Blurb

The shoes didn't fit. It was an omen.













Friday, September 7, 2012

Dove Chocolate and A Storyboard

“Forget the rules and play by your heart.” That’s what the inside of my Dove chocolate read yesterday. I took that as a sign to keep going forward. I also got an e-mail from an author friend of mine yesterday encouraging me, letting me know she had my back.

Right now, I feel overwhelmed with the whole process of self-publishing. And, too, my MS is in the hands of the proofreader who reported back not long ago that there was a minor problem with my file. It came up in Chinese. Holy schmoly! But I was also informed that the problem has been taken care off recently. Schwoo!

By the time this is over and Secondhand Shoes has been unleashed for public purchase and viewing, I’m sure I will have eaten a ga-zillion bags of Dove Dark chocolate along with cartons of Publix natural peanut butter. I eat a spoonful and one piece a day either after dinner or right at three P.M. Yesterday, though, I ate two. I don’t handle being overwhelmed well.

But I have been busy.

IMG_0498

I’ve got a storyboard going on. The ideas are scattered here and there. And I’ve written the second book two times already, but I’m not happy with either one. However, I like a lot of the ideas. Especially the title, Combat Boots. Tonja over at Tonja's Musings inspired me. She left me a comment a few blogs back about what shoes she wore to school in the eighties.

Anyway, in the middle of getting spurts of ideas, I got a another one for a thriller and that one is coming along nicely. I guess you could say, I’ve fallen head over heels with that one for the moment and am working on its fourth draft. It works well.

I’m also working on a short time travel piece for a book of anthologies. If interested, you can go to Three Cents Worth, Martin T. Ingham has put out a call out for short stories.

Also, Gwen Gardner and Pal are putting together a blogtour.

Blogtour badge for PIP

CLICK HERE if you want to be a part of it.

I need to go now. I’ve a got a long day of hair lopping ahead of me. 1:30  to 9 P.M.

Hugs and Chocolate,

Shelly

41 comments:

  1. Chinese? Yikes! It WILL all work out in the end. I admire that you're doing this!!

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  2. It's very easy to get overwhelmed. Remember...BREATHE.

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    1. I've been practicing breathing exercises to slow down my heart rate. It was racing last night.

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  3. Sounds like you deserve all that chocolate, and who can fault peanut butter, the perfect food??? When I'm feeling blue and nothing in the fridge looks good I make a PBJ sandwich and hope we have sour cream and onion chips to put in the middle. Smash. Eat. Feel better. Follow with chocolate. Take nap.

    Congrats on having a MS being read! That's more than many of us have. I have a book that's 17% done if you go by 50,000 words like in the WriMos...but I'm happy. It's just slow going what with the raising of teenagers and all that stuff.
    Hang in there, buy some Dove stock, and keep on keeping on.
    Best,
    Tina @ Life is Good

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    Replies
    1. I still have no idea what happened. Literally every time there was a quotation mark in the text, there was Chinese lettering. Same with other punctuation marks. I had to go back to the first version you'd sent me and start fresh.

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    2. Maybe I should send you several bags of Dove chocolate and a ginormous tub of peanut butter, Sir Wills.

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    3. Tina: If I ate sandwhiches like that, my butt would grow. But I used to eat them just like the way you described when I was a kid.

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    4. He'd love that!

      (You had me at CHOCOLATE, Shelly!)

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    5. Sir Wills must be mega cool if he likes cats and chocolate.

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  4. I'm not sure what's more interesting around here--the chocolate, the peanut butter--your manuscript in China and all the wonderful links. Wow. You have great ideas and an exciting life. I guess the story board helps keep you organized.

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    1. Evie: There are days I wish I could just storyboard my life. Its gets chaotic with all the stuff, besides the writing. The writing I can control.

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  5. Chocolate and peanut butter are always more than welcome!

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  6. Enjoy that chocolate! Yum!

    Sounds like you are keeping busy.

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    Replies
    1. Busy like a queen bee. I'm somewhat of a hyper person.

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  7. I LOVE the title! Yay!

    The characters in your file may be an ecoding error. Maybe has to do with the file type you are saving it in. Or what they are using to read it. Just a guess.

    My little guy would be sticking stickers on my post-it notes or would surely "decorate" it for me with sharpie. Sigh.

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    Replies
    1. That's what kids do. Although, Sweetman moves my things around and he's completely grown.

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  8. I've had mine come out all in some sort of computer text! I'm sure glad I made a copy!

    And YAY DOVE CHOCOLATE! Have you ever tried the dove ice cream bars, or their small bites? I lived on them all summer long! (not really, but you get my drift!)

    Good job on the story-boarding, Shelly. I guess I need to get something like this going on my mystery. I find I need to rewrite it before I've gotten very far.

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    Replies
    1. Yes. Dove Bars are to die for. But I allow myself a once-a-year one.

      As for storyboarding, I write a few chapters myself first then storyboard ideas. Nothing in sequential order though. But I do like to write my chapters in order.

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    2. Collin just brought me a ginormous Godiva bar.

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  9. Hang in there Shelly! I can't offer any advice for self-publishing, but I can give you a virtual hug.

    P.S. Go easy on the chocolate. It is for emergency use only.

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    Replies
    1. I'm hanging. And I'll it keep down to one piece of chocolate a day.

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  10. You've made a lot of work for yourself. Good luck with it. I once went to all the trouble of a story board, until my daughter's cat: Kitler, did something very messy all over it. I didn't do it again.

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    Replies
    1. Well, Sweetman just keeps moving it to different places. He's real anal about how everything looks.

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  11. Things have a way of working themselves out. I know your book will be great...can't wait to read the rest of it...(You only sent me 1/2 of it...waaaaah....!)

    Looking forward to the rest of it!

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    Replies
    1. Oops. I think I did that so you wouldn't get overwhelmed or something. Did you want me to send the whole thing to you?

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  12. I love Dove chocolate - magical enough to get me through about anything. I'm so intimidated by self publishing and really admire anyone who takes that on!! Good for you!!!

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  13. Chinese?! On the bright side, at least you'd have several billion readers ;)

    Post-it notes! I love post-it notes. So handy.

    Anyway, deep breaths and more chocolate. It's allowed at such times.

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    Replies
    1. I'm a Post-It Note addict. I love the colors.

      Thank you for coming by.

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  14. Nice posting and the mention of Dove Chocolates in P-Nut Butter- yummy! I hope this time flies by to ease your spirit!

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  15. Dove is good but I like Godiva better and the darker the better :)

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  16. I love that Dove advice. I have to remember to follow that daily!
    I know the self-pub world can be overwhelming!

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  17. Guess what I did as soon as I started reading this post? I read "Dove Chocolate" and thought, "Oh yeah!" So I yummed on my own square of dark chocolate goodness while I read your post. :)

    I didn't know you were self-publishing! That's fantastic! Good for you! It IS a lot of work, but it is also so, so satisfying. If I can help with anything along the way, please don't hesitate to ask!

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    1. Ali,

      Thank you for the offer.

      I should probably change my side bar. I've had several comments from agents and publishers on what needed fixing so I fixed it. And of course, there were those I never heard from or this wouldn't market well. So okay, I decided to do it myself and will query and synopsis my new novel and see if it gets picked up.

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  18. Combat Boots is a great title! All of your hard work will pay off, and it's impressive that you're so organized! Julie

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    Replies
    1. Sweetman doesn't seem to think so. I'm creatively organized. Although, I did have a college professor who told me once that I was organized chaos.

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