Starcat's Writing Desk

I’d heard that Mercury Retrograde, the time of technological mishaps and miscommunication, was on the way. But I think I’m getting some of the vibes in advance. My laptop started acting funky yesterday. As my son’s friend said,”it doesn’t really owe you anything,” because it’s an old machine. Still, it’s what I use daily for my writing, blogging, and other online activities. So right now I’m typing this on BlackLion’s computer.

I did work on my WIP today, though. I wrote in a notebook, old style, and then typed it in on BlackLion’s PC so I could do the word count thing. I’m now at 23,606 words. It’s going pretty well. The homework for my biz coaching course is going well, too.

That’s all I really have to report. I hope the rest of the week goes smoothly for you, and Mercury behaves itself.

Life has continued to be a whirlwind of activity, but some of the things that have been keeping me busy have settled down now. Our friends are back at home and doing well, my brother’s dog is back home too, and my book signing went pretty well. I only sold a couple of books, but I gave away quite a few promotional bookmarks, got some folks signed up for my newsletter, and I now have copies of both books in the shop where the signing took place. It’s a wonderful shop, and the owner and I are going to collaborate on a book launch when my next book comes out, hopefully in mid-November. So, yay!

I’m now at 22,325 words on my WIP, and I should have more time to work on it this week. I’m looking forward to that. I want to have the first draft done by the end of the month. I haven’t worked on my newsletter or blogging plans yet, but that’s on the list, too.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I actually got some quiet time to recharge (a must for this introvert), including a lovely walk on the beach in the misty light rain. It felt really good to take the day off (thus the late update here). Tonight I’m celebrating with the extended family, which will be fun.

Here’s my plan for the week:

• Work on the DSP e-book at least 4 days.
• Get back on track with my blogging schedule and do some planning for upcoming posts.
• Devote an hour each day to work on homework for the marketing/biz coaching course I’m taking.
• Write and send out my monthly Starcat’s Notebook newsletter.

It think it’s do-able, this time. Have a good week, fellow writers!

Things have been really chaotic around here since Sunday. We’ve had a visit to the ER (all is well now), a visiting dog, and a trip for more supplies for my son for college. So, I haven’t gotten in as much writing as I would have liked. Still, I’ve been doing the best I can with the time I’ve had available.

I’m now at 21,269 words on my WIP. I did a bunch of homework today for the coaching program I’m taking, which was excellent and thought-provoking. We’re working on things like vision & mission and an ideal client profile. It really does make a difference, having someone to guide me through the process. I tried to learn a lot of this stuff on my own, but this is certainly giving me more focus and motivation.

Promotion for my Saturday book signing is going well. I think it’ll be a fun afternoon.

I haven’t yet gotten to any blogging (besides this one) or blog planning, or my newsletter, but I think the work I’m doing in the coaching program is going to help with that. It’ll give me more direction in speaking directly to my peeps. We’ll see how it unfolds.

So, progress is still being made, and I’m hopeful that next week things will be back to “normal,” whatever that is. 🙂

Enjoy the rest of your week and I’ll see you on Sunday!

I’ve been having one of those busy weekends – a performance on Friday night, then I had to work on Saturday, attended a birthday party after work, and today went to a performance of the Lippizzaner Stallions (which is something I highly recommend – such beautiful horses!). Even so, I’ve been making good progress on my goals.

As of now I’m at 20,580 words on my WIP, the book about daily spiritual practice. The total word count will probably end up around 36K, so I’m more than halfway there. I’ve also been working on some ideas for the title, with the help of my friend who’s staying with us.

Yesterday I blogged over at Starcat’s Corner, which I hadn’t done for a while. I need to do a bit of planning for upcoming posts, as I’ve mostly been doing it sort of by the seat of my pants, which isn’t as efficient as it could be. I’ve been enjoying working on my business, sort of playing around with some of the concepts from the biz coaching course. It gets started for real this week, so I’m sure I’ll have more “homework” and such to do for it. I found out one of my in-real-life friends is taking the course too; it’ll be fun to have someone to chat with about it. I also worked on some promotion for my book signing next weekend.

So, things are cooking along well. I’m feeling good about that.

Here are my goals for the upcoming week. You might notice that they look very much like last week’s goals. Heh heh. It’s okay, that’s intentional.

• Work on the DSP e-book at least 4 days.
• Get back on track with my blogging schedule and do some planning for upcoming posts.
• Devote an hour each day to work on homework for the marketing/biz coaching course I’m taking.
• Write and send out my monthly Starcat’s Notebook newsletter.
• Work on planning and promoting my book talk & signing that happens on 9/12.

May your week be full of splendiferous joys and inspiring writing sessions.

I’m so happy that September has arrived! I always love this month; it’s one of my favorites. Partly because it’s my birthday month (the 13th) and also because I get that shiny, inspired, back-to-school feeling. I’m especially creative in the late summer and throughout autumn, and I enjoy it.

This year it’s augmented by the fact that I’m taking a business coaching course for women, which is focused on effective marketing. I’ll be marketing not only my books but also the other products and services that we offer through Feline Dreamers (guided meditations, online courses, and more). Last night was the first call of the course, and it was fantastic. It was all about managing your time, and making sure your heart-centered priorities come first. One of my realizations is that I want my writing to have equal priority to my family time, and since family is one of my most important priorities, it feels good to acknowledge that.

Already today I resumed working on my WIP, took time to work on my business (which is part of the homework for the course), and exercised (which I’ve been neglecting lately). It feels terrific! I apparently hadn’t written on the book since 8/11, which is way too long. It feels good to be back on track, and my goal is to finish the first draft this month. It should be totally do-able, as I’m about halfway there.

I also got in touch with the shop owner about my upcoming book talk and signing, so we’ll be collaborating on promoting it soon.

I’m feeling really good about my progress thus far, and the rest of the week’s plans. My son is doing well with his first week of college, and becoming acclimated to his new world. My daughter is enjoying time with her friends and stretching the summer out as long as possible, which is perfect for an unschooler. My friends I’ve been helping seem to be feeling better and they have proactive plans in place.

I feel blessed to have this renewed focus on the things that are most important to me. I’m thankful for September’s arrival.

As you can likely tell by the title, and the lateness of this Sunday (ahem, Monday) update, not much writing is being done in my life right now. Sigh. But, it’s okay.

We’ve been busy with the usual August crazy-busy-ness, like several family birthdays and those last outdoor gatherings of late summer (sniff, sniff). We don’t normally do back-to-school, being an unschooling family that learns year round, but this year… just-turned-19-year-old son is attending community college, so there has been a lot of prep and things-to-do around that. I’m really proud of him. And also, some good friends of ours are in crisis, so we’ve been busy helping them, which means hosting one of them in our home for a few weeks.

I did achieve half of my mini-goals for the week. I wrote and sent my September post for Kind Over Matter, and was pleased with how it came out. I also did, along with BlackLion, a bunch of promotion for our September online course.

The biz coaching program I’m taking starts this week, and I’m very excited about that! I hope to also ease back into daily work on my WIP.

Here are this week’s mini-goals:

• Work on the DSP e-book at least 4 days.
• Get back on track with my blogging schedule.
• Devote an hour each day to work on homework for the marketing/biz coaching course I’m taking.
• Work on planning and promoting my book talk & signing that happens on 9/12.

Have a delightful week and enjoy your creative inspirations!

I’m having a bit of a lull in my energy and motivation, at least in terms of writing my WIP. I’ve still been working on the marketing aspect of things, and that’s going pretty well as far as I can tell. Yesterday I’d planned to do a bunch of writing, but I felt supremely uninspired.

Instead of fretting about it, I let myself take time to just relax. August is always one of the busiest months of the year for my family, and I’ve been pretty much on the go, non-stop. Sure, a lot of it is fun stuff, but as an introvert, I still need that down time to relax and recharge.

So I caught up on some blog reading, and did my journal writing, and messed around on Facebook, and worked on my Danielle LaPorte workbook. It was relaxing and fun. My daughter and I treated my Mom and Aunt Peg to dinner for their birthdays. When we got home, we watched Haven.

Today I’m getting back on track. I didn’t work on my WIP, but I’ve been blogging, and working on my guest blog for Kind Over Matter. Plus doing some further promotion for our September online course.

Hopefully by Sunday I will have gotten back into the groove of working on the daily spiritual practice book. Wish me luck!

I confess. I haven’t done any new writing this week on my projects. Not even blogging (except for these ROW 80 updates, of course).

What I have been up to, besides rehearsing, performing, and working at the radio station, is marketing. Since one of my goals relates to learning more about ethical marketing, I feel good about this. I attended an in-person “lunch and learn” workshop with my new business coach, and got lots of good ideas and insights.

BlackLion and I started promoting our September online course, which is the second time we’ve offered The Alchemy of Core Beliefs. We revamped our landing page and updated it with new testimonials from our June course participants. We set up a Facebook ad – and then had to re-write it because it didn’t quite fit into their guidelines. Who knew Facebook was so particular? I think the ad is actually better after the edits, though, so that’s good.

I guess that’s all I have to report. This week is supposed to be a little bit mellower than last, so I hope to get back on track with more writing. Here are my weekly goals:

• Work on the DSP e-book at least 4 days.
• Get back on track with my blogging schedule.
• Continue to work on Feline Dreamers promotion and marketing for our September online course.
• Work on my September guest post for Kind Over Matter.

Have a terrific week and I’ll see you on Wednesday!

The only thing on my weekly goals list that I’ve done so far is to sign up for the September business coaching session.

Which is actually not a small thing, at least not in terms of energy and attitude.

It’s the first time I’ve really invested in my business this way, in taking it to a new level. It’s not like I have piles of extra money lying around (yet), but I feel like this is the perfect step for me, where I am right now. I’ve spent much of 2015 doing a lot of inner work that has helped me shift and change. I’ve become more centered, more happy, as creative as ever, and more trusting that I can succeed as a writer, a teacher, a change-maker.

Now I’ve found a coach I really resonate with, who happens to live in the same area, and is super inspiring.

As far as my other goals go, it’s not like I’ve been lazy or unmotivated, I’ve just been end-of-summer-in-Maine full-on busy. On Monday I was recovering from the festival weekend, spending time with family, and helping my son get ready for college. Yesterday we took a ferry boat to a beautiful island to spend time on the beach, picnicking, making faerie houses, swimming, chatting, and eating ice cream. Today we had a fun field trip to a water park with some of the members of our homeschool co-op. The next couple days include rehearsals and performance for the fundraiser we’re doing Friday night.

I do still plan to make some progress on my weekly goals. At the same time, I’m cutting myself some slack because I can feel the wonderful transformation I’m undergoing. The process, along with the summer adventures, takes energy. So I’m honoring that.

I’m also looking forward to the next steps. My goals next round will certainly be evolving along with my business, though of course my writing is always at the heart of it all. I feel excited, a bit nervous, and incredibly blessed.

Hey there! I was away all weekend, drumming at a fun music festival. I performed with Dark Follies, helping drum for parades and fire spinners, and we raised a bunch of money to help our colleague who was hit by a car a couple of weeks ago (click here if you’d like to help out or spread the word). My daughter had an awesome weekend doing lots of fire spinning and hanging out with festival friends. We enjoyed great weather, fun music, and awesome people. I got to dance a lot and laugh a lot, and that’s always good.

But that meant I didn’t really do much toward my writing goals.

Nevertheless, I feel like I’m making progress. I did sell a couple of books at the festival, and talk to a bunch of people about what I do. While I was away, the virtual retreat I was taking part in wrapped up, so I’m getting caught up on all of that. It’s very exciting, and I’m on the verge of investing in some business coaching for the first time. A big step, and I’m a bit nervous, but feeling ready!

My first Starcat’s Notebook newsletter was well-received, with over half of my two-dozen subscribers opening it, so that feels good.

I guess that’s all I have to report for now.  I have a busy week, and so I’ve scaled back a bit on my mini-goals for the week. Here they are:

• Work on the DSP e-book at least 3 days.
• Keep up with my blogging schedule.
• Work on Feline Dreamers promotion and marketing for our September online course.
• Sign up for the September coaching course (gulp!).

I hope your week is amazing!