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Goals Not Resolutions

by | December 28, 2017 | | 1 Comment

I read an interesting post on Facebook in which the writer asked everyone for their 2018 goals. Not resolutions. Goals. He said most people broke resolutions or never even bothered to attempt to meet them. Goals? More realistic and more likely to be attempted and fulfilled. So I asked myself, what are my goals for 2018?

Here are a few:

Finish my erotic fairy tales collection and self-publish it.

Publish my two erotic fairy tale novellas in print. These two books are Trouble In Thigh High Boots (erotic Puss In Boots) and Climbing Her Tower (erotic Rapunzel). You may find the ebooks at Amazon and Smashwords.

Finish my horror novel Hell Time.

Find an agent for my thriller novel Secrets and Lies.

Find a home for my bisexual werewolf erotic romance novel Full Moon Fever.

Send out my newsletter regularly.

Submit to a minimum of 5 submission calls in 2018. Bonus points if I publish at least 5 stories.

Join the YMCA and make an effort to swim and work out this winter and spring. My husband and I are joining the Y next week.

Head to the beach every day in late spring and summer to swim, walk, and otherwise get some fresh air and exercise especially after being cooped up in at home all winter.

Save enough money each paycheck to fund a trip to Europe most likely taken in 2019 or 2020.

Sell more books!

Make an effort to attend more book events like readings and conventions but only when money permits. Those events tend to cost more than I can afford.

Bake more. I didn’t bake enough in 2017 which is a shame since I enjoy baking very much. I didn’t bake as many cookies this year as I usually do so I shall remedy that in 2018. Here are the last two recipes I made – pumpkin bread and pizzelles. Pizzelles are anise-flavored Italian waffle cookies.

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup olive oil ( can sub with canola or vegetable)

2 eggs, Beaten

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Sift together flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.
  3. In a separate bowl combined pumpkin, oil, eggs, water, and spices.
  4. Then, combined with dry ingredients but, do not mix too thoroughly. Stir in walnuts.
  5. Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a thin skewer poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack.
  6. Makes one loaf. Can easily double the recipe.
  7. If desired, you can use them in a muffin tin as well. They come out just as moist. If you use muffin tin bake for 20-25 minute.

Pizzelles

You need a pizzelle iron to make these cookies. I’m sure you can find one on eBay or at Amazon. I have an electric one that makes four pizzelle cookies at once. It’s over 30 years old. My mother gave it to me when she saw how much I loved those cookies. An Italian neighbor made them all the time.

Ingredients

3 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

3/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon anise extract

1 tablespoon anisette liqueur or Sambucca (optional)

1/4 cups anise seed

1 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) melted butter

Instructions

Beat the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla until well combined.

Stir in the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.

Add the melted butter, again mixing until smooth; the batter will be thick and soft.

Heat your pizzelle iron. Grease it as directed in the manufacturer’s instructions. As the iron heats, the batter will stiffen.

Cook the pizzelle according to the instructions that came with your iron. In general, they’ll take between 45 seconds and 2 1/2 minutes to brown.

Remove the pizzelle from the iron, and cool on a rack. If desired, use a pair of scissors to trim any ragged edges.

Dust cooled pizzelle with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.

Now that 2017 is drawing to a close, I’m ready for next year. 2017 was a bit of a slow and rather uneventful year for me writing-wise. I need to be more proactive. I plan on that starting Jan. 1 with my stint at Night Owl Reviews. I’m in an author chat that day at 8 PM EST. I’ll talk about my erotic romance novel No Restraint. Here’s the link to join in:

https://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Chats

See you there, and have a fantastic 2018!

A Scorching Case Of Writer's Block

by | December 28, 2013 | | 8 Comments

Elizabeth Black lives on the Massachusetts coast with her husband, son, and four cats. You may find her on Facebook and on her web site.


—–

It’s fast approaching 2014, and I haven’t been able to write
for over a month. This blog post doesn’t count. 🙂  

I’ve never had writer’s block before. Normally, when I can’t
write it’s mainly because I hadn’t thought through a plot point or
characterization. Once I solve those problems, the desire and ability to write
quickly return. This time it’s much different. 

My sales have ground to a halt, and they’ve been stagnant
for a couple of months. Two new stories I wrote haven’t sold well at all. One’s
a stand-alone short story so that may explain why since I understand readers
would rather spend the money on a novella or a novel, but it still hurts
because I worked very hard on it. The other is in a collection that hasn’t sold
as well as I had hoped. A blog tour I set up did not result in many sales, so I
did a lot of work for little return. I also have four stories of various lengths to
finish for a publisher and my lack of confidence in my own talent and my
ability to sell the damned things is killing my desire to write. It’s hard to
write when you don’t think anyone will buy your books or when you don’t like
the lack of marketing from some of your small publishers. What little I have
written lately is so bland I want to delete it and start over again.

I may be burned out.

I must do something about this problem or it will follow me
into 2014. Driving forth and attempting to write despite my lack of desire
hasn’t worked, so since it’s Christmastime I simply stopped dead in my tracks.
Writer’s block was ruining my enjoyment of the holiday season, and I wasn’t
about to let that continue since the season is so short. I did the only thing I
could do.

I stopped writing completely. Stopped marketing. All I
wanted to do was bake cookies, watch movies, listen to Christmas music, read, and
spend time with my husband who’s on vacation right now.

It’s working. The stress is way down and I don’t feel so
frantic anymore. I still have no desire to write, though, but that’s okay. It
happens. I know once 2014 kicks in I’ll be able to get back into the swing of
things. Instead of fretting over my inability to write, I’m taking a
much-needed vacation. I’m also setting goals for 2014, some of which are as
follows:

1. Finish edits for a mystery/family saga novel and find an
agent for it.

2. Finish those four erotica stories and submit them to the
publisher as quickly as possible.

3. Submit my lesbian erotic short story to the best calls I
can find and hopefully get an acceptance.

4. Aim for a short story acceptance by a pro erotica market.

5. Marketing – no more Yahoo loop chats. They don’t work for me.
Stick with radio shows, blogging, and monthly live chats. Facebook and Twitter
seem to work fine, so I’ll stick with them.

6. Finish two erotic novellas by the end of the new year. They are more than half finished now so the effort won’t be overwhelming.

That’s more than enough for 2014. In the meantime, I will
not worry about writer’s block. I’ll enjoy the holidays. I have a feeling I’ll
be back on track in January. Here’s hoping 2014 is a good year. Happy holidays,
everyone, and see you in 2014.

Goals for 2014

by | December 23, 2013 | | 4 Comments

by Lucy Felthouse

Wow, my last post of 2013. How did that happen?! This year seems to have flown by, but I guess it’s because I’ve been so busy. And I’ll definitely never complain about that – business is good, I’m writing and publishing lots of books, nothing to complain about!

So now I look forward to 2014. I already have releases lined up, which is awesome, and there are other books out for submission which I have my fingers crossed for.

So what are my goals?

  • To finish and submit The Persecution of the Wolves to a publisher
  • To submit to four specific annual anthologies which I haven’t yet been published in – and no, I’m not going to name them, I don’t want to jinx it!
  • To finish two co-author projects
  • To write at least one solo novel

Hmm, it looks pretty doable when it’s listed in four bullet points, but I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. Some of that depends on other people as well as myself, so I just have to hope the stars align to get all that done. And, of course, these are just my larger goals – I’ll also be writing for anthologies, editing at least three anthologies, and I already have a couple of novellas I’ve promised to write… looks like it’s going to be a busy 2014 – woohoo!

Happy Christmas, everyone, and best wishes for 2014.

Lucy xx

*****

Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over eighty
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic
Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and
co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house.
She owns Erotica For All, and is book
editor for Cliterati. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join
her on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to her
newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9

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