Thank You and Weekend Workout

This has been a crazy 3 weeks of physical and virtual launches and I’m riding on adrenaline and completely sleep-deprived. But I really wanted to post today; we’ll see if it’s coherent.

THANK YOU and STAT REPORT

A humongous thanks to all of you who helped promote the free ebook special. I promised you some feedback on the process and a report on whether I thought it resulted in actual sales. We shall see.

The book was downloaded 2,266 times. That blows me away.

In the kindle free ebook stats it reached #104 in ebooks, #75 in fiction, #3 in childrens fantasy, and #1 in general fantasy.

Look, I’m almost touching Suzanne Collins and George R. R. Martin!

It also garnered several more likes on Briggy’s FB page, the Ruins of Noe amazon page, and reviews on goodreads and amazon.

If anyone is interested in what I did to promote it, let me know and maybe I can post about that next week.

WEEKEND WORKOUT

I’m reading THE DEIFICATION by Jack Remick right now and am so, so, so digging it. It’s reminiscent of the Beats, but a contemporary story. I know the Beats were an influence on him and the rhythm is there.

This Weekend’s Workout was inspired by that rhythm. It has nothing to do with any novel I’m working on. Sometimes it’s just fun to play.

You can use yourself for this exercise or write from a character’s POV if you want.

Pick a precious moment from the past 24 moment. And I don’t mean “cute” like you saw a puppy on the street. I mean a moment that is of small significance, no turning point or epiphany, but is precious in that daily, comfortable way.

Set your timer for 5 to 7 minutes and write a prose poem about this precious moment. Let both the language and the imagery guide you through the moment, rather than try to make something of it (i.e. don’t try to tell a story). Let the rhythm of it dictate the breath.

EXAMPLE:

When she opened the door she didn’t see me and the restaurant was empty, but one couple by the window. I let her look around the room before calling to her from the corner. For a moment she thought she had beaten me in the rain. It was mist, really, on Market Street. Her hair was darker and I told her so. She smiled at my noticing. (and so on)

I will get back to my Character – Action series next Friday.

BE KIND TO MYSELF WEEK

After three weeks of irregular sleep, traveling, performing, teaching, speaking, and friend-visiting I am happily exhausted. Sleepy. So this week is official BE KIND TO MYSELF WEEK. If you’d like to join me, then write in the comment section 3 WAYS you will be kind to yourself this week.

Here are mine:

1) My physical therapist gave me some exercises to do. I will do them at least 3 times per day.

2) I will be in bed by 11 pm.

3) I won’t smoke. I’m a stress-smoker. I can go weeks, months, even years without smoking, and then when things get a little wonky, I revert back. But I am being good to my lungs this week!

How about you?