E-books…More than Merely Words

I make no secret that I see the e-book format as an art form in and of itself. It’s not just words on a page or haphazard works and neither is any type of authorship. It is planning, perseverance, dedication and trying to perfect your work. People who are serious about any art form will pursue their art. An artist or author will take pride in their art form. They will put everything they have into what they create.

There will be those who think it is a joke or will doubt their ability to progress to having a readership. There are always people who will be critics. The trick is to continue despite lack of interest, lack of popularity. Those are the tough days when you are working on becoming. No one starts out with a following or people interested in their work. Family may show some interest, but it is only your own work and your own progress that will get you a wider audience. For some it never happens. The bottom line for any artist is that they create because they must. It is their life breath. Whether they create while working, create when retired, or create when underemployed, they create.

Another group are those who create to supplement income. I see it often. They have a website with courses that they charge for, they put out an e-book to try to garner more customers. It is a form of creation. Perhaps they have a talent for writing. Most often they come to understand it is not a get rich quick method. Some it is a giveaway to get traffic to their sites. These tend not to be long term though some do tend to turn toward the art form as it awakens something in their lives.

When it is your art form, you put every effort into putting forth something unusual, something beautiful, something that feeds your soul and those of others. It is important on that basis, to work toward being the best you can be. Proofreading is imperative. Putting up work that is as professional as possible is imperative. I have found that control over every aspect and the transfer of my e-books into EPUB has made it possible for me to create a better e-book. As I go forward, I find myself learning more and doing more. I might not be everything that I could be yet, but I keep working on it.

Be Realistically Unrealistic and do the best quality work you can do and continue to learn and improve. In life, no matter what you do, this will improve your chances of being successful.

Thank you for reading my blog post and for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Art and nature can both create beauty

Author Life

This week was productive. I’ve spent some time on my writing projects. The one thing I find is that any time sitting and working will end up with something happening. I have made some headway with two of my three projects. The third I will have to rework as it isn’t going to fit the audience the way it is. I looked at it after my break from writing and realized it wouldn’t be appropriate in the form I have it in. Better to figure that out at the start than after it is finished.

I also worked on a non-writing project. It’s always good to have something else to work on and I have a variety of hobbies and crafts that I do. One of the things I do is upcycling. This past week, I had to do some mending and since I had all the stuff out for sewing, I upcycled a lovely plain shirt I had that I found a bit too short … adding lace and a bottom border. It will be available to view on my Facebook page later on in the day. https://www.facebook.com/AandJPEITreasures/

Each person has their own recipe for success. What works for one person might not work for another. For me, having some time during the week that I work on my projects gives me a stable time to work on things. I don’t always use it for projects. Sometimes I have to do housework or other things. I know that there is a time that I can sit and just think and work on things. I tend to be the multi-tasker who prefers to have more than one project to work on at a time. If this is your method of working on things, then use it. The one proviso is that you must finish your projects. Just starting a project is not enough, you must actually, at some point, finish the project. Not always as easy as it sounds and if you find it hard to work on multiple projects at the same time, then it is likely not a recipe for your success.

Always remember to be Realistically Unrealistic and have more than one thing that you work on if that method works for you. It helps you to have a consistently scheduled work period. If you try to set aside a bit of time every day to work on a project, it will become a habit and a habit will help you to be more productive. As the quote attributed to Aristotle says, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” Always work toward being your best self. It is not a competition being an author, an artist or a professional. Your only competition should be yourself. You should only be trying to be better than you were the day before. All else is fake competition. Unless you’re on a sports team which presupposes competition and even then, it is a matter of trying to attain excellence. Of course this is just my opinion and might not fit for everyone.

Thanks for reading my blog post and for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

As you continue to develop your author life, you will turn from a caterpillar into a butterfly. Keep reaching for the sky!

Back in the Virtual Saddle

The past week, I’ve been back to working on my e-books. It feels right to be back to writing. I have a few projects I’m working on. One is a longer term project…in other words, it won’t be as fast to get out. The other projects are underway. They change as you move forward.

What changes you say? With time, new ideas, new thoughts, and a fresh look at it. All these things can help you improve as an author. After a break, you can look at your work and see if you need to change the direction slightly (which will happen on one project) or continue how you were going (with the other). It gives you a fresh view on things.

Some observations I have made is that every genre can have it’s fans. This leaves room for many different genres because everyone has different tastes in reading. There is definitely something for everyone in the vast ocean of e-books. This makes it even more important to treat it as an art form. It is not a competition, it is an attempt to create literary art using a modern format. It is imperative that we try to keep our work clean as possible and not full of errors and to be true to ourselves. In this, we keep the art form fluid and constantly changing and improving. If authors of e-books want to be taken seriously, we need to also take ourselves seriously. If we see it only as a way to make a quick buck, then we’ll be sadly disappointed. If we see it as a way of furthering the art form, then we will work toward success.

Always be unrealistically realistic and know you’re not going to get rich from doing e-books. Know that you are working to further a new art form and it needs to be done well to be taken seriously. Doing this puts us on the path toward creating beautiful artwork. Anything else and we just throw words on a virtual page with no respect for the words or the virtual page. If e-book artists want to be taken seriously, they need to treat it as artwork and treat it with respect.

Thanks for reading my blog post and for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Like a flower, how we treat our art will either allow it to blossom into a beautiful flower or shrivel and die.

Time Flies

I can’t believe it is already the end of January. It’s looking wintery here. We have snow coming as I write this. It floats and flutters leaving a silent cloak along the earth. Beautiful…and then you have to shovel it 🙂

Life is getting somewhat more normal here. Some of the personal stuff is resolving for the time being. This means I may be able to get back to my e-books. I’ve been doing a bit of reading lately so never inactive. Reading can only help with writing as new ideas and new things come into being as you read. This explains why a lot of authors are long time readers. Exposure to new ideas and books will help you to develop your own skills. Sometimes it will just tell you what you want to avoid in your books. Either way, you get a better footing in the writing field because you learn more, experience more and see more.

When it comes to reading, you cannot underestimated its importance. As a child, my mother used books as a reward for good behaviour. She used to read the classics and children’s books to us when we were kids. Books were something I valued. I extended it to e-books which did not even exist when I was a child. So much changes over the years. So, be unrealistically realistic and know that life will change, but even with the current computer changes, reading is not something that will go out of style. Whether you prefer e-books, physical books or even books on audio, books are always something that will exist. You have to continue to learn and grow through life. If you can cultivate a love of reading, you can do great things.

One of the things that also needs to be developed is critical thinking skills. These are the ones that help you filter out whether information is useful or just more junk. For example, with the conspiracy theories that seem to proliferate, you need to determine where the better information comes from. Just because something confirms your biases (which is another thing one has to know…our own biases), doesn’t mean it is accurate. One needs to weed out the difference between scientific information and just another conspiracy theory. With the bewildering assortment of opinions, be sure to know whether you are reading an opinion piece or a factual or scientific based piece. So many more things to watch for and a lot of people consider themselves experts based on very little to no information and gathering conspiracy theories. This makes things more difficult, not less so. Think critically about what you share.

Of course, much like the snowflakes that are floating and fluttering down today, knowledge is never wasted and it accumulates. Luckily, you don’t have to shovel knowledge. But you do have to sort through and know what is conspiracy and what is real. That is often a little harder than it looks. But being realistically unrealistic, I think it is worth the time to try to make sure what you share does not negatively impact others. What you do does have an impact on others either for the positive or the negative. If we tried to make more positive impacts, there would be a lot less violence, hate and greed in the world. One action can have ripple effects on more than just you. So, you need to decide if you want to make a positive impact or negative one. Do you want to sow negativity in the world or positivity. It does not mean that you accept poorly thought out choices. You can still have boundaries. It does not mean you enable someone’s negativity. You can have boundaries. It doesn’t mean you have to fight every fight….you can bypass or ignore some. It’s all up to you.

Just a reminder our calendar is still up and we’re coming to the last days. If you want the free calendar, please download before it is gone. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1057588

Thanks for reading my blog and your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Snowy beauty. Birds wintering while the water stays open

Another Week

I can’t believe another week has come and gone. It’s been busy here. We’ve been working at some finishing stuff. I finally got around to making the curtains for the front room.

We’re still dealing, at a distance due to COVID, with a family illness.

We’re working at getting our renovations completed and the videos up. Our latest video has just gone up. https://youtu.be/xAvxZQGxR9Y

I have to start back at working on my e-books. In the meantime, our A & J PEI Treasures 2021 Calendar is still up for a limited time. If you want your free copy, don’t wait. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1057588

Of course life happens. One has to roll with the punches. You’re not always going to be productive and when things happen, you have to deal with them. Family is always first priority. Once things are settled, get back to being productive. It’s good to try new things. At this time, I’m working on some wood chip projects. You never know which thing will sharpen skills and you may find a good niche to work with. Be realistically unrealistic and try things. If you are successful in doing something new, then you have found something more you can do. If you fail at it, you just found one thing that won’t work. If you don’t try, then you’ll never know. If you’ve never failed at anything, you will never understand your success and it likely means you never tried anything new.

Have a wonderfully realistically unrealistic day!

Thanks for reading our blog post. Thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

The curtains worked out. Hubby has some plants he’s starting inside. Always something happening at A & J PEI Treasures!

Winter Wanderings

Woke this morning to trees that had a lovely coat of white. Not snow, but frost. Everything had a glorious white glow to it. In certain sunlight, one can see sparkling like diamonds in the snow. Of course there is the downside which is that it is colder out and damp. But you learn to appreciate the beauty and live with the colder temperatures. Much like life, there is beauty and there is a downside. We chose the location for the beauty.

Always know that you have choices to make and in life, not all choices are easy and not all choices make sense to everyone else. Sometimes the situations is not better than nothing. Remember you have to walk your path. No one else will walk it for you. If you feel you are not respected as a person, then it is up to you whether you are willing to accept the behaviours you are subjected to or you have to be willing to walk away. Be Realistically Unrealistic with this. If you decide to walk the other way, then you will have to deal with the consequences and expect that you will have to do all the foot work that is needed to follow a path that is right for you. No one owes you and you don’t owe anyone else…. unless you borrow something, you aren’t owed anything in life. No one is going to walk your path for you and you will need to do all the work yourself. If you decide to accept a situation, then you will have to deal with how you feel about the situation and move forward with it. But, there is always a choice. You might not like the choices, but that is not a requirement of life either. Your mental health/wellness is more important than pleasing everyone. So, that’s the life advice part of my blog 🙂

I haven’t been working on my e-books lately due to family illness and the renovations which have been completed, but still stuff to do. I will get back to it, but I have found that sometimes you have to do one thing at a time and not always the thing you want to do. That’s life.

Our calendar is still up for free downloading if you are interested. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view…

Thank you for reading my blog post and for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

At the end of day, you have to live your life accept that there is beauty and there are downsides

Winter is Here

I haven’t been writing or doing work on e-books the last while. There have been some family health issues and I’ve been trying to deal from a distance because of COVID and restrictions. So, even professionals have to take time off to deal with family health issues.

We’ve had a mild winter so far. In fact, it usually starts a bit earlier. This year, we didn’t get snow that stayed any time until January which is quite unusual. Not surprisingly, we have had lots of snow to make up for that 🙂

Sorry, my blog post is going to be a little sparse this week. Haven’t really been focused on the professional aspects of my life because family and life come first. Be realistically unrealistic and know that you have to have your priorities in order and if you have to take a break to take care of your top priorities, then you have to. If you don’t have priorities in your life, you are less likely to make the tough choices. Sometimes you have to deal with things at a distance. It’s not better, worse or bad or good. It just is. If you know your priorities then you can be guided in decisions which can have an impact on more than just you and in the case of COVID could have deadly consequences to elderly relatives. Sometimes you have to think with your head and not with your heart.

Just a reminder that my Calendar A & J PEI Treasures 2021 Calendar is still available for download on Smashwords, Amazon and Books2Read and many of the online stores. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1057588

Thanks for reading my blog post. Thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Happy New Year!

Good day!

Just a reminder that our free 2021 calendar for A & J PEI Treasures is still available at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view…

Getting ready for a whole new year of adventures for A & J PEI Treasures. I’ve had to take a break from working on my book due to family commitments but hope to get back to it in the near future. Holidays are a little more difficult when you have to complete them long distance, but we manage.

We have our Year in Review up on Youtube at: https://youtu.be/QUXnkI33lug

It’s important to remember that you are not always going to have your focus on your writing. You’re not always going to be 100% on task. Things happen and sometimes your professional work has to take a back seat or get a little less focus than other things. Be realistically unrealistic and know that you can’t be on 100% of the time and sometimes you will have to work on the most important thing…your own life. This is the biggest truth. After the books are done, you retire, or you change focus, there is always that thing you have to make sure to upkeep and it’s called your life. Make sure that you think of others and not just your own wants, likes and desires. Remember, life isn’t all about you, it is all about what you do for others.

Thanks for reading my blog post. Thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures.

Happy Holidays! Happy New Year!

Today’s blog post will be a short one.

We finished the renovations on the spare room. The videos are on YouTube. If you’ve ever had a door knob make a hole in your drywall, you know the mess that can make. If you want to see how we dealt with it, you can find it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/X-KLQCO2JXg We have a couple of videos on it.

This has been the first Green Christmas we remember seeing. It does make Sam walks easier as we’re not trudging through snow 🙂

If you are interested in downloading the A & J PEI Treasures calendar, it is available in a variety of formats. It can be accessed on many of them through Smashwords at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1057588 and is a free thank you and Happy Holidays to you from all of us at A & J PEI Treasures! It can also be accessed from Books2Read at: https://books2read.com/u/mdnjJl

We look forward to new adventures in 2021 and we hope you will join us for them!

Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year 2021!

Thanks for reading our blog post and your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Free Release

Today, I’m pleased to announce that the A & J PEI Treasures 2021 Calendar is free to download. It is available on https://read.amazon.ca/kp/embed?asin=… and through Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view… on a variety of formats. It was something I had been thinking about for some time. I wanted to be able to have a gift for anyone who wanted one. The best gift is of your time. So, I wanted to be able to give everyone a taste of A & J PEI Treasures and our area. But, I wanted to make it accessible to as many people for free as possible. It has been a learning process because I had not done a calendar before. I’ve learned some more things about e-book format and it’s requirements.

I haven’t been writing as much the last few weeks as we’ve been renovating a room. It was a big project as it required filling in holes in the wall (door hits). Now that is complete, there is other things we have to work on. We’ll have a series on our YouTube channel showing our renovation work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGOu3… is the introduction.

One thing I have discovered is that a free e-book calendar is as much work as any pay to view one. You still have to advertise, you still have to do all the prep work. When you first don’t fit the requirements, giving up seems like the best idea, but I so wanted to do something to help cheer people for the holiday season. Something that anyone from any belief system could enjoy that I kept being realistically unrealistic and got the job done. It’s just freshly released by Smashwords and Amazon has just made it free. It’s been a long haul, but worthwhile if it cheers even one person. It’s a thank you to everyone who has been doing all they can during this time to make it through, who work so others can manage, who work on the front lines and for those far from home, it is a taste of home. Having spent a lot of years away from the Maritimes, which to me is home, I know that even static on the phone from home sounds good.

Happy Holidays to all! Thank you for reading our blog post! Thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

This is Amazon link. It’s also on Smashwords. Keep your head in the clouds, but keep your eye on the prize!