Blogger Dashboard FAIL

Sometimes I think the programmers who redesign the websites we use (because we like the way it's set up) are just trying to justify their jobs.

Those of us who use Blogger for multiple blogs now see a different dashboard. Instead of seeing all the stats/blogs at once, we now have to go into each one individually, then go into stats or whatever. So now there's no quick way to see if there's activity on one of your sites. Instead you have to pick each one individually from the drop down, then go down the list and click another link to see the stats. For every single blog you work...
There is no option to see the old, more user friendly view.

Before I could go to the dashboard, see all my blogs and the activity and then I'd open that site and check it out. Now it's more time consuming. There is no easy way to view them all at once. Blah.

Why, Blogger, why????

People have been telling me to switch to Wordpress for years.... now i might go take  look and see what they got. Anyone use Wordpress? How do you like it? Do you have multiple blogs? What's the dashboard like?

Hello NaNo ~ Day 6

Well, it's day six of NaNoWriMo and I'm only at 8,851. Not too bad but not up to NaNo par. If we divided the 50,000 words by 30 days it's something like; 1,666?
So if we divide 6 by my count of 8,851 we get 1,475...

I've been slacking for reasons beyond my control. Okay, okay, maybe I could have controlled it but I didn't want to.

I like my story (3rd of the trilogy) and the premise came to me in a flash. (notes right beside my laptop, but getting from where I am in the story to where I want to be at the end, isn't exactly crystal clear. And I keep looking backward at part one of the trilogy sitting in editing hell on my desk. I was going so good on that one before the NaNo hit me, I didn't want to stop.

My daughter, some friends, and I do NaNo every year so I kind of felt like a wimp turning it down.

So, in the spirit of NaNoWriMo I'll be showing up here around early every morning for the rest of November. Should be easy because I have two 12 year old dogs who love to run around the house barking at 3 a.m.. I don't think they can tell time.

Right now I think I'll go take a little nap.

Reviews - Yay! Then the Fear...

I took a peek at my book round up on Amazon and noticed a new review.
(Yes, I know exactly how many reviews there are on my books-I'm that crazy-also, there isn't a lot of them :( so it's easy to notice.)

Then I click on that little number to see the reviews...and have a biting moment of fear. What if it's bad?

This book, Soul Mates (A different kind of love story) is either they get it or they don't kind of book. Also, it's the kind of book you have to finish or you might not understand where it was going. I had one person write a bad review who didn't even finish the book. Come on! You don't know what happen or how the main character came out in the end if you didn't finish it. It's a short book for crying out loud!

Oops! Rant over.

So, it was with slow, measured movements I clicked to read the review:

October 4, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

I loved reading this cute little story!

Whew! Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! Someone liked my book. My soul is smiling. So, is it just me or does everyone sweat reviews? 

Dear NaNoWriMo ~ I Lost My Outline

I'm working on a trilogy. First book done and in rewrites, second book mostly written, third book was just an outline. 

I took a class at the local college and the professor was late. While sitting there the plot for book three started to germinate  in my mind. So I flipped to the back of the notebook I was using and started to outline the story. As I wrote a kind of excitement started to grow inside me. I knew where this was going and I knew the best way to end the trilogy. Any writer knows that feeling of when it all comes together and you know, you just know, you're nailing it. 

Euphoria. 

The professor never showed up that day, the other students started drifting out, but I stayed and I wrote one heck of an outline. 

So, now I'm challenged to do NaNoWriMo; National Novel Writing Month. 50,000 words in the month of November. I didn't really want to take part in it because I have this massive rewrite on the first book in trilogy and I really want to get this finished. So after going around and around with my challenger...I conceded, if I could use NaNoWriMo to write that last book. It's not started, just a scribbled outline in the back of a notebook.  We came to a deal and it's on! 

And I can't find the outline....

I'm digging through boxes and drawers trying to find out where I put it. I know it's here...somewhere. I've got three days to find it. 

New Job Sucking My Writing Time

A new job, started last June, has stolen all my writing time. It's been consuming my mind and making it difficult to focus on anything else. Half learning as I go and half over thinking what has to be done next. It's more complicated than the last two jobs I've muddled through with this company, so it's always on my mind. One day I go in and think; Easy, I got this! The next I think: WTF am I doing?

Either way, my WIP sits in a heap on my desk. I look at it and have to turn away. My mind is just too full of everything I have to or want to do in the real life job. Now, I'm in September and that's four months of rocking between easy-peasey and WTF.  Okay, maybe there are more easy days now, but they bring -if it's so easy, I must be forgetting something!

I really need to start writing. I'm always calmer when working on a story. It turns on something inside me and soothes the soul.

This weekend I'm locking myself in and not coming out until my brain clears!

Wish me luck...

Self Inflicted Deadlines

I've been a slacker.

As I wrote those words I realized I've felt them before....UGH! Too many times.

For a long time I had that early morning writing time carved out where I wrote for about an hour before work. Now, looking back, I don't know why I stopped.

So last night I mentioned my latest WIP to my husband. It's finished and in rewrites. I said I should just take a weekend and lock myself in my office and just get it done. He laughed and nodded. The kind of nod that said, "Yeah, of course, we all know that."

My office has no television. It's a good place to zone out and write. If I go in there. Since I have a lap top I can write in the family room...you know... in front of the TV, (said no great writer ever.) I don't actually watch TV, I just like the background noise. Oh, and the news. I'm kind of a news junkie.

I was over at Konrath's blog and read about doing pre-sales on a book you're about the launch. Or as I call it; Panic Your Life! I'm not sure I could take the pressure of that. What if life got in the way? What if a family member needed me for something? What if the dog needed me to take her for a walk? What if I just panic and can't write?

I think work takes up a lot of my brain time. When I get home I don't want to think, I want to veg and let my head clear. I know that's only a Monday to Friday excuse so I have nothing for the weekends.

I think its time to start locking myself in my office on weekends and only come out for tea and food. (And laundry...)

How's your writing time going?

Massive Rewrites? Blame the Beta Reader

I finished the manuscript, asked my daughter to give it a look over, she had some suggestions. I put the book aside and let her comments vegetate in my brain. Sometimes leaving these things in the back of my mind will sprout forth the solution to the plot problems.

The plot itself wasn't that big a deal, but there was something missing? I knew what I wanted to say, but from the reader comments I could see my emphasis was in the wrong place. (I hope that makes sense!)

So this book sat on a shelf for a few months while I occupied my brain with other ramblings of the mind. Then something fell into place and I knew. One morning I flipped on my computer and saw the little icon on my desk top labeled "Body Count" (It's the file where I keep all my WIPS) and knew where the story had to go and exactly what I needed to do to change it.

So, I'm rewriting and rewriting and ...oy! Rewriting. Chapters in, paragraphs out, one major change, and a big change in the ending.

Don't you love your beta reader? That one who points out all your flaws? And to think we ask (beg?) for this treatment. The beta reader comments are like suddenly putting on those prescription glasses you didn't know you needed. The world clears, the horizon is in sight and the sails go up.

I really like this story. Its post apocalypse, a new genre for me, but it had been fighting to come out for a while.  The characters speak to me and someday, I hope they'll speak to the readers.

So? How's your latest rewrite going?