Today I was working on more marketing strategies. How can I get my book into more stores? Well I came up with an idea to creat a letter of introduction that I can take to local stores as away to introduce my book and introduce Homer. It is a little glimpse of what Homer is all about. This is just going to be another tool in my arsenal. I know if I want it bad enough and I work hard enough I can make my book a success.

Today I sat down and worked on some outlines for Homer and where I next want to take him. I might not write anything again for a couple of months or I might write something tomorrow. I like to use an outline to first define what I want Homer to do within the context of that chapter. All of the chapters together gives me a time frame to work with. In Dulcimer X'ing the time frame was one year. In my next book I have not yet decided how long the perid of time will be. I let the story evolve and...

Christmas is coming! Thanksgiving is over and next will be Christmas. We spent part of today putting up christmas decorations. The cold front has moved in which has put a chill in the air. The colder air made it feel more like christmas is coming. This helped to get you in the mood for decorating. It was fun to put up our 'treasures' that we have had boxed up since last year. These are things that we have collected for a number of years. Putting them up allowed us an opportunity to reminisce ...

Today is an okay day. After being up from getting the book completed and launching the presale to having some interest in me doing a speaking engagement, I am a little bit more on the meloncholy side. Today I am struggling with more fear and trepidation. Will the book be successful, will people like it, will they recommend it to their friends? So many questions without a lot of answers. I have to learn to slow down a little and not try to do this at full throttle each and every day. I have to...

Everyone I speak to concerning my book has met with enthusiasm. It does not matter if it is a friend or a stranger. I receive encouragement. I am so excited about being able to hold a copy of my book in my hands. The book is supposed to arrive this week for me to review. I will keep you posted on how it looks

Today is a non-author working day. I am doing some other things to take my mind off of my book. The book is resting as I would like to think. I will get back in the grove in a couple of days to push to the finish line. In some ways it is like making a cake. After putting everything together you sometimes have to let the ingredients rest in order for the finished product to be just right. That is what I am trying to do! Wish me luck as I try to not focus on the book 24/7.

Our reputation is very important to us. We work very hard to develop our reputation. It is a reflection of who we are. Most of strive to develop a reputation that we can be proud of. Today I was around many of my friends while attending church. After church I went up to tell some of them about being a struggling author and passing out my bookmark with my book title and my author's website address. Afterwards I was thinking wow I am talking about myself and what I was doing. In fact I was putt...

In a previous live I did take a college writing class. The class was about writing mysteries. We had to read several mystery books and critque them. For our final project we had to write a short mystery story. We had to define our characters, develop a plot and connect the reader to the story. I did okay but it was not a 'masterpiece.' When I started writing about Homer I rmembered what I was taught about writing about what I know. So in developing the story about Homer I used my own experien...