Ooops! Already Spilled the Beans!

This will be old news for all of you who follow me on Facebook, but things just happened yesterday that I had to shout about then.

The first was that I FINALLY sent to the formatters, SECOND ACT, a book that many of you helped name. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

When you self-publish, there’s a formatting step (I actually think it’s a million steps and all about technology) and you know me and technology…well if it weren’t for folks like those at Top e-Services who specialize in this area of the business, I wouldn’t be able to get my books published. I know there are authors out there who can do all that “stuff” themselves, but I’m not one. Heck, I don’t even understand what that “stuff” is. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. 

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. Copied book with my and Bob’s sticky notes!

But it’s a big step toward publication. I’m still shooting for March sometime. I don’t know if Spring Break matters in the publishing business or not. Ideas?

Whenever it is, I will for the first time have at the same time a PRINT and an e-book available at publication. I’m hoping to be able to let you Pre-Order, too.

Last time I did a Release Day Party here on my Blog, and I’ll probably do it that way again. The Facebook Parties just make me nuts. They go so fast! I plan on a blog tour again, too, but still need to set that up. Acchhhh! Still lots to do. Wow!

My new Bitty Booklets are on order and I hope they arrive next week sometime. Thanks to Laron Glover with Ninth Moon. She did my first Bitty Booklet for TRUTH BE TOLD Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. and the wonderful graphic that I have as stickers and use often on social media. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. (I’ll probably won’t have her create a new one until I have the second book in the series out. Then SECOND ACT & ACT OF TRUST can have their own sticker.!)

Next Thursday, March 5, I will be attending a Book Club meeting at the Barnes and Noble at the Northeast Mall in HEB. Looking forward to that. Please holler at me if you attend a book club. I’d love to come. I bring SWAG, too! Image may be NSFW.
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The other big news is I’ve lost 18.5 lbs. in about 6 weeks.  Not yet 20, but very close. I wouldn’t be saying anything here about it, waiting for the 20, but yesterday, my friend and fellow author Jerrie Alexander tagged me on Facebook to share 7 things people didn’t know about me. That was hard, if people know me at all, they know a lot. I’m a pretty open book. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. No pun intended. So the first thing I went with was the loss of 18.5 lbs.  Not bad, if I do say so myself. (I’ll post the others at the end of this in case you aren’t on FB.)

You know I’ve been doing Nutrisystem. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

It obviously works for me. The real kicker is why didn’t I start it sooner? I’d been considering it since Marie Osmond was on Dancing With The Stars. In the intervening 2 years, I gained an extra 20 lbs. thinking about dieting, dieting, losing, gaining back more and basically being miserable!

Health issues were creeping in with more joint aches. But the real deal was clothes. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to be able to wear some clothes I saw at the mall that I couldn’t. The styles reminded me of when I was in high school and early college. (I won’t be getting back to that size. One does need to be realistic. LOL Besides, my face would be so lined, I’d look like I was 80!) But I want to walk in The Limited and buy one of their preppy outfits. Just love’em. The colors are so back in the day. Turquoise and brown. Sometimes with a touch of coral. Navy and white, too. So classic.

There are some opportunities to wear fancy clothes coming during the next year, and I wanted to really look good for those. (I looked pretty darn good back when we celebrated 2000, wearing a slinky blue sequined gown.) So I guess it was health and vanity and the dreadful number I read on the scales that day back in January before my last birthday!

Bottom line, whatever works for you to get you to do what’s best for you, you need to jump on it. And sooner is better than later.  Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. But later is better than not at all.

So how about you? Are there some things you put off doing even though you knew they’d be good for you? How do you trick yourself into making the best decision? For authors, I don’t think there’s one best way to write a book. I don’t think there’s one best way to lose weight, stop smoking, get yourself to exercise, or to stop or start any habit. It’s just finding what works for you. So I’d love to hear. What works for you?

P.S. Almost forgot the 7 things from the FB post. Here they are:

#1 I’ve lost 18.5 lbs on Nutrisystem over the last 6 weeks! And I ate pancakes for breakfast this morning. They were yummy!
#2 I love puppy dogs. We’ve had 4 of our own, plus my older daughter’s who we did doggy day care with when he was young. Charley is our most recent. He arrived on our neighbor’s doorstep and adopted us. He’s deaf.
#3 I’d like to spend summer and fall in Maine and the rest of the time here in Texas with the kids and grands. (DH has to go along, haven’t figured out how to make that happen.)
#4 I served 8 years on the Fort Worth School Board. Great experience. Learned a lot.
#5 I love to watch HGTV and think it would be cool to win the house on Martha’s Vinyard. It’s in my colors of turquoise and blues!
#6 Like Jerrie Alexander I go out of my way, to miss those high bridges. What were people thinking to build them that way?!!
#7 When I was in 8th grade I wanted to serve in the United States Congress.
Can you relate to any of these?