Another New Year

I haven't posted in ages! But old habits die hard so I thought I'd check in with my New Years post.

1. What did you do in 2018 that you’d never done before?  Hmm...I took on more of a managerial role at work, acting as direct supervisor for someone.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't make resolutions really 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? A few Facebook friends

4. Did anyone close to you die? Thankfully, no.

5. What countries did you visit? Another year stateside for me

6. What would you like to have in 2019 that you didn’t have in 2018? I would like to gain some financial stability 

7. What dates from 2018 will be etched upon your memory, and why? AJ's first day of school

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? I've made some great strides at work and feel very accomplished in that arena

9. What was your biggest failure?  Weight/healthwise.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  Nothing major this year yay!

11. What was the best thing you bought? Our newish car, its fancy!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Work stuffs (no wonder I don't blog more, I'm so boring!)

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Ugh, Donald Trump. (Some more)

14. Where did most of your money go? Bills 

15. What did you get really excited about? Adam and I are thinking of taking a little trip for our 15th anniversary this year

16. What song will always remind you of 2018? The entire soundtrack of the Greatest Showman (still obsessed)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer  I think I've stayed steady in all areas this year, for better or worse 

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? excercising and writing

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Stressing out

20. How did you spend Christmas? We had a quiet but lovely day at home. Comfy clothes, games, and watching the kids enjoy the day

21. Did you fall in love in 2018? More and more every day with my husband and kids

22. What was your favorite TV show? I binge watched The Good Place and loved it

 23. What was the best book you read? Turtles all the way down by John Green

24. What was your greatest musical discovery? The Greatest Showman lol

25. What did you want and get? New car

26. What did you want and not get? I didnt manage to get family photos done

27. What was your favorite film of 2018? The Greatest Showman (broken record)

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 36. I worked and had chocolate cake lol

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Less stress and anxiety in general

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2018 ? I still love leggings. I got a cute dress and chunky sandals last summer I really loved. Oh, and this year I finally ended up with a haircut I love

31. What kept you sane? Adam and the boys, family and friends, books, music and YouTube 

32. What political issue stirred you the most? Donald Trump is still president

33. Who did you miss? My sister, my grandparents and my great aunt and my little Gabriel.

 34. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2018. Some years are going to be nothing spectacular, and that's ok.

 35. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. 

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I'm meant to be, this is me

Wrapping up a better year!

Wow I haven't blogged since September! This has been SUCH a busy year!  I think overall it kicked 2016's butt, but let's see what the survey says (sorry Family Feud is on TV).

1. What did you do in 2017 that you’d never done before?  I officially became a published author!  #bucketlist #check

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn't make resolutions really. I feel like I accomplished a lot of things, especially with selling our old house, buying our new house, and getting my promotion at work.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My friend Pam had her baby boy, Corbin.

4. Did anyone close to you die? A few distant cousins.

5. What countries did you visit? I only went to Birmingham this year.

6. What would you like to have in 2018 that you didn’t have in 2017? I got some really major things I wanted this year! I would like to continue trying to become more financially stable (read: I'd like more money) and I'd like to get back to trying to be healthier

7. What dates from 2016 will be etched upon your memory, and why? February 14th when we got our book contract offer, July 13th when the book came out, and the day we closed on the houses

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? The house, the book, and my promotion

9. What was your biggest failure?  Weight/healthwise.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  Nothing major this year

11. What was the best thing you bought? Our house!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? The three biggies again: book, job, house

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Ugh, Donald Trump. (Some more)

14. Where did most of your money go? Bills and the house

15. What did you get really excited about? I'm actually looking for things to calm down a little. There has been a lot of excitement lately.

16. What song will always remind you of 2017? Nothing is really springing to mind. Anything from Carpool Karaoke, since I've been obsessed with that.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? Happier, fatter, and about the same.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? excercising

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Stressing out

20. How did you spend Christmas? The family was pretty sickly this year, so we stayed home all day in our PJs and had a very nice quiet day. We had a big breakfast and a salad/baked potato bar for lunch which was delish.

21. Did you fall in love in 2017? More and more every day with my husband and kids

22. What was your favorite TV program? Big Bang Theory, Dancing with the Stars, and The Little Couple

 23. What was the best book you read? I recently read An Abundance of Katherines by John Green and it was really great.

24. What was your greatest musical discovery? Carpool Karaoke

25. What did you want and get? Publish my book, promotion, new house!

26. What did you want and not get? I really got so much I wanted this year!

27. What was your favorite film of 2017? Pitch Perfect 3 which we saw last night was very funny, if corny

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 35. I don't remember doing anything in particular. I think I had to work.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? hmm. Maybe a vacation?

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2017 ? I'm still loving leggings and boots. Right now, whatever fits, is comfy and looks semi cute

31. What kept you sane? My hubby, my kids, my mom, my sisters, my family, my friends, and my coworkers! Talking and writing and laughing and music!

32. What political issue stirred you the most? Donald Trump is still president

33. Who did you miss? My sister, my grandparents and my great aunt and my little Gabriel.

 34. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017.  Hard work and perseverance do pay off!

 35. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. Coming up empty here lol!

Updates and THE BOOK!!!

Life has been SOOOO busy! The book is coming out TOMORROW!  I can't believe it, it's so surreal!  The book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Black Rose Writing NOW! We'll be going live on Facebook tomorrow at 8:00 pm EST to do a reading, talk about the book, answer questions, and do a giveaway of an autographed copy of the book!

Take cover! The book is here!

Our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/positivevoice02/

Our book blog: https://www.wordpress.com/positivevoicewrites

The book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Edge-My-World-Kelly-Backus/dp/1612969046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499814715&sr=8-1&keywords=on+the+edge+of+my+world

 So exciting! 

Live has been very busy! Time is short, so I'll stick to some photos for now!

AJ wasn't a big fan of the noise of fireworks, so he wore my headphones

On the one year anniversary of my miscarriage, I went to the cemetery and left a little rock with his name on it. <3

The boys have discovered sprinklers and water balloons. They're in love!

Book Cover Reveal!

Our book cover is here!

Our publisher was very patient with us--we went through several drafts! We are very happy with it! One month until release!!!

Release Date and Pre-Order!!!!

It's really happening! 

The official release date for our book, On the Edge of My World is July 13, 2017! Even better, the book is available for Pre-Order from our publisher, Black Rose Writing NOW!

Just visit the link below to order. Use promocode PREORDER2017 to get 10% off. Copies will be shipped on or before the release date.

http://www.blackrosewriting.com/childrens-booksya/ontheedgeofmyworld

I'm an author! *mind blown*

Big Changes

Wow it's been like two months since I've posted. In my defense, my life has been CRAZY! In the last two months:

• We moved! It actually happened! We sold our house and bought a new one and everyone made it to the new place in one piece!  Moving is terrible! I can't find my stuff! I have a ton of unpacking and projects to do! My new neighborhood is great, though. The house is great too, although we've already had a few hiccups. On to the next bullet!
• We had a ton of rain and then water leaked into my mom's room in the basement. BOO! Our friend/contractor came over last weekend and he and Adam graded the ground on that side of the house--apparently it was somewhat sloped down toward the house, which isn't good. We've had a good 5 dry days but more rain in expected tomorrow so fingers crossed that it's fixed the problem!
• We had to have some electrical work that was supposed to be done after inspection repaired, which was super annoying. Then we had our friend/contractor fix it some more. We'd asked that all the ungrounded 3 prong plugs in the basement be grounded, but the replaced them with 2 prong grounded plugs, which these days are pretty useless! Since we needed to plug in computers and the like, our friend changed them out.
• Did I mention our neighbors are so nice? The realtor that sold the house lives across the street with her husband (who I recently found out is the dad of a guy I went to high school with). Two doors down from them is a guy around my age that works at Tyler's school. He brought over coupons for Macy's the first weekend. We also met the neighbors on both sides of us. There is an elderly lady to one side and a middle aged couple on the other. We are particularly fond of Mary (who is deaf and I'm fascinated by sign language)  and her husband Kevin. Kevin found out that our mower had died (literally the week before we moved) and I looked out my back window one evening and Kevin was mowing our grass. SO NICE!
• Where did I leave off with the book? I think I mentioned we were seeking out professional editing. Our publisher recommended a couple of people and we ended up working with a guy named Rob. His price was fair and he was very willing to edit without making huge plot changing suggestions. He cleaned up our technical writing a lot (God bless him, I hate that part) and made some great suggestions that we were able to incorporate with only minor edits and additions, but that I really feel make a big difference. And he's just all around a really nice guy and he really seemed to like the book and admire our writing. He was particularly impressed by our synergy writing together.
• Once we incorporated Rob's edits, we sent the book back to our publisher. About a week ago, we got the edits and their smart-edit report back. This publisher offers this report on all books they publish--basically, it's a list of possible grammatical errors, commonly misused words, works that are possibly overused, and other such things that their computer program can recognize. They are very clear that you can chose to make no changes based on the report. I thought it was pretty helpful and made a good deal of very minor tweaks, most of them on the repetitive word issue. The manuscript went back to the publisher late Sunday night and now we are OFFICIALLY in the production queue! A publishing date should be coming very soon, along with their proposal for our cover art!  So exciting!
• I got a promotion at work! I've done the same job for 11 years (at least in title, although the job has changed a lot over the years) and I've been searching for a new opportunity with my company for a long time. It's been difficult. We are a large corporation, but my office is relatively small and opportunities are very limited. About a year ago, my boss helped me make a big push to take on leading the group of people that do the same job as I did. The girl that coordinated the group ended up going on maternity leave (she was the one who was due around the same time I would have been with Gabe), so I performed a lot of her duties while she was out. When she returned, she didn't really go back to doing that portion of her job. They posted the job as a hybrid-type role--someone who would have regular shipping and invoicing duties (that's what I do (did)) and also act as coordinator and lead the team--train new associates, update work instructions, liaison with other departments, develop new process, etc. I am very happy that I got the opportunity and I had a lot of support. It's a lot of work, but I'm glad to be more challenged again.
• Unfortunately on the work front, I'm really juggling things at work now, covering for a coworker that is out on medical leave and preparing to cover for an invoicer that is leaving as of next week. Remember when I did the Canadian invoicing and then went to Ontario to train their new hire. Well, she's leaving. So now I'll be doing that again.
• Aside from that, there has been birthdays, field trips, and not nearly enough sleep!

Oh, one last thing! Kelly and I created a separate website for author/book stuff. If you'd like to follow us there, just visit positivevoicewrites.wordpress.com . All of our social media is linked there as well.

What a year I'm having!  The book, the job, and the house have been things I've wanted for a long time and they are all going to become a reality in the course of a few months! It's awesome and overwhelming!

10th Blogoversary!!!

10 years!  I have been writing (on and off, but I had posts every year) here for 10 years! Granted, I have very few readers, but still, I have to give myself points for longevity. Maybe I just like to hear myself talk?  LOL anyway, I'm still here and man, a lot has been documented here in the last 10 years--high points and low points.  I've documented the birth of my kids, my losses, my infertility journey, the joys of motherhood and marriage, the trials over everyday life, fitness journeys, new homes (more to this coming VERY soon!), and now my journey as an author.  There are posts that are merely funny and some filled with deep thoughts and self-exploration.  I know not many people read my ramblings, but I go back and read them sometimes and I'm glad I have them written here.


So if you're reading, thanks.  And past me, thanks for taking the time to document these memories.

Work in Process

It's starting to feel more real! After signing our contract to publish our book with Black Rose Writing, we started researching professional editors. Black Rose does some editing, but very minor, and the recommend you consider this. We decided it was worth it to put the best product possible out there. I contacted several editors for quotes and we settled on an editor who was really excited about our story. He's working on the book now and should have his edits to us this coming week!  We're setting up a call with him to discuss his suggestions--although we made it clear we were looking for grammar, punctuation, spelling, continuity, etc, not plot or character changes.  He mentioned that he felt we didn't need a lot of editing compared to what he usually sees and also that he was impressed by our synergy--being able to blend our writing styles together seamlessly. I'm excited to see what he thinks!

We also had some photos taken of use last week for our bio. A friend of Kelly's (my friend and co-author) did the photos and I really love how they are turning out so far (she took a ton and is still editing). Kelly and I both hate getting our pictures taken, but I think we got the best shots possible. Some of the shots were from a park right across the street from where I grew up. The rest were done at a business nearby that is covered with professional graffiti.

So by the end of the week we should have the edited manuscript back, then I need to start going over the changes. We also decided to change the setting from a fictional town in Ohio to a fictional town here in Indiana. We've been hearing so much about the issues from our book here where we live that we decided it was important to "bring it home" so to speak. I'm guessing the editing process will take me a couple of weeks. I'm hoping to get the final draft to the publisher by mid April or the first of May at the latest. That time line might have gotten more important (and difficult) as of this week, because we have an offer pending on our house. I don't want to say much yet, but things might get crazy very very soon so wish me luck to juggle all of this!

Once our publisher gets the draft back, they'll put it through their editing process and then we'll start talking cover art, publicity, marketing, etc. Wow, this is for real!

Here are a few of the best shots from our photo shoot.

Besties and co-authors.

Kelly - The creative mind that came up with our novel.

What a cool background!

Us in black and white

This is probably my favorite single shot

Just me

Well, that was cool for a minute

I'm so bad at keeping up here lately!  Must do better!


A few weeks ago, we got an offer on the book. It was a good offer, and for a few hours we were really excited.  But then I did some more research and found some accusations about the company.  There was an author claiming he hadn't been paid royalties due to him, and he was backed up by a former owner.

I didn't want to believe it, and it was very 'he said, she said', so I decided to contact some of the other authors that have been signed by this publisher.  One said she had no complaints, but oddly she hasn't received any royalties in awhile.  She said it was possible she hadn't had any sales, but she wasn't sure.  Another said she didn't have any problems with the publisher, and she was aware of the other author, but the publisher claimed it was just a mistaken address and it had been corrected. She did say that after the ownership changed, her sales dropped dramatically. She had other works published by a different company, and she admitted she got a lot more support from them.

A friend of ours (also a published author) also helped us research and found that one 1 author currently signed with the company had any books on Amazon. She said that was very odd and not encouraging.

All in all, we decided it wasn't a good risk, so we declined the offer.  I hope it was the right decision.  I hope it's not the only offer we get.  I've started sending the book out to agents as well, hoping we might do better with representation.  Many publishers will not accept manuscripts unless you have an agent.

So we'll see, onward on this journey!

A few bullets!

• I turned 34! 
• We are working like crazy on the house and are slowly getting close to ready to list! Aside from cleaning/decluttering, we are completely done with 3 rooms and nearly done with 3 more.  Carpets will be installed in the upstairs hall and downstairs family room at the end of the month, so then the hall and family room will be done too.  The kitchen just needs lighting and just touches in AJ's room and the downstairs bath.  Mom's room needs painted and floor repairs and we have lots more to do outside.  But we're making real progress
• Tyler is getting ready to lose his first tooth!
• Mother's day was great--chocolate covered strawberries, a new coffee mug, a necklace, balloons, and lots of hugs, what more could a mom want?
• Tyler and I went to the Mother/Son Luau Dance at school on Friday.  He's so stinking cute.

 

Don't we make a cute couple?

Cutest date ever!

He (and Gaga) even got me a corsage!

It starts

I don't usually post cryptic Facebook posts. They can be irritating. It usually seems like the poster is looking for people to press them for details, like attention-seeking. I broke my rule of no cryptic statuses yesterday, though.

Here's what I posted:

I did something very cool today. No matter what the outcome, I'm proud of myself!

Yesterday my friend and I submitted our book to a publisher for the first time. More than two years of work, with the last two months spent getting feedback and preparing submissions documents. I just feel so accomplished, to have actually co-authored a finished product.

We sent a short synopsis, bios, marketing olan, and query letter. The response time is 3-6 weeks. So imagine shock to receive an email this morning from one of the editors! She said they would love to see the final manuscript and that the synopsis was very interesting.

Whoa.

This is happening. No matter what, and editor is going to read and consider our work. I can't really decide if I'm more excited or terrified by that prospect!