Preparing for my Week of Writing

Plans
I'm looking forward to next week!  I'll be taking a vacation and spending a significant portion of it writing.  My current goals for that week are:
- Finish Zegin's Abduction.
- Submit some of my short stories.
- Decide on an artist for the Zegin series covers.
- Work on my novel.
- Write a blog update.
- Marketing (improve my stats).
- If the edit comes back for Zegin's Infection, apply the edits and get it ready for publishing.
-  And of course, do some reading.
(Thanks for the pic, James!)

That accounts for half of my week.  For the other half, I plan on some activities with my friends.  If the weather permits, maybe even a hike.  Gotta sharpen the saw if I want to keep cutting through my tasks. ;)

Updated Statistics
I'm seeing some nice progress on my socializing statistics.  I'm finding that with more Twitter follows and followers the flow of messages becomes huge.  There's no way to digest all that information.  However, every now and then something stands out.  I actually bought a eBook from Amazon based on the twitter posting from the author.  I checked out his profile, then his web site.  I was so intrigued that I bought the book.  It's called "The Pyramid Legacy" by Clive Eaton.  You can find his site here: www.cliveeaton.com I've not started reading it yet.  It's next in line after I finish "7th Sigma" by Steven Gould. 

Here are the latest stats:




Klout Score: 40 (+1)
TT.com Page Loads for the past month: 795 (+145)
Twitter Followers: 134 (+18)
G+ Peeps Following: 90 (+6)

With the introduction of Google Communities this week, I expect that the G+ stats are going to start picking up.  Especially, if I can find the time to participate in some of the discussions.  Since this is a new feature, I'm expecting that there will be a lot of groups that start up but then falter off.  I currently belong to 5 writing related groups.  I would prefer to knock that down to 2 or 3.  I'll save that listing for my next posting.

Kindle Upgrade
I gotta admit - my wife has good taste!  Not just because she married me.  (Okay, well, that took some convincing.)  I've been planning on replacing my 2 year old Kindle with the new Kindle Paperwhite device.  Just for reading.  I had a couple coupons from my Best Buy Rewards membership (every geek has this) and the price was good.  As is normally the case, my wife decided to join me (to prevent me from walking out with more electronics than I can fit into the car).  As a man, I tend to shop the man's way.  Walk in the door, walk straight to the item I want to purchase, buy the item, and walk out.  This process started correctly.  We walked in and walked straight to the Kindle Paperwhite display.  A sales clerk came over and I stated that I wanted one of these!  (Men don't describe.  We point at the item and grunt!)  As I started to approach the register I hear this sweet voice in my ear, "Ooo, this is pretty!"  For a split second I was disoriented, thinking that I had somehow ended up in a jewelery store, and that my wife was admiring a nice multifaceted rock of highly expensive qualities.  When I came to my senses I walked over to see what the excitement was about.

"Look at the colors!" she stated.  "The screen is amazing!"  I knew she was hooked.  It was the Kindle Fire HD.  It was twice the price of the Paperwhite but could do movies, pictures, music, games, applications, and dishes.  (www.wikihow.com)  I think I fell in love all over again with her, right there in the store.  "So, you're recommending that I spend twice as much as I intended?"  I was making sure that I wasn't dreaming.  She laughed and agreed that it was unusual.  The rest of the process continued as normal.  We bought the device, added a cover, and left.  When we got home it finally occurred to me that I should've walked her down the iPad isle.  That's okay though.  I'm very pleased with the Kindle Fire HD.  It's an awesome device for less than half the price of an iPad mini.

So, if you know of any great Android apps for writers, shoot me an email.

That my progress thus far.  Keep on writing folks.