June Progress Report

Okay, let’s see how the month stacked up:

Goals for June:

1. Buy ISBN’s. (You can read about that here.)
   • DONE! I was waffling about this, because it required spending a chunk of cash for something that’s not that fun, and that’s never easy, but then a friend forwarded me a promotional email offering 10% off if I bought them that day, which was just what was needed to spark me into moving.
2. Study up on how to load a book to Amazon.
   • Um, not yet.
3. Finish this draft of Girl’s Best Friend and hand it off to some beta readers.
   • I got to the finish line, only to realize I didn’t buy the ending. And with release dates looming for The Demon Always Wins (September 1st–eek!) and The Demon’s in the Details it was time to put GBF down for a nap and focus on my main goals. I have since (I think) figured out how to fix the ending and if I get a couple of free days, I will.
4. Figure out how to address the issues my editor raised with The Demon’s in the Details. (I said she had fewer edits. I didn’t say they were easy.)
   • I am, as of this writing, just shy of being halfway through the manuscript, and several days ahead of schedule. There may, of course, be more surprises to come in the second half, but the way my editor generally works, the most difficult stuff usually shows up early.
5. Get ready for the RWA® National Conference in July. As a Golden Heart® finalist, I will be attending a reception with agents and editors, as well as the luncheon where the awards will be presented to the winners. Since my post-retirement wardrobe doesn’t have a lot of fancy clothes, this requires some planning and, possibly, shopping.
   • What this actually required was taking a dress I bought 25 years ago at a vintage clothing shop (that’s right–it was old when I bought it a quarter of a century ago) and replacing the ostrich feathers around the hem, (that’s right, it has ostrich feathers) which had turned brown with age, with new ones. I’m as certain as a woman can be that no one else will show up wearing the same dress.

Goals for July:

1. Complete my revision of The Demon’s in the Details and send it off to my copy editor on August 1, as scheduled.
2.  Get The Demon Always Wins loaded into Amazon for pre-orders before I head for the RWA® National conference, so that I can invite people to pre-order.
3. Get through the RWA® National Conference. If fortune smiles on me and I happen to be the lucky writer, out of the seven paranormal finalists, who wins the Golden Heart® this year, have a speech ready so I don’t look like a clueless ditz.
4. Work with Barclay Publicity (more on that next week) on my release campaign for The Demon Always Wins.