Two Years of Books, Marketing, One Year of Blogs (Counting the Cost).

Two Years of Books

It has been two years since I began this process and it has been a long, yet swift journey. I am always fascinated that a single moment can feel like eternity, and an eternity can feel like a single moment.

It has been a fun, but difficult journey, and I love that I'm still having new ideas all the time for other stories. This can be difficult because I have to write the book I'm on first before I can write the next one, and with all the ideas I find myself having to put up a wall to ignore them, or write them down and put them somewhere safe. If I didn't I would go a bit mental trying to juggle everything in my head. I am grateful for all the inspiration and creativity, but sometimes I wish I knew what it felt like to have a well of ideas that I can draw from when I chose, and not and ocean that requires a wall to block it. However there is a wall, and it is strong, so I am excited for the life I have, and the opportunity to keep creating with out any fear of running out of ideas.

The show goes on...

I have finally finished the first draft of the second book in The Chronicles of Elementary series. 'Nurture Fails, Nature Remains' is looking to be as good as I hoped, but it needs a lot of editing. This however is going to have to wait.

I am 20,000 words in to a stand alone book and want it done a.s.a.p. I will continue this project tomorrow and if I work hard, and all goes according to plan, I hope to have it fully finished and online by May (and then Nurture fails, Nature Remains complete and online by July). The art work is all done, and the cover and title are ready to be turned into a graphic, so all I have to do is write. I'm hoping to average 2000 words a day. This will require discipline and sacrifice for the short term, but it will be beneficial in the long term. I'm excited for this story and I cannot wait to have it finished. Let the hard work begin :).

Marketing

This is going well and I have had a few more 'likes' on the Facebook page. This is exiting because I am assuming these people have read my book, and I am so grateful they have taken a leap of faith and given my book a chance. (If any of those who have joined the Facebook page read this, I just want to say a huge thank you, and if you have any feedback, or comments, I would love to read them on the Facebook page).
I also put my book on Amazon kindle to try and get some more exposure, and time will tell if that is productive or not.
As always there is more marketing in the pipeline, and I will update when these go ahead.

One Year of Blogs

I have been bloging for almost a year now and it is fun to look back and see all the changes that have taken place. Looking back makes me realise how hard this process actually is, but also how rewarding too. I have learned so much because of it, and having the blog reminds me of those things.
Recently I have been thinking about the difficulties and I know that at the start of this process I didn't count the cost of what I would have to do to try and make my dreams come true. I was ignorant to a lot of things, but I have been blessed with a determination that has pushed me on, and the ability to adapt and turn negatives into positives has really helped.

I think about my dreams and aspirations, and how so many people have similar desires and have things they want to achieve, but often we don't count the cost of what it will take. I don't think people realise how much sacrifice is required (I know I didn't), and therefore when the difficult times come we struggle to keep going, and most seem to not start, or eventually give up.

Understanding the cost, having a willingness to pay it, and then adapting  to either face the storm head on, or sit back and ride it, is the only beneficial way to achieve what we want. I'm glad I learned that on this process and even though at times I wanted to give up, I know one day it will all have been worth while.

I love this blog because it is fun and it allows me to write all the events surrounding my books. It also allows me to process and write about what I have learned on this journey and this is awesome because the blog is a story too. That's why I have copied and pasted it all into a word document and will convert it to a pdf, and put it on the website www.thechroniclesofelementary.com. This means if people want to have a record of all that has happened in the last year they can have it to browse at, without having to go through the archives on here.

Conclusion

I love this adventure!! and these two year of story writing have been amazing. I know it's only going to get better from here so I will keep updating and I'm so glad you are a part of this journey.