Friday Favorites! Goodbye September

"Wake me up when September ends..."

~ Green day

Goodbye September. I will miss you. September was a month of uncertainty. Everything for me was so up in the air. These last few days has brought closure to a lot of the loose ends and hope for new beginnings. Something I've been hoping for my entire life might be happening! I can't say a lot now, but it's so exciting and I'm nervous as hell, but all in due time I will hopefully be able to say more!

My kitty Angel is unfortunately blind, but her blood work actually came back good. We have to change her food to a more kidney function friendly dry food because she is dehydrated, but no sign of diabetes or infection in her blood levels. The vet doesn't know why the sudden loss of the sight happened but she is a healthy cat at the 17 years old. It might possibly wasn't a "sudden" loss but alas I'm just grateful to still have her.

I'm not a hundred percent sure where this weekend is going to lead me, with the exception of Sunday night (Below), but it's the last weekend in September and I'm determined to do something FALL-esque. It will happen! =) Even if I just buy some apple cider, it will be something! lol.

Thursday Thoughts

Made using Canva

Today I need to hit the ground running...literally. I have a lot of work to do at my day job, we are hoping to find out the results of the blood work on my cat Angel to see why she could have gone blind, I'm off tomorrow for doctor's appointments, and I have to be out of the office today by 5:30pm. Yup, a little crazy Thursday to finish out week.
 
 So here's a quick little Thursday Thoughts post about some things I'm doing and using until my favorite blogging day - Friday! 

 

Blogging Tip: 
Canva

If you've been blogging for a while you might have heard of Canva. Canva has free images, fonts, layouts, and a variety of other usual tools to create pretty, crisp, and appropiate images for blog posts! Using Canva has completely changed my blogging life, eliminating the stress of taking that perfect picture for a blogpost during the day, especially when you are an almost daily blogger. It's very user-friendly too. Did I also mention its free? You can choose to upgrade to a paid account, but I'm very content using the free services. There is enough variety of free things to use if you hold out on the paid one.

My Writing Journey #2 - Following Guidelines & Waiting...

Hello Tuesday! 

"Is it raining in there? It's raining in here, too." 

I always loved that scene in Winnie the Pooh. It's raining so much in South Eastern NY, my phone alerts have gone off three times this afternoon.

I've never been good at following directions. Maybe that's why I'm not the greatest cook? lol. At least I can bake a good cupcake. But I can't skirt around the rules this time. In the current part of my writing journey it is crucial to follow guidelines and wait for the outcome.

For now, I have decided to pursue traditional publishing and I do not have an agent. Through my copious amount of research, I discovered it was possible to submit my work to publishers who don't require an agent. And I gave it a shot. I found publishers who accept my genre of manuscript and followed their submission guidelines.

I re-formatted, queried, proofread, over-analyzed, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and hit the send button. Quickly, I re-read the email over and over again to make sure I did it right. Then proceeded to freak out that I sent my erotic contemporary romance out into the world. Luckily the freak out was brief and I patted myself on the back for taking the initiative and finally submitting my work. 

Then you wait for a response...

Even if you have an agent you have to wait...

Even if you self-publish you have to wait...

Even if your Young Adult, Romance, Non-Fiction, Sci-Fi, or Anything...you have to wait...

Yup, waiting is inevitable...

 I don't exactly feel like Blake Lively in Shallow where she is clinging desperately to a buoy while a shark is circling her bleeding body, but I do feel like Saturday at NYC Comic Con, trying to claw my way through the masses of people trying desperately to get that limited edition prize only a few will get to win. It is a series of mixed emotions and definitely a different journey for every writer. 

The most crucial lesson I learned from this part of the process is that YOU MUST FOLLOW ALL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES or else you are short-changing the potential future of your hard work.

Let's dig in deeper...

How to Maintain a Bullet Journal

I can honestly say that I now own the most stickers I've ever owned in my entire life. Seven year old me is jealous AF and super proud of the woman she grew up to be. I was going to write a post on how to start a bullet journal, but from my experience maintaining a bullet journal is the real fun part!

Starting is Simple...overcoming the initial anxiety of creating your own content on a blank page is the hard part. But, as the cover of my dotted bullet journal says..."Nevertheless she persisted."  

 Barnes & Noble

My first few pages weren't that good. Even though I'm an arts & crafts type girl I struggled getting the hang of it at first. It could be my OCD when it comes to notebook things. If I mess up I want to desperately pull out the page and start again. With a dotted journal without a perforated edge you can't do that every time. Thank God for Washi tape and correction tape. The first batch of markers I bought bled right through the page which frustrated me as well. Then days got a little intense and I ran out of room with the way I set it up. 

But Pinterest...saved the day.

My Pinterest Bullet Journal Board - Here

Stolen Moments Sunday

Hello Fall! Now I don't have to hide my pumpkin everything I've been having since mid-August. Also, new season calls for a new Welcome mat for my condo. I'm such a lazy homeowner. Full disclosure, my neighbor got a new mat and I got jealous. I think mine was the same since I moved in 7 years ago. I went to A.C. Moore for this lovely treat. It's perfect and exactly what I wanted.

Bring on the Fall activities and sweaters! I will always be a jeans and a nice top girl, and Fall is my perfect time for just that. I can't wait to make some apple and pumpkin picking plans and hit up an Okbterfest or two. We stopped by one at our local Brewery Defiant Brewing Co. to pick up Steins for next weekend. That place has become our home away home and it's within walking distance of our condo. Yes, my husband and I need to move...but we're too busy loving our life here.

Sometimes blurry photos are the best. lol. 

Friday Favorites

{Canva}

It feels good to be back. There was definitely something missing in the last 3 months in my life. I did start the "hopeful" other books that will follow my first novel, but sometimes you need to let ideas marinate before you add them to the page. Writing daily helps me think of the other projects  and blogging is that perfect appetizer to my novel writing. Blogging also helps the creative flow for me.  Oh and it gets me to stop playing with my Nintendo Switch. haha.

Luckily I only have one game - Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wind, for now. I was beating the game too fast so I forced myself to slow down and pick up my computer again.

But anywho back on track. I live for the weekends and this Saturday is the first day of Fall!! Yes!! I will admit I've already been enjoying pumpkin everything since August, but now I don't have to be quiet about it. 

This weekend I have a good friend's birthday party, hopefully catching a movie, and getting some much needed rest after the long week. 

My Writing Journey #1 - Five Helpful Writing Youtube Channels

Happy Rainy Tuesday everyone! Down here in Southern New York were getting the last of the lingering effects from Hurricane Florence. I don't mind the rain. It always makes me want to listen to The Lumineers, The Shins, & other soft rock artists. Also, it gives me the perfect excuse to stay in and write. 

Over the past year and half I completed my first novel. It's still crazy to me to say the words out loud. I wrote a book. It's a dream I've always had since I was a kid and damn it was hard. I'm not exactly sure if I would be considered a "Pantser", but I did take an initial scene and spiral out from there letting the story take me where it wanted to go. About 50k words in...I had to start outlining and writing plot points down and backstories to the characters, when I realized I had a lot more to go. I guess I'm a hybrid of Pantser and Outliner...a P.O. without the box...lol.

I would never have been able to finish my hybrid work without watching fellow writers on Youtube, giving out extremely helpful tips, trying to keep their meowing cats out of the camera frame, battling the dreaded show vs tell argument, and most importantly relating to the struggles of becoming a writer. We all took high school English, but seriously listening to these amazing ladies has helped so much.