Browse Author by Debra Sennefelder
Fit Writer, New Book Releases

Morning After Release Day

Tuesday was the big day. THE HIDDEN CORPSE was released and that meant I’d be busy, busy, busy. Busy checking on social media, busy finishing the outline for Resale Boutique Mystery #3, busy stressing out if readers will love Hope’s latest adventure, busy updating my resume because readers are going to hate Hope’s latest adventure and my publisher will have no choice but to cancel all future books.

See, I was busy.

To say that the thoughts in my head were racing a hundred miles an minute would be an understatement. It was like rapid fire. Who posted what? What did I have to share? How was my ranking? Why all of a sudden did my outline for the new book feel flat? What skills do I have to put on my resume? Did I give Billy all of his eye drops? What? A new idea? Geez. I don’t need new ideas because my writing career is over. Wait. What am I going to wear to my booksigning in two weeks? Booksigning as my career crumbles? Might as well go out with a flourish.

Busy, busy.

By the time I went to sleep my mind was exhausted. It had been on hyper-alert all day. I can’t even imagine if I was on Twitter. Facebook and Instagram was more than enough for me. On Wednesday morning I woke feeling somewhat refreshed from a good night’s sleep (total miracle because I have no idea how that happened). But when I woke my mind started reeling again with all the same thoughts from the day before. It was clear I needed something to quell all those racing thoughts or else I’m not sure how the day was going to go. I still needed to work on my outline.

I decided yoga is what I needed to do in order to reboot the start of my day. I found a morning yoga session on YouTube and for eleven minutes my mind was solely focused on the practice. Eleven minutes sounds like nothing. Blink and eleven minutes are gone but it was just the right amount to clear my head and guide me into a more peaceful mindset to face the day after release day. When I was finished with yoga, I treated myself to a cup of green tea and sipped leisurely as I reflected on all that I’m grateful for. I had a new book out (the reviews have been very good and it’s truly a relief), I was working on another, I have a wonderful, loving family and amazing friends and two of the sweetest little dogs who were gently snoring not too far from me.

There is so much abundance in my life to be thankful for and I’m especially appreciative of my readers. I heart you!

The day after release day was a calm day. Thank goodness! I settled down to work, managed my time online and made sure to get out at lunch time for a walk with the pups. All in all, a really good day. Heck, it’s been a fantastic week. A little crazy but that’s okay.

Hey, this wouldn’t be a writer’s life if there wasn’t a little craziness. 🙂

There are a few more days left on the blog tour the THE HIDDEN CORPSE and I’ll be sharing on social media. If you haven’t had the chance to get your copy of THE HIDDEN CORPSE click here for more information about the book and where you can get your copy.

Talk soon!

 

Pets, Writing

My Shih-Tzus Don’t Care About My To-Do List

The struggle is real people. Susie and Billy don’t give two-licks about my to-do list. Just look at them. Do they look like they’re concerned about any of my deadlines?

The correct answer is “no”.

I have copy edits due. I have an outline to write. I have another book to begin brainstorming. I have social media posts to write. A newspaper interview happening. Oh, and a release coming up in a few days.

I try to explain but all I get in return is pure silliness.

And I couldn’t be happier!

It’s a nice reminder to stop and take a breath. Or, in their case a long walk. The days of tossing the ball around or paying tug o’ war with a stretchy toy are long gone. My little mops are now seniors but they’re still little balls of energy (just in spurts these days).

I’ll get through my to-do list and I’ll meet my deadlines thanks to organizing and priortizing my work. I rely heavily on a paper planner to track all my due dates and assigning specific tasks throughout the day. My system isn’t perfect. I’m still looking to tweak it more so that my time spent working is more productive which will give me more time for silliness with the pups. I admit, I can’t resist those faces!

I’m curious, how to you organize your day? Paper planner, digital planner or do you just wing it?

 

Murder Wears A Little Black Dress, Writing

It’s a Wrap!

As I’m writing this post, not only is it a wrap of release week, I’m also wrapped in a cozy fleece blanket because it’s freakin’ cold. The polar vortex is still visiting (some guests really do overstay their welcome).  Oh, and I’m drinking a cup of hot green tea to keep my hands warm in between typing.

What’s release week like? It’s like Christmas.

Excited.

Nervous.

Excited.

Get the picture?

I began planning for release week last fall by contacting the blog tour company who handled the blog tour for THE UNINVITED CORPSE. Shout-out to Escape with Dollycas! Lori did a fabulous job! Once the dates are confirmed, I begin the process of answering interview questions. This time around I opted for only reviews, spotlights and interviews. I had a mix of author interviews and character interviews. I have to say I had a lot of fun answering questions in Kelly’s perspective. I really do like her and it was fun jumping back into her world for those interviews. At the time I was answering those interview questions, I was in the final edits of THREE WIDOWS AND A CORPSE, book 3 in the Food Blogger Mystery series. By the middle of December I was all done with my interviews. I’d returned all my answers, the media kit for the book and photos – author & book cover.

The next thing I did was to set the date for the Facebook release party. I reached out to the company I used for THE UNINVITED CORPSE’s party. Shout-out to A Cozy Experience! Marie did a fabulous job! We set the date, the time and Marie got to work planning and executing the whole party while I got to work on a new writing project (sorry, no details right now).

Christmas and New Year’s happened and ARC’s (advance reader copies) of MWALBD began going out and early reviews started to come in. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and I couldn’t have been happier. While I was writing MWALBD I found myself not just writing a story about finding a murderer, I found myself writing Kelly’s journey from a young woman who had been carrying around a tremendous amount of guilt and shame being forced to face her past and not only give herself some grace but also let those who love her back into her heart, any yeah, she meets a cute guy and exposes a killer. So, seeing glimpses of reviews (I don’t do seeking out reviews to read) that captured what I had been feeling while writing the book was incredibly satisfying and made this author very, very happy.

The days are passing by, flying by actually. January is truly a blur to me. The release day is coming up. The blog tour began a day or two before the actual release day. I made an effort to share all of the interviews I did on Facebook and I reposted Instagram posts from book reviewers. Then release day finally came!

What was different about MWALBD release as opposed to the release of THE UNINVITED CORPSE was that I spent very little time on Amazon tracking the numbers (it can become obsessive), rather I spent a bulk of my time on social media responding to all of the congratulations I received, liking all of the shares that my own release post got along with shares of posts from friends, family and book reviewer who posted on my behalf. I’d cleared my schedule so I didn’t have to divide my attention between release day activity and writing. I probably could have done both but honestly, I wanted to be all-in on the release. It’s not something that happens every day and it’s a big accomplishment so I wanted to be fully engaged with it.

The flurry of online activity continued for the next few days. MWALBD was still being featured on blogs and I still had interviews being published. And I had to get back to work. I’d been so close to finishing the first draft of the secret project when release day happened (not working that day wasn’t the reason why I didn’t meet my final word count goal – I was 20,000 words from the end) and the second Resale Boutique Mystery was due to turn in so I needed to do a final pass on the manuscript. As of writing this post, SILENCED IN SEQUINS has been sent off to my agent and I get to go back to my secret project to finish.

At the beginning of this post I said that release week is like Christmas, filled with excitement and nervousness. The night before release day was a restless one because my mind was churning with dozens of thoughts – what happens if nobody buys the book, what happens if the reviews that get posted on Amazon all say the book sucks, what happens if Facebook and Instagram crash and no one knows about the book, what happens if Kensington’s email server crashes and their readers don’t get the info on my new release???? You get the picture? BTW, those thoughts still lingered into release day even as I saw the reviews going up on Amazon were good reviews, and all of the Facebook posts were being seen and Kensington’s email server didn’t crash. I still kept waiting for something to happen. Well, something did happen. The book sold, the reviews have been wonderful and the support and encouragement and the love that surrounded me on release day was amazing.

I’ll leave off here with a big, fat THANK YOU to all of you!!!

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New Book Releases, Writing

Kelly’s Fashion Rule #4

Out-of-work fashionista Kelly Quinn lives by a few simple fashion rules and they’re coming in handy as she revamps the consignment shop she inherited from her grandmother.

Kelly’s fashion rule #4:

Sequins for daytime

Life’s too short to regulate sequins to special events or the holidays. Go on and sparkle!

Below is a snippet from MURDER WEARS A LITTLE BLACK DRESS.

What is your most favorite item in your closet?

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