Showing posts with label Blogger. Morgan Mandel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogger. Morgan Mandel. Show all posts

Friday, January 07, 2011

Day 5 of Unemployment

Day 5 Goals:

Clean the hall closet.

This, you'll notice, has been a recurring goal. (g)
Actually, this morning, I cleaned the whole bottom of the closet!!!  Yay!!!! Here's what it looks like. I can even close the door now.

Too exhausted from that chore to attempt the upper shelves today, but at least now I can get the door closed. That has not happened in many months.

Last night, one of my ex-bosses came over with boxes of stuff I'd accumulated in my desk over the 38+ years of service. We met in the driveway. He handed over the boxes, and the DH and I brought them into the house. I had no idea it was so much!

I guess they figured it was too hard to ship. Here's the picture.
In the bag was my elderly plant of maybe 20 years old, which seems to have come back safe and sound, in one piece, and is now on the kitchen table, ironically next to a plant I got about three years ago from the current regime on Administrative Assistant's Day. I'll have to take a picture of that one of these days.


He mentioned that also in an envelope in the bag, was my severance check. When I opened it I was surprised to learn I'd gotten 4 weeks instead of the original 2 weeks pay promised. Yay!

Work on at least one manuscript.
Yesterday I got 351 words done on Diary of a Nervous Baby Boomer.

Get exercise, preferably by walking Rascal.
The DH and I took Rascal for a long walk to the library so he could return some DVDs, so that goal was accomplished. So far today, I took Rascal on a short walk, but we plan to do more later after the DH watches a few uneducational TV programs.

Obstructions:
Yesterday, on the way to the library we stopped at the barber shop to talk to our friend, Dan, so we were delayed for a while. Later, we stopped at an aunt's house. Both were enjoyable things to do, but delayed work on the manuscript, resulting in a lower page count than the previous days.

Time on the phone was also spent discussing what items needed returned to me from the drawers of my old desk.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Day 3 of Unemployment

Goals:
Clean the hallway closet I didn't get around to doing yesterday.

Get more words done on my manuscripts.

Walk Rascal and get some exercise. (I forgot to add this one yesterday, but I remembered in time for us to get a great afternoon walk for half an hour. It's essential I don't skimp on exercise, so Rascal may as well also get some) Good Paul may even join us, since he's off today.

Obstructions:
Seing as the DH works two days a week, which means the rest of the week he'll be home at the same time as I am, this could present a problem in getting projects accomplished. For one thing, he's very much allergic to dust, so how can I clean the closet without his having sneezing fits?

He also has favorite TV shows which he may lure me into watching.

I have a feeling I'll have to set ground rules if I'm to succeed in my goals, or resign myself to not getting as much done.

After being married as long as we have, I'm sure we can work something out.

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Day Two of Unemployment



Day Two Goals:

Get some pages done either on Diary of a Nervous Baby Boomer or A Bad End - maybe both.

Temporary Setback - I got an email from Farmville saying my crops were ready to harvest, so I had to go over there, harvest and plant. Talk about setting priorities!

Okay, now I'm getting down to business. After the writing, my other project will be -----


Clean the hall closet.
It's so bad, I can't close the door.


Here's the before picture. This project may take longer than one day!

Wish me Luck!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Sharing Christmas Story Results

Just want to point you to the results from Wednesday's post at Acme Authors List, where I made a call out for Christmas stories. I got a tremendous response recommending stories by the authors themselves and also for recommendations about books by other authors.

Whether you like print or ebook, you may discover some great finds from this list. If you want to get into the Christmas spirit, why not check one or more of these out. They'd also make a great present.

http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com/2010/11/do-you-have-christmas-story-coming-out.html

Thanks,  Morgan

PS This is an old picture, but snow always reminds me of Christmas. So far we don't have any this year, but that could change any day here in Illinois.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Halloween Outdoor Decorations - Today's Choice





Here's my Halloween Outdoor Decoration Pic for today from my Sunday walk with Rascal. She wasn't too happy I kept stopping to take pictures.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Videos of The Blessing of the Animals on St. Francis Day, Oct. 4, 2010 Starring Rascal and Other Cute Animals

Well, one of the topics of this blog is Dogs, so I'm sharing the links to three videos I made on vacation from The Blessing of the Animals on St. Francis Day, Oct 4, 2010, in Arbor Vitae, WI. I finally had enough time to get them up on Youtube.com.  In case you don't know, Our Little Rascal is the one with the black eye patch.

Hope you like them.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgCmk3NBo9w


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGtIiQYw-gQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQP9D9s2j8E

Morgan

Monday, September 13, 2010

Open Promo Day - Give Us your Elevator Pitches

Since I'm busy on my WIP again, I thought up an easy blog for today, which may be of interest to many of you. Instead of my writing a bunch of stuff, here's your chance to provide an elevator pitch of one of your books, either already out or to be released. Pretend you're talking to an editor or agent, so make it short, and don't cheat and talk about more than one. Embed your buy link and leave your blog and/or website, so people know where to find out more about you and maybe buy your book!

I'll go first - Killer Career - A career change from lawyer to writer could be a killer for Julie who doesn't realize her mentor participates in his own murder mysteries. 

Sunday, August 15, 2010

My Youtube videos

If you've got nothing better to do, in case you don't know it, I have tons of videos up on Youtube. They include writing events and authors, as well as animals and local events.

Here's a link which should take you to any videos with my Youtube name, morganmandel, listed.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=morganmandel&aq=f

Morgan

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Smashwords - I'm On It!!! Hooray!!!

I did it!! I'm on Smashwords!!!
Lots of reading and checking to make sure I formatted everything exactly right, but it looks like I did. Killer Career is up on the site and ready for people to download in tons of ebook formats.

If you use ebooks, you'll most likely find a format there that works for you, all at $2.99.

I'm offering a 40% free sample of Killer Career at Smashwords, just in case you're not sure whether or not you want to spend the $2.99 for the entire book. Here are some links:

Morgan Mandel's Smashwords Author Profile: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/morganmandel


Book page to sample or purchase Killer Career: http://smashwords.com/b/21007

And, also, you'll notice to the left that I'm using a special Smashwords Edition cover, which converted nicely to black and white.

One more item off of my to-do list. This one took me a while to get around to doing it, but I'm so happy I got it done!!!

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

How Much Is Too Much?

Since I got caught in the rainstorm on Wednesday, and my legs were feeling wet and clammy in my jeans, I thought I'd go on my lunch break to buy a new pair (of slacks, not legs). I found some that were really nice on a confusing rack, which on one side had a sale price sign. Not sure if the originally $40.00 slacks were on sale, I asked the cashier. Unfortunately, they were not being sold at sale price. I really liked them, but I forced myself to tell her, "I'm not buying them for that price."

As I walked away, I felt a twinge of regret. Still, I knew I had to stand my ground. Money's tight.

So, taking this to another level, I wonder -
How Much is Too Much for a Book?

To me, if I know the author, I'll purchase a mass market or trade paperback maybe up to about $14.00, but the author would have to be a very close friend for me to splurge on a hardcover.

As far as digital books, including those for kindle and others, I'm afraid I've gotten pretty much spoiled by Amazon's low prices. I've put Killer Career up on kindle at $2.99 and if I can do it, other authors can too. So, I won't be buying any bestsellers for higher amounts when I can get a good read for $2.99 or less.


What about you? How much is too much?

Monday, August 02, 2010

Busy, Busy, Buying, Blogging, Books

It's a busy time for me figuring out how to get Killer Career ready for Smashwords, which should have been done ages ago, I know.

Along the way, as many people already know, I pre-ordered a kindle 3 last week. I looked on the Amazon main page today and learned they're sold out, so I'm glad I got my order in when I did! It won't be coming until around August 27 or so, though. In the meantime, I ordered Marilyn Meredith's Lingering Spirit plus some other free books for my kindle when it arrives. I also ordered a pretty blue cover. And then today I decided it was a good excuse to buy a new purse, one a little larger, but light, where I plan to keep the kindle so I can read it on the train and on breaks.

Blogging - well Monday was my day at Make Mine Mystery, so of course I decided to blog about kindles. (g)

Tuesday is my post at The Blood-Red Pencil, where you get to answer questions and try to stump our Editors. Go on over and see what it's all about.

Books - I hope to finish my WIP one of these days. I've been fitting it into my busy schedule and working on it while commuting.

Anyone else out there busy, busy, buying, blogging and working on or maybe reading books?

Monday, July 19, 2010

You Don't Hear This Much

Celia Yeary's blog post Monday at http://www.longandshortreviews.com/LASR/index.htm reminded me of a participation blog I'd been wanting to write, but kept forgetting.

Now that I remember, here goes:

When I grew up I heard so many phrases that were a normal part of speech. I thought nothing special of them at the time.  Now that I don't hear them much any more, and I kind of miss them.

Some of them are:
Don't dilly dally
None of that monkeyshine business, you hear?
That's really icky
Were you born in a barn?

I know there are more, but right now I can't think of them. How about you? Which ones do you remember?

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Now Blogger Has Really Done It!

That's what I get for not paying attention to my blogs. Now Blogger has really done it!

Everything's wide open with them, kind of like what's happening in the publishing industry. Blogger has added a new Design feature, with so many tons of choices it's too hard for me to comprehend, especially at this late hour. You can access it on the top right where you sign in.

I just got through redesigning Acme Authors Link at http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com/, using basic choices that were just the tip of the iceberg. Now, I know I'll want to redesign this one. If you stop over there, check out my Wednesday blog about Inadvertent Publicity.

Getting back to Blogger. I'm so happy they're back in the ballgame. Their choices before were utterly limited. Now, it's fun time!