Re-Branding with a Publisher

Greetings,

My goodness this entry is late. Last week just completely gotten away from me. The day job has been incredibly busy. Friday was our department graduation and there was preparation like crazy for staff to do in order to get everything to go without a hitch. So things have been a bit hectic.

But it's the writing news I am both excited and anxious about. A publishing company out of California, California Times Publishing has picked up/ signed a contract for Hollownton Homicide.

It's exciting because somebody actually reached out and said that they wanted to publish the book, under their name because technically it was already published, however it is kind of nerve-racking because you never know how a wider audience will respond to it and there were a couple conditions for picking up the book.

The first is they wanted to change the title. The current title has the main character in the book Anthony or Tony Hollownton as part of the title. I guess they don't like his last name so after some discussion the title will be Rain City Homicide. So the series titles from here on out will be Rain City…..

The second condition was they do not like the use of initials. So they wanted me to come up with something else. I decided to be a bit of a sassy pants and went with Essby. So I'm not exactly happy with it but I'm trying to accept the fact that I should just calm down and not get so worked up about the author name used. But I can't seem to help it.

The last stipulation is they did not like the current cover. They said covers where the person on the cover is looking practically at the reader with not a lot else going on don't sell as well for whatever reason statistically. So they are changing the cover. I got to see the new concept art for the publishers covers this week. That was super cool. I really like them.

I am trying to be upbeat about the publishing thing but I can not shake the anxious nerves. Maybe it will all be better once the book is rereleased.

I am not sure I have anything else for the moment.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

Procrastination!

Greetings,

This week I want to talk about writing and books. For the last month or so I have been working on the book 2 of the Night World Series. I am super excited about working on it but at the same time it is daunting. What if it isn't as good? What if people don't like it? What if I don't finish it in the time line I have set out for myself?

The timeline is my big problem. I really wanted to get four books out this year, but I'm not sure I am going to reach that goal.

Enter the Hubster. He in his sweetness bought me Dragonspeak for my birthday. Dictating with that means pages get done more than twice as fast, YAY! However, It does not always type exactly what I put meaning my pre-editing read through is going to take longer, less yay. Over all it gives me hope to finish books this year. Since I work for a school that slows in the summer I am going down to 80% time. That gives me extra writing time at home.

So we reach the goal I set. With the math I did, I should be able to finish a minimum of two books by the end of September and a max of four. The later would be amazing.

But then my second complication comes in, laziness and procrastination. Some times I get home after the hour bus ride and all I want to do is watch an episode of something before starting dinner. This is not a conducive attitude to writing. I have yet to come up with a good way to push through that.

In other news Hollownton Homicide has a one year book contract with CA Times Publishing. They are going to re-release the book under their publishing house. I am excited about this but a little hesitant. They do not like that I use my initials so after some discussion my, pen name, I guess you would say for the re-release will be Gretchen Essby. They are also re-doing the cover and I should get a peek at the new one later this week. I also filled out the initial info so they could start working on a book trailer for it. I am excited to see it!

I think that is all I have for this week.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

Dog VS. Plant, What the dog thinks is an epic battle

Hello There,

This week I wanted to talk about our three postage stamp sized yard. There were several plants in the yard when we moved in. There was also a small gravel area, though I have no idea why it is there. We were thinking about what to do with this gravel area and came to the conclusion that it would be a good place to place some pots and grow some of our own veggies.

We were excited about this idea because it meant saving money of veggies, win. As well as less waste, since green onions, lettuce and a smattering of other veggies come in large packs that the two of us don't always use all of.

So we bought cute barrel pots, potting soil, fertilizer, special ozmocote, We have starters of lettuce, walla walla onions (The best onions there are in my humble opinion), green onions, chives, lemon mint, a green pepper plant, cabbage, and Kale. (I also got a couple flowers. I couldn't help it, they were pretty.

Anyway, we got everything planted and later that night under the cover of darkness our not so little Rotti dug up some of the Kale, all but one lettuce plant and almost half the onions. These are just the plants that are missing. Several others were tossed or knocked over and soil was all over. I was not too thrilled.

I am not quite plant savvy enough to know how to best help them. She still sniffs around the but I think we have told her no enough times that she stays away for the time being.

She seems to have moved on though. One of the plants growing quite tall in our back yard has small white flowers. For whatever reason our Rotti has decided this plant is her nemesis. It started by biting off the flowers, then the smaller branches. Now she is digging up the roots. The hubster told me he found the hole, i haven't had the chance to cover it back up. Apparently one of her tennis balls is helping her in this endeavor because it keeps making to outside and into the trench like hole. *sigh* I am guessing this is just life with a Rotti.

The plan it to either put the pots on benches or circle them in chicken wire as a way of dog proofing. But I am at a loss for the white flowers. Any ideas on how to help the plant in this epic battle are much appreciated.

That's all for now.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

Getting a Dog

Greetings,

This is the last week of my catch up posts. I know Finally!

I am going to write about our Dog, Kahlua. For reference I will insert an image of little ms cuteness...now...

While not the cutest dog in the world she still has such a sweet face. 

Anyway, we adopted her a month and a half ago from a county shelter. She has a sad story. She was in the shelter about a week before we adopted her and had a litter of puppies. The owner paid to have her and the puppies back, then three days later Kahlua had been abandoned again. 

That has given her a strong separation anxiety, and a fear of riding in cars, and of overpasses. It has been a little heartbreaking because she is a very sweet and obedient dog. She isn't even a year and a half yet so she is full of spunky energy and chews things up when we are not home to watch her. She doesn't eat furniture, thank goodness, but it is still annoying to come home and have something in shreds. 

I have confidence that eventually we were figure out how to get the destruction to stop. After all she doesn't destroy her stuffed animals, just carries them around in her mouth. 

This sweet little pup is really growing on us. But that is really all I have for now,

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

Getting Hitched

Much like the post about buying a house, having one post to discuss the whole process of getting married seems to be not enough. But I will give it a try.

The Hubster and I got engaged the first week of June. He was nervous (It was so cute) I started cursing from shock when the ring came out (not so cute). But it was where we had our first date. *sigh* Okay, that is the end of the mushy stuff. Mainly because I don't want to disgust myself.

We gave ourselves 8 months, which seemed reasonable to us but people kept telling us that was fast. Not sure why. I am going to interject here that when you add the word wedding, it is amazing how prices skyrocket. Our wedding budget was $4k. Because apparently I felt I needed to make life more stressful.

As out guest list grew (we toped at 150) our budget became an increasing problem. We ended up going through multiple vendors for things because stuff just fell through. We didn't have our final venue until about 6 weeks before the ceremony. In case you were wondering, yes I was a bit out of my mind.

I will stop griping now, because remembering it all still makes me cringe. The day of was nice and not as stressful as I thought it would be. We got hitched without a hitch ;) and that was the important part.

I am glad it is behind us, though I noticed some new gray hairs. Both the Hubster and loved our honeymoon. We went to Disneyworld. Yes, we were adults in Disneyworld...without children. It was a wonderful vacation from all the stress that we had from all the months before it.

Then we came home feeling refreshed and in love and found mushrooms growing out of one of our walls and a bunch of black mold inside the wall. *sigh* Maybe it is time for anther vacation....

Happy Reading,

Gretchen