 Renting a home

This is part two of my tale of what happened during the time we were renting a house.
For three days we patiently waited. Well if you want to count me biting my nails to nubs and then creating a hole in the floor from pacing then I was very patient. I called the realtor fearing the worst. I know I shouldn't but considering this is the second time an owner has opted for selling the house while we were still in it, you cant blame me. So when I called, I was asked a few questions which now I consider to be the moments deciding just how desperate we are to have the place. I answered as any one would and hoped it would be enough. The realtor informed me that they would call me back.
Another day passes and I get the call. Another set of random questions asked and I answered and then I would get a call back later.
In case you are wondering, they (the realtor) have to refer to the owner with my answer and then the owner would tell the realtor what to say or ask me. They are at least keeping me within the loop of a possibility I may get the place. So I waited. When my phone rang I almost jumped out of my chair to answer it. I calmly let out a breath and waited for the result.
The answer was no.
There were certain circumstances the owner couldn't overlook.
I know right!
So why make us wait three days for a result to which it could have taken you ten minutes to decide?
I mean, its like people who go to a fast food restaurant that has been around for the last 75 years, they ate there at as a child and now they are an adult, the menu hasn't changed a whole lot and yet they are standing at the counter going 'yeah, um....let me get uhhhhh.....'
So I contacted my realtor and she was already sending me another list of houses to look at. We scheduled a time and got together. We looked a four more and went through the process again. Filled out another form, another application fee. This one was more than the last one. I dropped off the papers and waited again. During the waiting time we were packing. It was the end of February and I didn't want to be caught with a houseful of stuff and nothing done. My daughter actually came up with a neat system since we had time to really be organized. Last time I was packing and loading a truck at the same time. so boxes were mixed, and we had to open them all to find what we needed.
So she made a list of the items she packed in a box.
The box was labeled 'Her room' and she placed a number on all four sides of the box.
The part I did, which was smart, was I got two sizes of boxes. There are small boxes for heavy stuff and medium boxes for light stuff. I went to the hardware store and bought boxes. It is a waste of time and energy to get boxes from everywhere under the sun. Knowing how I pack, and I'm sure others do the same, a big box means you can put more in it.  But then you cant lift it!
So with all we have, and we have a lot, I went with the strategy she did. The living room, kitchen, our room and sons room was all packed, labeled and numbered.
What open spaces available, were filled with boxes, labeled and stacked. This is also a good reason to have the same size boxes.
Now, being an experienced mover, I did something I hadn't before. With all the moving we have done over the years, I sat down and calculated the amount spent on moving supplies. It was a lot.
Working in a manufacturing plant, I used an item that would help us in our moving so I sat down and made a splurge. The company that supplies our company with tape guns and tape, I ordered some tape and tape guns for us. You have to buy a certain amount which may seem like a lot, but when you add up how much tape you buy at a regular store and even when you pay for a six pack, you may as well buy it online. You are going to want an industrial roll of tape. I got mine from ULine.
With the packing mostly done, and my mind off the pressure, we got the call from the realtor about the house. Another reject.
When I contacted my realtor, I told her this experience reminds me of a movie I saw. The rock, represents the amount of time we have left. The ocean, represents the sea of houses and the shark, represents the process. With each process we are rejected, the shark take a bite out of me. I am on the rock in the middle of the ocean. There are times when there are a lot of houses to choose from and I take the plunge risking life and limb hoping to make it to a buoy (filling out an application) to send up a flare (paying another fee) in the hopes the ship will rescue me.
Now its all we joke about.

Swimming with Sharks. The ups and downs of renting a home.

This is not my normal type of subject and it has nothing to do with a book although with me any experience I have involving action, suspense and adventure will somehow find its way into a story of mine. But this right now is just a summary of what I have gone through in the last three months.
     At this point in my life I shouldn't be renting a home. I managed the getting married and having kids part and then raising them away from home but in reality I should be halfway through owning a home or making some additions. Well, I was on the short bus growing up and the important things such as taking care of your credit, having credit, maintaining credit and keeping track of all you do wasn't on the top priority list in school and it wasn't anything I learned from my grandparents as they were raising me.
     (No, my parents weren't there and that's a different story.)
     My grandparents paid cash for EVERYTHING. When my grandparents did get credit, it was to purchase a much needed item for the house, like a washer or dryer. Once it was paid for the card was cut up. I repeated the teachings and I didn't learn about my credit being a problem until a year ago. It took me that long to get it to the point I could obtain a credit card.
     I had medical bills I ignored. Yeah, like you haven't ignored a bill or two. At any rate, they accumulated and didn't go away. We had been living in houses for the better part of twelve years and When we came to dwell in this particular house we or I was ready to get myself straight. I had to. I was taking on the title of indie author. I needed to be a responsible business person and if I was ever going to show the world (my children) I was serious about what I do, I had to have a grip on my personal finances.
     I needed a home. A permanent residence where I could set up shop and grow from there. A place where our children and myself could be free to do what we wanted. I love to paint, DIY, woodworking, and having a flower garden.
Its been too long I haven't been able to play in the dirt. We cut the grass and clean the gutters but to do a proper landscaping, we couldn't because it wasn't ours. So why were we so eager to leave our humble abode? It wasn't us to be honest. It just so happened, the owner wanted to sell the house. Which they have every right to do.
     So here is where the fun came in. I was diligently using extra funds to pay off all medical bills and when I got them down far enough I received an offer for two credit cards. They were secured but nonetheless an added feature for me. Hubby credit was great, but because we are married my lack of payment was dripping down on his causing his score to go down. The theory being what I wont pay, he eventually will.
     I got in contact with a realtor, they are very handy in these types of situations because they can get you access to houses faster than most and can tell you of houses you may not see on those famous housing sites, but she took us to her financial office where we sat down and had a good look at our credit. Little did we know, what we were seeing, wasn't anywhere close to what we actually had. Our scores were much lower than what we were viewing on the free credit app. Shockingly lower and even with me paying off my bills, it barely made a dent. Because I didn't have the credit cards long enough. Need at least six months payments and no late payments on ANYTHING. At least no more than thirty to ninety days worth on some cases. Yeah, imagine our surprise.
     We would still have to pay another large amount to come close to getting a home loan. So we stepped out of that phase and looked into renting again. The first house we saw was great. The rent was about the same and it was further out than we were but we needed a place.
     First thought, desperation.
We or rather I wanted a place so we wouldn't be out on the street. We had time. It was January and we had until April. My realtor was like, no. Lets wait and see. There may be better places coming up since the weather was getting warm. So, we waited. Another place did open up. We took a tour, liked the size and location and applied for the place.
     Second thought. This was easy.
It could not be further from the truth. I don't know why I even considered the idea we were the only people looking for a place to rent. Kids just graduated from high school, going to college and looking for a place of their own. Well guess what. We were not the only ones who applied for the house. So we paid a non refundable application fee, for the both of us.
When renting, make sure you have plenty of extra cash for this.
     We gave them all they needed and it was a matter of the owner sitting down and deciding on who should have the place. Its all on who they feel is more responsible with having in their home. Once the application was put in.
We waited for the call.

Something Very Unexpected Book One of the new and imporved trilogy.

Something Very Unexpected has undergone a new look. Its a trilogy with new covers and smaller size. Read how love blossoms between two small and unknowledgeable children then grows into a passion so strong that time nor distance could not dissolve.

Something Very Interesting Book Two

Something Very Unexpected new look. Book Three