I’m up to my eyeballs in work today. Did you think writers have days off? Pffft!

I have to make my final selection of stories that will be featured in my next anthology, Silver Soldiers (again, thank you Reina Torres for the title!). That task is sooooo hard. I have to trim six stories from my YES pile, which means I have to let go of some wonderful stories and authors.

I have to complete another chapter of my upcoming Brotherhood story. A book I HAVE to finish this week, come hell or high water.

And I need to clean my space. I let too much slide while I was under the weather. Here’s hoping my stamina is up for today’s tasks.

In the meantime, please take a look at the open contests. Some are closing soon, like maybe tomorrow! Enter while you still can!

Contests

1. Michal Scott: Where There’s a Will There’s a Way — Josephine Napoleon Leary (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Saturday Puzzle Contest! Theme: My favorite hot beverage! — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Flashback: Breaking Leather (Contest + Open Contests) — Win a FREE book!
4. Favorite Romance Settings Word Search! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
5. September into October (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
6. Saturday Puzzle Contest! — Win a FREE book!

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Preston!
*~*~*

I had a guest lined up today, but I can’t find her content. So, I’m hoping I can still get that and post it either later today or tomorrow. In the meantime, I may as well do my end-of-month wrap-up. You do know that these are mostly for me—my way of stating out loud, to the world, what I accomplished and what I plan to do. It keeps me honest about my productivity, which has been slipping of late. Not sure why.

I went to the doctor yesterday and discovered I have high blood pressure. For years, my blood pressure was low, then normal—and now? I have to make changes. My dd insisted on accompanying me, because she knows I tend to blow off medical concerns. She says changes will be made! Gah. I have to cut out salt, and there’s a list of foods to avoid and incorporate. I’m so excited. *yawn*

Anyways, onto my wrap-up!

September

Here’s what I accomplished…

Work-related:

1. I began work on a story that comes out in my sister, Elle James’s Brotherhood Protectors world next month! I had hoped to finish it by the end of the month, but I’ll be writing up until the date I have to turn it in. She’s going to kill me.
2. I completed 3 editing projects for other authors in September.

Health-related:

1. I fell off the Weight Watcher’s wagon again. At least, I’m maintaining my loss. 🙁
2. As for physical activity, I swam every single day (until the Art Festival), and while I spent two days baking in the sun, the pool turned green. So, no more swimming. I’m usually the kind who swims until the water’s so cool I’m gasping.
3. I went to the doctor to find out why I feel like shit and found out I have high blood pressure.

Happiness-related: 

1. I met with the local art guild and the humanities council. Yes, I mingled with real people. I’m on two boards now. I’m not sure why I raised my hand, but I guess it gets me out of the house.
2. I participated in the Festival of the Arts and sold enough to pay for my tent and supplies for next year! Woot!
3. I worked on pieces all the way up until the festival.
4. Here are a few of my September pieces…

October

For work-related, I plan:

1. To complete Guarding Hannah! It will release October 11 come hell or high water!
2. To write Hard Knox, my first We Are Dead Horse story! I hope to have it in time for my pre-order release of October 25, but that is looking extremely iffy. I will try.
3. To complete 5 editing projects in October! And therein lies my problem with items 1 & 2 on this list.

For health related, I plan:

1. To return to counting those points for my Weight Watchers diet (I hate that word) and hopefully shed at least 5 pounds, remembering, as always: Slow is good!
2. To review my diet plan to reduce salt, processed food, and incorporate foods good for blood pressure (spinach, broccoli, bananas, red wine).
3. To replace swimming with walking.
4. To begin some low-impact aerobics. I’ll re-dedicate myself to doing more housework, too, because my art room is a disaster after the show. I have to find room for everything!

For happiness-related, I plan: 

1. To begin one of the many already paid-for online art classes I’ve wanted to do.
2. To begin working on the crafts projects I want to sell in the local Christmas arts and crafts sale in December.
3. To blog about art (on my Emerald Casket site) just to keep myself honest!

Contest

Comment on anything you’ve read in this post. Tell me what you’re doing to make yourself happier and healthier. Tell me what you plan to read…

Like I said, comment on anything for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

Friday and Saturday, I was part of the local art festival! The city board did well with the setup. The tents were lovely and provided shade. They had portable airconditioners pointed down the rows of tents to try to offset the heat. But the heat… It was killer this weekend. 88 degrees on Friday. 97 on Saturday. And we were there from 10:30 to 7:00 both days. I wilted.

Can you see how flushed I was? Both nights, I came home, showered in cold water, drank a sh*t-ton of water (see the bottles next to me?), and I was in pretty good shape compared to some of the more elderly artists who had to close early or limit their hours to prevent heat stroke. I guess all those years in the Texas Army National Guard trained me how to survive—don’t move around too much, keep out of the sun, and drink, drink, drink.

There were so many intrepid art enthusiasts who came. Maybe they were there for the live graffiti artist painting a mural, or staying for the food trucks and live bands, but they strolled through the tents. I can’t imagine how much more foot traffic we might have had if the festival had been held in October. But still, it was fun. And something to trade “war stories” about. 🙂

My dd was there, popping in, or having one of the girls keep me company so they could run for iced drinks or food, or just to make sure I wasn’t fainting from the heat. LOL

She was also responsible for setting me up, bringing in some fall decor to spruce up my tent.

My favorite piece was the first sold.

The postcards and bookmarks were very popular.

I sold those blue pumpkin earrings very quickly, too. See the wooden box? I found it at a flea market. It was yellow and very dirty. My dd painted and distressed it, then used chalk paint on the front so we could use chalk to write in our pricing on the little items. Cool, right?

And paintings were sold. I still have many, many items to bring to December’s craft fair and to post on Etsy. I have to get photos ready and then open up my Etsy shop. I made a ton of bookmarks and still have some left, so I will be thinking about how to gift them away… (Psst… Susan…)

But I still “feel” like a real artist. I’m glad I did it, but next year, if they schedule it for September again, I might not be there. Unless the forecast is for actual fall weather.

When I worked in the corporate world, I underwent all kinds of efficiency training. To-Do lists are supposed to be small, with the most important things at the top to tackle first. However, life doesn’t work that way.

Some things have to happen first before you can get to the highest priority things. Plus, once you finish something that requires a brain cell, you need something that requires less of the gray matter to follow in order to rest your feeble aging brain, right?

I’ve already failed to follow the order of my list that I made last night. I started at #1 because as soon as I’m up, I make kids’ lunches so that they can get out the door to school. But #2 felt like too much exercise before my first two cups of coffee, and I didn’t yet know what I was going to blog about, and #4 requires too many clicks, so I skipped to #5. Now that I finished #5, I’m trying to get back to the “proper” order of my list, and I’m doing good with this blog, right? That list was top of my mind, so I’m typing word-vomit while I’m sort of complaining about the fact my list is too long and I want to blame that piece of paper, but it’s all my own dang fault for committing to too many things this week… And on, and on.

And now, I’m ready to turn the list over on my desktop and just do wtf I want to do. What’s the worst that can happen besides two clients having heart attacks because their edits are due and me missing a book deadline? I’m turning it over….slowly…I haven’t yet laid it down…

Fuck. On to #4.

Psst! Be sure to check out yesterday’s post!
There are 8 open contests listed there that you can still enter to win!

I’m trying to keep focused on my work schedule, but it’s really hard!

I am participating in the Arkadelphia Festival of the Arts this coming Friday and Saturday! I’m super excited even though temperatures are expected to soar to 90 degrees!!! I’ll be in a tent, so in the shade, and I’ll have a cooler of water handy, but still…

If anyone happens to be in the area, be sure to stop in and say hi!

In the meantime, my lovely dd is helping me get ready. She’s been framing paintings and packing tubs with artwork. I’d be lost without her because she’s so dang organized.

I’m still finishing up some pieces for sale. Easy, fast-drying things, like this ceramic tile I used alcohol ink to paint. I have half a dozen tiles I can whip up pretty quickly and seal before the weekend.

My daughter started packaging some painted earrings I already had and decided I didn’t have enough of them. So, today, I’m painting some whimsical things like these pumpkin earrings. She’s finishing them for me (attaching O-rings and earring wires and packaging them) so all I have to do is paint. I’ll do some floral ones and abstract ones, seal them and be done!

I’ll be writing and editing all week and painting in my spare time. So, up to my eyeballs. As usual. Enjoy the rest of your weekend! ~DD

UPDATE: The winner is…ButtonsMom2003!
*~*~*

This is my end-of-month wrap-up (like you’re really interested 🙂 ), but I need to do it because maybe I’ll work a little harder knowing someone is watching…

August

Here’s what I accomplished…

Work-related:

1. I revised and republished “What a Wolf Wants” — an erotic short story set in my Dark Realm world—after I offered it for FREE for one week to my readers.
2. I completed 5 editing projects for other authors in August.
3. I wrote the first chapter of my next Brotherhood Protectors story! Progress! (I know that’s not much writing, but those editing projects really killed my schedule!)

Health-related:

1. I did not climb back aboard the Weight Watchers wagon until August 29th. However, I continued to maintain my 25 pounds of loss since January. I have a theory that my body has “reset” its starvation thermometer, so hopefully, I’ll experience a nice first week drop before I plateau again. At least, I’m hoping my theory is right. LOL
2. As for physical activity, I swam every single day (except for one stormy day), and half of the month, I swam twice a day! Have to make the investment in those pool chemicals worth it, dammit.

Happiness-related: 

1. I was knee-deep in planning activities with my local art guild. I mingled with real people. I attended one “art day” at the center and the monthly meeting.
2. I inventoried all the art I have already that I can offer for sale at the Festival of the Arts in September.
3. I worked on pieces for this year’s Festival. Nothing wonderful yet, but I’m a little out of practice.
4. Here are a few of my recent pieces…

 

September

  

For work-related, I plan:

1. To complete a story set in my sister’s Brotherhood Protectors world, Guarding Hannah!
2. To revise and compile the Danger Zone trilogy into a single box set/print book bundle and publish it in September!
3. To plot and begin writing Hard Knox, my first We Are Dead Horse story!
4. To complete 4 editing projects in September!

For health related, I plan:

1. To continue counting those points for my Weight Watchers diet (I hate that word) and hopefully shed at least 5 pounds, remembering, as always: Slow is good!
2. To swim as often as I can! Mid-September is when the water starts getting a little too nippy…
3. To begin some low-impact aerobics. I’ll dedicate myself to doing more housework, too, because my art room is a disaster!

For happiness-related, I plan: 

1. To produce at least four finished pieces of art every week!
2. To blog about art (on my Emerald Casket site) just to keep myself honest! (No one actually has to read it! No one except my pal Susan does!)

Contest

Comment on anything you’ve read in this post. Tell me what you’re doing to make yourself happier and healthier. Tell me what you plan to read…

Like I said, comment on anything for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Claire Reed Warren!
*~*~*

If you’re anything like me, you have a stash of notebooks sitting in a drawer or on a shelf that you haven’t used and have probably forgotten that you even own. I get notebooks from family members because they know I hoard paper products and office supplies. I’ve never been able to pass by the $1 aisle at Target and not pick up some cute notebook. And yes, I do use some of them. Every purse I own has a notebook stashed inside for times when story ideas hit, but I still have sooooo many sitting around. The kids know this and hit me up for sketchbooks all the time. I love being their favorite “store”—but those requests don’t make a dent in my stash. The picture above is of notebooks I had stuffed into the bottom of my inbox tray!

So, I thought it might be fun to create a list of ways to use up my stash and give those lonely notebooks a purpose!

1. 🎁 Birth dates and gift lists
2. 🤶 Christmas lists
3. 💻 Computer app passwords
4. ✨ Happy thoughts and sayings
5. ⚰️ List to help family sort your stuff when you die, also who gets what!
6. 🖥️ Blog ideas
7. 🛍️ Grocery/shopping lists
8. 🎨 Craft/Art project ideas
9. 📚 Story ideas
10. 🗒️ To Do lists

Wow, that made me think. Now, I’m going to hit up my daughter for labels for my notebooks!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, share another idea for using up those notebooks!

Open Contests

1. Romance Trope Word Search! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Michal Scott: Hiding in Plain Sight: Belle da Costa Greene (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Favorite Heroes Word Search! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Saturday Puzzle-Contest! — Win an Amazon gift card!