For most of my life, I have been a really big believer in following the rules. I was raised Mormon, but I was also raised by a mother who was unhealthy and unhappy. She did everything that everyone said you shouldn’t do when you’re brought up in The Church.

And so I got sort of a black and white view of the world. My friends had moms who were happily married, didn’t work outside the home, were deeply involved in the Relief Society and the Young Women’s organization. They all had dads who went to work, then came home and played games with their kids before reading out of the scriptures and sending them to bed. In my house, my mom worked a lot, smoked, didn’t go to church, saw a lot of guys, and drank too much. I was largely pitied in my group of church friends.

It took a lot of growing up to realize that there was more to this world than Mormons and people who were wrong. It took years for me to grow up and realize that everything should be questioned, and that we should listen to our own ‘still small voice’. It took me a long time to trust myself enough to do what I thought was right.

Sometimes, though, I need a reminder.

I told you all last month that I’ve spent years trying to break into traditional publishing. I wanted to try indie publishing this year, and see if it doesn’t fair better for me.

Then the worst thing that can happen to someone with a history of self doubt happened. Someone I trust did a whole podcast about how ‘you’ve just got to keep trying.’ Keep sending out that manuscript. Keep finding new markets to send your work to. Keep going! And it made me doubt. Indie publishing is, for the most part, throwing the rules out of the window. And so, I doubted my intentions. Am I just self publishing because I’m sick of rejection? Am I after a quick high? Am I taking a short cut, being lazy instead of paying my writing dues?

At this point I’m going to ask any indie writers reading this not to scream at me too loud. These were my own uncertainties talking, and I think I’ve managed to shut them the hell up.

Just in case I slip again, or if you yourself have had these same doubts about self publishing, I’ve made a shield. Feel free to use this anytime you like.

1. Indie writers face rejection every day. A book may fail, a promotional event may flop. A project that you poured your heart into might get a ‘meh’ response. But at least my failure is my own, and I can try harder next time. This means that my success is my own, as well.
2. There is nothing quick about self publishing. If you’re doing it right, you still put the same amount of ass in chair time. Then you’ve got to make the product, including the cover. (I’m having a terrible time with the cover for Days, if anyone knows an artist who could use some quick low budget work.) Then, promotion takes forever if done right.
3. Indie writers are anything but lazy. A traditional writer creates a book, and that’s years of work right there. An indie writer does that, then we become a promotion specialist. Tech support. Editor. Social Media specialist. Artist. I also have to look up how to apply for an ISBN number. Oh, throw copyright lawyer in there.

Now, I am not saying that indie writing is the only way to go. But we need to listen to our ‘still small voice,’ and decide what’s best for us.

What Rocked This Week

• I’m finally in the swing of my new writing schedule, so I’m actually getting stuff done again.
• Rough drafts always make me happy, even more so with new projects. I can not wait to tell you all what I’ve been working on, but it’s in the very early stages still.

What I’m looking forward to this week.

• I’ve got some fun work to do with Patreon this week. If you don’t follow me now, check it out. I’ll be adding some videos, so you can see what I actually look like. (The dog will probably also be in the video, because he will not leave me alone.)
• It’s official, Thirty Days, Thirty Ideas the book comes out in nine days. I am so excited for my very first book launch, and I hope you are, too! (Also, if you haven’t pre ordered it yet, here‘s a link. Don’t forget, offer code 30one gets it for you for free!)

Have you struggled with self doubt? What did you do to overcome it?

I have tried a lot of planning methods. I mean, a lot. I always have this push, this need, to be more productive. I’m a competitive person who has learned that competing against other people is super unhealthy. So, I compete against my past self. I’m always convinced that a new planner, a new method, a new to do list will help me beat old me.

Some of these methods work great. You’ve heard of my love for Bullet Journals, The Pomodoro Method and the Erin Condron Planner. (None of these are affiliates. I just like them all.) Some were a big fat waste of my time. I don’t always lay blame on the systems. I suffer from adult ADD, depression and a general lack of follow through. Here’s the thing, though, I’m not alone. Lots of people suffer from these things, and we still want to get things done.

So here’s what makes a planning method work well, and what makes them fail.

They’re too vague

Say it with me, sisters and brothers, a vague goal is no goal at all. You can say that you want to be a writer. Say that this is the year you want to get published. Super! How you gonna do it? This is why New Year resolutions fail all the time. Lose weight, be more organized, save money. They’re all great things to strive for, but they’re nothing without actual, actionable steps.

They’re not fun

I’ll be totally honest, Bullet Journaling would never have worked for me if it weren’t for washi tape, stickers and Moleskines. I work really hard, and I need to have some fun in my life. Planning is one way to put a little fun into my day, as nerdy as that sounds. Basically, of you don’t want to do it, there’s a good chance you probably won’t.

They’re too much fun

The other side of the coin is that a planner isn’t a toy. A planning method isn’t a toy, and if I am having fun planning and forget to actually get shit done it’s a waste. Yes, I had a lot of fun on the hours I spent with my books and pens, but I could have just gotten it done, finished my to do list, and then played a video game.

They don’t fit your actual lifestyle

I got this really awesome planner at the start of 2015. At least, I thought it was. But the problems with the damn thing became apparent as soon as I took it out of the box. It was too small, a whole week on one page the size of a paperback. It was full of pages that I had no need for. Vacation planning? I intentionally didn’t plan a vacation last year, so there was a wasted page. A gardening calendar when I didn’t have a yard, budgeting on just one page for the whole year?  It was not for me. I ditched it in June and got my EC planner. Love it!

They take too much time

Anything that takes a whole lot of time is going to become a chore. I need planning that can be done in a few minutes, at most an hour. It usually takes me about ten minutes to make my plans for the day, an hour on Sundays to plot the week, another hour on the first day of the month to plan for that.

Don’t be afraid to try different ways to plan your life. But remember that the whole point of a planning method is to help you get things done. If it doesn’t help you, it’s not right for you.

I actually haven’t ran across this magazine before, but I can’t not love their title. “Strong Words For A Polite Nation.”

This literary magazine works on a theme for every issue. Their submissions for the 73rd issue is open now, and the theme is Secrets.

Can you think of a more provocative theme? What great story doesn’t have a great secret? Even better, who doesn’t have a secret or two to share?

Genre- Fiction, non fiction, and poetry.

Submission date- February 15

Word Count- 3,000 for fiction and non fiction

Wait Time- Not listed

Payout- $50 per page or poem

Rights- Not listed

Here is your link to the full submission guidelines.

Want even more markets? Sign up for The Road To Full time, and get a list of markets every month.

Here’s something fun for Throwback Thursday, my very first post ever!

Hey guys. Today’s story might look familiar, because I’ve actually posted it before. Last April during the Blogging 101 event, one of the prompts inspired this short story about an old woman living alone in a crumbling city neighborhood. I’ve polished it up, and it’s going to be one of the stories included in Days and Other Stories. I hope you like it.

The Pusher and Mrs. Pauley

The world always seemed like a less than sturdy place to Addison.  He never really found that, day by day, anything stayed very constant.  The jobs his mom went to were always changing, right along with the men she brought home.  Some were nice and some weren’t, both jobs and men, but none lasted very long.  The friends he made, what few he could make at his dark, dangerous school, came and went.  When they went it was often to juvenile hall, or the special school for kids with problems.  One girl had gone to live with her aunt, and no one would tell Addison why, or why she came back a year later, seeming sad.

The neighbors came and went too.  No one moved to this end of town because they wanted to, and they got out as soon as they could.
Except for Mrs. Pauley.  She’d been there a long time before Addison and his mom had moved in.  According to some of the kids he’d met the first week there, they were all gone now, she’d always been there.  Addison didn’t really see much of her.  Sometimes he’d see Mr. Pauley putter around the garden, but then he died and wasn’t there anymore.  Her sons had come around a lot for a month or so after that.

One of them showed up with a moving truck, and Addison was sure that Mrs. Pauley would be leaving then.

But she hadn’t left.  Instead, she’d had a very loud shouting match with her son right in front of the building.  “The presumption!” she screamed, “To think that you can just drag me out of my home, because you think I can’t be trusted left alone to my own devices!  I am your mother, Anthony, and I took care of you for twenty two years!  I guess I can take care of myself for just as long as I want to!”

“Ma, don’t I know you took care of me for twenty two years?” the son named Anthony yelled while Addison watched from his bedroom window.  “That’s why you ought to let me take care of you, now!”

Addison didn’t know what sort of reaction Anthony had wanted from that, but the one he got was for his mother to break a dish over his head.  Word must have gotten around to the other five brothers, because none of them dared try that trick.

So old Mrs. Pauley stayed, while the only other constant was the pusher on the corner.  Addison like this pusher.  He wouldn’t sell to kids, and he didn’t harass the girls as much as the last one.  Addison hoped he stuck around for awhile, but he didn’t think he would.

Time passed.  Mom got a new job, then a new boyfriend.  The new boyfriend soon resulted in the loss of the new job.  The loss of the job soon resulted in the loss of the boyfriend.  It didn’t seem to matter much to Mom, and it sure didn’t matter to Addison.  He hadn’t even bothered to remember the man’s name.

The new pusher stuck around.  He was there the night the cops showed up at Mrs. Pauley’s place.

Addison was outside, covering the cement steps with chalk.  The rain would come and wash it away in the night, but that was the one thing Addison didn’t mind changing, because he could make it all new again once the cement dried.

The officers came, and Addison knew there was trouble when he saw Mrs. Hubbard with them.  “The old bitch,” was what his mom called the woman who owned the whole block, including the buildings that Addison and Mrs. Pauley lived in.

He watched as Mrs. Hubbard marched up to the door, looking very much like she thought well of herself in her fake pearls and cheap cardigan, and hammered on the door.

Mrs. Pauley answered.  She, Addison thought, really did look like she had reason to think well of herself, though Addison had never thought of it that way before.  Perhaps it was just the stark comparison between the two women.  Mrs. Pauly stood straight, wearing a sweater and slacks that were no double older than Addison himself, but so well cared for, so as to not need replacing with money that Mrs. Pauley would have preferred to spend on her children.

“Can I help you?” Mrs. Pauley asked, clasping her hands together in front of her.

“Don’t act like you didn’t know we were coming,” Mrs. Hubbard snapped, shaking her head.  “You haven’t paid your rent in three months.  I send you letters telling you that this you had to either pay, or get out.”

“I told you, I have to wait for Mr. Pauley’s life insurance,” Mrs. Pauley said.  “I don’t have any money until then.”

Mrs. Hubbard crossed her arms over her cheap cardigan.  “I’m sorry, but that’s not my problem.  Everyone’s got bills.  I’ve got taxes to pay on this building, and I’ve got to pay for the upkeep.”

“But you’ve never spent a dime on the upkeep of this place, not since the day you inherited it from your mother.”  Mrs. Pauley said.  “And she never paid a dime for the upkeep since the day my husband and I move in.  When the pipes burst in the winter, my husband fixed them, and paid for the supplies.  When that crazy man upstairs shot through the wall, my husband patched the hole for you.”

“I never asked him to do that,” Mrs. Hubbard said, but she looked a little pink.

“No,” Mrs. Pauley said, standing taller that Addison would have thought her five feet would allow.  “You didn’t have to.  I didn’t think I would have to ask you for some patience now.”

Mrs. Hubbard seemed to swell up.  She turned to the officers, and said, “Aren’t you going to do your jobs?”

An officer tipped his hat to Mrs. Pauley.  “I hate to do this, Ma’am, but she’s within her rights.  You ignored the letters she sent, and she’s got them registered.  I’m going to have to ask you to come with us.”

“But this is my home,” Mrs. Pauley said, “It’s always been my home.”

One of the officers set a hand on her arm.  It wasn’t a stern hand, but it was insistent.  It seemed to say that he would be as gentle about doing his job as Mrs. Pauley allowed him to be.

“Hold up,” the pusher called from the sidewalk, and ran over to them.

Addison held his breath, and the officers put their hands on their pistols.

The pusher held his hands up, and walked up the stairs.  “Grab my wallet out of my back pocket,” he said to one of the officers.  The man did so, and flipped it open.  Addison thought he saw a flash of gold.  Whatever was in the pusher’s wallet, it must have been important, because the officer nodded, and handed it back to the pusher.

“Mrs. Hubbard, I think you need to give Mrs. Pauley some time,” the pusher said.  “In fact, if you don’t want anyone to know about some of the female ‘tenets’ you keep in the the rooms above your bar, the ones who seem to have a lot of guests, you should wait just as long as it takes her.”

Mrs. Hubbard blushed.  Addison smiled, and went inside.

Not much was constant in Addison’s neighborhood.  Just the pusher on the corner, and Mrs. Pauley.

If you’d like to support me and my stories, please check out my Patreon page. You get all sorts of exclusive things, that I’m adding to all the time.

I’ve got a Wonder Woman wallet. I’m actually kind of known for it in my little town, because no one else has one like it. I get complements on it all the time. I just bought it because it was a man’s style wallet so I can fit it in my back pocket. (I’m not a big purse carrier.) I’ve also got a classy Wonder Woman pin on my jacket, the one I wear most often.

My love of this character prompted my word for 2016; Wonder.

I don’t know if you pick words for the year. You should though. Think of it as a shining light, one word that can sum up how you want to make your life better in the next 12 months.

In 2015, my word was patience. I was spinning around, trying to make anything happen, and there was no level of happy in my life. So I focused on patience in my personal life as well as my writing. I focused on what I could realistically do in a day instead of bemoaning the fact that I wasn’t already a famous author.

And I saw some real progress!

So, you may be wondering, what does Wonder mean? How will it help me like Patience did in 2015?

• Wonder, for Wonder Woman, to remember that I have done so much, and am capable of so much.
• Wonder, as in, “I wonder what would happen if…” To do things I’ve never done this year. For example, I wonder what would happen if I devoted myself to independently publishing my own work for twelve months the way I’ve devoted myself to getting my work published in 2015.’
• Wonder, as in, ‘What can I do to make today wonderful?’ speaks to my commitment to not only do more fun things this year, but to reach out and help others more this year as well.
• Wonder, as in, ‘What is already wonderful in my life?’ because I am committed to chronicling my blessings this year.

I would love it if you’d share your own word of the year. Please tell us yours in the comments below, and leave a link to your blog if you decide to post about it.

What rocked this week

• The new year started with a bang, a kiss and a good glass of wine. No better way to start off 2016, in my opinion.
• I went through Lisa Jacob’s New Year for A New You series. If you haven’t done this yet, you should. My favorite moment of the whole week of prompts was this one question, “What are you not willing to tolerate?” Wow. Just saying, we should ask ourselves this question more often, ladies and gentlemen.

What I’m looking forward to this week

• I have so many plans. I’m starting on a new regiment for editing and writing. Instead of hours spent, I’m recording pages completed. Hopefully I’ll get more done that way.
• I’m looking forward to getting back into my routine this week. The monsters are back in school, so I’ve actually got a few hours of quiet in which to get important things done.
• With one book on the editing board, and a rough draft of a super secret new project in the works, I am a busy girl. But I like it that way.

Don’t forget, guys, my very first books, Thirty Days, Thirty Ideas, is up for pre sale right now. It’s free with promo code 30one! Here’s a link. The book comes out January 21.

There are so many ways to plan. Trust me, I spend a whole lot of time on Pintrest looking at everyone’s pretty planners and bullet journal layouts. I watch youtube videos about it. Here’s a great one from Boho Berry. I also watched the whole Bullet Journal video, three times. I am a sick, sick human being, this is what I do in my free time.

I do use some of it. I use my bullet Journal, and I use my Erin Condron Planner. I like the SMART planning, the Level Ten Life planning, the Five Pillars planning. I try all of these things, but all of it boils down to one basic principle. It’s the principle on which I build my whole planning structure. Macro and micro planning.

This is the secret, my planning brothers and sisters! It all starts with this. Remember on Friday when I told you my big three goals for the year? If you missed it, I’ll paraphrase. Make actionable content for you, write entertaining stories for everyone and make a little money in the process. Those are big, lofty macro goals. I love them, because they are shiny and sparkly. They are huge, hanging high in the sky. I want to reach them, I want them so badly.

Here is the problem with the stars. They are vague. They are far away. So what do we do when there’s something out of our reach? You make a ladder. In other words, you do micro planning.

As an example, let’s take one of my macro goals.  Make actionable content for you. Now, I don’t want to give away any surprises, but here is an example of some of the rungs on my ladder.

• Make an effort to include actionable items in every one of my weekly posts. By this I mean include at least one thing you can do, right then, to make your writing life better.
• Publish Road To Full Time every month.
  Subscribe to our mailing list

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• Create another Thirty Days, Thirty Ideas event in August, with a new theme. (Sorry, you’ll have to wait for July to find out what the theme will be.)

Those are great micro goals. Those are great goals for a whole number of reasons. They are specific. They are simple. They are things that I can do in at most a month. And they build up to my lovely, shiny vague goals. They are the simple, every day wooden steps that will lead to my shiny beautiful stars.

Another way to look at it is this. I wrote the three macro goals as my new years plan. I do this once a year, and I review them during my quarterly audits to make sure they’re still actionable and relevant.

My micro goals I make fresh every month, week and day. I’ve gone over this before, so I’ll breeze through this. I look at my goals, and figure out what I can do about those goals in a month. Then I figure out what I can do this very week. Then, what can I can do this very day.

So, to sum it up, macro goals are big, lofty, and usually part of a one to five year plan. Micro goals are specific, actionable, can be done in a short amount of time and lead you to achieving your macro goal.

Now, then, since I mentioned it, here is an actionable item for you. I just love that phrase, actionable item. It means something that you can take action on, right now. Write out your stars, your bright and shiny stars. They can be a vague and as grand as you want, so long as you can then build a ladder to them.

My family and I like to donate to charities through the year. The holidays are a great time for it, but so often in January our thoughts turn to what we can do to improve our own lives. This is fine, admirable even.

It might even be that your bank account is rather, we’ll say flat after the holidays. That’s why I’d like to suggest Wikipedia as the cause of the month.

Now, I hesitate to call Wiki a charity. I mean, raise your hand if you’ve never used it to research some piece or another. No, no one? Okay, let’s start with the fact that we owe them.

I love Wiki not only because I use it to work almost every day. I love it because it is nothing short of magic. It is written by anyone, everyone. I could hop on there right now and add to it, and so could you. Now what you or my add might very well be clever and useful.  I might well go on and write all about poetry or short fiction in an entertaining and educational way. But I might also go on there and write about nuclear reactors or Vietnamese cooking. I know nothing about those things and am not in any way capable of giving useful information.

Therein lies their magic. Despite the fact that Wikipedia is updated by anyone who might want to update it, it is surprisingly useful for research. I always use it as a starting point, and I surely do check multiple sources for all of my facts, but more often than not I find the information correct. That has to be magical.

Wikipedia is magic for another reason. They are the most often used website in the world, and they have no ads. I can’t say that. I do ads all the time. (Click here to pre order Thirty Days, Thirty Ideas for free, with the promo code 30one) What they ask for instead is an occasional small donation.

If you visited Wikipedia during the holidays you noticed the pop up asking for donations. “If everyone reading this would donate three dollars, we would reach our fundraising goal in an hour.”

If you can spare some time and three bucks, please do two things for me. Go to Wikipedia and donate three bucks. Even the most broke of college student can spare that much, and if not this month maybe you can next month. Then, if you’ve got a blog, maybe show some Wikipedia love there. If you do, please link to your post in the comment section.

Free education, free sharing of information is a cornerstone of the internet. Let’s all do what we can to help it out.

I love fairy tales, like a lot. Especially twisted ones like Tenth Kingdom, Fables and the classic The True Story of The Three Little Pigs. It might be rather telling that this was my favorite story as a child.

Circuits and Slippers blends that love of a twisted fairy tale with science fiction. This one will be on my list to order when it comes out.

One thing the editor would like you to know is that there is only room for one adaption of any given fairy tale. Cinderella and Pygmalion have already been taken by the editors.

Genre- Science fiction based on fairy tales.

Word count- 2,000 to 10,000

Submission date- April 8

Wait time- Some time after deadline.

Payout- Royalties split among authors. So, you’ll be getting some of my money.

Rights- Six months exclusivity.

If you like what you find here and want to support me, please check out my Patreon page. You can help me out and get some great exclusive fiction along the way.

Happy New Year! It’s officially 2016, and I can’t get wait to get started.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably been planning for the new year for weeks now. If you’re not like me, then you’re in the majority. I have a terrible habit of planning more than I work sometimes, and never more than at the new year.

I’m working on that. But planning has been important for the past year. 2015 was what I call a foundation building year. I wrote all of the content for Days, and lots of other collections that need work still. I worked hard on social media, and met so many great people. I launched Thirty Days, Thirty Ideas, and now I’m ready to collect it into a book. I finished Broken Patterns. of course. Foundation years are important, but they are taxing for an impatient person like me. It made things easier bear, having an idea where the finish line would be.

For now, though, there’s no one better to talk to about planning than a planner addict. I’ve tried everything. The problem is, a lot of these awesome planning tips don’t work long term. They either distract or are too damn complicated to be worth the trouble.

We’ll be talking about planning that works around children, day jobs and the terrible habits of an adult with ADD. If these ideas work for me they’ll work for you, because you’re probably not as flighty as I am and you can’t be worse.

We’ll begin in earnest on Sunday, but let’s start with a quick tip. Today is the day most people make New Years Resolutions. Don’t. Make goals. Real goals with a real game plan, not some vague wish. Today, think about where you’d like to be in a year. Think about your family, your personal care and your writing. Personally, I have a ton of goals for the year. Honestly, more than I really care to list here.  Instead, I’d like to share my major business goals. Each of these goals has a whole page of little steps, but that’s rather boring.

• Make actionable and inspiring content for you guys here. This will include posts, printables, and more information built in to my newsletter, Paper Beats World. One way I’m already doing that is by publishing Thirty Days, Thirty Ideas in January. Don’t forget, if you pre order it you can get it for free with the code 30one. It only works until the release date, January 21.
• Write awesome stories. Well, that’s my whole life, not just this year. I’m going to finish Starting Chains, and make a start on Missing Stitches. I’m also going to publish Days, which I might have mentioned about a thousand times. But, what I haven’t mentioned is the brand new surprise I’m planning. No idea of a time frame yet, but stay tuned.
• Start making money from my writing, so that someday I can write full time. As I mentioned before, I made no money during the past year of banging my head against the door of traditional publishing. I bet that indie writing will be better for me, but I guess we’ll see.

What are you planning for 2016? Will this be the year you get published? Or will it be a foundation building year like 2015 was for me?