Beverly Jenness's Blog: Daily Struggles of an Unknown Author

I'm so excited because my book "From Earth to Terra, a New Beginning" was just nominated for the 2017 Readers Choice Awards! Please vote for it at www.tckpublishing.com/readers-choice-....
Voting ends Dec. 10! Please give me a vote!! Page 15 (sci fi) And click on my book, you've just voted!

I love my husband BUT:
I'm tired tonight. So, I fixer some quick coffee. You know, microwave a mug of water with a coffee bag in it ( you know, looks like teabag with coffee grounds in it). Added my cream and sweetener and enjoyed a few sips while walking to the back yard. Hubby needs some help so I set my coffee in a safe place, help him then we go sit on the patio.( checked my coffee to make sure nothing was doing the backstroke in it) and had another sip before running in to get a plate to put burgers on off the grill. Hubby, in the mean time, has taken his salt rifle out, a toy gun that shoots salt, and is shooting flies. Just as I sit back down he says, "uh oh, I hope that didn't go in." I now have a massacred fly in my coffee.

I will put weed killer on the lawn and then my husband will mow. Kind of like amputating a limb with gangrene, the weed continue to flourish. I have discussed this with him at length on numerous occasions. He does the typical husband response(an indication that he isn't truly listening; the bobble head nod) I have even made a point of asking him when he intends to mow again. He will indicate he has no plans to mow for a day or so but as soon as I put the week killer down, he mows! It's like he feels guilty or something for not mowing if I'm working in the yard.
I thought I won this time though. I waited until after he mowed. With the crazy weather we were having I bought the kind that is rainproof in an hour. I figured I had won...wrong! No sooner had I finished and gone back into the house to work on book three of the 'From Earth to Terra' series, hubby decides to wash off the patio and sidewalk around the pool, (the edges of which is where the vast majority of the weeds thrive) washing away the weed killer.
On the positive side, he hasn't been in the front yard since he mowed it and that's where I started. So those little tenacious beasts are history!

We are not even half way through the year and I have had all the negatives I can take. I ALWAYS attempt to put a positive spin on everything.
When we had our car wreck and I had to have back surgery to stabilize a crushed vertebrae, I used the time off to get the cover for book 2 done and publish "Stone City". I knew too, that late in the year or earlier next year, I would receive a small monetary settlement. A month after the wreck, our sewer backed up in the basement. I was able to use what funds the insurance company gave us to upgrade the entire basement. (Something we had been wanting to do for years!) If I had still been working, it would have been a logistical nightmare dealing with the insurance company, the restoration company and the contractors.
But now, I have no positive spin. I had to put my dog, Missy, to sleep May 1, 2017 at 3:47 am.
It was her birthday, she was 14 years old. We had been through a lot together. When I came home from the hospital, from the car wreck, she wouldn't leave my side. I am still emotionally raw and I know, in time, the pain will ease. I hope, in time I can find a positive spin, for me, in her loss. I know it was best for her, her heart was failing, and her lungs were filling with fluids. She had cateracts and couldn't see very well, plus arthritis. She took pain meds daily for it. I know it was the right thing for her. I know she is better off now. She isn't suffering any longer, but the hole in my heart will be along time in healing.
Thanks for letting me share her story.

It was a very good day yesterday. I made some REAL headway transcribing my hand written manuscript to my computer! No that doesn't mean book three is complete. I try not to get too much hand written before putting it on the computer. As I transfer it, I empelish the story and also watch the flow.
Sometimes, if I have a day or so in between writings I will leave out a critical part of the story or duplicate it further on. I have even eliminated entire sections (dozens of pages) because as I put it on the computer, I decide I don't like where that particular line is going or it just doesn't seem to fit well with the rest of the story. I wouldn't want to spend extra time writing a part of the storyline only to eliminate it.
There are times I have had to do that. No matter how much I love what I have written, if it doesn't enhance the story, it has to go. I do keep all those sections I have deleted from my books. You never know when they will make a book of their own or find their way back into the series.

My giveaway for 'Stone City' is complete and copies have been mailed out to the winners.
Congratulations to those who were lucky enough to win one of the ten signed, first addition copies and happy reading!
With that hurdle crossed, I am concentrating on book three. I have yet to come up with a title for the newest installment to the 'From Earth to Terra' series. I am not going to even begin to guess at a completion date as it is still in the early stages.
I am greatly hampered in my writing due to an auto accident my husband and I were involved in New Year's Day. The other car ran a red light and I receive a crushed vertebrae requiring surgery and the installation of titanium rods and screws to the tune of 30 grand. It is painfully for me to sit at my desk and I have been looking for alternate ways to write. The first draft is done long hand and I can do that most anywhere but when I transpose the manuscript into the computer is where the trouble comes in. I tried standing at our pub table with my laptop but that was a no go. I'm too short to do that comfortably especially since I lost an inch and a half with the accident. I have managed to do some work sitting on the couch with my laptop but I am only comfortably in a modified fetal passion; simi reclined with my feet braced on the edge of the couch. Difficult to write in that position. But not to worry.
I will persevere, overcome and succeed!

Just before the election, my husband (60 years old) fell and dislocated a rib. Soon after, of course, came the holidays. During this time, I had been struggling with the final edits, which my now injured husband, was trying to help me with and getting my graphic artist to complete my cover for book two, From Earth to Terra, Stone City. In her defense, she had some family issues that were consuming a great deal of her time.
My husband and I were involved in a car wreck at noon, New Year's Day. I received a crushed vertebrae which required surgery to repair. I am just now able to sit up long enough to make headway on my final revisions and continue working on book three.
After much frustration, I hired another graphic artist and now have a completed cover. I am ordering a proof and should have my giveaway posted within two weeks

Cyber Monday is getting closer and I am starting to get anxious. I really want to have 'Stone City' ready for publishing by then but my graphic artist is going out of country on a vacation the first of November. I do not begrudge her the vacation, everyone should vacation when they have the opportunity. It just adds to the pressure of my self inflicted deadline.
My husband/ editor has dropped the ball as well. We took a mini vacation to Missouri. The guys camped in the woods, ate meat cooked on open fires or in smokers, didn't bathe unless it was in the river, fished, told stories around the campfire, and drank too much. If he had down time, he was going to work on editing the last chapters of 'Stone City', didn't happen and that didn't surprise me.
I stayed with one of the wives. They live 10 miles from the nearest town which is a wide spot in the road with a post office and a convienance store. 15 miles from there to the next larger town boasting a Walmart and a couple of hotels, another 15 -20 miles is a city of nearly 175,000 people. The point being, when it was dark outside, it was freakin' DARK! Not much light pollution out in the boondocks. This is what I wanted. The dark of night to see and enjoy the stars, the daytime quiet where you could hear the leaves falling in the forest. I wanted to re-connect with the primitivness, to feel the solitude my colonist would experience on their new, uninhabited planet. To re-experience the since of wonder which comes from looking into the star-filled night sky as you contemplate the mind boggling size of the universe and its millions upon millions of stars and their orbiting planets.

I have changed shifts at my regular paying job. From mornings to nights. The hope is to have more "morning time" to write. I find I'm much more creative in the mornings than after a full day of work and the drama that entails. However, My body is vehemently protesting the change.

Working with my husband on the final edit of "Stone City" ( I love my husband and appreciate his help BUT he is a bit anal retentive at times) and my graphic artist on the cover ( whom I adore but as with all artist, myself included, she's a bit flighty and overly critical of her own work).

I am making plans for a short writing trip to Missouri (escaping out into the boondocks). I'm looking for peace and quiet, with few distractions, to connect better with the life and times on Terra. The plans just to get there, ugh! Rent a car, dog sitter and all the food, treats and medications ( she's an old dog) bedding and comfort toys, and then all the things for me to do; hold on paper and mail, making sure I have no deliveries scheduled during that time, taking care of laundry so I have plenty of clothes I can pack and making sure prescriptions are refilled, wouldn't want to run out of my meds. it's enough to make your head swim!

I will be signing and selling my book at the Authorpalooza Oct. 20 At the Hyatt Regency (Wichita, Kansas from 1-5) as part of the Kansas Library Associations annual conference. Had to get a card reader so I can take plastic. Simple enough task until you get into the research and set up options etc.

And all the filmy wisps of ideas for book three are starting to congeal as I begin the next addition in the "From Earth to Terra" saga.

Not to mention( but I will) on the last leg of my weight loss program (lost 73 pounds , have a dozen more to go).

I believe I'm on the tipping point. If I have one more thing added to my 'to do' list my brain WILL explode, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Starting October 8, 8 am PST, my Kindle format of "From Earth to Terra" will be steeply discounted to $2.99. The price will go up $1 each 40 hours through October 15.