First Word

You know those moments when you completely scratch your head and just don't get it. Life is loaded with absurdities. Rather than get angry (although I still do get irritated at some of it), I thought I would share the most absurd business relationship I ever got into and JUST extricated my company out of it. Our now former distributor Atlas/Bookmasters (thank goodness we're done with them) did all kinds of things that one could call absurd, ridiculous and incompetent. Let me start with the list for your enjoyment. Perils of Printing -- We initially worked with them on a print job. It went awry immediately. When we tried to remedy all of the mistakes and over-charges and hidden fees, the president (not the staff) told us we were incompetent. First, you never tell a client they are incompetent (horrible customer service) ... oh wait what's my second point again? Oh yeah, you NEVER tell a client they're incompetent. AND they had the nerve to try and win our business on ...

You are super time consuming, and I can't think of anything meaningful to say to you on this fine Saturday evening. Oh, blog you are my obsession yet we just can't talk today. I need to keep you loaded with content, but my brain is overloaded. I love you blog, and I want to keep my blog readers coming back for more, but I just am not in love with you. No, dear blog it's not you; it's me. I'm just not ready to be in blog relationship. Of course not blog. We'll still be friends. I promise to come back to you on Monday; but my other blog, Brea's blog , wants me to come over. So, I'm really sorry, blog you will have to sit ... empty, alone, blank, bereft, lonely and wordless.

Wow! Here is a really cool goal. Get Google Alerts every day on my new book series California Girl Chronicles . Can you imagine the publicity built up when Google Alerts go out every day with your book title or name? You know you've reached a ground swell of interest when you get alerts every day of the week. I like this idea a lot. If you're reading this and don't know what is a Google Alert then please let me share. If you use Google you have alerts. You can set your alerts to a keyword like your name or title, and the little "spiders" on the Web crawl out and gather information associated with your name or title. It's super easy to use and free. As a publicist, I put client's keywords so I can track what is going on with their books and results we're getting. You don't have to be a publicist, though, to do alerts. Famous people and products have a deluge of alerts each day! I will know California Girl is a best-seller when she gets alerts every ...

Whenever I hear other writers (who still have day jobs) complain they don't have enough time to write their novel or non-fiction book, I will eagerly try to explain how they can get it done. Most of the time, though, if they already have mental barriers to what I'm saying, they don't listen. Instead, they'll give me a worthwhile list of all the reasons why they don't have time. So, I'm going to debunk your excuses here really fast. First, you should never attempt to give me your litany of reasons why you can't get something done -- ever! Why? Wait till you hear what I manage to get done and how. So to make your jaws collectively drop, here is what I'm working on: three books (each are in the writing stage too, which is the one that I'm most actively involved in), one children's book that is almost ready for production, blogs (two for me and one for my client), newsletters (one for me that is weekly and two for clients), another book that is almos...

I get invited to so many events, I could spend my entire day at one event or the other. Social media floods invitations into my in-box daily. The funniest event I just got invited to was a "Plumber" party. Yes, did you read that right? A plumber is throwing a "plumbing" party. When my plumbing has risen to the status that it now qualifies for a party I just have to scratch my head and ask, "Really?" Why do I need to celebrate my plumbing? I guess I am just not giving enough reverence or revelry apparently to the kitchen or bathroom sink. I know I have to sit on the "throne," but really that's not a party either. What's next, a carpet party? Hey, how about a linoleum party? You know we can all get out on the dance "floor-ing". I mean really people, my plumbing, foundation or roof do not need a party. I'm just saying.

Social media is a lot of work. I Tweeted that yesterday, but it is. I finally broke down and began to focus on my much-neglected Twitter account that had like two followers. I gradually over the last few days began to build up followers, and I imagine I will be working on that for the next few weeks. It wouldn't be so time consuming if I weren't also involved keeping my fan page going, sharing on Facebook, and occasionally accepting a new colleague on Linked-In. Lest we also forget that I'm blogging here and now I have Brea's blog going on Tumblr.com. It's madness I tell you. Yes, these accounts are linked (the first thing people say all of the time); but you can't simply link accounts and voile! Your time has been magically saved. Neglecting to follow people on Twitter only resulted in one thing -- no followers for me. Blogging is another task that you can't ignore. Heck! I blog every day and I'm still pining away over my lack of followers here (hint, h...

We interviewed a guy on our First Word radio show yesterday who discussed his various books, one of them was called Monogamy Sucks ! which I thought the title was pretty funny. (P.S., that doesn't mean I agree with it I just found it entertaining). Turns out the book is about swinging. He started talking about erotica, and I suddenly realized that maybe California Girl Chronicles isn't quite as (a-hem) as "erotic" as I thought. I think I actually construed sexy with erotica, because the more he talked the more I realized I was completely tame in my book. It wasn't anything he said in particular, it was just the "liberal-glazed" tone of the discussion. In fact, I'm willing to bet my book is luke warm compared to the blazing hotness that his books may or may not be. Now my self-image has gone from, "Oh, look at me all open and sexy," to "Oh, how boring am I?" Actually not true. I was told by one reader, "Brea is better than V...