Playing While The Cat's Away!!!!! Join Me, Stay at Home Mice!!!!!

PEEPS!!!!!! A RARE RUTHY MONDAY-SIGHTING!!!! PAM HILLMAN NEEDED TO SWITCH THINGS UP FOR CONFERENCE WORK, AND WE KNOW I'M STAYIN' HOME, TENDIN' THE KIDS AND CHICKENS AND WRITIN' SUHWEEEET BOOKS, SO HERE I AM! HERE WE ARE!!! PARTY!!!!!

They're gone for most of the week! Oh, yeah, they're lingerin' today for the most part, but this week:

Oh mylanta, oh my stars, oh sweet saints be praised, it's PARTY TIME in SEEKERVILLE!!!!

(Runs, grabs hats, streamers, party favors, noisemakers, all the fun stuff needed to party like the monsters in "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak, one of the Blodgett boys favorite books!)  If you have a boy or know a boy or love a boy, run and buy this book and read it OFTEN.

You'll understand once you read it. Promise.

So while we party today, let's plan our strategy for this week. And if you whine, cry, moan, bemoan, fuss or bother me about being home, I'll smack ya'.

I'm SO NOT KIDDING!!!!

We are in the best of times while so much of the world is in the worst of times, so the absolute honor to stay home and be productive???? Oh gracious sakes to Betsy, there are folks round the world who would do anything to change places with us so for this week: NO WHINING. NONE. NADA. ZIP. ZILCH.

Because God has made us a wondrous world and most of the people reading this are thick in the middle of enjoying just that!

So:

Monday:  Read Ruthy's blog, take her advice and PLAN YOUR WEEK! Leave a comment to win something cool because Ruthy has the KEYS to the prize vault... Get the jump on others, and take the dive, swim with the big fish, put your butt in a chair, write 1,000 words and SAVE MONEY.

Tuesday:  Implement the first step of your plan which should start with (but not be limited to) writing 1,000 words/day. Four pages. One thousand stinkin', measly words. Go for it, make it your NEXT GOOD HABIT as an author.

Wednesday:  Write your 1K/day. Think about what you can give up to gain time out of your busy schedule. Television and facebook games should be the FIRST TO GO. There is no brain involvement in either, there is no valued family interaction in either, be big and brave and bold and sing the song from "FROZEN" and "Let it Go!!!!"  (Yes, this is a live link to "Let it Go!!!" I love that song!!!! And the movie!)

FROZEN!!!

Thursday: Pray. Pray unceasingly for the plights of the world and thank God you're here, you're American and you live in a land of plenty and then write 1,000 words. And then no matter what else you do on Thursday, you'll be 4,000 words AHEAD for the week.

And now time for a commercial announcement!!!!

SEEKER NOVELLAS ARE COMING SOON TO A KINDLE NEAR YOU!!! AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 10TH,  AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER ON AMAZON ON OCTOBER 10TH!!!

Here is our historical collection:

And here is the contemporary collection!!!!!

How stinkin' cute are they????? Happy dancing in upstate to be part of this amazingly fun, beautiful collection of stories!!!! GRIN!!!!! Available for pre-order by October 10th, RELEASE DATE: November 10, 2014, $2.99 on Amazon!

YAYAYAYAYAY!

We now return you to our regularly scheduled program, still in progress...

Friday:  Don't pat yourself on the back, don't take the day off, don't turn the blasted TV on, don't reward yourself YET.... because it's not a habit yet. It's a beginning and a great one, but it's NOT A HABIT YET.  Like any trend, it's only habitual if it becomes ingrained as part of your existence with little or no thought.... and that's what that 1K/day should be. AUTOMATIC. EN FUEGO. GET 'ER DONE.

Saturday and Sunday: For the full time or part time workers, this could be the day to DOUBLE the word count. I count Saturday and Sunday as 2K days.... because I get up early and get my normal work hour in, and then I come back a few hours later and hit the keyboard again. 

And just like that, fairly painless, is 9K/week.  I go to church, I spend most of Sunday with family around or working in the yard (that's my reward!!!!) and I know I've met my goals.

Don't scoff.

Steven Covey's #1 point in the "7 Habits of Highly Successful People" is to take responsibility for your choices and ACTIONS. That's clutch in any business model, and just as important for a writer in their singular "NO ONE SEES HOW LITTLE I DO" existence.

Don't be the statistic, go above and beyond the norm. The norm (or as Missy put it so perfectly two weeks ago) being average is NOT THE BAR you want ....

Raise your bar. Raise your standards. Increase your output.

Wait, I promised myself I wasn't going to boss you around, that we'd just party hearty like the wild rumpus in "Where the Wild Things Are"!!!!

I messed up. But, honestly, if I didn't love youse, I wouldn't yell at youse!  :)

Believe in God, believe in yourself, believe in your worth and increase your effort. There is no secret road to success, it is simply building the platform of a solid work ethic and then delivering the goods. With so many open avenues to publishing these days, what on earth are you waiting for????

Go get 'em!!!!

Coffee's inside, there's tea, too and I've got a wonderful breakfast lined up for you! Danish and muffins and breakfast sandwiches on tender croissants.... come on in, leave a comment and I'm tossin' your name in the cat dish for something wonderful.... (scratches head, thinks, can't decide....)

And then pulls a $25 AMAZON GIFT CARD out of the vault!!!!!! 

Who the heck put that there?????

Okay, leave those comments, don't stop writing, don't make me hurt you..... but go leave a comment and let's have a little Monday fun for stay-at-homes or still-at-homes! Let's do this!