As I write today’s blog post, it is Sunday, January 7, 2018. Week one of 2018 is behind me.
What I Did Last Week
During week one of 2018, I worked on five items. Three were writing. One was research. One was personal enrichment.
Writing
I worked on the first draft of a nonfiction book with the working title “In Jesus’ Name.” It is book two in a series of books of prayers for the chronically ill. My word count for the week was 1,077. I wrote the first draft on days one through seven.
I worked on the first draft a literary fiction book with the working title of “Someday.” I completed chapter 8 and am into the first scene of chapter 9. I have 27,385 words written. This week I wrote 1,667 words.
I wrote this blog. It was 610 words. That gives me a total word count for the week of 3,363 words.
Reading
I am reading two books. The first book is “Write His Answer” by Marlene Bagnull. The book is a practical help and encouragement for overcoming self-doubts, writer’s block, rejection, procrastination, and more with Scriptures to study, questions to apply the message to your life, and space to write your response. I read a chapter a day, completing seven chapters this week.
The second book I am reading is fiction. It is Not Perfect: A Novel by Elizabeth LaBan. I read chapter one and am hooked.
“Not Perfect’s” book’s blurb says it all,
“Tabitha Brewer wakes up one morning to find her husband gone, leaving her no way to support herself and their two children, never mind their upscale Philadelphia lifestyle. She’d confess her situation to her friends—if it wasn’t for those dreadful words of warning in his goodbye note: ‘I’ll tell them what you did.’ Instead, she does her best to keep up appearances, even as months pass and she can barely put food on the table—much less replace a light bulb. While she looks for a job, she lives in fear that someone will see her stuffing toilet paper into her handbag or pinching basil from a neighbor’s window box.”
The book officially comes out February 1, 2018, but is now available on Amazon. I obtained the book through Amazon’s first reads program. It is doing very well as of 1/7/2018 at 8 AM.
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4 Paid in Kindle Store
- #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Women’s Fiction > Humor
- #1 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Humor & Satire > Humorous
- #1 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary
Research/Continuing Education
My agenda this week had me listening to Joanna Penn’s, The Creative Penn Podcast. I listened to Episode #356 – Thoughts and Goals for a Creative 2018 with Joanna Penn. I also went through a short course titled, “Step By Step Tutorial: How To Build Your Own Self-Hosted Author Website In 30 Minutes.” I have an author website at jimmiekepler.com but am looking at improving and doing a better job of monetizing the website.
I am trying to build a long-term career as a writer not trying to be a one-book wonder. It takes work. I work at it every day, every week. I manage to do this in spite of having a spouse battling cancer and recovering from the removal of a brain tumor. She is currently on medical leave of absence. I drove her to three medical appointments last week as well as did the shopping, cooking, laundry, dishes and all the stuff we all deal with. If you want to write, write. You are your biggest obstacle.
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