Standing with Standing Rock

Hey everyone! I hope that everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was quiet, but I got to spend it with most of my family, which is the best way, I think.

Anyway, I'm technically still on my blogging break, and will only be back toward the end of the year, but Nicole from The Madlab Post got in touch with me and asked me to help spread awareness for the situation at Standing Rock.

Yes, yes, I know this is way out of the usual line of topics for my blog, but sometimes, it's just necessary to speak up.

And since December is a month of solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, I thought it's a good time for me to help in my small way. I'm really far away from everything, and have very little chance of actually making a direct difference to the situation at Standing Rock, but I know some of you are in a position to help, so I thought I'd link up to this Blogathon.

So what's it all about? Well... I'm going to let the people of Standing Rock speak for themselves...


So what can you do about it?

At the moment, the best hope that Standing Rock has is to put public pressure on the various stakeholders in the pipe-lines. You can click here and here if you'd like to read up on some suggestions as to how to do that.

This blogathon, though, is about creating awareness by writing public letters.

The instructions are as follows:

PLEASE READ ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE SUBMITTING BLOG POSTS.

How To Participate:

1. Write an open letter to a bank of your choosing, in response to the film Mni Wiconi: The Stand at Standing Rock and publish it on your blog between Dec. 27 - Jan. 2. (e.g. Dear Wells Fargo, Why Are You Funding Water Contamination? or Dear Chase Bank, You Can't Drink Oil)

·         

• Must be written to one of the 38 banks involved (17 are directly funding DAPL.)
• A $1.4 billion loan is on hold while the Army Corps permit for drilling under the Missouri River is suspended. This means there's still time for the banks involved in this loan to cut their line of credit.

·        Only submit NEW posts. Previously published posts will not be eligible for the giveaway (see below). If you do not have a blog, consider doing a guest post for another blogger or posting your entry on Medium.

2. Add the blogathon badge to your post

3. Send us your post by filling out the form below:

4. Promote your post on social media using the hashtags #WaterisLife #Blogathon #DefundDAPL #BankExit

LINK-UPS

Nicole will post a list roundup of the participating blogs, as they are received and compiled, throughout the week and share the lists on social media.

GIVEAWAY

*courtesy of @MadlabPost & Do1Thing

On Tuesday January 3rd, Nicole will randomly select five participants who will win a 2017 Do1Thing wall calendar and an emergency swag bag filled with a water bottle, first aid kit, KIND granola, flashlights and related goodies. The first winning gift recipient who responds to her notification will also receive a Star Wars themed surprise. 

Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope some of you will be moved to take part. I'm turning off the comments today, because it's one of those times when really, what you think and do is your own decision. 

See you soon! 

Misha

Checking in.

Eek! I can't believe how fast time has been running away from me. December just seems to be one of those months. Too much to do.

Today, my mom, gran and I spent most of this morning baking cookies for Christmas. It was a bit dodgy at one stage, because for some reason, all of our batters came out too sticky, so I we had to improvise. Thankfully, though, no flops.

Other than that, it just feels like there's a black hole around here somewhere, happily sucking up my time. I've only manage to write three times this month, which, given how much I still have to do, is a bit horrifying. Worse still, I'm not sure what I spent that time on. Some of it I do remember. Mostly, though, it feels like I've somehow managed to waste two thirds of the month, even if I haven't.

It's just that sinking feeling I get when everything I'm doing now is going toward a long-term goal.

One short term thing I've done that you actually can see: I updated the banners to all of my social network sites except for YouTube to show off my books a bit more. I think it came out beautifully, but you can see what all of my sites look like by clicking in the links on the sidebar. (Those link buttons are also new.)

It was something I've been wanting to do for a while now, but just kept putting off. Now I'm glad that it's done.

I've also imported all of my blog posts to Wordpress and replicated all of my pages, so there is no longer a difference between the content from one blog to the other. (Which was the point, given that I'm just cross-posting between the two so my Wordpress friends have an easier experience with my blog.)

I've got a whole lot of stuff that needs doing, and even some posts that I've got lined up in my mind, but my map for The War of Six Crowns is done, which means there's nothing hampering my updating the first two books, save for the fact that I still haven't finished all the other stuff I wanted to do to those books.

Sigh.

So. As much as I've wanted to finish Book 3 before year-end, it just makes sense to focus on updating my published books first. It's just... really distracting to have these updates looming in the back of my mind. And the sooner I have them done, the sooner I can start pushing with marketing tactics. (No point doing them when I might change up the book at any moment.)

That's basically where I am at the moment.

I'm probably going to be a bit absent until next week, since I really want to push to get stuff done. We'll see how that works out, though.

How are you doing? What are you rushing to finish off before New Year's Eve?

Insecure Writer's Support Group

Hey everyone. It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. For those of you who don't know, the IWSG is the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. Once a month, we share our insecurities, then visit each other and encourage each other. You're more than welcome to sign up. For more information and the entry list, please click here.

This month's question actually ties in quite nicely with my insecurities... 

In terms of your writing career, where do you see yourself five years from now, and what’s your plan to get there?

I'd actually like to be writing (and doing writing-related activities) full-time by the end of next year. (Actually, I'm basically working as if I'm full-time already, but it'd be nice to actually make a living from it.)

Five years from now, I'd like to be making a very comfortable living from my writing.

As for my plan to get there:

I'm using my writing skills to freelance as an editor/beta reader/article writer on Upwork and Fiverr. I'm also working on building a Patreon following, and obviously I'm selling books. Right now, I'm putting all of the money I'm generating back into making more money (E.G. through marketing, or through paying for products that aid me in writing, editing etc.)

Eventually, I'll hopefully be in a place where my writing earns enough for me to make a living. And actually, it's not all that impossible. The lucky thing is that I live in South Africa, which means I'm earning in Dollars and living in Rands. So, if I managed to make $500 a month after expenses, I'd actually have the same income as a good starting office job salary. (And 2.5 times my country's minimum wage.)

My insecurity right now, though, is my life at the moment. I'm not going to go into exactly what's going on right now, but every time it feels like we've finally clawed our way out of the shit we'd been dragged into, something comes by to shove us back in.

So at the moment, I'm trying not to feel like I'm never going to get anywhere again, but the thing is, the thought is there. It exists. And the only way for me to make it go away is by pushing through and working anyway to build up the life I want.

It'd just be nice if I didn't need to worry as much.

How are you doing? Do you set five year goals? 

Finally! A chance to update.

I'm finally back, with enough breathing room to let you know how I did with my crazy goals bloghop. This... isn't really a good thing, but because I'm tired of complaining, I'm just going to ignore the reason why I haven't been able to spend time in front of my computer and leave it at that.

There's no point to talking about the situation yet, because I'm just going to depress myself when things could actually be okay.

So.

I ended up resetting my goal in September to allow for any income related to my writing skills to go toward my $7500 a month goal goal. (Which means, editing, ad money from a writing blog, money for hosting writing classes, royalties etc. all count.) 

On this new system, I'm taking a look at income generated and word-count, because I do really want my actual book writing to add the majority to my income. 

Generated Income

Last month, I'd set a goal for $300 generated which is the sum of incomes generated previously and future income. Yes, this means I count the incomes twice, but it works because I want to see how my income generation grows while also seeing how much I'm actually getting in every month.

This month, though, some royalty money I'd loaned to my family got paid back, and it was enough to actually boost my income so much that I lifted the goal to $500 about half-way through. (And then still managed to get over that.) 

But because most of this money is a real windfall (writing related as it is), I decided to keep the goal at $500 this month, because it's a nice, lofty goal to reach for, which should keep me busy for time being. 

What am I spending all this money on? Mmm... first, the programs I need to update my books. Second, I bought a new web domain (with a custom e-mail address.) Other than that, I'm buying a map for The War of Six Crowns and everything else will go into a kitty to either carry me if I happen to go into a lean month (which feels like it might happen this month) and marketing. 

I'm delaying most of my marketing plans until my books are updated. (Just makes sense to me.) So really, finishing those updates are vital. 

Writing

When it comes to writing, I didn't achieve most of what I'd wanted to do, but I did win NaNoWriMo. In fact, I ended up writing 60,000 words.

I still feel like I've got 100,000 words to go. (Yes, I'm aware this book is huge.) So, I have a bit of a monster task in front of me. Especially now that I have a fraction of my time available. 

So... I don't think I'll be able to finish the book this year. (Which makes me really, really upset. Deep breaths.) 

I also need to finish updating my books this month so I can start pushing with marketing. I'm hoping to start with this over the weekend. I'm just glad to have all the tools at my disposal again. I just need time. (Deep deep breaths.) 

So how are you doing?