Sydney Strand

So I started this post a week ago. I have the Blogger app on my phone, and I downloaded the images I wanted into a post and that post was supposed to be written last week. Uh, yeah. Not so much. I've been a bit scattered since I finished La Petite Adult's book on Christmas Morning. Or at least, on the writing front I have been. But then I started to look back and realized that the way I do things IS scattered--but I get sh*t done.  I took a minute I figured out everything I've done for my writing career since Christmas Morning 2014. I only wrote down career-related stuff...all the "other stuff" doesn't count. Since Christmas Morning, I have: 1. Revised a Cover Flat (Bad Mom: Mother's Day) 2. Created from scratch Two Cover Flats (Bad Mom: Glampfest! and His Favorite Distraction) 3. Created from scratch the print edition of a book (His Favorite Distraction)  4. Finished the JPG cover for my Bad Mom Short Story 5. Worked on the branding/lo...

How many of us has illusions of being Carrie Bradshaw at a fabulous party at a fabulous Manhattan restaurant thrown by a fabulous best friend (who just happens to be a fabulous PR guru) and wearing a fabulous frock?  And this party is because of the fabulous book we just put out? Me, me, me! But reality is a different story. And, no, it's not always a depressing reality. Sometimes, there are glimpses of fabulous . The First Book Blues When I first became an author--one who got paid for writing a fictional story that people read--it was June 14, 2007, and my first young adult* (through Penguin's Dutton division) came out. *Written under another name What most of us female authors dream writing is like I was very pregnant at the time. (In fact, my baby girl would come only a few weeks later, five weeks early, in fact. Luckily, she was a very healthy 7+ pounds.) We had also just moved to New England from Arizona. I didn't have anything planned--or a...