Isn’t it odd how you start out to do one thing, and end up doing something completely different?

It’s the story of my life.

Apologies for fewer posts and updates recently, but I dove in head first to CampNaNoWriMo this month in an attempt to complete my upcoming debut novel, and I’m very happy with my progress!

However, at the same time, I’ve launched my author page on Facebook, tweaked my Twitter profile, read six books and written five book reviews, secured my own domain under my author name…you’ll see it in a day or two…and celebrated the Independence Day holiday with all three of my adult children making the drive to ‘mom’s’ so they could eat up their weight in ribs, hamburgers and potato salad. (Um, and they’re not ‘little’ kids!)

And that was just the first week of July! Whew!

The rest of the month will find me completing edits and getting my book in ‘publishable’ condition, scheduling a cover reveal, and posting a few more excerpts…and maybe a teaser or two.

I’ll also be adding to my online free read, “Free, A Short Story.” Remember that one? It was supposed to be a three-post short story. I posted the first two installments with no problem, and got some great feedback from readers. Then, as I’m writing the third, and ALLEGEDLY, last installment, it simply explodes in my face! Characters began taking the storyline in new directions and introducing new characters, the heroine had a meltdown, and I may be mistaken, but I’m almost sure her soon-to-be ex-husband was over in the corner chanting, “No Justice, No Peace!” Needless to say, I had to fall back, regroup and calm the masses. The story still contains the original plot, but tertiary characters have added some interesting side views. Look for installment number three next week.

My biggest stumbling block – and I mean fall-on-my-face stumbling – has been creating a mailing list. MailChimp and me are not friends. I can code an entire web page by hand, but is my MailChimp mailing list working? No. It says it is…but it lies. I’m going to need someone to send MailChimp to my house to get this list done. I have bananas.