The creative writer and shiny sticker syndrome

People! If you don't know...I'm a planner crazy person. I love all things shiny and sparkly. When September comes around, all the planner companies are having their big reveals for the upcoming year. 

Also at this time, you can order. I'm a hot mess from September to January. . . then an even hotter mess from January until April!

Let me explain.

Look how adorable and fun this Happy Stripe Simplified Planner is!!! I had to have it...

Then...

They came out with a bigger and better Pineapple Simplified Planner  with COFFEE STICKERS! Plus it was wire bound. Oh gosh, I had to have it!

But how functional was it for me? In all honesty, I did like this planner, I don't need an everyday life planner. Now that it's just me and Eddy, we go with the flow. I don't have to keep the schedule of four little boys along with school projects, homework, or even ball practices anymore so the big daytime planner really isn't what I need. 

What I need is a good business planner with goals in it. Goals, meaning, a production schedule of all my books along with everything I have to do get the books in your hands. 

I have to write the book, schedule the editor, schedule the cover artist, write the blurb, get the preorder up on KDP, get the book up on Goodreads, get the book up on Author Central, get the book up on Bookbub, schedule the formatter, make the memes, do the edits. . .the list goes on and on. It takes me a good three weeks to get the particulars of a book completed (not counting how long it takes me to write it), and ready just to get up for the preorder. 

That's the list I need and the kind of schedule I need. All of the things that need to be done have a certain order in which you have to do them. Sometimes I forget to do it by a certain date and then I'm scrambling. 

In December, I promised myself I was going to have a great system for this year. Quickly, I soon realized that this year was the year that I was going to have to live by trial and error to see what works for my business, the writing business. After all, it's a business and has to be run like one. 

But look at all those awesome stickers! I love the stickers....but the planning has to come first. 

Sadly, it was goodbye Simplified Planner and on to something else. 

I decided to make my own planner and went with the Happy Planner disc system. Then the shiny stickers got me again. 

Talk about sticker crazy! I went nuts. Eddy would see me get out my stickers and say, "is it playtime?" I would give him the stink eye and growl at him. But he was right. I didn't and don't need all those stickers and it wasn't a productive planner for me. 

After I got some wits about me and really sat down to plan out what I truly needed for the business side of writing, I did research like any good writer and found what's called the Master Planner. The girl who came up with it was in my boat. She was looking for a functional planner that would help keep her on course for her goals and not get all google eyed when a pretty sticker popped up. 

This planner has an actual goal setting, task, and daily accountability sheet for all of those tasks that need to be complete. It's actually been a month now and I've actually grown to LOVE this planner. 

Though there are a few spots that might have a couple shiny stickers in there to scratch that sticker itch!

Do you use a planner? Do you love stickers as much as me?

 

VROOM!! MOTORHOMES, MAPS, & MURDER IS HERE!

GRAB YOUR COPY TODAY!

Diggin' Up Dirt Chapter One

Y'all I have to say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE writing in the Kenni Lowry Mystery Series. I turned in book seven over four months ago and just now turning in the blurb for it. It won't be released until May, but I just had to share the first chapter with you. But we'll get to that.

Want to add a caption to this image? Click the Settings icon.

First I have to tell you that I'm writing the 8th book in the series and I just can't stop myself from writing because it's so funny. Not that murder is funny, but it's funny in my southern cozy mysteries with all the shenanigans.

This photo is with me and one of my critic partners, Cherry Adair, using her copyrighted Plot By Color method.

We take a yearly retreat for two weeks and plot out a few books using her method. You can check her website out here. Anyways, after the two weeks, I pack up my plot boards and bring them home. They sit around until I'm ready to write that book.

This was in October and I'm just now getting around to writing the book....by oh my! I forgot how much fun this book was going to be to write.

You see. . . my partners write romance, so when they get to my books, we have the best time coming up with the funniest ways to put my amateur sleuths in the thick of the investigation. We spend a lot of time laughing and plotting things.

Want to add a caption to this image? Click the Settings icon.

These are just a few of the plot note that didn't make it in the book! Now, I'm sitting down to write Pushing Up Daisy...because Daisy is the victim's name...which totally cracks me up. Now, this is a working title and ultimately the publisher has the say in what the title is, but with my suggestion.

Needless to say, I'm writing away on it and having the best time.

Want to add a caption to this image? Click the Settings icon.

Of course, Charlie thinks I'm completely ignoring him now that he's gotten all the attention now that Scooter has passed away. Or maybe he's looking at my plot board with a few suggestions. . .

Regardless, my publisher is in the final stages of Diggin' Up Dirt and I have to say that I love this cover. It's all sorts of adorable and I'm giving you a very secret sneak peak at the first chapter!

Click right here to be taken to the read Chapter One in Diggin' Up Dirt!

Enjoy!!

Until next week!

xoxoxo~ T.

How Sophia Cummings discovered Banana Pudding Cupcakes!

Just reading that makes my mouth water! Mmmmm, mmmmmm goooooood!

Good morning. . .well. . .it’s a good morning because I’m above ground. That’s the best I’ve got. Those? Those are Banana Pudding Cupcakes. You can help yourself.

Instead of me telling you about how my heart has been broken because I caught my live-in boyfriend cheating on me with the hostess of the restaurant where he’s the head chef and I’m the head pastry chef, I’ll tell you about how I came up with the recipe for the Banana Pudding Cupcakes.

Every restaurant in the south pretty much has banana pudding on their menu. As a kid, I liked the taste, but there was just too much of the pudding. My parents had taken me to one of those smorgasbords type restaurants. I remember taking a cupcake and a plate of banana pudding from dessert section. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to eat and Bitsy, that’s my mama and how she likes for me to refer to her, was beside herself that I’d taken two desserts when people on the other side of the world just wanted one dessert. She was good then about making me feel guilty. Anyways, I did my teenage job of ignoring her and scrapped the icing off the cupcake. I scooped some of the banana pudding, with a piece of banana, and frosted the top of the vanilla cupcake with it. My dad watched from across the table with a look of disgust on his face. Of course I had to try it and no matter how bad it was, I had to pretend it was good. I’d taken a deep breath and bit into my creation. It was an experience I’d never had.

I guess the look on my face spoke so loud to my dad that he reached over with his fork and upon my agreeable nod, took a bite. The next day, there was a twenty dollar bill and a note from my dad that said to head to the grocery store and buy the ingredients I needed to create a real banana pudding cupcake.

That was, as we say in the south, all she wrote.

It happens to be one of the most popular desserts I make at The Manhattan, the restaurant where I work in New York. You know, the one I was referring to when my live-in…moving on!

Anyways, I took a couple of weeks vacation and found myself back in Rumford, in my parents home, in my old childhood bedroom.

Ugh. Not where I plan to be for too long. But if Bitsy has anything to do with you, she wants me to move back for good. No way!

Anyways, I’m beyond excited to hear what a dessert you love to eat. Tell me!

Grab the Banana Pudding Cupcake by clicking here!

(PHOTO IS TAKEN FROM PINTEREST)

See why readers are loving Batter Off Dead and why Woman's Magazine made Batter Off Dead their book club of Christmas!
"Romance, a lovable bunch of eccentrics, and a collection of recipes with murder most foul."
—Kirkus
BUY THE BOOK!