My biggest smile would be getting out of the hospital after a week stay. Ugh!
Next, although book one still needs to be edited for the beta reader critiques (yes I am procrastinating but there is a time limit since it has to be to editor by May 1st) I have the middles of both book 2 and 3 done as I am writing them from my prompt sites.
Tessa –
Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses
Still doing beta reader corrections and rewrites for book 1, have at least half done, but have until May 1 to get it to the editor. I am rewriting certain parts thanks to the beta readers comments.
During the week it was quite warm, low 70’s and so my neighbor washed my car by hand and rubbed it clean with a towel. What we thought were scratches were simply very clingy dirt and it washed off and looks really good for a car that is 15 years old. I have to sell it when I move to assisted living as I can’t pay for the insurance since Medicaid takes my whole disability check to pay for the facility. I get maybe $50 a month for incidentals. So no car. A roommate and no car. Big adjustments so far. Don’t know what else will change for me.
Tessa –
Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses
Still doing beta reader corrections and rewrites for book 1
I now have the plans and covers for 7 novels in my eventual series.
I am now officially on the list for a place in an assisted living facility. Medicaid so won’t be fancy, but I will get the help I need and my kids can stop constantly worrying since I am now living alone.
Tessa –
Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses
I have made the decision to go ahead and have my books professionally edited so that way they will be ready if my life changes and I can publish them. Right now I have a lot of beta corrections to do and need to stop procrastinating and do it. I am getting the memoir that is already on my blog done as well. It’s small so not as costly. Now I have a good reason to write again. I have a deadline LOL!
Tessa –
Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses
The smile is that although I am still doing a lot of research I am starting to work on the beta reader corrections for novel one and thinking about how to connect novel 2 to include the linkup to novel 1 and add it while doing the rewrites for the beta reader suggestions.
And my second smile is that the 2nd injection in the vaccine series is done and not so bad. Just have some arm pain like last time. Yeah! I am all vaccinated now.
Tessa –
Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses
The smile is that the prompt story I wrote about last week is now 36 parts. Moving right along and will eventually be part 2 in the murder series I am writing. The first one was easier. Easing into part 2 might be a bit harder.
And my second smile is that the injections in my knees are helping somewhat. The pain is less intense. Yeah!
Tessa –
Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses
My colonoscopy didn’t kill me and it was all good news so far. Still have the pathology report to call for, but she is not expecting anything bad to show up.
The second smile is that the prompt story I wrote about last week is now 21 parts and I may not go the young adult romance route. I have been thinking of making it a thriller/mystery to go with book one that is currently in beta reader stage. I would have to add something to book one to link it up to make it a series and then decide who would die and would do the killing which I find to be the hard part in this one. I knew in my first one who was going to die, but this story started as a young adult romance and I am getting fond of the characters so don’t know if I want to change it to be a murder mystery to add to my series. The original book 2 is on hold. No ideas coming. I will definitely have to write an outline for this one. These prompts are basically space holders and I will have to add a lot to make the story move at a smoother pace.
And thirdly I had my first Covid Vaccine on Monday. The only problem is that my arm has been sore for about 36 hours so far. Not severe, stiff is I raise it or pain if I touch the spot. Still have to get the second one though and I understand that is worse than the first one. The good news is that they came here to the senior citizen housing I live in so I didn’t have to go out to get it.
Tessa –
Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses
My smile would have to be the amount of writing I am getting done. Book 2 of the first series is on hold at the moment while I work on the beta reader’s constructive criticism. Nothing major so far and I am on the second reader and so far the two have not found the same things so I am not sure if that is good or bad. In some ways it is good because they are finding more things. Phrases rather than complete sentences and lots of proofreading type errors. I tend to forget the 2nd quotes on dialog all the time. Run on sentences, etc.
But what really is making me smile is that I have a possibility of another book on my hands. Different genre. More young adult romance type of thing. I started a prompt and it is a daily one. It has 3 words (not related) and you can create a post. Well the first one came to me after I had already finished and published the blog post so went back and redid it and then the next day the words fit and so on and now I have a 15 part serial story all from prompts and it has the makings of a YA book. I am not real familiar with that genre so will have to do some research, but it is just flowing so I think it is a good possibility I have going right now for another book/series. The series part I am not sure about, but definitely think one book can come from this.
Tessa –
Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses
My smile is a little off kilter this time. I am starting to get my beta readers notes back. One of my readers, although I don’t know which blog they are from, has also volunteered and I hoped they received their invitation and beta copy. I had trouble sending them at first, but I think everyone has theirs by now according to Google.
The reason I say the smile is off kilter is that getting criticism, constructive or not, of your baby is hard. I am thankful for everyone who volunteered to read and review for me and I definitely wanted honest opinions and I don’t know why I am even mentioning this, because the very first one I got back has been raving about it. Yes there are some issues (the part it is hard to smile about), but she is emphatic on that it is a very good book and I need to publish it and she wants to do a review for me.
Now I have explained the issue with actually publishing it, whether traditional or Indie, due to the financials. I can’t make money or I might lose my government benefits since I don’t know what all the different limits are. If I lost even part of them I would be in dire financial straights and my medications needed to live, for example, insulin, are very expensive.
So I am between a rock and a hard place. I would to see my book published eventually, but now is not the time for sure. Maybe never. However, when I get my pension at the end of the year it might take me over some of my limits and then I will be scrambling to try and publish and hope it is as good as she seems to think it is. She is a published author herself which doesn’t mean a whole lot since Indie writers can publish anything they want LOL!
So I am smiling and hopefully not grimacing as I start making changes to my baby which I am now considering making a series if I can come up with the ideas. I love those small town series where you know all the characters, their houses and businesses, and they slowly start to die off since I am doing thrillers/mystery/suspense, etc.
Tessa –
Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses
