Promises to Go!

Okay I've skipped a couple days - too many irons in the fire - I finished Zip - now renamed Cold Water and submitted it (it's a Young Adult Mystery/Suspense - the kid from Knapsack Secrets, now has his own book.) Had to send it to Wings for rights of first refusal - cause it's linked to the other book -- so we'll see what happens. (Just a query letter so far, we'll see if they even request the manuscript.) So okay

Today Promise yourself to forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the great achievements of the future.

I believe in light of the New Year just breaking ground, this is very good advice. 2009 will never appear again, what can you do to make 2010 The Best Year of Your Life?

If you are looking forward and not backward, if you are living in the now--you already have a good start on great achievements. Remember when you drive at night you can only see as far as the headlights can shine, when you walk upstairs you can only do it one step at a time(unless your a kid taking as many as you can at once), but that is enough - all you need to do is keep doing it again, and again, and again until you REACH your goal.

You do have a goal don't you? (not a resolution, but a goal a target)Short and long term goals - you have to aim at something or you have no direction. If you don't plan your success, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail". Make it a banner year. I'm looking forward to it.

Promises Promises!

Today promise yourself that you will be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
Sometimes, being the shy violets that we are, as authors, we find it easier to be supportive and congratulatory about someone else's wins - new contracts, promotional coups and other things then we tend to be about our own. Because we were told "brags a good bargain, but hold on is a lot better," or "Let someone else toot your horn." Well, that doesn't work when you have to go the 9 miles to promote your own books and be "out there" where people may criticize or even applaud what you do.

But--and here is the best part, what you give you get. So if you are enthusiastic about other people's success, feel that feeling, know that feeling and then claim some for yourself as well.

When Christopher Paolini first met publishing success with Eragon, I dissed him as-- oh sure his parents are publishers, authors, business people...he has an edge - maybe, but this home schooled little boy (15 when he wrote it) had just gotten his GED and was looking forward to college. Instead of heading off straight to college he decided to write a book.

Hubby just finished reading the first of the trilogy Eragon, and asked me if I would get the other two for him. He said he found no mistakes in the editing (where he found several in the Harry Potter books he just finished reading) and he said the kid writes a great story.

I must swallow my ill-placed envy or is it jealousy, and read the first of his books to see how he made and is still making news. His series is number 3 on the New York Times best seller list, still.

Anyway, be happy for those who've succeeded. Your turn can't be far away, actually good vibrations from you will make it happen sooner.
Try it - it couldn't hurt.
Cricket
http://www.cricket-sawyer.com

"I Think I Can, I Think I can!"

Challenge - Promise Yourself: To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.

When you are facing hard times either financially, emotionally, or spiritually it isn't easy to think only the best for yourself or any one else - but sometimes just smiling will help lighten the burden you feel. And create untold good for you and those you care about.

You can work for the best outcome, you can work to do your best - that doesn't mean perfect that just means the best for where you are and what you CAN do right now. (like parents raising children...you only do what you can do with what you have, know and are.)

If you expect the best - to paraphrase Henry Ford - you can think you can or you can think you can't --either way your are proven right.

So, if you expect the best, throw your dreams toward the moon, even if you fail you'll wind up among the stars - if you aim, expect - the best! You'll have a better chance of getting something more then not shooting for the moon at all. You can do it, if you think you can. "Little Toot, I think I can, I think I can,...." Go for it!

Hope your New Year will be your BEST year ever
Cricket
http://www.cricket-sawyer.com

Where Have I Been?

Sometimes life gets in the way of the best laid plans of mice and men. Besides several new books coming out in the last couple months - I have a few more being released in the months ahead. Fury of Fire: A Woman Betrayed (book 3 in this series)(Crimson Moth Publishers) is due out in January, as is A Writer's Vehicle, Filbert Publishing is a book on the craft of writing. Watch for contests and blog tours associated with each.
However, today I would like you to concentrate on something else....
Its another challenge for you today:
Promise yourself to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

That may be a little difficult, you may have to keep checking yourself when you don't really see the bright side - but if you look really hard I bet you can find one.

Today, we have near blizzard conditions - blowing, drifting, at times near white outs - so the weather is a bit of a bear, but I have a warm and comfortable home. It's a good day to stay inside and write - or bake bread or any of the household chores that make my home a place I love to be.

I'm sure when you look around you have a bunch of sunny just under the veil of "your crabby" or someone else's crabby exterior. Make a smile your umbrella and your rain will all turn to sunshine and rainbows.
Try it!
You can email me your results if you like.
at cricket@cricket-sawyer.com
visit my website at http://www.cricket-sawyer.com

Psst Have you heard?

Psst… guess what I just heard?! SingleTitles. com got a facelift, can you believe it? You can search reviews by publisher, release month, even rating. They've got lots of book excerpts and author interviews. You can even win prizes. So write this down, bookmark it or whatever: http://www.singletitles.com Just stop by soon.
Cricket
http://www.cricket-sawyer.com

Trick or Treat...

Guaranteed! After you read your September fix in the form of Fury of Fire: A Woman Scorned - get ready for Halloween by picking up your copy of ZERO CEMETERY LANE

Nicole has stumbled upon the living history of the old rambling log business establishment that went from brothel, to organized crime retreat and everything in between. How does she separate Adam from her real world, or is he real. His love making is real - how? or is it? What about the escape from the .... Well, you'll have to read it to see. Just look at the awesome cover --- and imagine.

Watch for contests, launch party and more.
Cricket

New Contract - New Title - New Publisher

It's like the first -- for those who are authors they know - it never gets old. Every new contract is as wonderful as the first. It validates your credibility as an author, it gives you reason to believe in yourself once again. You can make paper airplanes out of all those rejection letters and send them winging off into the wild blue yonder. Okay, here's the scoop...
Crimson Moth (a new publisher) has accepted Fury of Fire: A Woman Scorned for publication in September 2009.
The cover art completed already by one of the best - for now I'll just call him "R"
You'll see why I want to keep him all for myself {grin}

Here's a blurb about the upcoming book - I'm looking for pre-publication reviewers- if you're interested please email me at cricket@cricket-sawyer.com.
Fury of Fire: A Woman Scorned

Jo-Ellen is finally stabilized and able to speak with Detective Sam Levine. Her ex-husband, Roy Pardena, now becomes a person of interest, with means motive, and opportunity. Conflicting stories develop about the other suspects now with Jo-Ellen's perspective added to the mix.

A visit with the alluring Candy Price opens new insights into the animosity and trouble brewing at Thunder Ride that Detective, Sam Levine, didn't know about before.