Reflections on a Big Plan

In 2010, I sat in a booth at Dave and Busters in Houston, Texas, while "Mindy" and a handful of friends played games and enjoyed being teenagers. Ignoring whatever sporting events were on the multiple TVs in the bar, I took pen to white legal pad and said "what if." I had a cute little early reader book about my cat Kimba, but it seemed like it could be more and bigger and better. I'd even gotten that advice from an agent at a SCBWI conference. But what would that story look like?

After several hours of making notes and letting ideas flow, I wrote down the names of what I could now see was a series of books: Why Kimba Saved The World, Vacation Hiro, Miss Fatty Cat's Revenge, and Slinky Steps Out. I wasn't even sure what Miss Fatty Cat would want revenge for, but the title was too fun to not write down.

Back in 2010, I couldn't have begun to imagine living in Arkansas, my work with Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge that gave shape to Miss Fatty Cat's book, and all the events that would lead up to self-publishing the Cats in the Mirror series. Life is a funny thing.

Today, the paperback editing proof of the final book in that pre-planned series arrived.

It was hard to imagine Slinky going off to college with "Mindy" back when I started this writing journey. Now it has been a fact of life for a couple of years. It makes me step back and take note that the goal I set six years ago has come to total fruition, with even another book about Max in there as well, not to mention At the Corner of Magnetic and Main, which was nowhere on my radar back then.

It makes me wonder where I will be six years from now. Already, big changes for our lives are on the horizon--not the least of which involves "Leia" heading off to college in August and leaving us with the first stages of being empty-nesters.

I often see the joke meme passed around that says, when life hits us with big stuff we don't expect, writers should know enough to yell "plot twist" and go with it. Control freak that I am, I am really going to try, though it may come off more as mumbling while I bang my head on my desk.

My hope is that there will be Dottie's Daring Day on the horizon, featuring our granddoggie Dottie and some parallel adventures to Max's book.

Dottie is certainly deserving of her own adventure story.

There really should be a Kimba's Christmas story because every series needs a good Christmas book, but I haven't got the faintest idea what that would be about.

Kimba reminds me daily that it is still HER series.

Cheetara is quite confident that she deserves her own book, sooner rather than later. Cats are so demanding.

Chee is a character and will be easy to write about if I sit down and try.

It would be really great to take some time to put together learning guides to go with each cat book and get more involved with home schooling groups. I'm giving lots of writer talks this year, and I'd love to keep that going and kick it up a notch. But there are plot twists ahead that I am as clueless about as any main character could be. I'm just taking each day and the list that goes with it and trying not to freak out too much.

In the meantime, you will be hearing more than you could ever want to about Slinky Steps Out come April 1st. Release date is on schedule, and it's nearly time to party about Book 4 in the Cats in the Mirror series. Whoot Whoot!!

Wagapalooza and Updates

Well, we were very excited to have a booth at Wagapalooza, a fundraiser for the Gentry Arkansas Animal Shelter. I think they made some good money, but I don't think any of the vendors did. Folks came out with their dogs and to play, but no one was buying. We have found this many times at events like this, and this was our final attempt to prove that theory wrong. My husband--the guy who does the books and pays extra attention to this stuff--begged me to finally learn my lesson. Yes, I get it. No more pet events. At least, this time, the booth fee went to a good cause. We both are happy with that.

It was a very long day and around 98 degrees. Whew. We had thought that being near the bounce house and water slip-slide thing would be good, but it only meant that I spent a lot of time worrying about dripping wet kids backing into my tables. Having fun, they become completely unaware of anything around them. Many of the kids liked the look of my books, but their parents weren't buying. Maybe a couple of kindle sales will follow. I'm not holding my breath.

This is the thing about events. It has to be a good match. We did a Jeep Festival on Holiday Island that actually led to some nice sales. You never know. Animal events have consistently been bummers. There's lots to look at. Dogs are cute and all.

This little guy, with his pony cut, was adorable. He pranced around for hours, mane flying.

But it usually eats up the entire day and my time is better spent. No one but me is going to finish that rough draft of Slinky Steps Out. We are getting pickier and pickier as time goes by. I love sharing my books, but this is a business I'm running.

Events that I am looking forward to are school visits for 2015-2016. I haven't put a lot of push into school visits. It's tricky with a self-published series. So we are reaching out to a few area school districts that are large enough to support an author visit financially and already plan them. We shall see where that leads.

Editing jobs for Pen-L Publishing continue. I just started the 15th book since December. Whew, again. I really love being a part of bringing someone else's book to the world. This morning, I finished a "brush up" job on Waiting for Paint to Dry. Sometimes production schedules mean that final polish happens later than anyone would like, but I bet most of the edits are things only I notice.

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If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it and loved reading it again. Inherently, it is a story of recovery from the trauma of a teenage rape (never described in detail). But on this second reading, I just enjoyed the love story and watching Matty's life bloom. Wonderful book!

That's sort of my "work" reading. I usually have more than one book going. I just finished Bossypants by Tina Fey, which was delightful, but she needs no promotion efforts by me to help her success.

I also won a copy of the new release from blogger-supreme Heather Davis and am loving it. Most entries are only a few pages long, so it's great for when I only have a few minutes. I'm not saying "in the bathroom" because that's not quite true, but I'm sure the queen of TMI doesn't care where I read it.

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Arriving hot from the library yesterday is Invasion of the Tearling, for when I can really settle in to read for a while (aka before bed). I just finished the first book in this series and feel sorry for people who had to wait for the second one. Fantastic writing and story!

Next time I will have some updates about At the Corner of Magnetic and Main. Publication has been delayed a tad due to some unexpected and completely understandable events in the life of my publisher. It will probably be more like September at this point. But we do have a cover (which I will share shortly) and the preorder page will be up next week. Yay!!

And mark your calendars to join me on August 22 in Branson for the Ozark Writers League meeting. I'll be sharing a presentation about how to make your manuscript and pitch so beautiful that publishers and editors can't help but read it. Lots of other fun speakers and presenters will be there. Join us!!