Tammy Lyn Carbol

Well, February was a bit of a rough month. Needless to say it felt like I lost a month and a half of being productive as I had to rest and heal. That being said, I'm feeling better and things are looking up! WOOT! 

February and the beginning of March were also what we were calling "Snowmaggedon" around here, and our Saturday February workshop by MJ Colette on Writing Erotica (to go with our Valentine Social) actually had to be cancelled because of the weather and roads. The ARWA board doesn't take those decisions lightly, but we felt it was best for our members. On the plus side, she agreed to do not only the cancelled workshop, but also her "The Organized Creative" workshop on our Saturday, March 10th workshop - both were fantastic!  She's such a fun speaker to listen to - I got a lot out of both of the workshops - even started my "Project/Process Journal" - thanks MJ!

Though I couldn't dance or write much for the last while, I have gotten a lot of information to work on and move forward so now that I'm feeling better I am SO excited about it! Our February Thursday night ARWA meeting, we had a quick change as our speaker had to cancel due to a family emergency but Jenny Hops was able to jump in and give us a fantastic talk on Audiobooks. Our Thursday night March meeting, Sarah Sades (www.sarahkades.com) gave a fabulous talk on Camp NanoWrimo and getting ready for it. 

I'm pumped! I'm researching and figuring out what story I'm going to write and intend to hit the ground running on April 1st. That being said, life may get in the way and it may go horribly horribly wrong - but if it DOES, I don't intend to beat myself up about it. I will promise to do my best and if thing go sideways, I promise NOT to feel like a failure, because that accomplishes nothing.

By the way, have you SEEN the new cover for Adam Dreece's new book coming out in June - The King's Horse? It's amazeballs! You can pre-order it on Amazon. He also re-released Snappy & Dashing with a new cover (comes in between The Yellow Hoods Books 2 and 3) and it's fabulous as well! If you haven't discovered this amazing author - do so. It's not just because I'm his Assistant, it's because he's a great writer.

I will find out in April if the presentation I want to do at WWC gets put on the programming, and then I'll tell you all about it. I have a fabulous friend who is pushing me get up my VA website (gears towards writers/authors) and that is exciting for me. She wants to help me do it as she believes in me (awwwhhhh). I'm looking forward to the next few months as I am on the mend and feeling more myself. 

It's Spring, the weather is getting better, I'm feeling more myself, and thinking more positively. Looking forward to what's to come...

Write on...

Have been getting quite a bit done lately - and I'm fairly pleased with myself! During our ARWA Saturday workshop this month, we had Dwayne Clayden in to speak with us about Poisons.  It was incredibly interesting! The best was he had to say "so if you are looking to poison someone...IN YOUR WRITING"...<snicker>

We looked at poison through the ages and it was truly very interesting with what and how they would poison folks. He was an entertaining speaker and we left with a LOT of information...for our writing, of course.

During ARWA's Thursday night meeting, the fabulous Sarah Kades was in to discuss Building Your Author (or Editor) Website. Many of us either have websites that need updating (completely!) or none at all, so the information was helpful.

So, I was a good student and updated pictures and also some of my writing in my website. Thought about updating the template, but I kind of love my typewriter, so it stays. Also going to make sure I keep blogging at least once a month (hey, considering I sometimes go months or a year without updating, I think that's a healthy goal).

My website for my hardtobeagoddess.com domain I purchased last summer (at the urging of my ARWA tribe)now has a plan. I believe after Sarah's discussion, I now know what it will be for. Planning to get it done before end of February.

Doing some Virtual Assistant work for Adam Dreece and Katherine Dell, two local Calgary authors who are fabulous people who write great books! Loving it and looking forward to helping them both with some of their administrative needs. I love beta reading and editing Adam's books and audiobooks as well - it's a great deal of fun! Also helping an up-and-coming author get their non-fiction book put together - and I look forward to her publishing it this year.

Have also offered to beta read a friend's Western - which I had no idea they even wrote! He said it was just something he had done, so I told him to send it over.

During all of this, I actually got some time to do a BIT of writing (I've started writing by hand again as I feel it just flows better when I do that and not when I'm typing a story into a computer). This approach seems to be working, so I'll continue finding time to get some writing in each day, even if just for 15 minutes. Getting to work on scrapbooking as well, which I'm finding very relaxing to do and I enjoy putting what I want into it.

Overall, January has been a frustrating, yet fulfilling month and I look forward to what February has to bring. I'm enjoying all the ARWA workshops and meetings we've been having and the information I've been getting from them - it's great! I seriously love my writer tribe, both in ARWA and outside of it. We have a tremendously supportive writing community in Calgary, and I'm extremely thankful for that.

Write On...