Sydney Strand

For my latest book, I used the Amazon Preorder function. But first, the purpose as to why I did this: -To push myself to get this book done by my personal deadline. -To have the book up when I was having a "Sale-apalooza" on two other titles at Thanksgiving. For those who also want to use preorder to push yourself to get it done: only do this if you know you'll cut no corners. Only do this if you have put out a few books already and have a system in place for writing a quality book and a pretty stalwart work ethic. Now, back to the preorder. The preorder did not work out as expected, namely because when you used Google or Amazon to search for the book--by title or even by my name--it did not come up. The only way you could find it was the link from my author dashboard on KDP. I used that link to insert it into the back of books and onto my website and in my email's signature line. But otherwise, there was no way a reader could find this preorder. I e...

I'm a little late with the post this week. But I had a good reason. I PUBLISHED A NEW BOOK!!! In a bit, I'll go into detail about the birth of this particular book. But let me tell you, the timing for the launch got a little sticky. When you have a book that's ready to launch, it's interesting to look at dates. The date around this launch was September 11. I don't know about you, Dear Reader, but I don't even buy bread that's dated September 11.  The best post for 9/11. Credit: Adam Shankman/Instagram And so I held off. And I did my usual Mom thing this week. I took La Petite Adult to a birthday party along the bay (lucky duck--my childhood birthday parties were usually within view of the McDonald's ballpit and a tumbleweed or three). Ugly, isn't it? And Le Boy Bebe and I went back to the post-strike Market Basket. Mums and pumpkins made the early September feel like it was truly fall. And the $.89 2-Liter ...

Another Sunday, another busy day. Well, not too busy. Not like the last few Sundays. But we did go shopping for grills at Lowes (end of summer sales!) and went on a visit to the comic book store* we found out about at Comic Con Boston. *It was located in quite the strip mall that also included an adult video store, a tattoo parlor, a fireworks store, and a pawn shop. It was definitely one-stop-shopping for somebody out there (somebody who I never want to meet). Yeah. Just...yeah. I have quite the messy desk at the moment. When I saw Pablo Neruda's desk, I didn't know what I envied more: the view or the tidy desk. (His is on top; mine is the Bermuda Triangle on the bottom.) Have fun, my Sweet La Petite! But before I get into my discussion about writing, first I have quite the week to share. La Petite Adult started school again (saying goodbye to Summer Vacation and hello to a new school year). A second grader, she adores school, but not so much the talkative p...

The week started off just like I like it: slow. On the couch watching Pink Panther It included bedtime reading, such as On the Banks of Plum Creek . This was a childhood book, and this copy is one my father used to read to me. Notice the hash marks he made to explain the story to me so many decades ago...   This was such a wonderful find And then the weekend started to loom, when birthdays had to be planned and guests were overnighting.  We cleaned and we went shopping. A value-size container of creamer caught my eye. I have no need or want of a creamer that is larger than my head or one that tells me it's a "Great Value." But it makes me think about giants and their coffee and how this might be the equivalent of a drop of milk.* *I have random thoughts like this all the time. My brain is surprisingly full-slash-empty at any given moment. I'm a skim milk girl myself Our weekend guests came and so did La Husband's birthday. What do y...

So this happened today: Hello there, People-Watching-Pa-Looza! Definitely a great way to end the week! I've never been to a Comic Con before, my only entry into that world via The Big Bang Theory . I know how the San Diego one--the Big One--sells out very quickly because it has a lot of Hollywood people there. We had Hollywood people in Boston, too. Including the guy who played Spike in Buffy: The Vampire Slayer . I was excited to see him from afar (I'm not paying $50 to get his autograph--I rather spend $50 getting new pens to sign my own autograph). But he was chewing a big wad of gum, like that Big League stuff from the 80s. It was if the whole package was in his mouth.  I wasn't too traumatized. I was always an Angel girl anyway. Showing some Betty and Veronica love. We also did our weekly library run this week, where I heard La Petite Adult tell a schoolmate of hers "I'm only getting 15 this week. And I can get whatever I want."...

Red-eye flights mean pajamas on the plane! This week, I'm Away. Schedules are off, beds are unfamiliar, and children are a bit cranky (us parents too). La Husband broke his glasses and I basically had to be his Seeing Eye Person for two days while navigating red-eye flights, two children, and a two-hour drive at 3 a.m. to our final destination. Hello there, Beautiful. And yet I managed to write. Not as much as the prior week (15,000 words!) but enough to: 1) Finish the First Draft of a Bad Mom Rents a Man #2. 2) Add on to a story I've been vacillating with for the last six months and finally (FINALLY!) realizing it s-u-c-k-e-d enough to let it go. Not quit--just let it finally sink to the bottom of the dreck it was. 3) Delete The Story That S-U-C-K-E-D. 4) Start The Story That is AWESOME. Really. Don't believe me? Here's a little of the research I did: http://robohub.org/25-women-in-robotics-you-need-to-know-about/ Coolness, right? I continue to...

This week was a good week of tennis, writing, and walks. The tennis went well enough. My net game was awesome (it used to suckitysucksuck in high school, but after two kids and twenty years, the fear of the ball hitting my face no longer exists). The view at tennis on a lovely 70-something NH day This week, I wrote 15,000 words: 5,000 on a short story and 10,000 on my novella. (Both Bad Mom Rents a Man Stories--ooh, they're so good!) This means I did about 2000-2500 words, per day, per sitting, in less than 1.5 hours. This is what I have found helps me reach these numbers: 1) I need white noise. Not music--yuck, no!--but sitcoms. Frasier, Modern Family, Big Bang Theory. I have no idea what's going on as I write, but I need them on for "company." 2) I post to Twitter every 20 minutes regarding where I'm at word-count-wise. My initial post states "Starting a #1k1hr at 2 pm EST!" and anyone who wants to join will. Then I'll update with "...