Maria's Journal

Family/Friends, Okay, so this week went in a flash! What with entering contests, writing articles, editing articles, attending meetings and uploading story after story, the week went by in the blink of an eye. The good thing about 'spreading yourself around' is notoriety and name recognition, at least that's what I keep telling myself :).  So if you happen to catch me in the airwaves or see my name pop up somewhere, do me a favor and send me a SHOUTOUT, it'll keep me motivated. Thanks! And now off to do the really exciting stuff, food shopping...YUK. Have a great Sunday folks! Maria

Family/Friends, The last couple of days here in Phoenix have been gloomy, cloudy, and rainy.  Now, anyone who is familiar with desert climate would know that this is atypical for us, unless of course we're talking about Monsoon season :-/ So, all in all I've been sort of 'unproductive' with continuing Chapter 3 of my newest eBook. I've only written about 500 words per day, a third of what I could do on a good day. Oh well!  I did however, spend Friday/Saturday catching up on my Social Media and on my reading and blogging, so that's still good :-)  Talking about reading, I have created an author profile on Goodreads if anyone ever wants to stop by and take a gander: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6398579.Maria_Piork That's all for now folks. Until next time! Maria

Family/Friends: As I communicated before my goals for this summer were to publish an eBook a month (June/July/August). To date I've already exceeded my quota for June and I'm target to meet July's and August's.  More importantly will be meetings my other goals this year: Increasing my word count per day Better self editing Read more Manuscript to major publishing firm Well folks got other other commitments to get to right now, so gotta run.  Oh and before I forget...if you haven't purchased one of my eBooks yet, what are you waiting for?? :D Amazon: http://amzn.to/Nygmv8 Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/Nb79HI Smashwords ( coming soon ) Until next time! Maria

Family/Friends, Last night as I was reading a few pages of The Last Precinct before I went to sleep I heard fireworks go off. At first I thought, am I imagining it? But my husband heard them too, sort of weird, but I guess with the 4th of July being in the middle week this year some of my neighbors have started on the festivities early. Holiday or not, I'm still working, and yes I know I'm always working. I have to say however, that my work/life balance is much better now than it was several weeks back when I'd be writing 60-70 hours a week, today that has been reduced to about 40 hours dedicated solely to eBooks, with another 10 hours dedicated to blogging/reading books/writing book reviews, emails and miscellaneous writing 'stuff'. On a side note, as some of you know I've been actively participating in all three of the writer groups I belong to here in the Phoenix area. As a matter of fact I was recently granted a monthly spot on the Phoenix Write...

Family/Friends,   I've always been aware that in order to grow one needed to take risks, but yet I spent many years of my life shying away from risk, particularly because I was afraid - there I said it!   Yes, mainly afraid of how I would measure up to expectations of family, friends, and peers.   So I fell back, flying under the radar in the ‘safe zone’.      Fast forward to 2007 and major changes occurred in my life, I took on a job that required me to handle greater responsibilities, a job that required me to mentor others as well.   But how could I do this effectively when I myself needed guidance?   This became a key time for growth and a pivotal time for self-discovery.   No longer was I going to sit on the sidelines and just be a spectator, no; I was going to be an active participant.   I would go on to set attainable goals and strive to meet them.   If I didn’t, I’d rework the plan and start anew.   Fast forward t...

Family/Friends:: Now that I have a couple of books under my belt I've begun looking at book review sites.  As you can imagine having books reviewed is a very important step in becoming a great writer. Two weeks ago I created a profile on Goodreads and uploaded an excerpt of my book, to date I have not received any reviews.  I'm considering uploading an entire short story instead so reviewers can have something more substantial to critique.  On a side note, I want to mention that my Twitter following has increased by 10% in the month of June! Now if we only could do the same for my eBook sales and FB Fans :-) That's all for now folks.  Until next time!

Family/Friends, As busy and hectic as things have been in my professional life the last two weeks it's also been an exciting time. As some of you already know, I've recently published two eBooks on Amazon ( http://amzn.to/Nygmv8 ) and will be publishing a third via Barnes and Noble by the end of June. Also, this past week I was the featured author at www.hotlitbooks.com you will find me there next week as well (6/18-6/25). Drop by and read my bio and interview questions, you may learn something about me you never knew before. For those following Erotica Tales on my site ( www.mywritingden.net ) you know that this section has been suspended for the summer, but in its place I've incorporated a new section called Flash Fiction Friday. Flash Fiction Friday ( http://www.mywritingden.net/flash-fiction-friday-2/ ) an exercise that writers undertake to help them draw out a story/scene in short format; 6 words/6 sentences - in my case 6 paragrap...