• Blog

    2015 looking forward

    1/1/2015

    2,000 / 365,000 words.
    Happy New Year.

    As I mentioned in my last blog post way back in 2014 (that post is so last year) I am aiming to develop good writing habits in 2015 and write #1000wordsaday.

    I’ve added a funky ticker on the top right which I’ll update as I go along. Probably not daily but whenever I blog. I’m hoping this keeps me accountable. That and the Facebook group that I started for other writers with a similar goal. So far there are over fifty of us.

    Last year I felt like I was treading water. It felt like I didn’t get enough work out and that I never really gained traction. In fact what I was doing was writing books that will be released in 2015. By April I should have 3 books in the Upper Crust series published. Check out their lovely covers. So pretty!

    Monique McDonell Upper Crust Series Banner
    I also plan to release two novels in the latter part of 2015 so stay tuned for those – oh yes and a Christmas novella.

    It should be a good year for me.

    What are your plans for 2015?

  • Blog

    New Author Pictures for the New Year…

    12/18/2014

    Monique McDonellNot long ago I had some new author photos taken.

    I never really loved the one I had and I always looked a little stilted and unnatural in them. I’m not the world’s most photogenic person but I usually look better in photos that aren’t staged. I guess it is a lucky coincidence the Ford Model Agency never came calling back in the day – I guess, short, freckled red-headed women weren’t the big thing back when I was a teen (or ever).

    Anyway, my lovely husband, helped me take these. It’s always weird to look at yourself in photos but they are I do believe as good as it is going to get.

    The truth is I don’t want to be one of those authors who have photos taken of them and use that same photo twenty years, five hairstyles and fifteen kilograms later. I have met authors who I would NEVER have recognised from their author photos.

    Anyway I hope to revamp my website, newsletter and Facebook page in the new year (Can you believe that’s only 11 days away?) and these photos will come in handy.

    I actually prefer this one. I guess I look better when I have something else to focus on. Oh yeah and I’m holding my lovely paperbacks which you can get from Amazon.

    Monique McDonell Author Photo - A Fair Exchange

    Monique McDonell Author Photo - Mr Right and Other Mongrels
    Monique McDonell Books and Champagne

    Comment

    Angela Parson Myers
    12/21/2014 11:32:59 am

    Love them! You look very relaxed and natural, and I love that you’re “reading.” I know what you mean about not recognizing some authors. When I had my photo taken, I told the photographer I didn’t want him to Photoshop the wrinkles out. And he didn’t…darn it. 🙂

  • Blog

    New Year, New goals…or why I hate the talking GPS

    1/2/2014

    Building Attraction - Monique McDonell - CoverThe new year is an excellent time to look back on what one has achieved and what one may not have.

    I’m a person who enjoys setting goals and making plans. I’ll be honest with you there are lots of goals I don’t meet and plenty of plans that get left on a list of paper, but that almost doesn’t matter to me.

    Having a plan gives me something to work towards and it’s like a map showing me the way. Sometimes I ignore the map and take a side-road but that’s fine with me, I just like knowing I have the map.

    For the record I really don’t like those GPS devices that talks in a car. It drives me nuts. I want to yell at it and say “Stop nagging me already.” I’m a bit that way in life as well. If I say I’m doing it then I’m probably doing it and you asking me “how’s it coming” will stop me in my tracks.

    Last year I released two books under my name and another under a pen name – that’s about half what I set out to achieve. Still not a bad outcome while running a small business and keeping a family happy.

    This year my goal is to release two full-length novels and two novellas, oh yes and a box set. (As well as a couple under my pen name). We’ll see if that all happens. I think it will.

    I also hope to be a bit more consistent with my blogging. The last third of the year my work sapped much or my creativity and I lost track a bit, I also didn’t market my two 2013 releases as well as I should have. I guess we live and learn.

    In a perfect world I’ll write 1,000 words a day. Of course I won’t make it every day but it’s a reasonable goal. Writing every day is the best way to stay in a story and keep your mind in the mind-set of your characters. All writers know this, but ask around, not all writers succeed. Life intervenes, stories stall, characters rebel and confidence can fade. Still, much better to have the goal and fall short than have no goals at all.

    So onward….to 2014 and another year of making up new friends in my head.