Friday 27 September 2024: Getting on with stuff

I skipped a regular daily post yesterday because the writing ideas post is such a long one. Next week, I’ll share the ‘take one idea’ post for March too. I’ve decided to split it into 2 for those who don’t feel they need the second one. In the future, I’ll do the same for book reviews too – use it as a blog post and skip a day, I mean.

Wednesday

So, what did I get up to on Wednesday? 

Well, first of all I put some clean washing away and put another load through. I did my 5-minute declutter next, and this time it didn’t take an hour. Facebook doesn’t like me deleting too many things on the same day, it seems. But it was a good excuse to take a break until the next session.

I’m doing this because there are platforms on which I don’t even want to leave footprints, let alone straggly posts. What I can’t believe is the amount of absolute crap I used to post back in the day when all of this evolved out of MySpace. Me and everyone else.

Once I’d done that, I called my hairdresser to move 2 appointments. I like to have my hair cut every 8 weeks, and I’d inadvertently booked a 6-week appointment for October and an 8-week appointment for December. I moved them both along by 2 weeks and made a note of the new times so I don’t forget.

Then I started work on the ideas for March feature I’m trying to reboot. I’d already done the actual date work the week before. This week I was writing the main so-many-things-to-write-about-for-March (which appeared on here yesterday). Next week I’ll write the take-one-idea story (which should appear on here next Thursday). 

By the time I’d written the post, scheduled it on here, copied, pasted and formatted it on Medium, copied, pasted and formatted it on Vocal, submitted it to Medium, and submitted it to Vocal, I was stiff all over from sitting in the same position for so long. I updated my record of submissions spreadsheet and broke for dinner, by which time the story had already been accepted and published on Vocal.

Medium also accepted it before the end of the day, which was a surprise as they still hadn’t responded to the short story I submitted to them over a week ago. 

For the rest of the day I continued reading one of the NetGalley books. Wednesday was publication day and I wanted to try and get the review done by the following day at the latest, and shared everywhere.

Thursday

On Thursday morning, the first job I did was finish reading the book. I was supposed to be at a dermatology appointment but we’d cancelled that, so Thursday morning was free time. I shared the gig list via the phone. And once I hit my desk I started my 5-minute declutter.

Thursday afternoon I wrote up the review and then shared and scheduled it everywhere. It will appear on here on Wednesday next week. 

I made a mistake with the Vocal story. I didn’t change the title and I didn’t notice until Vocal had already accepted it, so the picture and the review didn’t match the title. I tried to edit it, but you have to be a paid member in order to edit your stories. I paid for one month, but even then I still couldn’t change the title, which was annoying. I did, however, notice that I didn’t have to wait for my earnings to hit $35 as a paid member. So straight away I claimed my dosh.

I fired off an email to support, asking them to change the title. I couldn’t even delete the story and post it again. By the end of the day they had neither replied to the email or corrected the mistake. And the murmurings of a decision started to shift at the back of my head. 

I shared Thursday’s blog everywhere other than Medium, because Medium already had the post as a story, and I joined in with a discussion on a Facebook group regarding ARCs and whether or not Amazon are publishing every review they receive. Some thought they won’t publish anything that mentions ARC or NetGalley while others thought they wouldn’t publish a review unless you have a verified purchase of the item. I think it depends on how much you’ve spent there recently.

As it turned out, we all had different stories, so we all decided to carry on with what works. I posted the review to Amazon, and they didn’t bounce it, even though I mentioned both ARC and NetGalley.

The last job I did for the day was outline STEVIE BECK AND THE CHRISTMAS TREE MYSTERY. If I can write that today, it will go off, maybe as late as tomorrow as the deadline is Sunday. 

If I get chance I’ll also send out the next newsletter. I only have to go in and finalise the story from Ireland. Everything else is already there.

Have a super weekend. We have a gig to go to.