Yesterday.

If you missed out on my countdown to yesterday on here, and on Facebook (I think I spared my Twitter feed of it), then you wouldn’t know that the photo shoot for my cover is now over.

*clears throat*

THE PHOTO SHOOT FOR MY COVER HAS TAKEN PLACE!

Needless to say, my nocturnal sleep schedule is a little . . . off currently. I was (also, needless to say) extremely exited yesterday and stayed awake waiting to hear from the (uh-MAY-zing) photographer about how things had gone.

I WAS NOT EXPECTING TO ALREADY HAVE THE PROOFS!

I have them. 🙂

I’d been anticipating a 72-hour wait time – days spent alternating between fidgeting and my eye(s) twitching, and then attempting to calm myself. No days.

As of yesterday evening, I’d already chosen the image to be used.

I say that, but I feel that was sort of like the model and it wasn’t really me ‘choosing’. There was just one photo in particular that captured so many elements of the character. It was/is perfect. I was in a nearly constant state of Mind-Blown yesterday, and that (the photo) was the strawberry on top. (I don’t like cherries and, clearly, putting a cherry on top of something is a bad thing.)

I started working on some stuff with it all last night – stuff that I need to get done today. But I wanted to share this, and also give myself a little bit more time to wake up given that I’d been sitting here staring at my computer screen trying to force my brain to start making connections with things. (Failure)

So, busy(ish) day today, at least for the next few hours. Then . . . who knows?

I don’t even care. haha

Hope everyone is doing fantastically.

🙂

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Updates and randomness.

I still haven’t been on here like I should. It took me . . . a very long time to get my sleep schedule back to the normal nocturnal (mission accomplished as of yesterday!). I’ve been startlingly busy, both with the appointments of last week and other things.

THE MODEL FOR MY COVER HAS BEEN FOUND! That is VERY exciting news, and it was very exciting news that came a week or so earlier than I was expecting it to. I received the shortlist of models from the photographer that works with the cover artist (have I mentioned that I love both of them yet??) Sunday night. I chose one (in a manner of speaking) and, as of Monday morning, a photo shoot has been scheduled for October 12th! Until then, it’s just preparations for that (on the photographer’s part) and waiting (on my part).

The model is lovely, seriously, and she looks so close to how I see the MC in my head that it baffled me. It STILL baffles me. I opened the first picture, my eyes went like this – O.O – and I thought, “There she is.”

It was an amazing thought to have.

It has been a remarkably fantastic, enjoyable, and ridiculously exciting experience thus far. It more than makes up for all the stress of everything else to do with preparation and the like (which is another thing I’ve been doing). I really can’t imagine going about this any other way than the way I’m doing it. Not that I haven’t imagined it; I’m just so glad.

I’m still unsure about the when, as there are so many separate moving pieces that it’s kind of hard to tell until those moving pieces all start coming together to form one cohesive moving piece. I’m still aiming for early December, but will update on here if that changes. I SO BADLY want to release it on November 12th (to get the date of 11/12/13 because I’m weird like that), but it’s highly unlikely. Possible, but I have to make sure everything is right.

I’m planning on catching up (or getting as close to that as I can) with reading on here tomorrow night. I actually tried to do that a few days ago, but for some reason WP wasn’t letting me leave comments which made me very angry.

I still haven’t got the pictures taken last week of me, but I got an email that they were to be sent in the mail on Monday so I’m expecting them either tomorrow or the following day.

It’s kind of weird and difficult to adjust to so many wheels turning when I’m so used to the only wheels being the singular one spinning in my head. It’s a definite adjustment and it will take me some time, but I’ll get it all figured out. Be patient with me while I do!

In other news – GEOGRAPHER IS FINALLY COMING CLOSER THAN SIX HOURS AWAY FROM MY LOCATION! I saw that a couple of hours ago and had a miniature freak-out. I missed them (AGAIN) when they were at that six-hour-away-place (due to circumstances at the time), but I WILL NOT miss them when they’re only two hours away. I wasn’t expecting that to happen any time soon, if ever. So that was an absolutely fantastic bit of news.

Next month, I will finally see them. It’s GOING to happen. I can’t justify missing them when they’re only two hours away. If circumstances try to get in the way again, I will borrow one of my cousin’s swords and slash those circumstances into ribbons. I don’t think I’d ever forgive myself if I didn’t go.

Now I’m imagining myself swinging a sword at nothing in the air and shouting curses at circumstances. Ha. Good little entertaining mental image.

Also, I have vowed to never touch a Zynga game ever again. I don’t care how fun they are. Zynga has killed something very dear to my heart (omgpop), and I shall never forgive them for it. I know it won’t make a difference to them, but a vow is a vow and I will hold to it.

That is all!

Stuff.

I’m really behind on here. I was doing good for a few days there. Prepare yourselves while I prepare my excuses.

I had to reverse my sleep schedule to days (due to appointments and the like). It’s impossible for me to be productive in any way during the daytime, as there is so much pushing and pulling in whichever direction to do other things (like . . . eating, and things of that nature. Who does that?! Just joking . . .). I’m not kidding; the temporary daytime schedule is mostly to blame for it. It’s part of the reason I prefer to be awake at night – no distractions, etc.

I had two appointments yesterday – one early in the morning, and one in the evening.

The first was to speak with a . . . um . . . tax . . . person . . . lady? I highly suggest everyone do that at some point or another, especially if – like me – you’re so clueless about that sort of thing that you don’t even know what to call them. Tax representative? Probably. Anyway, that was highly informative.

Yesterday evening, I had some head shots taken. Why is it that every time I say the words ‘head’ and ‘shot’ together in that order, I think of video games, or zombies, or things of that nature? Anywho, I think that went well. I should have them back from the photographer around the beginning of next week. Then, I can actually get an author page up on the good ol’ Facebook (>.<), and do all of that fun stuff. So . . . yaaaaay?

I’ll be spending the next several days attempting to get my sleep schedule back to normal so I can actually do the things that I do and can catch back up on here.

Hope everyone is having a great Thursday!

🙂

Self-publishing.

Yeah. I’m doing it.

I know, I know. I said I was going to attempt querying and do the whole shebang (get an agent and we all lived happily ever after with a picket fence and 2.4 dogs, er, kids).

Anyone who’s been following my blog for a little while knows I flopped back and forth about it (don’t we all?). I spent so much time weighing the pros and cons of each – carefully and meticulously – until all cons blurred with pros and pros were cons and cons were . . . um . . . what’s going on? That was basically how it went in my head for a very long time, so I told my husband to make a decision on it. I was content with that for about a day or two, and then the mental-flopping began again. I didn’t want to blog about it because I wanted to get it sorted in my head.

I realized, after speaking with so many people, that this was a decision only I could make.

I started looking into cover artists just for curiosities sake and found one that I LOVED.

For about four days, I did nothing but flop around mentally afterward. I mulled over the word author. I’ve said it before that I will NOT call myself one unless the word aspiring is in front of it. Not yet.

One night, I looked up the definition of it. I kind of had a moment. There was no ‘traditionally published’ in the definition, of course. For one of those days, I contemplated over the word – what it meant, what it meant to other people, and what it meant to me.

Rather than focus on pros and cons, I started focusing on why. Why did I want to be published traditionally? What was drawing me to self-publishing despite the stars and rainbows and glitter of the P and the T together?

When thinking about the why . . . it fell into place.

I don’t need a publishing contract to accomplish what I’ve wanted to accomplish with this. All I want is for ONE person out there to love my books – to make an impact on a person the way that some books have impacted me. I don’t need a P and a T together for that. I don’t.

So I made the decision about a week and a half ago and I haven’t looked back since.

There hasn’t been one single flop from me, or even one second of doubting the choice I’ve made.

I don’t like posting things on here unless they’re set in stone. I’m feeling comfortable with sharing now.

I’ve been arranging things with that love-inducing cover artist and the photographer. I love them both. Seriously. Details are being figured out and things are being put in motion.

My editor had to extend the date of finishing my novel, so I won’t have it back until early to mid-October. I’m trying to get everything done that can be done until that point.

As of now, I’m shooting for early December. That’s going to depend on how everything works out, but now . . . I’ll be able to keep you all updated.

It’s so freaking weird having things moving. I spent such a long time feeling like my entire world was at a standstill.

Anyway. No more waiting. It’s time to start letting them go. I’m worried, of course, but . . . I’m feeling good. I’m excited. I never thought I’d be more excited than stressed/nervous, but . . . I am.

Wish me luck. I’m definitely going to need it.

O.O

Instagram

I figured that I would make a new category for any/all of my accounts whenever they come about.

I’ve yet to make a Facebook page, but I will be sure to do that at some point or another and put a link to it here.

First off . . . Instagram!

You can find me here.

Or my username is: dolly_llama

🙂