Cat Writers of America - Atlanta Conference

Soon I will hop in a car and head south for the annual Cat Writers Association. I'm presenting a workshop there Friday on "Publicity, Promotion, & Pulling Your Hair Out." I've been feeling a tad guilty I haven't done more to spice up the workshop like PowerPoint or a laser show or interpretive dance. But then yesterday I received a call from a fellow presenter who has spent the last 2 months pulling together her PowerPoint presentation only to be told there will be no computer access. (People--always, ALWAYS confirm you have the A/V you need in place.) So now I'm not feeling so bad...

On an entirely separate note, a local radio station has gone to all holiday songs, all the time. Normally this annoys me but I spent the morning driving around GSO singing along to "Jingle Bell Rock," and "Have A Holly, Jolly Christmas." Who AM I?? If you see me handing out flowers at an airport, please intervene.

Happy Tuesday.

Talking Toastmasters - Today at 1 PM EST

Yakkitty-Yak-Yak. That's the sound of me, doing way too much talking this week. Monday afternoon I did a 5-minute phone interview for a podcast on paranormal pets. (We've had a ghost cat living with us for about 5 years now.) Monday night was a two-hour "local authors night" at our area library, where 7 authors each spoke about our work then hawked our books. =)

Yesterday was the kick-off of my radio show, "How'd You End Up Here?" and today I have a 20 minute phone interview on Talking Toastmasters. Today's interview revolves around an article on goal-setting I wrote for The Toastmaster magazine in their September issue. I'm a little nervous as I'm not a goal-setting expert and I'm not sure what sort of questions to expect. Impromptu speaking at its best, as this is a live interview. I've jotted down a few notes to pull from and will just hope for the best. 

The one good thing I have going for me is I don't lose my personality on radio. I was discussing with a friend the other day how normally outgoing, articulate people will just clam up and become dull the minute they get near a microphone. TV has that effect on me. I tend to stiffen up quite a bit on air, but I'm generally still "me" on radio interviews. 

Given all the blah-blah-blahing this week, I haven't gotten much writing done. That needs to reverse itself, pronto. The goal for today is to finish drafting the article for Purina's Rally to Rescue magazine so I can let it sit for a few days before I go back to do final edits. My word count for the article is 1800 and I believe yesterday I was already at 2300 words with paragraphs still left to write. Can anyone say "hacksaw edits?"

The sun is shining, it's a glorious 58 degrees, and Dave and I saw two deer on our trail run this morning. There simply is no better way to jump start the day then an hour spent jogging in nature followed by steaming mug of coffee for the car ride home. Happy Hump Day.

A Chapter A Week

I am a woman on a mission. I mentioned that I have a 30,000-word book by the end of the year. Me being me, I of course drew up a timeline, to-do list, and flight plan to ensure everything occurs on time.

So far, so good. The plan calls for me to write a chapter a week which sounds intimidating, but each chapter need only be 3,000 words each. Which breaks down into 600 words daily. It's still an aggressive schedule, but breaking it down into baby steps makes it doable.

I'm three chapters in. On this schedule, I'll "finish" writing the book in November, which gives me a month to go back through and polish and tighten and add humor wherever possible. I'm almost spooked by how well the writing is going at this point. Like, since it's so natural it must be really, really BAD writing and I just haven't realized it yet.

The master plan calls for me to spend my morning hours on the book - say 7 AM to Noon. As I'm writing this blog at 9:43 AM you can see how well I'm sticking to that plan. I still have the hardest time saving e-mail, blogging, and social networking sites until the afternoon. E-mail especially. I still hold out hopes that someday soon I'll sit down to work in the morning without first checking to see what's arrived during the night. Willpower. That's all it takes.

Afternoons are for "work" work - magazine assignments, corporate work, etc. What I'd like to do is also start setting some afternoon or evening time aside to work on my growing-cobwebs-in-the-corner novel. It's a challenge--too much computer time and I run screaming from the room. But I'm wondering if I might do a little pen and paper writing for the novel, just to mix things up.

I'm falling behind on PR tasks. I need to add a calendar or "appearance" page to my website. Sounds ego-based, but it's all in the name of platform. I have a number of speaking engagements lined up and it's good to be able to show potential publishers of my book that look, people come to hear her talk! And she has bookings! Maybe we should publish her book! It's all in the pitch...

Speaking of websites, I need to update mine... and start work on the magazine class I'm teaching in October... and prepare for my radio interview next week... 

Hope you're having a productive week.

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

A friend asked me to make a 15-minute presentation to his Rotary group. As I was leaving the house this morning, Blair asked what, exactly, I'd be speaking on.

"Me. My life as a freelancer and what that's like."

"Oh," he said, and paused and cocked his head. "And why do they want to hear that?"

Yes. On to victory.

The talk went well. As always, I spoke faster than the speed of light. But it was an attentive audience with a good sense of humor which makes my work as a presenter that much easier. 

Looking at my calendar, I have a number of speaking engagements on line. I'm participating in a local writers night at the Madison Library on September 22nd and in preview of that, am appearing as a guest of the library director on his radio show on the 17th. My radio show, How'd You End Up Here? debuts on the 23rd of this month. I have my first guest lined up and I'm excited.

I'm speaking at the Eden Country Club to a women's group on October 16th, after I teach my magazine writing class, "Get Published! The ins & Outs of Writing for Magazines" on October 11th. I've got my marathon on Nov. 15th and the following weekend drive to Atlanta where I'm a presenter at the Cat Writer's Association annual conference.

It doesn't seem like much when I  book them - Oh, a 15 minute talk. Sure, I'll do it...- then whey they arrive I'm frantically trying to pull something together. 

I enjoy it though. A captive audience that has to listen to me talk about me?

I don't care what Blair says. That's a dream come true. =)