July Goals Updated

I hope your Independence day was filled with reflections and immense gratitude. I know mine was.

There is something about counting my blessings that makes me even more determined to be worthy of them. I’m working hard, and making a lot of changes. There will always be more work to do, but as always I’m up to the challenge. Up to the challenge…such an awesome cliché. And so true.

This July I am working on quite a few things. There are a few voids in my life that I am laying the foundation to fill. So this will be a busy month. It is time to step out of the mommy haze and live in the reality that I have no time anymore or rather even less time.

I’m grateful for purposeful busyness (even when I would rather be sleeping in or bathing alone or eating without interruption). I’m working on ensure that my time is spent well, and being comfortable if that means I don’t have any “me time”. Everything for the greater good of those I love and the life we want.

In July, I plan to get back to my regularly scheduled program. I’m officially recovered. My darlings are adjusting nicely  to their new sibling and all is well with the hubby and I. Now, I the business of writer must become a high priority again. Since I’ve already established that my current WIP isn’t cooperating, I have even more work cut out for me in July. So, getting down to business, here are my July goals

July Goals

-Upload second edition of The Alpha’s Dream with Edit

-Format The Alpha’s Dream for Barnes and Noble and Smashwords

-Decide on a new premise, outline

-Begin writing my second book … again.

 

I’m determine to release another book this year and it’s important that I am realistic about my time. So, its back to the grind of getting the work done. I’ll keep you involved as much as possible. Maybe I’ll even give you a sneak peek when I get started. 🙂 What are your July goals? Comment below.

 

Joy

 

 

 

#MarchRevisited

March was a busy month. I’m running behind schedule as seems to be the story of my life, but still there was a lot to get done and even more as April flies into view. So let’s get an update on what my March goals were and see where we ended the month.

March Goal List:

-Send off First Newsletter

-Send The Alpha’s Dream to the Editor

-Build up my ARC Lists

-Execute Phase #1 of my Marketing Plan

Migrated Goals:

-Finish Second Novella

-Write/Edit 2 Shifter Shorts

So here are the updates.  The list is still long. I successfully created my newsletter, but have not sent even one out. The Alpha’s Dream did not make it to the Editors as I’m still working on my second draft Edits and the novella and shorts are just plan out of view.

The only things I accomplished completed were Building my arc lists, which is an ongoing thing, and executing part one of my marketing.  Those are two important things and I’m working hard on them, but my aim is always to complete my goal lists.

I’m torn between being completely disappointed that I’m not hitting my lists and also recognizing that I have more time constraints than I give myself credit. This isn’t a fun thing to come to terms with, but it must be done.

I have to just adjust. Adaptability to the circumstances of my life are the only things that will keep me put together right now. My husband, my children, my pregnancy, and all the other events going on have a level of priority that I have to respect. Sigh.

It will only get harder when baby three is here in may, but I have to find a groove. My dream needs to flourish and it means I have to make the time.  No one else is going to do the work for me. Every part of my dream come with it’s on obstacles. I cannot let myself forget that.

Over the next month I will be taking a serious look at my time constraints and determine what are the most important things I must do to keep pushing toward my end game. Hopefully, the conclusion will be a more efficient schedule and better execution. We will see.

Joy.

#Firstreleasefrenzy

In four weeks and one day, I will be releasing The Alpha’s Dream.

It feels surreal to even type that. It isn’t that I haven’t published before, but a pen name is very different from my actual name. ThE anonymity that comes from a pen name created some separation. My actual name doesn’t. It feels like I have a lot of proving to do.

So many things are going through my head when I look at the pages in front of me. The long nights I spent croctched over my keyboard, the endless doubts of whether it’s good, and all the time I’ve missed wiht my little loves in order to write come down to this.

In theory, the journey is the point. Writing is my passion. The Alpha’s Dream could flop and I would still wake up with stories to tell. However, I still want my passion to pay the bills. There is still so much to do. I have to finalize my second draft and get it to my editor. Hopefully, she’ll return it with few edits, because it is mostly perfect. 😍 More than likely, I’ll be down to the wire getting it ready for release date. I do ;t mind. I worked hard for my clients, and I can work hard for me.

My fears aren’t that the book isn’t enjoyable. I love it, but again I am biased. I want to crawl into hte pages with my characters and walk them through the choices they are making. After all, so much of being th author is just about- ushering my characters to the ledges they need to jump from. I don;t make th e hoices about what happens to them, they  do.

The Alpha’s release is no different.

Nathaniel and Euphoria have a ton of internal doubts to work through in order to have a successful relationship. They have to be grave, to rewrite the narrative of their lives as far as relationships are concerned. It will not be easy. It won’t even be moderately difficult. It will be hard. The realizations they will come too will challenge everything they’ve believed about themselves as lovers.

In much the same way, writing The Alpha’s Dream has challenged me. Iv’e had to relinquish thoughts of inadequancies. I’ve had to unravel all the doubts, find their roots and pluck them up. I’ve had to examine my motivations for writing and what I hoped to accomplish through my work. Whatever the outcome, this is a dream manifesting and I don’t take that for granted.

Joy

#HeroIntroductions

I love my characters and I want you to love them too. So here is the first of a series of introductions to my loves. Shifters lovers meet our hero Nathaniel.

Nathaniel Blanchard is a 27-year-old, chocolate-brown werewolf with savior intentions. He’s a former Pro-Football player and aspiring business owner. He’s made a good living for himself and now he is reaching back to help anyone who might need a little guidance. He’s plagued by feeling disconnected from his werewolf, so he compensates by being the best “man” he can. This of course often puts him at odds with his beast.

Anyone who is anyone knows that denial of self is the easiest way to lose sight of everything in your life. It will take his willingness to delve deeper into why he feels split into two before he can have all that he’s dreamed.

What I love about Nathaniel is the very thing that threatens to bring him down-his stubborn pride. Nathaniel is not a werewolf who would ever be easily convinced of anything. He is hell bent on thinking for himself and coming up with his own answers. The hard truth about only trusting his own voice is not having room for other visions. He doesn’t want to be proven wrong and he holds on to his “wrongness” as long as possible.

It will not be easy for him to get passed this major flaw in order to fall for Euphoria. She is busy battling her own flaws. It is a struggle from start to finish as they work through their private matters to find their way to each other.

It is a battle that Nathaniel never expected to fight. Though he never stays single long he doesn’t actually believe in finding true love. The idea that his wolf heritage would mean one day finding his life mate is an even further stretch for him. Throughout his life, there is only one woman he ever believed loved him completely. His mother. Yet, it is her secret that could be the key allowing him to unlock his carefully guarded heart.

You should know that Nathaniel is just as loyal as he is stubborn. He will always stand by those who are close to him. Once he is sure of his love for Euphoria, he will fall on his sword to let her know he’s serious. Then, he will make peace with all the things that have kept him from revealing himself to her.

Nathaniel’s story comes full circle, but not without some intense private scrutiny. There  is so much he has to learn, but men like him never give up. And the women they love need only have faith.

Sounds like someone you could fall in love with. Leave a comment and let me know.

Joy.

 

#Goals :My February To-Do

One month down and eleven more to go! This year is already shaping up to be  one of madness and massive shake-ups. My personal life is a little more tame. I’ve broken my major goals down to monthly tasks and as you have read from my Gut Check,  I already missed three major goals for January. I’m fresh out of holiday excuses and I cannot afford another upset. I have work to do.

In the vein of accountability. Here is my edited February Work Goals List. Five tasks that will aid in progressing my brand, and my books.

February Goals to Accomplish:

-Create Newsletter

-Select Shorts Premise

-Create/Edit/Finish two Shorts

-Develop Marketing Plan

-Choose Final Editor

Migrated Goals from January:

-Finish two Novellas

-Edit two Novellas

-Prepare for Second Draft

It’s no joke being an #Authorpreneur. The work is endless, but so is the love. I’m going to complete everything on this list by the end of the month. Watch me work. What goals did you migrate? Ready to tackle them now? Talk to me in the comments.

Joy.

Execute: My 2017 Goal List.

I am posting this out of a need for accountability. Everything I have ever accomplished has been because I’ve exposed my cards. It’s a trick to keep myself honest and focused on the tasks I set for myself.

The things I list here as my 2017 goals are only a few of the items I’ve assigned myself. My goal list spans everything from financial plans to spiritual growth. I like it that way.

For the purpose of this blog, I am only including  things that pertain to my businesses, and my writing. It isn’t that I don’t want to include all of you in my process, but some things belong to only me. so I protect them for close friends only.

You know by now that this is the Year of the Leap for me. My goals reflect carray that theme. The things on this list may be minor for some of you. However, they are lofty for me. I’ll list my top five below. They are not ordered by priority, but they do have varying values. Can you guess which one is the heaviest hitter? Leave a comment below with your answer!

 

Author goals of 2017, the Shortlist

publish 4 full length (35,000-40,000 words) by December 1

Beef up my Social Media Following to 3000 over 4 platforms

Publish 4 novellas (20,000-30,000) words

publish 1 compilation of shorts (5,000 words)

Become an Amazon & New York Times Bestseller

What made your shortlist? Don’t forget to comment below!

Joy.

Brown Women … Shifter Romance

 

I have a mild obsession with Shifter Romances. I can’t say that enough in part because it still surprises me. My love with Romance writings were largely limited to African-American Romance for most of my life. It wasn’t that I hadn’t read other authors. I am surrounded by romance readers, or really readers period with favorite authors of all persuasions. African-American Romance  appealed to me, because I could always find characters who mirrored the people in my life.

There is a beauty in representation. I enjoyed seeing women who looked, moved, and walked through their lives like the women I knew. I felt indulge when a great romantic writer would invite me in to watch these women wrestling with sometimes complex and other times sweet relationships. I was content to have a life long love affair with African-American Romance  and go on with my Happily Ever After. It was perfect.

It would have stayed that way had I never began freelancing. The thing about being a ghostwriter in a fiction romance capacity is that it opens up various subgenres. At this point in my career, I have read and written everything from Historical Romances to Contemporary Romances. Clean Romances with sweet stories and dirty Erotica’s with steamy finishes. I’ve had  and enjoyed them all, but not like this.

What began for research purposes  so that I could learn the nuance and special details of  Shifter Romances soon became something bigger. I found myself scouring the top 100 on Amazon for names I recognized and titles that jumped out to me.

I loved it. From the cheesy and utterly impossible romances to the smooth, and complexly written layered romances. Everything I loved about Happily Ever After’s was there.  Almost everything I loved was there.

I was missing some representation. Surely, I wasn’t the only woman of color who would swoon over the hero’s and root for the heroines as they navigated their love stories. I was convinced there were authors out there writing Shifter Romances with people of color heroes and heroines, but after countless hours of digging I came up short. There are quite a few authors who write Black Women White Men (BWWM) Shifter Romances, and most couplings followed the trend of a women of color lead and white shifter. Beautiful stories, but not what I was looking to find.

I was falling deeper and deeper in love with Shifter Romances and all I wanted was one couple who looked like my husband and I. I wanted our stories between those pages too. I knew I couldn’t be alone. So, when it came time for me to decide what my focus would be it seemed natural to combine my two greatest romance loves.

Currently, I have several plots that aren’t just A. A. characters. There is a blend  of multi-cultural characters in there with a few combinations. What remains the same is that at least one primary character is A.A. at all times. It’s important to me. I’ve been questioned about whether or not  it is a smart idea to focus on minority characters in my writing. Statistically, books with people of color as their primary leads struggle to reach the heights of their Caucasian counterparts. I’ve written with primary characters in just about every race, and I’ve seen the difference first hand.

However, that little piece of information has done nothing to dampen my mood. I love stories of love triumphing. I love stories of werewolves and were-bears and dragons  fighting the same human battles of love and lust with the added detail of their mixed heritage. I love what it feels like when their wolves surface and it is clear they have chosen a mate. I love writing these stories with people of color as the driving characters.

I am not afraid to thrive in a “niche” market. I’ll be writing what I love and offering up something special from me to people who love it too. My aim is just to do it justice.  Romance is for everyone – even those genres built around “imaginary people.” After all, the Romance genre in all of its glory is about the perfect blend of fantasy and reality. We could all use more of that.

Joy.