Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

Tag: #MFRWauthor 52-Week #BlogChallenge

• #MFRWauthor Money to Spend Freely? Probably Not

  Posted at 10:03 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on March 20, 2020

  

  Oh, dear me. I missed the sign up for Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge. Again. I’m trying to get away from my computer more often these days so I forgot to go back, proof, and set my post to go out.  The topic this week is:

   

  Week 12: If you won the $10,000 lottery, you’d?

   

  A ten-thousand-dollar win won’t be ten grand by the time taxes come out. Once my uncle won that amount in the Michigan Lottery. If my memory serves me correctly, he shared it with his six kids. My dad told me it turned out to be around seven thousand. To some, $10,000 is nothing. To me, it’s a good chunk I’d take in a heartbeat!

  I rarely ever do anything for myself, so maybe this would be my time. My boys, daughter-in-law, and I talked about a trip out West. This amount would be terrific for a journey without leaving the country. I’d foot the bill whenever I could and try not to think about “watching my pennies” as I’m known to do which comes from a necessity to survive. This trip would be a gift from me to them, and we’d create wonderful memories.

  

  Great! What a dream come true. Now, let’s face reality.

  Above I say “watching my pennies.” Yes, I’m afraid if I won the money, I’d stick it away in the bank and let it sit for a “rainy day.” However, I know how much my brother and his family struggle each day, and I like to think I’d share some of it with them. Even before COVID-19, I’ve been frugal and forced to plan for the future for the sake of having money to fall back on. Seven-thousand would cover nearly a year of rent to keep a roof over my head. I fear if I spent the money foolishly, I’d feel guilty.

  Oh, but I’d love the chance to find out and deal with it when it happened. Don’t you have to buy lottery tickets to win. Ha-ha. I don’t. Maybe it’s time to start?

  How about you? Have you ever thought of what you’d do if you suddenly came into TEN GRAND?

  

  This is a blog hop. I know you know by now. Find the other THREE participants HERE. This 52-Week Blog Challenge seems to be falling by the wayside this year. I bet I’m not the only one who didn’t get signed up in time but still wrote a post.

  Stay safe, my friends. Stay well. Practice Social Distancing.

  #StaySafeStayHome

  Posted in #AmWriting | 10 Comments | Tagged #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, #MFRWauthor 52-Week #BlogChallenge, #StaySafeStayHome, #WritersLife, Mary J McCoy-Dressel, Money to Spend Freely? Probably Not

• #MFRWauthor 52-Week Blog Challenge~ Priorities Change

  Posted at 1:03 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on February 28, 2020

  

  This is a blog hop for Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge. Find participating authors HERE.

  ---

  Week 9: Diet before Summer? How seriously?

   

  Due to low-self-confidence back in my younger days, I didn’t know I was thin, but I was serious about losing weight I didn’t need to lose.

   

  Ping-pong dieting became a lifelong habit.

  Today though, I know who I am. I live with the seriousness of shedding pounds for health reasons now instead of what I see in the mirror. Summer is a motivation, but no matter what season it is, I’m forced to keep in the back of my mind, what I should and shouldn’t be eating. I’m not perfect and do cheat on occasion more than I should. If not, I will fall off the plan.

  

  Warmer weather makes it easier to stick to whatever kind of plan someone chooses whether it be to lose weight or tone up the body. The cost of produce and fresh fruit is lower. In the winter, we can go broke buying the fruits you see in the image. Those of us who live in cold weather climates welcome spring so we can get outside more often. To blow off the dust of dry heat and breathe fresh air.

  I can’t speak for everyone, but to get serious about dieting and shaping up before summer is almost an annual ritual around here. More and more people are choosing to get toned up and healthy. On a rare sunny, fifty degree day, motorcycles and short sleeve shirts make appearances. We’ve had more than a few of these days this winter.

  When you have health issues, it changes priorities.

  My Fitbit Inspire™ wristband tracker has been a godsend all winter to remind me to stay motivated and get up and move. I’m excited to see how many steps and miles I can walk over months of nice weather.

  To sum it up for me, eating right is necessary for me (with cheating) but keeping in mind health is my main goal. But in the spring, I will once again fall into my ritual of becoming more serious (without cheating, cross my fingers) to shed extra pounds in addition to staying healthy.

  Recently, my cousin pointed me to *walking videos on You Tube to help add steps to my day. It’s harder than heck on my knees, so I have to limit what I can do. It’s great when you can’t get outside.

  *Please check with your doctor before trying any exercise or work-out plan.

  This is a blog hop for Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge. Find participating authors HERE.

  ---

  Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with Fitbit Inspire™ wristband tracker, You Tube, or the creator of the video in any way, shape, or form.

  Posted in #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, 52-week blog challenge | 6 Comments | Tagged #MFRWauthor, #MFRWauthor 52-Week #BlogChallenge, Dieting, exercise, losing weight, Priorities Change, Summer dieting, walking

• #AmWriting You Can’t Please Everyone: Week 14 #MFRWauthor

  Posted at 10:10 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on April 6, 2018

  

  Week 14:

  What I learned from my worst review.

  Sorry this is late getting out this morning. Wow, week fourteen? I act like it’s a surprise. We’re back with another Marketing For Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge using the hashtag #MFRWauthor.

  Hmm, how do I choose? Hah, those words are something to laugh at if you’ve never received a bad review, and congratulations to you if you haven’t.

  I don’t want to dwell on bad reviews. They make me sick for days, and now I have to recall those feelings as the bad ones flash before my eyes. Yes, I’ve learned that you aren’t going to please every reader who picks up a book. I understand. I can’t possibly love each and every book I choose to read, either, but I do read the blurb, “Look Inside the Book” sometimes, and take a glance at reviews. Try to please everyone if you dare.

  The key is finding the readers you will please.

  Through reviews in one book, I’ve learned what readers didn’t like, for example: rambling in a book that was already too long. Fear not, dear readers. This has been taken care of and in a major way.

  In another book, I’ve learned that it has too much sex yet not enough. This can’t be fixed by anything I do unless I publish two versions.

  For this post I’m picking one review that won’t go away, but it isn’t necessarily my worst. It’s at the top though. The worst reviews are the ones that attack and insinuate stupidity and being uneducated.

  

  I knew better. Honest, I did. Too late. Too bad for me:

  As I said in last weeks topic about research, I suggested triple checking, and then check a few more times before using the info in your book or whatever you’re writing for the public eye. I have no one to blame but myself. I knew better!

  Yes, I made an error. (Not for the first time in my life, either.) I’m sorry for it.

  I admit it. Ugh. 😦

  It makes me sick to my stomach to have made such a silly mistake.

  All it would’ve taken was one teeny minute to triple check a fact instead of depending on a street view thingy. Better yet, I shouldn’t have mentioned the real name of the damn town.

  Yes, I corrected it in the book after the fact, but that doesn’t matter because the review is still there for the world to see. Potential readers don’t know I learned a lesson and fixed it, or that I had beat myself up more than they ever could. On my own defense… When I handed the manuscript over to someone who lived where my error appeared, and didn’t catch that freaking, glowering, embarrassing error, (insert a 4-letter word), it added to the painful burn inside of me.

  Through this review, I also learned not to depend solely on others when my name is on the cover. It’s my job and my book. It’s my reputation. Boy, did I learn the lesson the hard way, when I knew better all along, anyway.

  Too late. Too bad.

  ---

  Y’all know the drill. This is a BLOG HOP. Feel free to visit the other participating authors. They’ll be as glad as I am that you stopped by.

  

  Enjoy your weekend. I can’t believe it’s already Friday.

  Posted in #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor | 11 Comments | Tagged #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor 52-Week #BlogChallenge, #WritersLife, blog hop, Blogging, mary j mccoy dressel, Never Give Up, western romance, You Can't Please Everyone: Week 14

• What If I Couldn’t Write for a Living? #MFRWauthor Week 4

  Posted at 10:02 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on January 26, 2018

  

  Welcome to Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop 2018. #MFRWauthor

  Week 4: What I would be if I couldn’t be a writer

  Good topic since I’ve considered not being a writer in the last two weeks. I should say I considered not publishing new books. I’d still write. No one is taking that away from me.

   “Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.” ~George Scialabba

  To adhere to the topic though, I’d say if I couldn’t be a writer, I’d be a photographer. I’d say photo-journalist, but this topic is about “if I couldn’t be a writer.” I like landscape  photography. I’d travel to the landscapes I’ve always wanted to visit, plus whatever amazing landscape I’d come across along the way and capture the moment to keep with me always. I love creative photography, too. A photographer doesn’t have to go far to get creative with a camera. This has been lost to me for a while.

  

  My other option would be teaching. However, for years before I had proof of being a writer, other than some foolish love poems and stories scattered here and there, I worked in public schools with elementary and middle school age students. I’ve already done this when I couldn’t be the writer I wanted to be, and I’d do it again. However, I can’t explain my career working in noisy and crowded schools since I’m a loner at heart, but I loved the job enough to stay in it for nearly thirty-years. I was a paraprofessional/ teachers aide working with kids with learning disabilities.

  I always wanted to open a bookstore. Nowadays, I wouldn’t open a store, but I’d work in one.

  

  There was a time I wanted to be a social worker until I took Sociology in college.

  I could work with rescue animals, specifically dogs and horses. I love other animals, but I prefer the two mentioned.

  

  A big office, factory, or department store setting isn’t for me, but I have worked in a big office and factories, and they worked out fine at the time.

  If it came down to this in reality, I’d need a lot of time to consider other options if I couldn’t be a writer. Have you writers out there ever thought of  what kind of job you’d have if you couldn’t be a writer? Tell us in the comments.

  This is a BLOG HOP. Please join in by visiting the participating authors.

  

  Enjoy your weekend. Enjoy life. Enjoy being a writer.

  Note: Are you aware that you can edit the Tweet or preferred social media that is shared with your post? I publicize to Google +, Facebook, and Twitter.

  In the sidebar in my dashboard, under PUBLISH where my publicized  posts are shared to social media, it has an Edit option. You can add your hashtags and your Twitter name, etc. I’m not sure how Blogger works because I no longer use my blogger blog. Some WordPress templates may be different. WordPress.Org blogs might be different, too.

  However, I’ve removed the sharing option to my Facebook Page. Through my investigations about their new changes, I’ve read that shared posts may not show up due to Facebook’s new algorithms. I’ll add my post link to my author Page manually instead of having it automatically sent there. It’s a slim chance any of our Page posts will show up anyway unless we pay to boost or create an ad. IMO. I don’t know how a shared post will be affected if shared to our regular profile. I’ll have to experiment by sharing to my regular profile instead of my Page.

  Posted in #AmWriting | 15 Comments | Tagged #MFRWauthor 52-Week #BlogChallenge, #WritersLife, author, blog, blog hop, books, camera, landscapes, Marketing for Romance Writers org, Photographer, social work, teacher, western romance, What If I Couldn't Be a Writer? #MFRWauthor Week 4, what would i be if I couldn't be a writer, writer

• #MFRWauthor Week 51: What I’ve Learned #AmWriting

  Posted at 9:12 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on December 22, 2017

  

  Countdown. Marketing For Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop.

  Week 51: Advice to New Authors

  I don’t think I have a right to give advice to new authors, when so many in my groups have been published authors for many years with TONS of books and experience. However, I can mention a few things I’ve learned along the way to this point. Maybe what I’ve learned will work for you, too.

  

  First off, here is an important bit of advice given to me by more than one successful author. I’ll pass it on:

  After you write the book, write another one, then another…and another.

   

  What Helps Me Might Help You:

  Don’t pay a publisher to publish your book. They should pay you.

  Don’t hire an agent who gains most of their income from editing. I nearly fell into this trap.

  

  Well-established companies don’t usually contact you for business. Ask other authors if they’ve heard of the company, promo site, etc. Thank you very much, but I’ll hang on to my hard-earned money. I choose who I want to promote my books, and me. To be fair, on occasion, I hear where authors had good luck with a company that contacted them. Ask questions.

  As an Indie author, I’ve learned to write the story that calls to me. I don’t write fast enough to write what is hot for the moment, or trendy.

  Commitment to a writing career. This is a job. If you love it DON’T GIVE UP.

  At the end of a writing session, stop at a place in your manuscript where you can pick up the next day or next time. This is extremely helpful for me to sit down the next day and know where I’m going.

  Network:

  Who else understands us like other authors? Successful authors that I’ve met have been encouraging and helpful by forming groups, doing workshops, and more.

  • YAHOO Groups
  • Facebook Groups
  • Author Friends
  • Bloggers
  • ????

  Stay Updated:

  It’s easy to fall behind if we don’t keep learning. It’s amazing how fast things change in this business. If it isn’t technology changing, it’s publishers and vendors dropping off the face of the earth, or new ones popping up. Writing tools come and go. Algorithms change. Rules change. Keep learning.

  There are so many reasons to continue learning in this business. ~Mary McCoy-Dressel

   

  Editing:

  In my early years, like eons ago, I didn’t think I needed an editor. I’m on my fourth one since 2012 after saying farewell to two.

  I’ve learned not to pay full-price up front. I’ve learned that an editor shouldn’t keep a manuscript for ten months.

  This is a good place to stop.

  ---

  

  I didn’t look forward to this topic, but I jotted down some thoughts because I wanted to keep up with the challenge. Before I knew it, I had a few pages of things I’ve learned so far, but I tried to pick out what I thought would help a new author.

  ---

  We have one more week in 2017 and the 52-Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop. If you haven’t visited the other authors, this might be a good topic to drop in on. Thanks for visiting!

  I’m a little under the weather right now. I might be slow in responding.

  

   

  Christmas Money Photo Credit: Pixabay> geralt

  Posted in #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge | 31 Comments | Tagged #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, #MFRWauthor 52-Week #BlogChallenge, #WritersLife, Advice to New Authors, authors, blog hop, Bloggers, friends, Network, trendy, What I've Learned

• Week 50~ Accomplishments~ For My Eyes Only? #MFRWauthor

  Posted at 9:18 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on December 15, 2017

  Here we are again—rocking around the Blog Hop scene together. It seems like I just hit Publish on #MFRWauthor Week 49. Now I’m typing Week 50. Let’s get to this week’s topic with the other members of Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge.

  Week 50: My Biggest Accomplishments

  Synonyms for Accomplishment:
  Achievement, capability, effort. The list goes on…

  I’d like to add: My Biggest Accomplishment to Date.

  

  Ready?

  Many years after quitting high school—now a working factory wife with two children—I went back to school and received my diploma. I went on to graduate from college.

  For the first time as an adult, I chose the job I wanted instead of surviving in a job I disliked. I consider this a “Life” accomplishment.

  Five days a week I helped kids with leaning disabilities to get through their days, weeks, months, and years in a place where many others didn’t understand them. This is an accomplishment in my “early Career” world.

  Once upon a time, a little girl dreamed of writing books. Today as an adult, this grown woman writes and publishes books. This is an accomplishment in my “Literary” world, my, “Pre and After-Retirement Career.”

  

  © Ivanbondarenko | Dreamstime.com –

  As a young woman, I raised two human beings. They grew up to be kind, gentle, intelligent, hardworking (and handsome) young men. We remain close to this day. I call this an accomplishment in my “MOM” world. Their dad gets credit for this, too.

  Until eight months ago, I was a best friend to someone I met at eighteen. We had remained best friends until she passed away. I still have friends that go way back. Having long-term, friendly relationships is an accomplishment in my “Social” world.

  In my life, I stayed in one marriage for twenty-nine years. We lived. We laughed. We loved.. We almost made it to forever. Some may look at this as a failure. I consider this an accomplishment in my “I am Woman” world. Many of you can claim more years, and my heart goes out to you with pride. (Unfortunately, my second marriage was short-term.)

  I’ll stop here so this doesn’t get boring. I did some soul-searching to write this post, and I’d like to tuck these answers into a folder on my computer for my eyes only. I guess I have to hit publish if I want a post this week.

  

  

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  THIS is a Blog Hop. Let’s visit the other participating authors. I’m sure you’ll enjoy their posts as much as I do. >>> Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge.

  ---

  

  If you celebrate, are y’all ready for the holidays? At the beginning of this week, I didn’t think I’d ever be ready. I sat at my laptop on Green Monday and went to work on selecting gifts for my family. I had already ordered some gifts.  🎁. Most had been delivered either to me for shipping later, or to be shipped directly to their homes, but now I’m finished. I “accomplished” a lot in four days.

  My little two and a half foot tree isn’t up yet.   🎄. However, I have set a few Christmassy decorations out around my house, including a pretty red bow on the front door.  One day I listened to Christmas music!  🙋‍♀️  Sparkly lights and old figurines from the past help to keep me in the mood when at times I don’t feel like being in the mood this year. Have fun this weekend! Thanks for reading.   ☺️

  ---

  Top and Bottom photo credits: Pixabay

  Posted in #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge | 18 Comments | Tagged #MFRWauthor 52-Week #BlogChallenge, #WritersLife, accomplishments, achievement, author, blog hop, college, diploma, graduation, high school, learning disabilities, mary j mccoy dressel, western romance

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