Woo Hoo Wednesday: I'm obsessed with coffee

It's time for Woo Hoo Wednesday, the weekly (well, usually) event where I take a few minutes to share some thoughts about the little joys in life.

Last week, our toaster oven died, so I made a journey to Bed, Bath, & Beyond to get us a plain old toaster.  It turns out that 4-slot toasters are way fancier and a little pricier than I'd expected, but I eat toast nearly every morning, so a new toaster was a necessity.  Anyway, after finally settling on a new toaster, I also stumbled on the Aerolatte.  I'd seen it a few times and thought about buying it, and because I was there with coupons in hand, I decided to get myself one.  I've used it several times now and I love it.  Using my Keurig, I can make myself a coffee, heat some milk in the microwave, froth it up with the Aerolatte, and I have myself a delicious coffee treat.  Yes, it's the simple things in life that please me.  Woo hoo for Aerolatte!

Another woo hoo because I finally figured out how to use the birthday reward that had been loaded onto my Starbucks gold card.  Not that it's complicated, but I'd assumed it would just automatically come up when I paid with the card.  Actually, you have to tell the barista that you want to use it.  Yesterday, I had a nice Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino and it was free.  Free is always my favorite kind.

Are you sensing a theme here?  I sure do like my coffee, don't I?

I'll throw in a woo hoo for finding a TV show I love.  I'm way late to the party, but my hubby and I started Netflixing Bones and we're totally hooked.  We don't watch a whole ton of TV because we're pretty picky, so we're always excited when we find something that we like.  The mysteries on Bones aren't always all that difficult to figure out, but I absolutely love the quirky characters, especially Temperance.  Characters are always king for me, and I think that tends to come out in my writing.

Lastly, a woo hoo for my being close to finishing NaNoWriMo.  I've been stressing about it a lot because I know some people really enjoyed The Eye of the Beholder (yes, I do read reviews--they help me see my writing in a different light and give me some really invaluable ideas about areas to focus on for improvement), so I really want them to like this book.  I mean, I want everyone to like it, of course, but I want to feel like I'm really writing something great for those who buy another of my books, putting their faith in me to deliver a good read.  Writing Asleep is a very different experience because of this.  Before publishing, I wrote books that I thought worked, but now I want to be sure I'm trying my best to give my audience what they like and want out of my books.  I've always been a perfectionist, but now I'm exerting another form of pressure on myself, and it's very eye-opening.

Well, that's that for me this week.  Hope you're all having a lovely week and having lots of moments that make you want to shout, "Woo hoo!"

Woo Hoo Wednesday: True heroes

It's that time of the week, where I take some time to celebrate the small things that make life awesome.  So what made you want to say "Woo Hoo!" this week?

First off, my readers have once again made me shout WOO HOO!  After a slow start to the month, I had a couple of crazy, amazing days where my sales rose high enough for me to be in the top 100 in my subcategories.  As of today, I have now had my best month ever for sales of The Eye of the Beholder.  I want to sincerely, sincerely thank each and every person who has read the book, because you're making my dreams come true--really!  Because of you, I feel I can actually make a job out of my true passion in life, and there really aren't words to express how happy that makes me.

My second woo hoo goes out to NaNoWriMo.  I haven't taken as many days to prepare for it as I would have liked, because I've been so busy with edits to Phoning It In, which I want to have out by the end of this year.  However, I've had a LOT of fun over the last two days making plans for Asleep--and I do mean a LOT of fun.  I can hardly wait until tomorrow, so I can finally start doing some actual writing!  Because The Eye of the Beholder is doing so well, I was inspired to take on another fairy tale reboot for NaNoWriMo, and I can hardly wait to start sharing samples of it with all of you.  My readers ROCK!

However, all of this pales in contrast to the real news of the week, which is Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath.  My heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones, and all those struggling to rebuild and get their lives back in order.  It's inadequate to say a woo hoo for those courageous first responders who have been rescuing people trapped by the flooding, who have been evacuating hospitals, who have been protecting citizens.  These people put their lives on the line every day for the greater good, and I can't imagine a more heroic thing to do.  If you ask me, our culture has a tendency to make heroes out of the wrong people.  My heroes are those doctors, nurses, police officers, fire fighters, EMTs, and Coast Guard personnel who put themselves at risk to help the rest of us.  Thank you so much for your service.  You have proven to us time and time again that your courage is unshakeable, even in the face of terrifying disasters.

If you're able, please join me in donating to the Red Cross here.  Monetary donations are so important, because they give the Red Cross the funds they need to buy supplies necessary to provide disaster relief.  You can also help by donating blood, and more information on that can be found here.  And another big woo hoo and thanks goes out to the Red Cross relief workers who go into disaster zones to help those affected.

Woo hoo Wednesday: I can use my kitchen sink!

It's time for another Woo Hoo Wednesday, a day to celebrate those small victories in life!

So last week ended in a bad way.  We kept smelling this disgusting odor and discovered, to our horror, that our garbage disposal was backing up into our basement sink.  There was water and bits of food all over the counter, the sink, and the carpet (our basement is finished).  Needless to say, this was not a happy discovery.  To make a long story short, after paying a couple hundred dollars to a plumber and renting a machine to clean the carpet, the problem is now resolved and we can use our kitchen sink and dishwasher again.  Plus, we were worried it would be a MUCH more expensive repair, so we were very relieved to be wrong about that.  Woo hoo for functional plumbing!

An absolutely ginormous woo hoo goes out to this fabulous weather.  It's in the upper 70s here, so all the windows are open, and I am very much enjoying the fresh air.  It's nice to have what I'm pretty sure is one last glimpse of good weather before we get slammed by winter.

Woo hoo for the return of my favorite TV shows!  Jürgen and I are rabid Fringe fans, and I'm really into the setting of the show this year.  One of my favorite things about the show is how much it's evolved.  Every season has been different, and that's a good thing.  We also love Person of Interest, which is just a lot of fun to watch as it's action packed and has some great characters.  I tend to be really picky about TV shows, so I'm glad to have a couple that I'm really into.

Lastly, woo hoo for Groupon!  Thanks to it, I bought myself a nice spa package and got to experience the works.  It's nice to get a good pampering every now and then, and I really enjoyed having a nice stretch of time all to myself.

That's it from me this week.  Hope you're all enjoying a week full of woo hoos!

Woo hoo Wednesday: I'm in the home stretch!

Welcome to another weekly installment of Woo Hoo Wednesday.  Honestly, I love doing this.  I have a tendency to be something of a stress bunny, so it's a fantastic idea for me to stop and take a minute to think about all the good things in my life.

The biggest woo hoo is that the end is in sight for Phoning It In!  And by end, I mean the end of writing the manuscript.  I'll still have edits ahead of me (and some parts of the manuscript are going to need a lot of overhauling), but it feels really, really good to be on the verge of getting another manuscript under my belt.  I'm also very excited to send this one out into the world and see how it does.

Another woo hoo goes out to NaNoWriMo 2012.  I'm really looking forward to working on the next book in the Fairytale Collection, and I'm just looking forward to NaNo in general.  While I've been extremely fortunate to have found some great sources for networking with other authors, there's just something extra special about NaNoWriMo.  I love feeling like I'm a part of something so big, and I love the kinship I feel with other participants.  Writing can sometimes be a very solitary pursuit, so it rocks to have a whole month where I'm cheering on other authors, who are also cheering me on.  I've got a few writing buddies already lined up, and I'm always on the lookout for more, so if you're participating and want someone to cheer you on, feel free to look me up.  My username on the NaNoWriMo site is NCiacchella.

And now, a food related woo hoo.  I did some shopping at Trader Joe's today and bought a box of their Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle mix.  If you've never tried it, you should.  It makes some crazy good pancakes.  I was tempted to grab the box and hug it, but I thought that might make the other shoppers think I was kind of weird.  I love the pumpkin time of year.  Pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes...  I tell you, I cannot get enough of these things.

I also want to give a woo hoo to a couple of game-related Kickstarter projects.

The first is SHAKER: an RPG by Brenda Brathwaite & Tom Hall.  Here's a synopsis of the project, from their Kickstarter page:

Shaker: An Old School RPG is a first-person perspective, fantasy/sci-fi game set in a Bridge world between the future and the very distant medieval past. Taking the role of operative James Connelly (you may also customize your lead character), an employee of Shaker Corporation, you are called upon to set right a deadly chain of events that began millennia ago. You and your crew of 3 operatives will be deployed to Antera, a medieval, fantasy world in the distant past. There, under a feudal guise, you must unearth the very beginning of a horrible chain of events and avert it, or the universe we know today will cease to exist in a mere 100 years.

I know, right?  How cool does that sound?  And one of the things I really like about it is that the company working on the project, Loot Drop, is dedicated to remaining an indie company.  Needless to say, I love indies.  The project is about 21% funded as of this posting, and I hope more people will back it.

The other is Project Eternity by Obsidian Entertainment.  Here's a description of that project, from the Kickstarter site:

Project Eternity will take the central hero, memorable companions and the epic exploration of Baldur’s Gate, add in the fun, intense combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale, and tie it all together with the emotional writing and mature thematic exploration of Planescape: Torment.

Combat uses a tactical real-time with pause system - positioning your party and coordinating attacks and abilities is one of the keys to success. The world map is dotted with unique locations and wilderness ripe for exploration and questing. You’ll create your own character and collect companions along the way – taking him or her not just through this story, but, with your continued support, through future adventures. You will engage in dialogues that are deep, and offer many choices to determine the fate of you and your party. …and you'll experience a story that explores mature themes and presents you with complex, difficult choices to shape how your story plays out.

We are excited at this chance to create something new, yet reminiscent of those great games and we want you to be a part of it as well.

My husband, Jürgen, and I have been receiving e-mail updates about this game and they have some really ambitious ideas that I'm really excited to see implemented.

So why did he and I choose to back these?  Well, what excites me about them is that they promise to be quite different from anything currently on the market.  I'm an avid, lifelong gamer, and I've been really dismayed by how disappointing a lot of the recent RPGs have been.  I wholeheartedly support indies who want to take risks and try making games that will elevate gaming.  A really well-done RPG can make you feel like you've stepped right into the pages of the book, and it's tough for me to think of something I enjoy more than that.

Last, but certainly not least, an absolutely ginormous WOO HOO for this review of The Eye of the Beholder that Leonor posted on her blog.  It is really exciting for me to get feedback from my readers, and nothing feels better than when a reader really connects with something I've written.  I was seriously thrilled to see this, and I walked around on a cloud for the rest of the day.

That's it from me this week.  Hopefully you're all having a fabulous week!

Woo Hoo Wednesday: NaNoWriMo is coming!

Welcome to another installment of Woo Hoo Wednesday, where I take the time to celebrate the small bits of everyday happiness that make life so sweet.

My first woo hoo goes to my decision to return The Eye of the Beholder to the KDP Select program, which allows readers to borrow the book from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.  While I'm not so fond of restricting the number of outlets where my book can be purchased, the fact is that I get more lends than I did sales through other outlets, so it just makes sense to do whatever gets my book into the hands of the greatest number of readers.  I've already lent enough copies of The Eye this month that one more lend means I'll have exceeded my best month on Barnes & Noble.

Another big woo hoo goes to my serious productivity as of late.  I've been hitting the 3,000 words per day mark consistently for the past couple of weeks.  I'm now entering the home stretch with Phoning It In, so if edits go well, I'll have that book out before the close of 2012.  I'm looking forward to seeing how readers like my attempt at contemporary women's fiction.  I have to admit, I'm very, very fond of some of the characters in Phoning It In, and I hope my readers will be too!

My family deserves a huge woo hoo.  I am so lucky to be surrounded by such loving, supportive people.  I thank them for putting up with me when I'm in one of my moods because I'm having trouble writing.  They deserve a resounding woo hoo for making me feel loved and special every day of my life, even when I'm being rather unlovable.

And, lastly, a giant woo hoo for the fact that NaNoWriMo 2012 is just around the corner!  I am seriously excited about it this year.  I've done it for the past two years (Contributor was the product of last year's NaNo), and I enjoy it every year.  I'm especially excited this year because I have writing buddies!  If you've ever hemmed and hawed about doing it, I have this to say to you: DO EEEET!  Trust me, hitting that 50k mark feel like a HUGE achievement, and you'll feel good about it for months on end.  If you need someone to be your cheerleader, feel free to add me as your buddy and I'll urge you on.  My username there is NCiacchella.

If you're looking for something to read this weekend, why don't you pick up a free copy of Creators, the prequel novella to my Contributor trilogy?  I'm running a free promotion Saturday, October 6th and Sunday, October 7th, so be sure to get a copy.  I'm very excited to see what you, my awesome readers, think of it!

Happy Wednesday and may your week be filled with many things that make you say, "Woo hoo!"

Woo hoo Wednesday: Sales milestone met!

I am frankly beside myself with excitement today, because I've reached the milestone of having sold 500 copies of The Eye of the Beholder.  As I've said on my blog before, I had hoped I might be able to sell 100 copies within one calendar year of publication, so to have met that goal five times over in the space of five months obviously exceeds every hope and expectation I may have had.  I am so very, very grateful to my readers for investing both their time and their money in me.  Every time I look at those sales figures, I'm encouraged to push myself harder, to make the next book even better, and to get it out as quickly as humanly possible.  I am loving every minute of my self-publishing journey, and every day makes me more hopeful that I can make a career of writing.

Another big woo hoo goes out to the people who have given me good feedback about my books.  Don't mistake me--I also appreciate the negative reviews because they give me an idea of my weak areas.  But I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the number of people who have praised my books and complimented me on my writing.  It took so long for me to get to a point where I'd even let someone take a peek at something I wrote that it lifts me straight off my feet when people like something I wrote.  I'm not sure if this is a common affliction of writers, but I am so close to my work that I end up dealing with a lot of self-doubt.  I'll write something that I think is awesome one day, but the next I look at it and want to tear my hair out because it suddenly seems so awful.  To have others tell me that they like something I wrote, well, that's a kind of validation that's very hard to describe.  I've always wanted to be good at my jobs, but since a piece of my soul goes into everything I write, it's exponentially more meaningful to be complimented on my writing.

Lastly, a big woo hoo for the progress I'm making on Phoning It In.  The words have been pouring out of me and, though I know I'll have extensive edits to do of the first 1/3 or so of the book, I feel confident that I can get it out by the end of the year.  I'm also excited because the cover is ready, and I think it's fabulous.  I can hardly wait to reveal it, but that'll come when I've made further progress on the novel. 

I hope you're all having a wonderful Wednesday as well.  Be sure to check back on Friday for another sneak peek into Phoning It In!

(I also want to remind everyone that The Eye of the Beholder is no longer available on Barnes & Noble or Kobo.  It is still, however, available DRM-free on Amazon, and I will be making it available through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library once again.)

Woo Hoo Wednesday: It's fall!

Why am I so happy right now?  Well, friends, I am not much of a sun worshiper.  Sure, I love sunny days as much as the next person, but I really hate the heat and humidity of summer in Michigan.  This summer was particularly horrible, and I feel like I spent the vast majority of it holed up in the house with the air conditioning cranked.  Now that it's September, the weather has taken a turn for the decidedly fall-like, and I couldn't be happier.  Bring on the 60 degree days!  I've been able to actually open the windows and go outside to get yard work done!  What's more, I can wear hoodies and jeans again.  I'm sorry to rain on the parades of those who love summer, but I am all about this weather right now!

A big woo hoo for my new computer screen!  I wasn't very happy about my old monitor dying, and it pretty much goes without saying that I couldn't function without one.  I'd been wanting a bigger one for a while, so the good thing to come out of the hardware failure was finally getting a much larger screen.  It's amazing how much more I can see when I'm working in full-screen mode on Scrivener.

Woo hoo number three is writing related!  After some deliberation, I decided to put Infiltrator on hiatus for now and work on my contemporary women's fiction novel, Phoning It In, instead.  As much as I love the Contributor series, it's nice to have a break and to work on something that has a completely different flavor.  I've been extremely productive the last couple of days, cranking out more than 3,000 words a day, so I'm hoping to finish the manuscript by the end of this month and get some editing in before NaNoWriMo starts.  My goal is to publish Phoning by the end of the year, which will bring me to a total of four books across three genres.  I'm excited to see what the market is like for contemporary women's fiction, but don't worry--I'm not forgetting my other manuscripts.  For NaNoWriMo, I'll be writing the next entry in the Fairytale Collection series, and then it'll be on to Infiltrator, book two in the Contributor trilogy.

Most exciting of all, though, is how well sales of The Eye have been going this month and last.  I'm on the verge of a major milestone, and it looks like I'll hit it by the end of the month.  It's so exciting to see something that I hoped against hope would sell 100 copies in a year do so much better than I'd ever dreamed!  I'd like to get my other books off the ground as well, but right now I'm extremely pumped because, thanks to sales of The Eye, it looks like we'll be able to make a trip to Europe next year.  This is huge because my husband is from Belgium and all his family lives there, so a 2013 trip would be the first time he's seen his parents, brother, and nephews in three years.  I'm very close with my family and can't imagine having to go that long between visits, so it means a lot to me that my income is contributing toward making a trip home possible for him.

What's got you pumped this week, my wonderful readers?

Oh, and just because you're awesome and my last run went so well, I'm doing another free run of Creators today, September 19th, so get yourself a copy from Amazon!  I'm really looking forward to seeing what readers think of both it and Contributor.  Happy Wednesday!

(Psst!  On Friday I'll give everyone a sneak peek of Phoning It In.)

Woo Hoo Wednesday: It's finally done!

Right now, the temptation is strong in this one (10 points to Gryffindor if you get that reference!) to run around in circles pumping my fists in the air.  Why?  Because I just finished hitting the button to upload Contributor to Amazon!  For some reason, I feel like I've been working on that book for the last three hundred years.  Then again, I guess I get like that with all of my books, when I've spent months doing copyedits.  I reach a point where every last word in the book looks like it's made up or misspelled.

So, now that I've put the book to bed, I'm pretty sure I'll go about twenty-four hours before I start feeling like I need to chain myself to my desk and finish the next book.  That's the sad thing about me as a writer--and I don't think I'm alone in that.  With my old, traditional jobs, there was a clear line between when work started and when it ended.  Not so much with writing, where I feel this compulsion to be doing it almost constantly.  Or maybe I'm just the world's most exacting boss, who knows?

Another big woo hoo goes to the fact that school is in session and the cleaning company is coming to clean the house this week.  While I had a fun summer, it'll be nice to have some time to buckle down and do some serious writing, particularly with NaNoWriMo beginning to appear on the horizon.  Ah, I can hear the siren's call of the annual November insanity already!  Soon I'll be snarfing bites of turkey while banging away at the keyboard.  Who's with me this year?  I need some more people to share in the pain joy!

Last but certainly not least, an absolutely ginormous woo hoo shall be shouted from the rooftops because of my August sales.  Seriously, my readers are awesome.  I still can't believe you're paying actual, real money for something I wrote.  I'm not exactly making a living wage at this point, but August has been my best month yet, and my sales have increased every month by at least 25%, so I'm definitely not complaining.  It feels absolutely amazing to make ANY money doing something I love so much.  I mean, I'm getting paid to play around in my imagination all day long.  How cool is that?

I'm just going to leave this here while Amazon is in the process of publishing Contributor:

As they say in Contributor-land: Have a productive day!

(Psssst: Don't forget that Creators will be free on Friday, September 7.)

Woo Hoo Wednesday: Yay for less stress!

This week, I'm in a very good mood because I did something I've been wanting to do for some time: I hired a company to do some of my house cleaning so that I can have more time for writing!  This will give me the chance to finally designate a very good chunk of each weekday to devote solely to writing, and that makes me very happy.  It's been frustrating to have to try to cram writing in whenever I can, so freeing myself of the housework has really lightened my stress.

I'm also feeling happy, lucky, and grateful because I'm having a great month with regard to sales.  I'm just amazed by how The Eye has been taking off in a way that far exceeds my wildest dreams.  It's thrilling beyond belief that people are buying my book, and it makes me think that I just might be able to make a go of writing for a living, something I honestly never expected to be able to do.  It feels better than I can express to finally be able to pursue my passion rather than do something "practical".

Another big Woo Hoo is due to the fact that I've finished my final edits on Contributor.  Silly me--I once used to think that writing was the worst part, because there are days when I feel like I have to pry the words out of my brain with a crowbar.  However, those days are nothing compared to staring at my manuscript until I go cross-eyed and can't remember if I've already done a search to see how many times I've used the word "gently".  I've kind of developed an irrational hatred for that word now.  So Woo Hoo for being done with the pain of the editing process!  A few more finishing touches, and Contributor will be ready for publication.

Lastly, a big Woo Hoo for the mild weather we've been having for the last couple of weeks or so.  I am not a fan of searing summer heat, so I've been incredibly pumped because I've been able to turn off my A/C and enjoy fresh air blowing through the house.  On Monday, I sat outside enjoying the gorgeous weather while typing away on my laptop and it was bliss!

That sums it up for me this week.  Just a reminder, if you haven't entered yet, you can still seize your chance to win a copy of Reinventing Claire by the super sweet Darian Wilk.  See you for Feature Friday, where I just might post one last excerpt from Contributor!

Woo Hoo Wednesday: I have a new book!

A big thanks to the amazing Darian Wilk for introducing me to the idea of Woo Hoo Wednesday.  It's a weekly opportunity to take the time to celebrate the goodness in life, an idea that I really love.  I have a habit of being a stress bunny, so it's a good thing for me to stop and think for a few minutes about the things I'm excited about and grateful for.  Feel free to chime in with your own weekly celebrations!

(By the way, if you haven't watched The Legend of Korra, do eeet!)

My biggest Woo Hoo is reserved for my new book, Creators, which is a young adult post-apocalyptic novella.  Ever since I published the first, I've been dying to get another one published, so I am really excited that I met that goal.

My second Woo Hoo is for the fact that I have worked my way up to 45 minutes on the elliptical.  It should be stated that I am not one of those people who loves to exercise, so this is a huge deal for me.  While I do like to go hiking, I generally look at exercise the way many people look at shots.  Still, I can't complain too much.  My elliptical has a little ledge that's perfectly sized for my Kindle, so at least I get some quality reading time while I'm working out!

I also just have to give a general Woo Hoo for this summer--though I could do without all this awful heat.  Still, I've already been on a trip to the beautiful Traverse City with my family, and we had an amazing time.  I'll also be going there again in a matter of weeks with just my husband, so I am really looking forward to that!  In addition, we spent some time in Oscoda, right on Lake Huron.  Michigander that I am, I always love to pay homage to the Great Lakes.

As if the vacations weren't enough, my husband and I are going to two concerts within a matter of days of one another.  First up is Cold Play, followed six days later by Train, one of my all-time favorite bands.  We just saw Train last summer, but as soon as I saw they were touring again, I was all over those tickets.  Hey, they released a new album and they are just awesome in concert.

That about covers it for me this week.  Hope the rest of you are having plenty of Woo Hoo moments this summer!