New Month, New Year, New JHS

Well, venting is over. it took a bottle of Vodka bought by my sister-in-law, ( i think it was a peace offering).... so.. though i still cannot work or do school work it does look like by Monday it'll all be over with... hehehe.. yaaaaaay go me... lol.. thanks everyone... I cannot wait till Tuesday.....

Ritinrider,

Sorry to hear about your ice problem. But, hopefully you will keep your internet going and can post stuff here... we'll all talk to ya.. I'll keep mine open and try to check here a bit more regular.. just to keep ya company if I can......

I'm home alone. Hubby went snowmobling, bunchin's in school. Wow, I might actaully get some work done between now and three!

ravenlea said:

I'm home alone. Hubby went snowmobling, bunchin's in school. Wow, I might actaully get some work done between now and three!

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Good for you Ravenlea, hope it goes well.... though.. if ya on eastern time ya done been there and done that...... lol.. oh well... still wishin ya well...

today went well. one query sent, one eassy sent, one short story sent, and one blog post up. As for my goals for the month .....

- get organized! My office over the next couple days is going to get an overhaul. Hubby will love it, until he realizes that all the stuff i'm taking out is getting put in the basement for him to deal with ... done!
- send out at least five essays a week ... well I sent a total of 2 for the month
- send out at least five queries a week ... 12 sent for the month-
- do more with my short stories. Send at least five out this month ... sent out 6!
- blog three times a week ... mostly - give or take
- break into a hunting magazine ... not even close!
- continue sending out Blood Sisters ... three more sent out this month
- organize my recipes and try Taste of Home again ... halfway organized, one recipe sent

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I've got a new post on Refilling the Well. (Yes, I really do update it daily. I think I've only missed one day since I started it & I was sick that day.)

Rules - Use 'Em or Lose 'Em?

I talk about painting in the post, but the rules part applies to any creative endeavor.

I've applied to another gig through FWJ. That's pretty much all the writing-related stuff that got done today. It was crazy-busy and stressful.

Well, my September JHS to sell a reprint has paid off. Some of you may recall the editor who contacted me about using it wanted some added material. I wrote back with a suggested rate, but also suggested a new article that fit better with her current theme. She accepted the new article; so the reprint pitch instead turned into a NEW clip that will run in two different rregionals and on the web.

Keep JHSing--it pays off!

Whew, just got home and read through the thread...so much has been going on! I'll just throw out a quick update since our new thread is due to start.

I just pulled up my Examiner stats for the month, and I earned $70. Not bad for my first month; ain't gonna pay big bills, but it's quick and I enjoy it so I'm going to set a goal of getting up to $200 a month over the next six months.

Had two long-awaited checks in the mail waiting for me so I liked coming home to that!

Now to get to work...I was good on the cruise and worked on a magazine assignment, plus knocked out some Demand Studio stuff and did a bunch of Examiner pieces in advance so I have a ready supply. Somehow it's easier to write when the ocean is your backdrop : )

inkkognito said:

Somehow it's easier to write when the ocean is your backdrop : )

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The ocean or the mountains... *sigh* I'm jealous, ink. lol

First, here's my original goals for the month:

me said:

- Query $80/day with NO carry-overs.
- Send 3 book-related submissions t agents/publishers.
- Update all blogs at least 3x a week.
- 2 Bukisa articles a week (I'm leaving this one in for a while, it might go buh-bye later on though)
- 2 eHow articles a week
- Complete & send OWFI contest entries (have several ready to go)

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I did the $80/day 5 days/week with no carry overs with the exception of one day when I had the massive earache, one day when I realized the earache was a toothache, and one day when I was sick with a cold. Doing that for 18 of 21 business days (going M-F now) is pretty good IMO.

I sent 5 book-length projects out (two were to a contest and not to actual agents/publishers, so I'm still in the goal of 3): Kiernan's Curse, Devon's Wish, Benen's Burden, Confessions of a Fat Chick, and Navajo Rose.

I did not update all blogs 3x a week. Since I started Refilling the Well on the Today.com network on January 6, I've only missed one day on it.

I have a total of 11 articles up on eHow right now, which averages out to a little over 2 articles a week.

For the contest entries, I submitted a total of 14 entries. This is for the Oklahoma Writers' Federation, Inc., contest.

Now, then...

Second is the residual income experiment I've been doing. I thought about letting it go only through January and February. But I've decided it'll run all year. That way when someone has an evangelical slant on residual income, I can say with certainty whether or not it works for me. Here are my results from January:

Bukisa - $4.60
eHow - $0.93
Today.com - $7.03

Total for January - $12.56

I realize the Today.com blog probably doesn't qualify as residual income, but I'm including it in this anyway.

How'd everyone else's month go? Join me over in the February Just Hit Send thread when you can.

January Round-up

Well, I've reviewed my January goals and successes so here they are!

Skyraven said:

well seems like three days is enough to figure out my writing goals. I think I put them in the resolutions list but let's see if my brain stll works.

1) blog twice weekly at my portfolio and FW. (yup!)
2) Market and promote FW (have been doing this)
3) write a biz plan for FW (nope)
4) write my non-fiction article hw for long ridge due on the 15th (pushed back until Feb. 10th)
5) write and submit and essay for Cup of comfort due Feb. 2. (pushed back until June for Chicken Soup)
6) write and submit essay for the Lifestyle section of Latina Magazine (May issue). (haven't written anything on this)

keep going with examiner and momslikeme.com (didn't do much with Examiner, but I scored an interview and reviews of a kids music band! Still promoting Momslikeme and actually using FW to promote a writing course for a writer/teacher who will be doing a guest post on FW)

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Congratulations on all your January JHS everyone!

Just posted at FW and HZ. If you writers want a last chance to save money on a class, check out The Freshman Writer! I'm also thinking of articles for the examiner site. Maybe I'll start doing book reviews there. We'll see.

Well.... for all of ya'll that put up with my venting the other day.... my inlaws have FINALLY moved out...!!!! Yahooo......!!!!

Great for you! Join us over on the Feb JHS thread, if you haven't already!