Monthly Archives: June 2013

Welcome to the New Round

Ding, ding, ding…round 2…or is it 3? Well, it is my second round with ROW80, though it is the third one for the year. And I’m ready! So let’s move right on to the goals themselves, shall we?

Writing and Editing

Write 5,000 words per week on the Daily Spiritual Practice e-book. This is a project that I’d started a couple of years ago and set aside. I already have a working outline. I’m enjoying my regular writing sessions and want to keep the flow going, so I’m picking this WIP up again.

Finish all edits, appendices, and revisions of the Cultivating Self-Love e-book and give it to BlackLion for formatting.

Create a wonderful cover for Cultivating Self-Love.

Post to my Starcat’s Corner blog at least 3 times per week, and on this blog at least 2 times per week.

Write and edit at least 3 guest blog posts and have them posted.

Promotion

Practice inviting people to purchase our Feline Dreamers wares and my books. Do it with joy and from a place of feeling positive and confident. As part of this process, learn more about effective, ethical promotion techniques.

Set up and offer a successful local book signing and reading for Starcat’s Corner: Essays on Pagan Living.

Learn to use Amazon’s indie author resources to promote and sell my Cultivating Self Love e-book.

Raise all the money we need for our Rethinking Everything adventure, and have a fun and successful journey there and back! (Curious? Check out this link to our fundraising page and this link to the conference website).

Wellness and Practice

Continue doing my two main daily practices: morning pages and affirmations in my journal (4 pages each day) and daily dancing (at least 20 minutes each day).

Practice drumming at least 3 times per week, plus the weekly troupe practice.

Add more yoga to my life.

Starcat enjoying summerSpend more time outdoors. Walk, hike, meditate, and swim. Relax and enjoy the lovely summer weather!

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Post-First Round Celebration

This week is the end of my first round here at ROW80, the achievement of one of my main goals, and the Summer Solstice! So, how’s it been going? Rather quickly and productively.

Monday was a very busy day, so I didn’t have time to work on the e-book. I had to get going right away – “jump and run,” as my parents call it (Dad not being a big fan of it in general). But Tuesday and today I had time for my morning writing, and as a result I finished the first draft of Cultivating Self-Love. Yay!!!

I’m feeling really good about it, and about my participation in ROW80. I’ll be back with some fresh goals for the next round. In the meantime, here’s my detailed evaluation of the goals I set back in late March.

Writing

Writing is my favorite creative focus. It’s what I do. It does help to have some sort of direction to it, though. Here are some writing goals for this round.

  • Write 5000 words per week on the Cultivating Self-Love e-book. While I didn’t achieve the goal word count until the last couple of weeks, I’ve not only established a regular writing routine, I’ve also finished my first draft. Goal achieved!
  • Draft and edit supporting materials for our upcoming workshop (May 25th). If all goes well, develop the workshop into a multi-week online course, and draft the materials for that. The first part was achieved. The turnout for the workshop was small, so we’re going to try again as a local workshop before developing an online course.
  • Post to my Starcat’s Corner blog at least 3 times per week, and on this blog at least 2 times per week. Being a Virgo, I looked it up, did the math, and found the average. Interestingly, I posted 20 times on each blog during the 12 weeks of the round. So, my weekly average is 1.6. Not bad, but there’s plenty of room for improvement!
  • Write and edit at least 3 guest blog posts and have them posted. Achieved! I’ve posted on Moon Books blog twice (my publisher), CafeTruth once, and Spiritual Now once. I also secured another slot on Kind Over Matter, for early August.

Promotion

I’m promoting my new book, which in itself is a big learning curve. We’re also promoting our business, Feline Dreamers, which is an ongoing thing. This section looks like it might be too full, but remember that I have a partner for these. BlackLion rocks!

  • Continue to attend (or, when necessary, listen to the recordings) online Shift Your Biz classes. Complete all homework assignments prior to the following class. Goal achieved. I got a lot of good ideas from this course.
  • Learn and practice 5 new ways to ask people to purchase our Feline Dreamers wares. The asks should be clear, concise, and joyful. Use them to make sales. I haven’t been as systematic about this goal as I’d intended, but I have been making progress gradually. We’ve learned some techniques from our biz coach. I just had a wonderful follow-up conference call from one of the leaders of Shift Your Biz, and ideas are still percolating from it. On the recommendation of a fellow writer, I’ve ordered a book on social media marketing for books. So it’s in the works.
  • Set up and offer a book signing and reading at a local bookstore. I still haven’t made this happen yet. I think there’s some resistance around it. I will ponder and act, soon.
  • Continue to increase my reach with book promotion, using tools like Good Reads, Amazon Author Central, and guest blogging. Consider doing some paid sponsorships on compatible websites. This one is still in process, too. I did a GoodReads giveaway and had plenty of folks add my book to their “to read” lists, but my sales were still low. I didn’t consider any paid sponsorships yet, as I didn’t have any money to put towards it.
  • Have at least 5 people pay and attend our May Feline Dreamers workshop. When we create our online course, have at least 6 people sign-up, pay, and take the online course. Well, no, not yet. We had 4 people there at the May workshop, but they were the store owners and their friends. They did give us gas money. We’ll be trying again.
  • Host a Feline Dreamers chat on our Facebook page in May. We did this as a fun way to spread the word about us and engage our fans. It was a big success! We’ve since done another one, in June, and have scheduled one for July, too. Easy and fun.
  • Finish and release our 2 new Feline Dreamers e-books by June 1st. Not yet. But I just finished the first draft of mine, and BlackLion is working on his first draft of his. Well underway.

Wellness and Practice

For me, wellness and practice go hand-in-hand. Here are some things I want to focus on as the weather gets better and better (a typical cat, I don’t like the cold and wet, so I’ve been hibernating a bit over the winter).

  • Continue doing my morning pages and affirmations in my journal. 4 pages each day. Achieved. I’m very faithful about my journal writing, and love the practice.
  • Continue dancing for at least 20 minutes every day. 90-day dance challenge continues through mid-May. Achieved. I completed the 90-day dance challenge successfully, and then kept going. Now I’m ramping up for my first dance performance this weekend!
  • Practice drumming at least 3 times per week, plus the weekly troupe practice. This one has been off and on, depending on when our performances have been. I just have so many creative projects that sometimes I don’t get to all of them.
  • Do yoga at least twice per week. Well, I think I’ve only done it twice in the whole round! But I’m not feeling upset about it. I’ll try again.
  • Go out for walks at least 3 times per week, for fitness and to attune more with the natural world. Another one that hasn’t happened – yet.
  • Spend more time in ritual and sacred space. Attend the Women for All Seasons meetings more regularly. Achieved! I’ve spent lovely time in intentional sacred space, and have become more involved with the women’s group. I’m loving it and will continue.

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Second-to-Last

This is my second-to-last post of my first round ever! I tried ROW80 as an experiment, and it’s gone rather well. I’ll be re-upping for round 2, and I’m looking forward to completing my e-book during that round. Woo hoo!

I’ll wait for Wednesday to go over the goals one by one. Suffice it to say that I had a productive week. I wrote 5,018 words on my 5,000 word goal, the second week in a row I’ve made the goal. I’m really getting the hang of the word count thing. I’m also on the final chapter! First draft is almost complete.

I had two wonderful coaching calls this week (as in, I’m the one being coached), and garnered lots of cool ideas regarding promotion. I’ll count that as a win, although I’ve only just begun putting them into place. More on those later.

My rhythm at the moment seems to be writing Monday through Friday (how conventional!), because the weekends have been very full lately. That’s all for now. Chat with you on Wednesday!

P.S. Here’s a new picture of me, taken by a dear friend when we were visiting the beach recently.

nikkibyjenn

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New Inspiration

Today I got some new inspiration on the promotional goals I’ve set for myself. This is mostly in terms of promoting my book, Starcat’s Corner: Essays on Pagan Living. BlackLion and I had a session with our coach, who gave us some tips and led us on a mini-workshop. Click here to see what I created as a result. All the energy from the session is still percolating, and I’ll share further results at a later time.

In the meantime, my word count goal is going along great for this week. I’ve written 3,060 words so far this week on Cultivating Self-Love, toward my 5,000 per week goal. I’m also nearing the end of the first draft. Exciting! My daily practices are going well, with dancing and journal-writing being the main focus.

I guess that’s all I have for today’s update. It’s hard to believe we’re so close to the end of my first-ever ROW80 round! I’m enjoying it so far, and will definitely be continuing. Thanks to everyone who’s commented, here and on Facebook, for your support and encouragement!

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Rockin’ the Word Count

I missed doing a Sunday update due to a very full day yesterday, but I wanted to still get in on it, as I have some exciting news. For the first time this round, I met (and exceeded) my word count goal for the Cultivating Self-Love e-book! I wrote 5596 words this past week (on a goal of 5000)! I was too busy to write over the weekend, other than some journaling, but this morning I’ve already written 1207 words. More importantly, I really like what I’m writing. It’s a first draft, so of course it still needs work, but I’m very satisfied with the direction it’s going. In addition to that, everyone I’ve mentioned it to has loved the topic and is eager to read it. I’ll take that as a good sign.

So, no real updates on my other goals just yet. I do have some musings to share: I was intrigued by a writer friend’s post on Facebook, and that’s been sparking my imagination. She was talking about how a new book was percolating in her consciousness, and how much it affected her daily life: more daydreaming, wishing to harvest moments from life to put into the new story, and the like. While I write mainly non-fiction, I could totally understand what she meant. I find myself thinking of my narrative often, and choosing personal anecdotes and synchronicities to include.  And when I’m in the creative flow, I often drift into my own imaginary world, enjoying the discoveries I make there.

I’m feeling an opening toward maybe writing a novel. I’ve been scared to even consider it for years, frightened away by a bad experience with a college creative writing teacher and some personal baggage. But perhaps I can combine my passion for spirituality with my expansive imagination, and create something really worth reading. It’s still very much in the pondering stages at this point, but the opening feels good, and the timing is right. And my writing chops are certainly up, as I continue to practice my craft nearly ever day. Hmmm…..

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Creativity in the Chaos

Things have been a bit chaotic around here lately. All the same, I’m writing. Each morning, I get up and find I’m looking forward to sitting down at the laptop, which sits on the dining room table, to write. It’s now part of my centering process. This week so far (since my Sunday update) I’ve written 3061 words. I’m enjoying the process of writing about self-love, and I’m on chapter 10 of 12 (13 really, if you count the conclusion).

That’s all for now. I’ll have a more in-depth update on Sunday. Blessings on your creative projects!

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Welcome, Summer!

The weather here in Maine took a sudden turn this week, from cool rain to super hot sunny days. And I love it! Most everyone I encounter has been complaining that it’s too hot, but not me. I love hot weather.

This week marks the highest weekly word count on the e-book so far: I wrote 4704 words!!! I’m really getting in the swing of working on it nearly every day. Woo hoo!

I sent an e-mail to Local Sprouts cafe about my book signing, but I haven’t heard back yet. Thursday I submitted my June guest blog to my publishers, Moon Books, for posting. It’s the start of a series, which I’m excited about.

I’m also excited that it’s now June, and I want to focus even more on my callings and creative passions. Spring is an odd time for me; the energies are a bit too dynamic, unstable. But now that we’re settling into summer, I’m feeling more relaxed and creative. I’m ready to finish my first draft and then get set for the next round, when I’ll be editing the e-book and (most likely) starting another writing project. Full steam ahead!

P.S. I’m just starting to get the hang of this ROW 80 thing. Next round I’ll focus on visiting others’ blogs more consistently, to provide support and feedback. I’ve been rather sporadic about it this time, but I want to be  a contributing member who’s an uplifting element of this awesome writing community.

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