Three Good Things About This Week

1. Zachary's elbow has completely healed. Phenomenal how fast young bones heal!
2. No less than three interviews for the week. One today for a creative freelancing firm, a phone interview tomorrow for a technical writing gig followed by a substitute teaching interview. Good things are bound to happen. I'm optimistic that things will get better.
3. The lovely and amazing Hope Haugstad agreed to read and review Hannah Strong for me.

I've been feeling under the weather since the weekend. A trip to the doctor on Monday and some pretty good prescription meds have helped me feel a little closer to halfway decent. I am a bit behind on everything though. I re-published Hannah Strong on Smashwords and it finally made premium status today. It's available for free download for Thursday and Friday at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/340069.  Starting Saturday November 9, the price will go up to 99 cents at least until I turn 40 on May 29th 2014. Yikes, I can't believe I'm looking at four decades now. No wrinkles yet. Thank God for good genes and moisturizers. 

Three Good Things About This Week

In keeping with my intention to focus on the positive, I'm sharing my three nuggets of awesomeness for the week:

1. I made a small donation to the Pledge Music campaign for the Austin-based indie band Language Room. In return, I received the above note of appreciation.
2. There was an additional Smashwords download for Hannah Strong.
3. Zachary was sick, which seems like a negative. However, his quick recovery and the fact that it wasn't that awful Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP) disease, is a blessing. 

If you're having a bad day, week, or month, try to remember that things will get better. Write down your three positives and let them guide you through each day.

It Could Always Be Worse

Poor monkey. Rain-soaked and missing a leg, he has officially given up. Most people have probably felt like this and I feel like this almost every day. To say that the year 2013 has been challenging would be a big understatement. Between job search woes and hospital bills, it takes every bit of strength I have to not curl up in a ball with a glass of wine and sob uncontrollably. But that wouldn't get me anywhere. I take comfort in knowing that everyone struggles. Writers struggle all the time. The struggle gives color to their work. After all, how interesting would our characters be if we couldn't convey a sense of despair?

I've decided to focus on the positive things that occur instead of the negative things that drag me down into that place I don't want to be. Three good things about this week are:

1. My Smashwords downloads of Hannah Strong are gradually increasing. Granted, I'm not making any money off of
    them. I'm okay with that since my main focus is finding an audience.

2. The lovely Annie Daylon picked me for her September "Pick of the Twitter."

3. A fellow Backspace writer complimented my "gorgeous" author website and made me smile.

I'm going to have weekly blog posts titled "Three Good Things About This Week" from now on. It's therapeutic.

Making friends with failure

Okay, technically it isn't failure until you give up. The point is that if one is to succeed with writing or anything, they must keep trying. Setbacks are common as we all figure out how to rise to the top of the self-publishing sea. As Dory from Finding Nemo would say, "Just keep swimming."

Since making the decision to publish a short story, I've received constructive feedback that will help me take it to a higher level. Maybe I'll flesh it out into a novella or maybe a full-length novel. Downloads have nothing to do with my decision. I just want to make it into a better piece of writing than it is. Rather than unpublish, I am making it available as a free download here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/340069

I welcome ideas from anyone who would like to help me craft a better version of this story and thank everyone in advance for their help.