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A Tease
Photo by Michele Venne I've been jotting notes about a 3-month plan. This includes shuffling file folders, story starters within those folders, writing sticky notes about groups of stories that could be serials or novellas or another novel series, eyeing 3 nonfiction...
Holding Pattern
Photo by Michele Venne This is kind of what my mind is like, and my calendar, and my soon-to-be-added-to to-do list. My paid gig is closing down, just another 7 days. Lots will be happening around August, none of which I'm in control of, but I can make decisions once...
Mindset
Photo by Michele Venne If we pay attention, I think we're given opportunities to look inside ourselves. Creativity is an example. I've been struggling with this current story. Studying myself, I wonder if it's because I'm composing on the computer instead of a spiral,...
Standing on the Road Between Here and There
Photo by Michele Venne The narrator has started on Of Art and Air. I don't think I'll hear from her or Findaway until she's done. Then I think I need to edit it. After that, they package it and distribute. I'll be asking for a copy so I can put it on my website as...
Moving Forward
Photo by Michele Venne I met with my writing friend today. I feel like I need to record our meetings so I can replay them and catch the tidbits! We talked instead of worked, but sometimes that's what's needed. We shared ideas about our projects, where we are, where we...
Creative Space
Photo by Michele Venne This is the final day of 5 promos I had for Of Gifts and the Goddess. Though the book is on sale for all of April, and it's available in another promo that runs the entire month, I'm a little anxious to see what the sales numbers look like. As...
So Many Stories
Photo by Michele Venne In this month's newsletter, I mentioned that I'm working on a Patreon account. Instead of writing short stories and publishing them in My Voice, Volume 2, I decided to make some of them available to subscribers on Patreon. I haven't finished...
April Fool’s Day
Photo by Michele Venne It's the first of April! That means the first quarter of 2022 is officially done. We've had 3 months to observe how much of 2021 would influence the new year, to try out new intentions, to continue to make a new "normal," to make new habits or...
Wrapping Up
Photo by Michele Venne It seems like many of the tasks I do, don't get done with one go. I often have to come back to verify that the upload happened, that the error was fixed, that customer service received and responded to my request. This week has been a similar...
The End of spring Break
Photo by Michele Venne Tucson Festival of Books is back! Fewer attendees, but people came and bought books. I discovered that these readers prefer print to ebooks, even if they weigh a lot; they came to see authors they'd found in 2019; fantasy, science fiction, and...
New and Old
Photo by Michele Venne Tucson Festival of Books is happening this weekend! I've been preparing for months. Updating my books. Getting the short story ready to give away. Deciding how to sell ebooks at a live event. And realizing that none of the authors whose company...
Birthday Week
Photo by Michele Venne A few cool events happened this week in my life. First, my new computer arrived! My 10-year-old laptop could no longer update the operating system, so my apps didn't work optimally or at all. Do you know how tough it is to type on a keyboard...
Smelling The Flowers
Six days. That is how long I had the house to myself, and how many days in a row I did zero writing. Oh, I thought about my projects. I looked up the word count on MV2 to judge how close I might be to a novel-length manuscript. I also thought about where I left off in...
Going Around in Circles
I remember being on the ASU campus several years ago for a writing conference. During lunch, I went outside and saw this dog (his owner was there, just not in the picture) swimming laps in the fountain. It wasn't a particularly hot day, but the dog was a Lab, and they...
Holiday Story for a Holiday Weekend
Photo by Michele Venne Since life circumstances have settled some, I was able to finish the edits and formatting on The Hidden Gift. I'm waiting to hear from my web designer that everything is in place so I can notify my subscribers. One of the perks of signing up for...
Show Some Love
Photo by Michele Venne Happy first Friday in February! I hope this month for all of us is like the road above, shaded, smooth, beneath blue skies, and edged by green grass. In a time where good news is sometimes hard to come by, one friend got engaged (and shared the...
spinning plates
Photo by Michele Venne A writer friend jokes that I likely have four or six projects going at one time. Back in 2017, I did write FIVE different manuscripts! It took me another three years to edit and publish them. Now, in 2022, after creating a production schedule...
Dueling projects
Photo by Michele Venne Last week I finished The Hidden Gift and sent it to my beta reader. I also emailed information to my cover designer. I commented to a friend of mine, "This short story became a novella, and I'm okay with that. Now I think it has morphed into a...
Getting back to it
Photo by Michele Venne I had the pleasure of meeting with two other writers today. We all look forward to sharing a creative space, even if "work" didn't get done. As one friend said, "There's just something a little different about the energy of artistic people."...
so much gratitude
Photo by Michele Venne´ It feels more like the holiday season if the air has changed where you are. Here in Phoenix, we're enjoying wonderfully cool weather. In the desert, that means sweatshirts in the early morning and probably sneakers instead of sandals. I noticed...
Got balance?
Photo by Michele Venne It's official today, at least in Phoenix, Arizona. The Autumnal Equinox happened on September 22 (in the northern hemisphere), but a few longitudinal degrees north of the equator and we're looking at sunrise at 6:14 AM and sunset at 6:14 PM. Not...
so much new stuff
Photo by Michele Venne Here we are, the end of August, and dogs days or not, I've got a lot to share with you! Glad you're here 🙂 First up, this newsletter! You may not notice a difference and that's fine. After a while with one email provider, it was time to...
Midsummer update
Photo by Michele Venne Some of this, a sprinkle of that, a dash for excitement, and freeze overnight...sounds like just the thing to cool a body down. July has passed at the same rate as an ice lasts on the sidewalk in Phoenix at noon. I've been crossing items off my...
Popsicles in the shade
Photo by MIchele Venne It's summertime, and with the heat cranked up in the Southwest desert, we're all trying to live easy! It's the end of June and halfway through 2021. I've been spending more time than usual inside, and when I look back at my production schedule...
Spring flowers
Photo by Michele Venne Not that we've received much rain in the desert this winter or spring, but some of the desert plants are blooming! The ironwoods have been dotting the brown landscape with pale lavender blooms. The creosote shifted quickly from yellow petals to...
Choose your own adventure
Photo by Michele Venne I hinted at this back in the fall, so time to follow up on my idea! The Internet and online retailers have changed how people shop. Personally, I don't order much online. Sometimes I get stuff from the feed store, and sometimes I order through a...
Spring in flux
It's hot, it's cold, there's rain, there's snow, the power is out, the power is back on, a green holiday celebration, maybe vacation, jeans and a sweatshirt then a T-shirt and flip-flops, on and on it goes. I look out the office window and watch as storm clouds race...
Share Some Love
In celebration of the month of love, I'm sharing some. I know the concept of self-love and self-care have been around for a while. After reading about it and applying a few ideas to see what worked for me, I thought I had a good understanding of self-care. I created...
A New Calendar
Many of us purchase a new calendar around the end of the year. It could be with hope that the next year will be filled with lots of positive experiences or an attempt to organize ourselves. This past December I purchased two calendars: 1) a 5 x 7 daily and monthly...
