Now taking pre-orders for Bubba Goes National!

At long last, I am ready to take pre-orders for my first novel, Bubba Goes National! The books should be available by early January. Cover price is $12.95 plus shipping ($2.50 for one book, $3.97 for two, $4.97 for three, 6.50, for four, $13 for five or more). The special pre-order price, available only until December 31st, is a flat rate of $13 per book--including shipping!

To order, click:

Thirteen-year-old Leslie Clark has loved horses for as long as she can remember and has been riding since she was six. Although her widowed father cannot afford to give her everything she desires, she works hard to get what she wants. When what she wants, a great horse to show, is taken right out from under her by her rival, Kate Wellesley, Leslie thinks her whole world has been turned upside down--until she finds Lucky (nicknamed Bubba by her father, who thinks he is funny). Then, everything changes.

Readers of Bubba Goes National will be touched by an inspiring story, but they will also learn about the care and showing of horses while they read about Leslie's adventures. Sandwiched in is a lesson that if one is willing to work hard, they can make their dreams come true. Bubba Goes National is the first of the Riders of Green Meadow series, which will showcase horses that are unwanted by one person but are another's dream come true.

How's your NaNo?

Including today, we have 10 days left to finish our National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) books. I had intended to do all kinds of post about NaNo, but I've just been too busy! So busy, in fact, that I've hardly written at all...I just broke 16k a few minutes ago, and I should be at 33k already! This means I have to write 3400 words per day, every single day until the 30th if I want to finish. I'm hoping to write a ton today, maybe even 10k, and maybe 5k tomorrow, and that will help catch me up a bit. I will also have some time on Thanksgiving.

I thought NaNo would be hard last year when I was freelancing full time. Then I got an attack of tendonitis and really didn't think I'd finish, but I did. This year, I have taken a day job again--working with horses, which I love, but between work and driving to work, about 11-12 hours of my day is gone. Then, I often have writing assignments (for actual money), plus I have to bathe and eat and sleep and stuff. Sometimes, I just can't bear the thought of doing anything, so I just veg out. However, I just can't stand to lose, so I'm going to do everything in my power to get this stupid book WRITTEN!

If I can do it, you can too! Stop making excuses...just go write. Start with one sentence, or try to write just 100 words. Before you know it, you'll be screaming along, and you'll be so much further along on that book you've been wanting to write than if you just sat there and made excuses. Now, stop distracting yourself with my blog and get back to work!

Last ten days of NaNoWriMO....GO!!

Elements of the Soul has shipped!

For those of you who pre-purchased a copy of Elements of the Soul, thank you so much for your support! There was a series of snafus with the printer, but the books are now available and in the mail (regular ole USPS) to each of you. Thank you so much for your patience for this long wait!

If you have not yet purchased a copy, I will have several copies for sale, or you can purchase them here. If you would like to purchase a copy from me, email me at jennifer AT authorjennwalker DOT com.

Check out my blogs about Arabian Sport Horse Nationals!

I was invited to blog about Sport Horse Nationals on clubequestrian.com--check out my daily musings at www.clubequestrian.com/blogs. I recommend starting from the beginning, so scroll down until you get to the one called "When it rains, it pours..."

It's almost NaNoWriMo time!

I know, it's only September, but NaNoWriMo is just over a month away and it's time to start thinking about it! What is NaNoWriMo, you ask? It is National Novel Writing Month, a time when thousands of people across the globe are focused on one task: writing at least 50,000 words of their novel during the month. The idea is to finish it, but you "win" the challenge if you get at least 50,000 words.

There is a lot of support from other writers and it can be a lot of fun...but crazy! In order to complete the challenge, you need to write 1,667 words every day of the month--a bit more if you take a day off here and there. I can generally write about 1,000 words per hour if I'm going at a comfortable pace, 1,500 if I really push it. There are groups who get together all over the country to write together, such as at cafes, libraries, their houses, etc., which makes the writing process just a little less lonely.

So, if you think you're up to the challenge (oh, believe me, you are!), go to the site and register. You can't start writing until 12:01 on November 1st, so don't cheat! What you can do now, however, is figure out what your story will be about and even do an outline if that is your style. You can do some character sketches, setting sketches, anything that will get the story cemented in your head so all you have to do is write come November.

Are you ready? Let's go! Come visit my NaNoWriMo page and add me as a buddy. We can do it together!

Associated Content vs Helium vs Suite101 vs Examiner vs Ehow July

Once again, I tracked my earnings on each of my online contents sites: Associated Content, Helium, Suite101, Examiner and Ehow. I can't show you the actual numbers for the earnings, but I can tell you how things shook out.

As a reminder, this data is gathered rather unscientifically, and I know that.

Suite 101

Suite101, once again, came out on top for earnings per article. The revenue share there is about four times the performance pay on AC, despite the fact that I have just over a quarter of the articles there than I do on Associated Content (and just under half of what I have on Helium). Suite and AC are the only two I have page view data for, and Suite garnered me 2,540 MORE views than AC did. In fact, despite adding six articles to Associated Content, my views there went down in July. Suite page views went up about 500 with the addition of only four articles.

For total earnings, Suite is not yet up to where Helium and AC are, because they give up front payments. I suspect that once I get my article inventory up a bit at Suite, that will no longer be the case. There is a bonus once you reach 50 articles and I'm only 12 away from that, so that is my goal for August.

Helium

Helium came in second this month for earnings per article, after coming in a dismal fourth last month. This is due to a variety of reasons: adding more articles than I did anywhere else (by recycling stuff from AC, so it didn't take much time), the sale of an article to one of Helium's partners, and a dramatic drop in earnings at other sites. When I get 19 more articles up there, I will get another writing star and therefore earn a little more in up fronts per article. That is my goal for August, but given that I just started a day job and have other things to do, that's a pretty aggressive goal. I'll be happy if it happens in September.

Helium came in second for total earnings, behind AC where the up-fronts are higher and where I earned more in performance pay. However, my AC performance pay was less than a dollar more than Helium with 50 more articles--not counting the $5 sale at Helium. The gap in performance pay in June was about $3, so that is closing. I suspect that Helium will pass AC next month in that department.

Associated Content

Associated Content came in third for earnings per article, with a significant drop from last month thanks to the addition of several articles and a plummet in page views. The forums there and elsewhere are teeming with people complaining about page view accounting that does not seem right. There were many cases like mine, where a writer didn't contribute anything for a while and their views held steady, then added a bunch of articles and that's when their views dropped. It doesn't make any sense that you can add 30 articles and have fewer page views, but AC still claims there is no problem. I was hanging in there to get the little stream of up-front payments, but I think I'm done now that I have a day job and better-performing sites to write for. I'll rethink that if they fix the page view reporting problem.

eHow

eHow came in fourth for earnings per article this month, not far behind AC. I didn't add any articles this month and actually earned a little less than last month. However, you can't really draw any kind of conclusions about performance there right now because I only have seven articles. eHow came in last for total earnings, which is fair since I have the fewest articles there.

Examiner

Examiner came in last for earnings per article this month. I didn't add many articles in July and my page views stink. I seem to get the most views right after I publish something and promote it, then they die off. I still think that could be my fault because of topic selection and keywording. I'm supposed to be writing 3-5 articles per week there and I haven't been. I'm going to keep working on it there and see if I can turn it into something good--I know other people are doing well there, so I could too if I worked on it. Examiner earned more in total earnings than eHow thanks to having more articles, but less than everywhere else.

Conclusion

In August, I want to get Suite and Helium article volume up to the point where I get a little more per article there with the bonuses, and I want to meet my obligation at Examiner. However, with the volume of other work I have in addition to the job, we'll have to see how that goes. See you next month!

What is so hard??

My husband and I like coffee. We like the actual taste of it, not the taste of the sugar or whatever you put in it. Coffee and cream...hot or iced. That's what we like. This doesn't seem like it would be that hard to get, but the good folks who work at McDonald's can't seem to get that...and I don't get that they don't get it.

McDonald's came out with iced coffee a year or two ago, which comes in regular (sweet), vanilla or caramel. Greg and I would go, whether inside or the drive through and order thusly: "Two large iced coffees, no flavor, no sweetener, no syrup. Just coffee and cream."

Without fail, there would be a pause, and the order taker would read it back to us in an incredulous tone of voice. "You don't want sweetener?"

"No," we would say, trying desperately to keep control of our composure. "Just regular coffee, regular cream and ice. Nothing else. No syrup, no sweetener, no flavor."

"OK," they'd say, like they thought we were nuts and we would surely be sorry. When we got to the window (or stepped aside to wait for our order, without fail, somebody would come over to ask us again. "So, you don't want sweetener?"

"No," we would say a little more firmly. "Just regular coffee, regular cream and ice. Nothing else. No syrup, no sweetener, no flavor."

After they handed us our drinks, we would start to drive or walk away, confident that our request, given in triplicate, had been honored. Almost without fail, we would taste the coffee and find it was sweet. Given that regular coffee and regular cream do not come sweet, that meant that sweetener was added. Sweetener we specifically said THREE TIMES that we didn't want.

I'm not sure how to change this. I don't think you can be any clearer than, "Just regular coffee, regular cream and ice. Nothing else. No syrup, no sweetener, no flavor." The only conclusion I can come to is that America is getting dumber, and that makes me sad. On the other hand, it makes me feel smarter, so yay me.

Michy sent me this video, which had Greg and me rolling on the floor, laughing, tears streaming from our eyes...because it's just so true. Warning: harsh language! Don't play this in the presence of young children or anyone with sensitive sensibilities!