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Deana Zhollis – Dream Notion


Nothing Much Going on…


Jul 22

Posted: under Novels.

So, it’s been very slow around here. Yep. Life. And doing what I would like to do. Work’s been busy, mental stress been active, lots of child rearing to do…just busy, busy, busy.

And that’s what happens when weeks and months go by and you don’t have much to say.

I’ve been trying to write on my 3rd book for The Calling Series: Creations, but it’s been like a paragraph here and there. Just one of those time periods in your life where you can’t get what you enjoy doing, done.

And I missed another month putting up a blog! Sigh. That’s how life is. However, I’m glad I had the steam going when I did. It will come back. It always does. Just a slump in life right now. :)

Until Next time!

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Marketing Redemption


May 29

Posted: under Novels.

Got two approaches with the magnets advertising on my car.

The first one, I wasn’t prepared. I was too busy changing a diaper, trying to get out of the car and get inside to Outback with the mother and hubby, that when the potential customer approached and said “Science fiction Novels, huh?” I just said, “Yep” and kept changing the diapering and getting the bag, bottles and baby blanket together. DOH!

I could have kicked myself!!

I didn’t think that people would actually come up and actually talk to me about what I had advertised on my vehicle. It’s been on there for a few months and no one had said a thing. I tell ya! I HATE Missed Opportunities!! But, in the meantime, they tell you something.

Get prepared!!

So, the next time, I was ready. I had already mentally thought about what I should do and say the next time someone comments on the signs on my car. And it happened again. Mom was in town again, visiting, and we stopped to pump gas. I was sitting in the driver’s seat thinking about what I should get at the Flea Market (Called Trader’s Village, actually) since Mom wanted to go shopping. I needed a new shower cap, and I wanted to find some kind of loop earrings and I also wanted something to store the bows and barrettes for my daughter’s things….

“Novels, huh? You don’t meet writers in person very often.”

My redemption! “Yep,” I said, “That’s what I do! Here…” I fumbled around through my wallet and I gave him my business card.

“Good luck,” he said.

With a great big smile, I said, “Thank You! Appreciate it.”

A GREAT BIG SIGH! HURRAY!! I was so very happy that I was able to make up for ignoring the first customer by being too busy. I tell ya. Being too occupied and busy, busy, busy and you miss out on things.

But redemption is such a sweet flavor!

Now, I’m working on updating my business cards. As I said before, I need to have something more general, more like a logo or motto or something. I had went back to my designer and got that done. I just now need to go to VistaPrint and get that image on my new business cards. I got it right for the cards, but the poster… Unfortunately, it wasn’t turning out as well as I planned. It wasn’t filling up the entire space.

Being that I have so little time now to do anything, I tried an hour to convert the picture to the size for the poster, and have it fill in the entire template on VistaPrint, but to no avail. I kept having a lot of white space on the sheet, no matter how I tried to cut, size and crimp it. Gimp would be able to resize the picture file, but I just couldn’t get it right on the template for some reason. I went back to my designer and ask for her to help me. So I’m gonna wait for that file and try to do the poster again.

So little time…

I would love to get to my other two novels this summer–get those up and running–but I just don’t know. I have to get up from bed at 4:30AM, out the house by 5:30AM, drop the daughter off by 6:00AM, at work by 6:30AM, shutdown laptop and office at 3:20PM, get to daycare by 4:00PM, and I’m back at home by 4:45PM. Then there’s dinner for me and the hubby to do, feeding the daughter, cleaning dishes and resting and putting the daughter to bed by 7:00PM. Then more resting and catching up on TV shows recorded on our PC that’s connected to the TV (Smallville, Fringe, Medium, Lost—that’s one that I can scratch off…nice ending!–, V, Flash Forward..and what happened to Heroes??…Stargate Universe), Thank Goodness We Can Skip The Commercials! Then I take a shower at 8:30PM and down into bed by 9:00PM.

And somewhere in there, I’m supposed to do 30 minutes on my Wii every other day, but haven’t been on it for quite some time.

I’m guessing for the summer, with no shows to really watch (well, there is Eureka, True Blood, Sanctuary, Caprica and Dexter coming up sometimes during these months or end of the year), I could get back with my editor and work on The 9th Symbol and The Calling Series: Jetta.

I guess you can say if I cut out all these TV Shows, then I could get something done. LOL! But that’s my dinner, feeding daughter, and resting on the couch time. And on the weekends I try to catch up on my Netflix moves (three in rotation at a time), and figure out what I need to post next on my blog.

It’s only the weekend that I can get a few other things done that I couldn’t do during the week, and most of the time its not anything to do with writing and books.

Sigh

I need a vacation.

Until next time!

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Car Magnet and General Marketing


Apr 25

Posted: under Marketing.

I’m driving around with my car magnets, and they look pretty good.

I would upload a picture of it, but it came out pretty dark from my cell phone. And why I haven’t taken one with my camera? Too lazy right now. I still haven’t downloaded what’s in the camera now…lots of baby pictures!

I got the car magnets done at Whole Magnet Signs

After realizing that my car magnets just has two of my books, I asked my Book Cover Designer to make a general “logo” so to speak. I’ll be writing more books than just that (and I actually have three self-published). So, I gave her my idea of what I would like. Not sure if I already posted this, but oh well, my mind seems to not hold as much memory as it use to. But anyway, I told her I wanted a Mad Hatter image, a fairy, a space ship and my Wendh Prince guy from my very first book on the cover. And it came out just like I liked it. She added all three books that I currently have self-published in the picture as well, which is okay with me because it just gives a sense that I have more than one book. So here it is…

The next thing I want to do is get this on my business cards. I had created business cards before, LOTS OF THEM, from Vista Print, but they all have just my first book on them. Now, I’ll have a general image to put on posters and business cards to hand out, and that’s much better.

Wow, I’ve posted quite a few things in April. That’s because I’m finally getting some sleep and more time for myself as my daughter gets older. She is now 8 months and counting. A routine definitely helps everyone out. The Hubby gets to get his bike riding in, and I’ll soon be getting back to my 3rd book of the Calling Series.

Until next time. Tootles!

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