(Yes, this is a goofy photoshop of me into a WIX stock photo. When I get bored, I do things like this.)
Hello My Happy People!
I hope you are having a great start to your week. I have been driving myself crazy (as usual) trying to keep up with all my social media responsibilities and working on public relations. P.R. and I have been actively looking for a regular dog sitter for our boy, Shaggy, so we will be set for when we want to start taking vacations again.
My greatest fear about letting anyone watch Shaggy for us is that someone might be mean to him. He had such a hard life before we got him and came to us with so much fear. We have worked with him for years to get him where he is now and if anyone ever did anything to set him back and make him afraid again ... well ... let's just say, I would not feel the need to be nice to anyone who was mean to my boy!
We will be meeting a new potential pet sitter this next Sunday and we are hoping she works out because she seems just about perfect. She is in our neighborhood so we could just walk Shaggy over to her house. She is close enough we could meet her and her dog at a dog park once in awhile just to keep them acquainted if we are not going on trips often. Plus, she is familiar with special needs dogs, which Shaggy is. She is everything we are looking for in a sitter. Think good thoughts for this to work out.
The other thing I have been driving myself crazy with is I got a press release template and press package from the SheInspires Awards publicity department. Since there are so many award finalists, they are sending us the press packages and having us send out the publicity after we personalize their basic press material for ourselves and the award for which we are in the running. I have not had to write a press release in almost 30 years and was stuck on some of the formatting. I finally found a good resource site that even has free press release distribution to targeted markets. So I have been going crazy trying to get the press packages put together to send out this week.
I need to take some photos tonight. I had wanted to have good headshots by now but have not had the time to get that done. I need to touch up my hair color. The purple has faded out to a bluish grey in some places. It wouldn't hurt to touch up all my roots. Sometimes I think it's not work playing with my hair color for all the upkeep. But it is fun and I like the results. Clairol just needs to hurry up and make a magic wand for hair color.
In case you are interested, Here is the press release that is going out this week.
The technical question I was stuck on this weekend was I was not sure if the [Bolton, UK, August 16, 2022] should be "Bolton, UK", where the association is and where the awards are taking place, or if it should be "Düsseldorf, Germany", where I am. I decided to go with where the awards are actually taking place. I could be wrong (wouldn't be the first time and won't be the last) but I don't think it will be a huge issue. At this point, I just want it all done.
I am still writing on part seven, Into the West: Family Ties, but man it is going so slooooooow. I really wish I knew why I am having such a hard time dragging this last book out of me. I still love how it is coming together and I have always said the story is what is important to me. I'd rather it come slow and be a great story than come quick and be horrible. So there is a silver lining to it all. I may do a sneak peek this Friday, maybe even a TikTok reading. That might be fun. I will post it in a blog or on a page of the website and post a link in the blog for those who don't use TikTok, but we will see.
Still working on the website to get the SEO and Meta Data all correct and adding Alt text to images ... ugh! My biggest dream at the moment is to one day make enough profit from my books so I can hire someone else to take care of my website technical upkeep for me. I would still do all of the fun stuff like blogs and design but I'd LOVE to delegate the technical upkeep. I dream BIG!
So that is what is going on here at Burckhardt Books. This Wednesday we will have the second half of the interview with Lisa Sillaway, The Social Media Professor. I am working on setting up some more interviews in the near future. I am searching for writers who would want to be on the podcast in October. If you or someone you know writes horror, sci-fi, mystery, any genre that can help us gear up for Halloween, drop us a line to set up an interview, please!
Have a great week, people!
Now go forth ... and be happy!
Dianne
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What is a Chiari Malformation, a Syrinx (Syringomyelia), and Hydrocephalus?
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