My daughter has been getting headaches at least 3 times a week in December. I had her wear her old glasses to see if that was the cause. Of course it was.

So off to the eye doctor. He said she had a slight astigmatism. She asked what that was and I explained about the spikes from the street lights in the dark and other signs. She looked at me and asked ‘you mean that’s not normal?’

We had a talk about what each of us saw around the street lights when I brought her home last night. Today was her first day with her new glasses – I’m not sure why they took so long to come in. She said no headaches.

Between job applications, I’ve been writing little non-fiction books (like 65 pages) about things that I have researched as I’ve written for various sites over the years. I’ve accumulated a bunch of PLM books about these subjects as well. I’m combining my knowledge with anything in these books that’s still relevant and uploading them to Amazon.

At some point, I need to do a 2nd draft on my fiction book and outline/write more of them. I guess once I exhaust my knowledge for the non-fiction books, I can start publishing those. We will see because the fiction ones take longer, though I might be getting better at that the more I write.

I really have other things to do, but I’m fighting anxiety since my severance runs out at the end of this month. It’s easier to focus on writing when I am like that.

I saw this on Facebook the other day and sent it to one of my kids – probably my son since he’s in middle school. I do find it entertaining when I remember that the author of the above book used to teach middle school. I’m not sure if he still does after over 20 best selling kids books.

And this my daughter sent to me. 😀 Maybe my son isn’t the only one who has my sense of humor. We always say she takes after her father until she agrees with me on something, then he calls her my mini me.

Anyway, it’s just about time for bed. The kids may or may not have school tomorrow. We will find out by 6:30 am

I started another book. It will be a different series until I hear back from my advance readers.

Now I need to focus on getting an income. I’m not sure what I will find, but I know there’s something out there.

We’ve been watching Night Court lately. Some of these episodes wouldn’t pass today. Some of it is nostalgic.

Just a short post tonight. Happy Valentine’s Day all.

Laterness and g’nite

I finished the book last night. I’ve sent it to someone for their opinion and I’ve started outlining the next one(s). Doing this keeps my mind busy, and I’m not letting it interfere in the job hunt.

So far I’m still applying for work from home jobs. There’s nothing available here that I qualify for in town unless I go fast food, hotel, or general labor in a plant.

Anyway, back at it. 🙂

It appears that trying to write more often isn’t working as well as I planned. LOL On the other hand, I’ve got my book within 5,000 words of completion. I am hoping to have it done tonight. I’ve got a couple of people I’m going to send it to for opinions while I start on the next one. If people like it, I’m going to go ahead and upload it to sell on Amazon. I don’t expect to make a lot of money, but even a couple of sales would be a hoot.

I also have at least 2 more books outlined, though one is a short story that I may (or probably will) give away on my author website. I have to figure out how to do that part as well. It should be interesting.

I’m still looking for a job. The book writing is to distract me from getting discouraged. It’s been almost 3 months, and all I keep getting are ‘We decided to go in another direction.’

I’ve gotten to the point where I’m looking at freelancing.

Anyway, back to see if I can finish the last 5,000 words tonight.

Laterness & g’night.

Since I have so much time in my hands, I’ve been working on some of the books that have been in my head for years. They’ll probably be only about 25,000 words or about 90 to 100 pages long.

I’m about 8,000 words into the first one. So far, I’ve gotten everything mapped out in what I want to have happen, I just need to get it on the screen. I’ve been writing on Google docs, and I find I’m liking it better than all of those times I wrote on paper. I can go back and change things and move them around so much easier on the screen.

Unfortunately I was up late last night working on it, and time to get the kids up for school came way too early. After I’ve had my caffeine, I’ll look at jobs for a bit before starting back on the writing. I’ve been using a timer and getting a lot more done than I expected.

If I like the stories and how they turn out, I may self publish on Amazon. I already have ideas for 4 more. The 4th will be the easiest, since I’ll be repurposing a story I wrote for National Novella Writing Month.

Off for my caffeine for the day. It’s days like this that I wish I could stomach hot coffee – especially espresso. Since I had gallbladder problems in 2014, hot brewed coffee doesn’t sit well in my stomach. I don’t have any cold brew on hand.

I do like The Boomtown Rats, though 😉

I’m still working on redesigning my website. I offered to pay my daughter to update my logo, since she’s in graphic arts at the local Votech, but she hasn’t. I guess I’ll just have to do it myself. It’s all good.

I’ve published a couple of no-content books on Amazon – like a debt payoff tracker and a gratitude journal. I have some other ideas, but I’m not expecting much out of them, since I don’t know that they sell very well. On the other hand, since I’m doing all of the designing and putting them together myself, it’s not costing me anything except time. I can do it when I’m watching TV with the kids, especially since my son is repeating series in order. He just finished the Dragon Prince, now I think his plan is to watch Glitch Techs, though last night we watched a movie called Middle School: The Worst Years of my Life.

I wonder if he was trying to give me a hint? He has one more year of middle school. He’s not allowed to be that old already. I know he’s been complaining he’s bored in school. I’m not sure what I can do to help with that. He was in gifted in elementary school, but they don’t have such a thing in middle school, and for some reason he couldn’t get into the advanced math class this year.

I might need to talk to the teacher during the next student led conferences.

Anyway, I have a timer set to start job hunting.

Laterness

One of the writing sites I follow had an essay contest asking what my word for the year was. The essay also needed to explain why I chose that word, and all of this needed to be done in 500 words or less.

Like I’m able to keep things that short very easily 🤣 😂 🤣 😂 (my emoji version of ROFL) I did write the essay and stopped it at about 450 words, but I could have gone so much longer.

The word I chose was focus. I’ve been scattered since I lost my job. I’ve been learning programming, and looking at different sales funnels and looking at finishing my book (finally!) and thinking about buying a Cricut and a press to start selling t-shirts and cups on Etsy, and possibly at the ComiCon in town in August.

I need to buckle down and actually settle on something. I did when I started thinking about what word I wanted for this year. I’ve spent the day narrowing it down, and I have a very good idea where to start. I may end up busier than ever for a bit, but it has to be better than putting in 3 applications a day and hearing nothing back. I love the sound of crickets, but it’s frustrating when it’s crickets in response to my emails.

Once I start where I need to, I will either go on Guru or Textbroker and do some random writing to get money in while I’m getting the other process set up. I will eventually be writing emails for travel companies to send out to their customers or address lists to show why we need to get away from it all. It’s been a heck of a two years, and doesn’t look like it’s getting better any time soon. We all need a vacation.

Laterness

I was on a webinar late last week, talking about publishing on Amazon. It was interesting, but a lot of information.

I was also working on a crochet project a friend paid me to do. Then I had to go to a financial planner to get something set up for the 401k from my last job.

All of this means I didn’t get my normal things done those days – I didn’t put in job applications. I didn’t work on my Udemy course, or the work/refresher on copywriting. I have blocks of time set for everything.

I had to add time to write my stories that I used to write. I forgot how much I enjoy writing.  I’ve got the story I’m working on outlined. I’ve got the characters fleshed out. I’ve got the location determined and made notes on average temperatures. I am working on it at least 15 minutes a day. The nest step is to pad the outline more and start writing the story.

Anyway, back at it. Laterness and g’nite.