Anyone have any advice? I published a couple short things on Amazon and I am not sure I really understand how it works. It says to run promotions and enroll in the KDP Select. What does that mean? And what do you get? I did this like 2 months ago and I have not had one person read anything. I just went back in and added a countdown to Amazon UK. I just don’t know what that really does. I don’t really understand how to promote something on the Amazon site.

I will do some more research but has anyone had any success with this KDP publishing? Did you promote on other websites? I signed up for twitter. I joined a bunch of groups. I am working on getting followers, posting blogs and getting blog followers. I paid to upgrade my blog for a year since I was really going to try to get it up and going. I have made 2 cents in 2 months. Thank god I have a day job! I did go from 1 follower to 6 though, so that’s promising but I get maybe 1 hit per day. I just think I have to keep it going.

Do you use any other platforms to promote?

 I am giving myself a couple years to really invest what time I do have in this. Really give it a try instead of mailing things out and waiting 8 months and hearing nothing. I am working on just writing everyday again. I did that for the last year and I am going to keep it going but now I am adding blog posts in daily as well. I really want to realize this dream.

So, what’s been your experience and what would your advice be to someone just starting up?

Also, If you would like to review a short book please follow these links:

My mom walked in the back door telling me she has a surprise for me and she seems so excited.

She says “Jessie!!! You’ll never believe who I found?”

“Who?” I yell as I come around the corner.

“You’re father!” She says.

I stop for a moment. My father has been dead for 6 months now. I hesitate and turn the corner into the kitchen. Standing in the doorway is a man who looks like my father but everything is slightly off. His hair is long and his skin is tanned. He comes up to me and hugs me and immediately starts talking.

The bull didn’t kill him, he says. The bull kicked him in his stomach and he threw up and the next thing he knew he was lost in the woods for months. Explaining the long hair and tanned skin. His teeth are different though and the way he speaks is wrong. His hairline is off.  When he’s done explaining he says “I like to be naked” And strips down to his underwear in my kitchen, then starts walking around my house.

My mom is so happy she can’t even stand still. She is bouncing all over explaining how the police called her and she went to the station and there he was.

I stop her “Mom, we saw him dead at the funeral home. You saw his body on the farm before they took him to the morgue.”

She brushes off my logic as if it was all a dream.

And it is a dream. I wake up and there is no weird man walking around my house naked. My father is still dead. What a weirdo dream though. Why can’t I have an actual dream where I get to talk to my actual father?

This might be a good start to horror movie though!

Anyone have weirdo dreams of their dead parent?

I love Tuesday’s. It’s half price movie night so we all go and get popcorn and a drink and relax. We took a couple Tuesday’s off because Christmas and New Years but now we are back and the first review of the year is …  Aquaman!

I love Jason Momoa. I just do. He seems so fun and the fact that him and his wife fell in love over a Guinness just makes my heart happy. So I will go see pretty much anything either one of them are in. Also, I would love to have a pint with them and me and my husband. That would be a good time.

I like Amber Heard. She did an awesome job in this movie. I liked her strong character and I look forward to seeing her in more movies.

Nicole Kidman has been in so many movies I really enjoyed. I just love her as an actress and as the mom figure in this movie.. I just like her as a person. She seems so genuine.

First off, my review. Everyone has good hair days in the ocean and  I want to live there. I thought it was a little long but good. Like 2 wines are perfect. They didn’t rush the story too much  and there is a lot of story. Why is Aquamans thing a giant crustacean? Really Aquaman? You command the entire ocean.  And side note, is it okay to wear sweat pants to the theater? Cause I totally did.

My niece voted this movie most ambitious crossover cause dinosaur island is Jurassic park. She thinks the ocean master is a stupid name. That’s where she laughed literally out loud. “Call me the ocean master!” This will now be a joke. I will say this when we go away this summer in whatever body of water we may be in. I will also say this when I am cooking thanksgiving dinner. But it will be “call me the ham master!” And “call your uncle the turkey master!!” I’m corny but I’m awesome.

Isabel fell asleep after snacks.

Sam thinks it was good. He said more dinosaurs. I can tell he liked it though cause he watched the entire thing and barely talked!

My husband says he liked it. It was fun, not to serious. Even in the dark you can see what’s happening. And who knew Patrick Wilson could be a good villain?

My sister says. She liked it. She liked the story line. Some was too animated. But she liked it.

Overall we all liked it and I would recommend it.

Have you seen this movie? What did you think?

Next week is Mary Poppins.

How do you go about getting followers on your blog? I started writing again last January and I was doing really good with writing daily. I self published a couple short books on Amazon, I haven’t sold any yet but I did it! I started the blog a long time ago. I didn’t post much to it because I wasn’t really sure what to use it for. In November I decided that I was going to try to make a push and see if I can really get followers and people that would maybe read my book.  I challenged myself to post one blog everyday I work. So not on the weekends, holidays or vacations. Those are for the family. If I do have thoughts over the weekend I use Evernote and write them down so I can remember come Monday.

My husband suggested Twitter so I joined that and I have found a really great and welcoming community #amwriting #writerscommunity #writingcommunity #writerslife are all really supportive!  I have 119 followers on twitter and one new subscriber to my blog, bringing that total to 2! I am still not bringing any traffic to my blog. I did pay for the upgrade to premium and I have no idea what that really does yet..

So my question is, how do people get readers? Do you need to add pictures? Does adding links help? What helps? Any suggestions on how to find new readers and promote my things?

I work a full time job and have 2 kids in elementary school, husband, 2 dogs and a turtle so there is only so much time I have right now.

This past Friday I ran around an did all my grocery shopping after work. My go to store is Shop Rite for basic groceries and then every other week I hit up Costco to pick up the big things we need. This past weekend I was a little hungry when I got to Costco and I saw a big bag of Beef Jerky. I was like I need this. It was sweet Korean something, I don’t know but I couldn’t wait to get home and dive in.

I got home and my husband and I both tore into it to snack while we put everything away. It was disgusting. It was like wet beef jerky. I never in my life returned something I had started eating but I spend almost $15.00 on this and it was gross. I ended up returning it the next day. Even the guy at the return counter was like this just sounds gross! I was like it’s wet. I can’t. So, this lead my husband and I to decide to try to make out own.

We both googled a bunch of recipes and decided to try https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/beef-jerky/ this one. We went to Stew Leonard’s and pick up a cut of beef and my husband got to cutting and seasoning. Our first batch took 4 hours in the oven and it came out delicious. It was really good. Last night my husband cooked the other half of the batch at a lower temperature for 6 hours.  Now we are inspired to try other flavors. I think we are going to buy a dehydrator too. We’re thinking the next batch will be some kind of teriyaki. Eventually I want to try using other meats and lots of different seasonings. I can’t wait!

Does anyone have any good recipes? Is there a dehydrator that you love?

This is an on going thing for me my entire life. I always thought I was heavier than most of everyone. All my friends seemed to be on diets, my mom was always on a diet. So naturally I was always concerned about my weight as well. I was always up and down throughout middle and high school. By the time I graduated I was at 170 lbs. That was it I thought, I was huge! So I went on a diet of one wendys meal a day (junior cheeseburger deluxe, small fry and a coke) and I walked and smoked pot when I was not at work. Seriously, my friends and I would go for walks for hours and just talk and chill out. I lost 20 pounds and felt awesome. I pretty much maintained that weight till I got pregnant with my Son when I was 27. Then I went up to 198. After I had him I was determined to get back to the 150’s so when he was 10 months I got a job and ate 1 yogurt a day, cleaned constantly and squeezed in the gym here and there. I ended up getting back down to 150 in a couple months. Then I got pregnant with my daughter. I went up to 185 with her then dropped back down to 160. I never managed to make it back to the 150’s. I went the opposite way. I packed on 30 lbs over the last 7 years.

I have tried to lose weight. I went on weight watchers and lost 12, then holidays and I gained it back. Then I went on weight watchers 2 more times and didn’t lose a thing. I just hovered around 180 for years. Almost 2 years ago we inherited a elliptical machine and we bought a  rowing machine. Last year for the first 6 months I was on weight watchers, working out on one of those machines every morning and 3 times a week I was lifting weights with my husband in the garage. I also walked 2 miles each day at work.  I lost not even 1 pound. People said, “Oh, you’re gaining muscle!” You don’t gain 2 pounds of muscle a week. Then my dad died and everything blew out the window. I didn’t care about working out anymore. I was drinking just to go to sleep. I wasn’t sleeping very well… I’m still kind of a mess actually. But I am on a waiting list to talk to someone in a few months, I hope. I have also been diagnosed with PCOS and Hashimotos Disease. I am told that my thyroid is still functioning so we have to check every year and I don’t need medicine for it yet.

My OB gave me Metformin to help lose weight. She said it sometimes helps people with PCOS lose weight even though is a diabetes medication. At first I was like hell yeah, sign me up! Then I started taking it. You start off slow, 1 pill a day. Then after a week you go to 2 pills a day. One the third week you take 3 pills a day and after 3 months your supposed to meet up with your doctor to see how you’re doing… I got to 2 weeks and I just didn’t feel right. I didn’t want to take something that I really don’t need. I spoke to my co-worker and she said he husband was on it for a year and he just had to go for a ultrasound of his liver and kidneys. He was also gaining weight back. He has thyroid issues too. It could be (and probably is) completely unrelated, but I was already on the fence about it all so I spoke to my doctor and stopped taking it.

Back in October my husband and I did an elimination diet where we cut out everything except chicken, fruit, veggies and wild Salmon. We both ended up losing weight. Him 15 lbs, me 10. The issue with the elimination diet is we weren’t eating normally and now that we went off it and went through the holidays we are both pretty much back to where we were at when we started. So now we are going to start over. I will be posting on here my progress… or lack of progress. We’ll see what happens. Our plan is to start this weekend with just adding more activity back in. And getting back on the machines in the family room. I will start walking again at least a mile extra a day. I am back up to 182 this morning. My goal is 152. That’s when I feel my best.

I know it’s the new year and lots of people are starting new programs, is there one that works for you? Do you love something and recommend it?

I had this place I loved when I was growing up. I called it the rock because that’s what it was. A big rock that lead into the mianis river. I went swimming here a bunch of times but mostly I would go and lay around and write or sing or do whatever I wanted. No one was ever there. There were enough woods around it that I felt like it was private. It was like my special little place. Then someone built a house on it. A few weeks ago I drove past and there was a dock on my rock. I was really sad. Then I was mad. It was so beautiful and I wish that I could make enough money to buy that house and that dock and then I can sit on it with my kids and we can go swimming… But that’s a far dream right now. Anything over there is easily over a million and I can’t afford that. I wish a book would sell a lot and then I could buy it.

Did you have a place you went to when you were growing up? What was your place like?

11/1/2018

 I woke up at 3:00 AM because I had a nightmare. In my nightmare I was stranded in a car on the side of a long highway road and there was an old inn across the street. Of course I went in and got a room and it was a creepy little girl and her father that ran it. When it was night time the house came to life and I watched their entire family get murdered one by one and it turned out the murderer was a cat. Nobody survived except me, barely. I was injured and bleeding heavily and passed out. When I woke up it was the next morning and I was fine.  It was weird. The girl liked me and that’s why I survived and we decided to drive into town in the morning. We were walking out of the inn to my car, the one that broke down the day before, and I could feel like I am almost free.  There was a car parked behind me with a family and their car had broke down so they were walking in to see if there was a room available. The little girl said “of course! Come on in.” and I kept walking to my car and it turned on just fine.  I looked back and the little girl was checking them in and staring at me smiling.  I couldn’t leave because I knew what the family was going to go through and they would die,  so I waited outside for the killing to start. I could actually feel my anxiety while I was waiting. Then I woke up. So I have no idea what happen.

Anyone have any creepy dreams lately?

To everyone,

 I hope you have a happy and safe new year! Like Christmas, ours will be low key this year. I don’t even know if I will make it to 12:00! We’ll try to stay up and watch the ball drop. I’ll make some snacks. New years day we’ll just chill at home and relax. I might make Stew chicken or something from the freezer. I have no plans to go all out. I am wondering if I should get a bottle of champagne?.. We’ll see. I guess it depends if my sister is coming to watch the ball drop. Otherwise I will probably have a bourbon and pass out on the couch!  I honestly am so over food this year. It was like so much rich food all at once and I am ready for a break! I lost 10 lbs in November and then gained back 6 in December!

My resolutions are: I will be back next year to write more! I am aiming at one blog per day Monday through Friday on working days, not holidays or vacation days . I will try to do that for a year and see where that takes me. I also would like to write another book or two and get that up on Amazon. I will be working on getting healthier both my mind an body. I want to get back into working out and eating better and find a psychiatrist. And then just spending time (and more mini getaways) and being present with my family.

What are your Resolutions? Any fun and festive new years day traditions?

Happy New Year!

I was in middle school and starting to make friends for the first time in my life. You know more than one or two.  One of my friends was this girl named Melissa. We had to do a project for school so I went to her house a few times to work on it.

 She was really into saving the animals and I loved whales so we were going to save the whales together. After we did some of our project we rode our bikes down to this place called laddins rock. It was really a little wooded area in between some houses. But we would climb through the woods and just hang out.

We came upon a little stream full of leaves and rocks and we decided to clean it out so we spent a couple hours cleaning it. Over the next few days we worked our way up the stream cleaning it. One day we came back and our stream was dry.

It taught me that sometimes you need some leaves and rocks to keep the stream from moving to fast.