Luck is Where Preparation Meets Opportunity

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These are samples of the bracelets I make and sell. So is this:

I need to raise some money. I need to raise some money in order to register my business with the state, get logos made, business cards.

I want to raise $500. $130 for registration costs, $205 for bank accounts, $245 for promotional (logo design, business cards, website updates).

I was going to start a GoFundMe. I decided against it.

I’m doing this to sell merchandise (books and beads). Okay, so I’ll sell the merchandise.

On the “Buy It Now” section, you can order autographed copies of my books. If you like the bracelets (those are for anti-anxiety, self-esteem, anti-migraine. I can make general healing with some drop-dead gorgeous amethyst and hematite). I can address your issues with stones.

And the dragon is cool. The dragon’s blood jasper inspires courage.

The bracelets? Right now, $50 for the single strand and $65 for the dragon (double strand), but I’m open to negotiation.

Yeah, you can buy the e-books for $1.99 and $.99, but I won’t get that money for 60 days.

Buy, share, buy some more.

All Choked Up

Jun9

(I originally wrote this for May 22. Wrote it as a page, not a post. Yeah. That kind of day)

So, under “Monique DeSoto,” I released “Patti Goes to the Dungeon”recently. 99 cent short story, sold a whopping ten copies, but still…

(99 cents. Go buy the damned story. $.99 won’t bankrupt you and you’ll laugh your butt off. Here, let me help…)

https://www.amazon.com/Patti-Goes-Dungeon-Monique-DeSoto-ebook/dp/B06Y1C5W69/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495494575&sr=8-1&keywords=patti+goes+to+the+dungeon

I’m getting asked for the next one.

Yikes!

This is the moment when a lot of authors talk about how they get inspired and motivated and go a week without sleep pounding the keyboard to meet the demand of their fans.

Image result for kermit pounding the keyboard

https://youtu.be/wmq6VVNqPz4

My reaction?

(eek)

I’m like some Douglas Adams character that only functions when you don’t look at it directly. Very strange mental block, I must admit. But then again, I’ve never done things the way most folks do. I got in trouble in kindergarten. A lot, actually, but in this case, we were told to draw a brown bear with a black outline. I drew a blue bear with a brown outline (my fashion sense wasn’t fully developed. I didn’t know you don’t put blue with brown). I did my own thing.

My point is that I had a bunch of ideas for more funny erotica. After all, I want to turn this into a collection. Had I written them before the reviews came in, I’d be golden. Maybe some editing, but they’d have flown.

Now that people are looking, I’ve gone dry.

“(Yes, Folks! She thinks she can make a living at this!” “Yeah, right!”)

So, ahead of For Love of Books and Florida, July 15 in Sarasota, I will produce the next Monique DeSoto short story. I will start scribbling it tonight (I MUST start with pen and paper. It’s a jump start to the creative process).

And not choke.

Reasons Why

May5

It was suggested to me that I should make a list of all the reasons why I write stories, make bracelets, and some other things I’d like to get going (graphic t shirts). I’m going to do that here (and has anyone heard of a magazine called Pyramid? or The Pyramid?)

Books: I like to create stories.
Books: I get inspired by all kinds of things that can play out into multiple acts with beginning, middle, end.
Books: I’d like to make enough money from writing to support myself.
Books: It’s cook to get to the point where the characters stop “listening” to you and have been fueled enough with detail to start acting and talking on their own.
Books: I like to explore ideas.
Books: I wrote These Foolish Things because I thought older lovers are interesting.
Books: I’m writing short stories because I’m used to writing essays, briefs, and papers.
Books: I’m writing erotica because it’s legal (for now) and I can give it my own twist.
Books: I want to create characters that people care about, want to have as their friends.
Books: This is a lasting legacy.
Books: I’m good at this.
Books/writing: I like to entertain people. My words get a better response than me as myself.
Books/writing: I want to write things that inspire people to think differently about a subject, to see themselves in, to learn something
Books/writing: I have something to say
Books/writing: my great-grandmother, Daisy Washburn Lovell, wrote two books, “Glad Tidings” and “Glimpses of Early Wareham.”
Books/writing: If Grandma Lovell is going to be in the Library of Congress, so am I
Books/writing: I think if I get these stories out of my head and onto paper, I may be able to sleep better.
Books/writing: I get a kick out of autographing copies.
Books/writing: Reviews: so far, they’re positive
Books/writing: I have an excuse to attend group signing events
Books/bracelets/T shirts: the American standard for judging the quality of your talent is whether someone is willing to pay for it.
Bracelets: I have friends with issues that certain stones can treat.
Bracelets: I love handling the stones.
Bracelets: Researching which stones do what is fun.
Bracelets: The bracelets are beautiful
Bracelets: I enjoy earning money from something that I create.
T shirts: It’s fashion, in a fashion
T shirts: It’s fun to come up with messages
T shirts: colors, glittery print = FUN
All of it: I am more than my day job and goddammit, I aim to prove that.