Life of Fish

Life of fish. Right. I know so much about fish. NOT. Actually, nothing at all. But I know my kids. Big hearted, every one of them. My youngest had a school project where they had a large aquarium as soon as you walked into the school, in the lobby. They got salmon eggs, watched them hatch, start swimming, all that stuff. The next stage was releasing them into the pond.

And that's when the trouble started. My daughter, nine years old, did not want them released. She cried for days, going to miss her pets, worried about where they would get their food - she was so good at feeding them, right? Whether they would get eaten themselves because they were so tiny. She refused to go on the field trip. Refused.

What could I do? Hmmm? What? So I did. The aquarium. The rocks. The castle and plants to decorate it. Right. And then two fish. Tiny aquarium, just for her room. Two betas, a pretty pink named Sparkles, and boy does she shine! Not shy at all, friendly and on the go constantly. And the blue female beta named Elsa. She was named before she was home, before ever seeing the aquarium. And what is Elsa like? She lives in the castle and refuses to come out. We set up my phone, pressed record, and left the room. She peeks out when no one is around, so we know she's still alive. We worry because she rarely comes out when we're around and Sparkles eats all the food she finds! We keep watching,.........she ate a few days ago......... force feed her soon...........I'm not sure.

And yes, she already knows she's going to be a vet. No, scratch that, maybe a vet's assistant, since she found out about surgery and stuff. Or a groomer. She's got years left to decide.

And on the writing side - I wrote the ending of Survival Zone! FINALLY! DONE!! Using my new Phillips hand held recorder - loving it! and my new Dragon software - always loved it! I am getting it onto the computer for the first rough draft! My sighs of relief.........my giddy joy.............dancing...squealing.........yup. All of it. Then second draft, third, tenth - we'll see. And cover. Ideas in my head, trying to explain, but have faith in my cover maker. Except I might change the title. Survival Zone might be the second in the series. Worry about that later. Still celebrating writing THE END in my scribbler!

Speaking of that, enough procrastinating - I'm gone to write!

PS.......anyone know any tips about fish? I'll take it! Thanks!

Best Selling Author - say what?!

I went to a trivia contest last night with some of my writing friends - and new friends! Fun fun! I think I answered one question correct, and even that was a guess. I might not be good at trivia, but hey, I sit at the right table so hah! I think we came in second. Pretty sure we did. Okay maybe tied with three other tables but still second. The point - it was fun.

But some of the questions really got me thinking about what a best-selling author was. And how to be a best selling author. So I googled. Spent too much time googling instead of working on Survival Zone, but I still might get there.

What did I learn today - The odds of winning the lottery, in Canada, that's 6-49, are 1 in 14 million. Whoa. Not bad, right? Yeah. No, I'm not rushing out to get a ticket. Lotto Max, the odds are 1 in over 28 million. You've got a better chance at getting hit by lightning, by far, because those odds are one in less than a million. I do not like those odds.  In the US, your odds of winning the power ball are 1 in almost 300 million!

There's the odds. Now, let's talk about being a best selling author. Sell 5000 books a week - that show up in Bookscan. So technically, you could be selling more copies than the bestseller, but still not be counted as a best seller. But this number is just a number, and in a slow week of sales, it could be a lot less than 5000, on a busy week, it may be much higher. We're talking odds again.

To be in the top 5 for Amazon, you need to sell maybe 300 books a week. There's a big difference from 5000 a week down to 300 a week. But the odds of this happening, after writing the best book I can, hiring editors, etc., to make it even better, marketing in all the right spots - yeah, I think I'll take my chances here. I like my odds better for being a best-selling author much better than winning the lottery - or getting hit by lightning. And now, back to work on writing to better improve my odds! Have a great day and Happy Valentine's day!

And if you've got any better tips for making the odds better - I'm all ears!  

Coming Soon - WHITE MAGIC

White Magic is almost ready! Can't wait! Here's what will be on the back cover.I think.

Fifteen year old Lily has a secret, has kept it hidden for as long as she can remember.

What teenager wants to be shunned for daring to be different? And wanting to become a witch is as different as it gets.

While other little girls dream of being princesses, that has never crossed Lily’s mind. Her only dream is becoming a witch.

She has her own spell book, none of witch - oops, none of which actually work, but it's her very own, and she's spent years building it up. She's tried to give up on her dream time after time, but it's impossible. It's part of who she is.

Lily's friends end up in the hospital, one after another, deathly sick. While Lily’s dream comes true and she’s gifted with powerful magic, is it worth the price she may be forced to pay?

Good battles evil.

White Magic fights Dark Magic.

WORLD'S BEST STORY!

WORLD'S BEST STORY!

WON BY THE ONE AND ONLY PATTI LARSEN! THE BEST AUTHOR IN THE WORLD!

Breathing again. Every time I say it I scream it. So excited. So proud. And so true.

Imagine the talent one person has! Enough for dozens of people! And she always has time to share! All the little questions and problems - she'd be there with an offer to help. Love her! And this on top of writing over 50 books in a few years! FIFTY! FIFTY BOOKS!

Sigh. If you don't already have Family Magic, you're going to have to wait for it. Too long as far as I'm concerned. But worth the wait. Ever get really into a series and were disappointed by the events way too far into it? Yeah, won't happen here. Not in the twenty book series. 

Did I say twenty books in the series? Yeah. I did. And every one of them a world's best story. Not to mention the other spin-off series. 

Celebration! Woo hoo!

A group of really great ladies - myself included - went out to supper with Patti to congratulate her. Great time! And some went to her VERY FIRST INTERVIEW AS THE WINNER OF WORLD'S BEST STORY!

It was at The Guild, a small spot in Charlottetown. "What’s Up Tonight, hosted by actor/comedian Ben Hartley".

I laughed. And laughed. Ben had two other guests for interviews, and two sidekicks. I loved it. They were wonderful! And they did a wonderful job interviewing Patti. 

And back home I went after a lovely day - to my eight year old wide awake watching television. Not a show for eight year olds, either. Of course. Nope. One about airplane crashes. Nightmare material. Did she have nightmares? Are you kidding! She was so tired she almost fell asleep walking to the bedroom! 

I forgot to mention it was fifteen minutes before midnight. Late night for me.

What else did I come to?

'Someone' tried to clean a little bit for me. Yup. They sure did. There were dishes stacked in the sink (yes I leave the dishwasher door WIDE OPEN beside the sink in the hopes they will notice it is there and there are no fairies coming around when they sleep to wash the dishes) there feet above the counter. THREE FEET. Sounds impossible right? Yeah it's not. And on the dishes were clumps of wet, soggy food that no one put in the garbage before putting a dish in the sink.

I'm still gagging.

And laundry. The laundry room I just cleaned. Well, spare room right in front of the laundry room. Someone was thoughtful enough to do laundry for me! Half wet towels dumped on the floor. Mmmm hmmmm. Sweet. And clothes. Wrinkled. Smushed. Damp. Dumped on top of the towels. And mixed in the middle of this? Dirty laundry. Yup. Kids just dump. A few more steps, boys, and THERE'S THE HAMPER! 

"But I thought this was the dirty laundry........."

Yeah. Fine. Brownie points for effort right? Right. 

Back to Patti - SO EXCITED! GO PATTI GO! I WILL ALWAYS BE (ONE OF- I KNOW TOO MANY MORE) YOUR NUMBER ONE FAN!

 

White Magic...again!

I finally pushed myself to finish the worst edit - the first- and yesterday I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Done! Now for beta readers and then more edits, and hopefully, within 6 weeks, I will have it out there for you! On Amazon, hopefully Kobo, then Smashwords, unless I get stuck on one! Me and computers, I tell ya....

I did not allow myself to do any writing for the past two weeks- or however long it would take me to edit White Magic. And I didn't! Proud of me? Addicted any, yes? It was hard! And you'll never guess what I want to do today!

Sigh. Of course the floors need to be done first......maybe the bathrooms. But the dusting? Nope! I am putting my foot down! I am going to get in at least an hours worth of writing before the kids get home from school and then tonight, maybe, but we all know I am not a night person. Night owl, yes, but not a happy one. I'm grumpy at night. But I make up for it in the morning because I am just a bright ray of sunshine! See me bubbling? It's morning! Yay!

I will work on the Fairy series no to get those finished this week, and then back to Survival Zone. After that......well, I've got more series on my mind! An adult one, paranormal, a YA one, paranormal, or middle-grade, not sure yet, and another early reader one - superheroes! We'll see how that works out, because before I start another series I really would like to have the second ones finished in the Survival Zone series and the White Magic series, and the second and third finished in the Blurs series.

And I think I'm going to be doing another stand alone novel. Mmmm Hmmm. A horror. Gotta love Stephen King and Dean Koontz! And I do! I've got pages of notes for it but I am trying to stay organized and focused! But if I can't wait, I just can't wait. For now it's leaving me alone long enough to get edited. So now on to writing!

Oh stop nagging I didn't forget the floor.........

Barbie clothes!

I did title this blog post 'Barbie clothes', but no, I am not writing a book named Barbie clothes. Seriously did you think I was? No/ Oh. Okay.

Now I started making barbie clothes for my two daughters because writing time was scarce when they were younger. Now, its still scarce, I am just better at ignoring them.

I still do the barbie clothes, usually for Christmas presents for my family, but I absolutely love doing it. I had to do some little tiny dresses for someone, for the little girl barbies. I do them really cheap for her because she takes them to Mexico, so it costs her for material, and maybe a few cents an hour? Maybe. Probably not. But its for a good cause, neither one of us are going to get rich doing it.
Now, in the middle of my editing White Magic - which is so exciting because I am so ready for it to be finished! I am really loving writing/thinking/dreaming about this series all the way to the end!

Back to barbie clothes. I think I will come up with a few outfits, make a website and start selling them again. I have another sister that is a fantastic photographer, and she does amazing prints with her pictures, of Prince Edward Island, or anywhere or anything. I want her to put some for sale because they are amazing! Her flowers.....landscapes......beaches...........everything! Stunning.

So here's a few pictures I took of my first few batches of barbie clothes. These are gone, so I can't put them on the website to sell, but I hope kids are still playing with barbies! and dolls, I will make those clothes too............and skirts or dresses to match for the girls that play. My own girls loved that. One still does, the other - well, we'll not get into pre-teens yet. Not in this post.

Abd back to barbie clothes! Boys I get off track easy..........here's the pictures. Oh, and I was the photographer, so I am not the professional - remember that when you are looking at these! And it will be fun to see what the new pictures will look like with the new clothes because I know who will be taking them!

Oh, stop complaining - I know I make you work but you have lots of time because the outfits aren't made yet. Here I go..............(love Ken's hair - he could have at least combed it before the wedding!)

Yes! I've finished the first Teddy and I!
Finally! Finally! Finally!
I uploaded, fought with the computer - which, by the way, won by a long shot.  It refused to work.
For about four days straight.
Sometimes I could get the internet to work, but not for long.  Internet Explorer was the first casualty.  It disappeared from my desktop altogether.  Lost in cyberspace, I guess.  I asked all my kids, "Who did it? Who? Who?" like an owl.  The culprit - the same dirty rotten soul that does everything around here.
"Not me."
Ever hear of him?
I have.  Much too often.
But losing that 'e' wasn't all that bad.  Until Google Chrome decided not to load too.  THAT was a problem.
If I only had as much free time to write as I spent on the phone, on hold and with the computer techs at Aliant...........
Who, by the way, are absolutely wonderful and patient when dealing with a computer moron like me, who needs every little step explained.
"What does a modem look like?"
Sigh.  Well, only the first time.  Now I remember.  Then they mentioned a router.
A what?
I could go on.  And on.  But I won't.  I'm almost as bad on computers as I am with directions.
So yes Teddy and I... Can't wait for Christmas is now on Amazon! So exciting!
And I did try to upload a Kindle version.
Well, maybe I'll just leave that alone for now.  Didn't turn out so well at all.
So for now, I will end my post without adding a picture of the cover - can you hear me calling "TINA!"
Not only for the cover, but to fight with her computer and figure out the Kindle............
She's stronger than I am!
And no, that was NOT whining!
 

Teddy and I

I'm back.  Tired, but here I am.
In a messy house.  Three out of four kids still awake - not just awake, wired.  And I'm ready for bed.
Sad.  But true.
So instead of putting two of them to bed, here I am on the computer.
But I'm so excited!  In my last post, I wrote about torturing - I mean, getting help from Tina.  Well, since then I haven't asked for anything!
Proud of me?  I am!
Of course that doesn't mean I wasn't pestering someone.......
Nicholas, my darling nephew of seventeen years.  Yup, I'm admitting it.  I pestered him.  I can write it here, because if I say it to his face I would never hear the end of it.
He is the illustrator (and a wonderful one!) for my Teddy and I series.  We finally have the Christmas one finished!  Okay, not really finished, but drawn.  So close............
Tomorrow, I would like to finish them, and the text, and Sunday I would love to upload it for sale.
Dreaming.............Sigh................But such a nice dream.
Tomorrow I will probably have to fight for the computer just to check my emails.  Sad obsession but obsession it is.  So to sit here for hours?  On a Saturday?  One computer?  Four kids?
Not going to happen.
But maybe by Tuesday, which means I'll be back to torturing Tina for her computer expertise.  And I'll leave Nick alone until Wednesday.
But it pays to know people doesn't it?
Here's one un-finished picture from the book.

IF I can figure out how to post it.............

I DID IT!  I'M SO EXCITED!
And isn't it a cute picture?
I love the bright colors for the little kids to look at.
And I can't wait until the book is put together and I can hold it in my hands.
Dreaming again..................
But hey, I'm allowed to dream.  Right?