Well, I’m going to do something else I’ve long been wanting to do. Last year I launched Haunt Jaunts, this year I’m resurrecting Press Scribe. Except, there’ll be some changes:

1. I’m renaming it to The Sociable Scribe
2. Instead of a website, I’m going to use Wordpress to create a blog-style website
3. I’m not going to sell myself short and offer ridiculously priced packages like I did with Press Scribe
4. I’m not limiting myself to just press releases like I did with Press Scribe

Now I just have to come up with a killer tag. Press Scribe was easy. “Your PRescription for success!”

Press releases to garner PR for companies…the subliminal undertones were there. I liked that.

But now I’m branching out into social media marketing overall. It’s not just press releases, though I’ll still offer packages which include that too.

There are other companies who do what I want to do:

• PRechnology (probably the closest to what I hope to offer as far as packages and such)
• Media Associates
• Social Media Marketing

But none of them have a super snazzy tag. I was thinking something like “Advice on using social media marketing to create buzz, bandy and ballyhoo for you.”

It’s a bit of a mouthful, but…I kind of like it. That’s me.

We’ll see what other ideas I come up with. Once my mind starts going, there’s no telling where it’ll lead!

I bought the domain yesterday afternoon. I’ll work on getting everything going today.

There’s a lot of possibilities with this. Ever since Press Scribe, I knew this was something I could FINALLY combine my B.A. from UofA (Communications degree) with my love for the Internet and writing. It satisfies my entrepreneurial itch.

But with the Sociable Scribe, I can even take it further and combine my love of blogging into a platform to showcase all my ideas and perhaps snag clients that way.

But if not, maybe I’ll become a go-to blog for social media marketing. (And of course I plan to have my blog set up to earn revenue.)

Either way, it’s a new adventure and I’m really excited for the challenge.

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Today I had a delightful lunch out with my friend Karen. She and her husband are up from Jacksonville for a big photography conference at the Gaylord Opryland.

But today at lunch she broke some very sad news. Her friend Marie, who had been battling breast cancer for the past four years, died last week. Today was actually the memorial service.

Karen hadn’t wanted to tell me. I never even met her friend Marie, but she was an inspiration nonetheless. She wasn’t even supposed to live the last three years she did. But she kept setting goals for herself, and she willed herself to meet them. At least three times she’d been put on hospice and told she had less than six months. This time she willed herself to live to see the New Year, but that’s all she had left.

When I was first diagnosed last year, Karen told me all about her. She used her as an example of why it was so important to keep a positive attitude. Because it really could help.

It did. In two chemos my tumor shrunk from grapefruit-sized to golf ball-sized. Not all of that was my positive attitude. Much of that was because of the medicine and the astounding number of prayers.

But keeping hopeful, inspired, and motivated? I used Marie as a benchmark of how important that could be.

So Marie, I didn’t even know you, but you made a HUGE impact on me nonetheless. I know it was much too early for you to go. You’ve left behind a huge hole from what I know from Karen. Everyone who met you loved you. And from the sounds of it you had quite the family. I know their hearts are grieving. I hope you’ve found peace from the pain. That you suffered all you did for as long as you did…you were one tough cookie! But your will and grit, combined with your zest and optimism, have had an impact on reaches even further than you can imagine. Thank you for setting such an amazing example of how to live with cancer until your dying day.

Tomorrow I go in for a three month checkup. I haven’t been in since last October. This will be my first non-scan follow-up. (There will be blood work, and possibly a chest x-ray, but no CT scan.)

I hope I’m still doing fine. I feel good, but there’s always that niggling of “what if” now. Maybe it’ll go away one day. I don’t know. The trauma of all I’ve been through is still fresh.

But I am alive, and as long as I’m alive I will live each day like Marie did: bravely, with a smile, and above all a can-do attitude combined with a will of steel.

Rest in peace, Ms. Marie.

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Ever since I got better and decided to go after Haunt Jaunts hot and heavy, I had it in mind I was going to make money with it. I’ve read of others bloggers doing it. A lot of the ones I’ve seen interviewed are making anywhere from $30,000 to $75,000!

I sure wasn’t making that at Families.com, but I was making something. And I knew they had to be making something because they were paying 20+ of us bloggers monthly, plus our quarterly bonuses.

I learned a lot at Families.com about the importance of including pictures with posts, SEO,  linking, and writing entertaining, informative posts frequently. I went from 1,200 hits my first month to between 40,000 and 50,000 hits/month when I left two years later.

Which was impressive to me, but the Superstars (as I liked to think of them) snagged 100,000+ hits a month. And since our bonuses were based on hits, well…it behooved us to get as many hits as possible!

Some people knew how to work it. Plus, they wrote about timely topics that naturally generated tons of hits. (Think Britney Spears, weight loss, etc.)

Then during my brief stint with Examiner.com I learned about embedding videos and polls, the importance of links/lists to Google rankings, and a little more about Digg.

When I started to really put all that together with Haunt Jaunts, I noticed I did okay with hits on the blog.

But let me back up a sec. I had BIG ideas about having a Haunt Jaunts website that listed haunted places. I planned on having affiliate links, like Travelocity, Amazon, plus Google AdSense that would help me earn money.

However, that was a LOT of work to compile the lists. I also quickly realized my blog was (a) more fun and (b)  getting more hits. Also, there were other sites similar to mine, most with better graphics and set ups. But none of them really had a blog.

Hmmm…here was my niche. But could I earn money with just a blog?

Naively I thought you just throw up an AdSense link and that’s that. The bucks will come rolling in.

Not so. There’s a lot of tricks to it. The ones I’ve found to make the most difference so far include:

1. Having “above the page/above the fold” ads. (Ads near the top of your page/post.)
2. Ad size. The bigger the better.
3. As many ads as possible. (Google currently allows 3 per page.)
4. Color. Ads that blend in with a site’s color scheme do better.
5. HITS! This is the most important. More hits translate into more page impressions which translates into increased page per hit percentages. Oh, and if people click on those ads, BINGO! You can score big!

Amazon hasn’t worked for me at all. Problogger and my friend Chris V. say they’ve had luck with that. That hasn’t generated any funds for me –yet. I did recently redesign my Amazon ads so we’ll see what happens with those.

The biggest revenue-generator last year was from a company who wanted me to write about a link and include it in a post. That’s all I had to do! It was a fun assignment and easy money. I’d like to snag more of those gigs!

I also signed up with a new company, ReadySite, that I put on HJ today. As well as I revamped some of my Google AdSense ads and shuffled around some of my widgets to give HJ what I hope is a more pleasing visual feel. (In my efforts at the very end of last year to retool some things I felt I was getting too commercially-feeling. I wasn’t liking it.)

Because yes, I want to make money and entice clicks, but I also want to have a nice site with good info. If it’s all cluttered and visually distracting, who’s going to (a) notice the links to click, or (b) and most important, visit in the first place?!

So, we’ll see how I do going forward. The great thing is, nothing’s written in stone. Things can be changed any time.

It’ll be fun to see what happens from here on out. If I learn some new tricks or anything that works spectacularly (or fails spectacularly) I’ll post here to try and help others avoid my mistakes!

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In Fat and Fine With It? I wrote about how I’ve been heavy for years now, even though I am physically active.

When I was going through chemo a neighbor stopped by with info about a healthy eating program. It was basically a raw vegan diet. She said she did it and it works for her. She’s never had cancer, nor has she ever had a weight problem.

I know she meant well, so I accepted the pamphlets and thanked her for stopping. However, I was a bit miffed.

She never asked what kind of cancer I had. She never asked what I ate. For all she knew I could have been a vegan who loved indulging in French fries too much!

And I don’t know if being overweight contributed to my cancer or not. Wayne likes to harp on me that it probably didn’t help and I need to take better care of myself in that respect. He may be right. And I do appreciate his concern.

However, from 2007 into 2008, especially 2008, I experienced some of the most intense stress I’d ever faced. It was all self-induced. I shouldn’t have let things get to me like I did.

Still, it happened. And I remember often feeling my blood. A few times I felt my heart hurt in ways I was sure was a sign I was about to have a heart attack. I also remember saying often that I was so stressed and upset it felt almost toxic. How I could feel my blood burning at some points.

I wasn’t all that surprised to learn lymphoma was a cancer of the blood. It made sense to me. I knew the feelings I’d had had been toxic! I’m convinced it was the stress that led to the cancer.

Which for me is why I place as much value on my mental health as I do my physical health. I even came up with the affirmation “Happy cells are healthy cells” to remind myself of this. I’m determined to never let myself feel that kind of stress ever again!

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I do believe this is one of the only years I didn’t resolve to lose weight. Ever since my early 20s I’ve done nothing but pack on the pounds. In high school I was a svelte 118. But come freshmen year of college, I put on the Freshmen 15 and then some. (Hey, I’ve always been an overachiever!)

And then I just kept adding…

Anyway, I wasn’t comfortable in my body for a long time. It was only when we moved to Jacksonville in 1999 and Wayne somehow convinced me to join the Holmes Lumber Jax Master’s Swim Team that I got over a lot of my self-consciousness. I mean, come on. When you meet people for the first time when you’re half-naked and they go on to become some of the best friends you’ve ever had? It’s actually quite freeing. You’re being accepted as is. That’s huge.

Plus, heavy as I was, I was active. I might not have looked like I was in great shape, but swimming 2,000 yards plus three times a week in addition to walking three miles at least five days a week…yeah, I was fit.

When I got cancer last year and started losing weight, first because I lost my appetite, then because of chemo, I got down to 152. I fit in my “skinny” jeans again. I would still be considered “fat” by traditional calculations, but I felt great and at a weight I’d longed aimed to be at but never could get to.

However, all the doctors and nurses kept telling me not to diet, not to worry about my weight, and whatever I did to maintain. I’d never heard that before!

But then someone explained why. Skinny people who lose from cancer and chemo often have a worse time recovering. Seems illogical doesn’t it?

Trouble is, they have no meat to fight with. Their body starts to fight itself instead of the disease. Systems start to shut down. Hospital stays are required.

Being fat actually helped my recovery!

Still, I tried to maintain my weight loss. All my attempts were in vain. I skyrocketed back up to my pre-cancer weight in no time.

New efforts to try and lose have all been in vain. Which is a little concerning, except…

Even though I was heavy, I was actually healthy before my cancer. I’ll never forget when I got checked in the hospital after I was told I had the tumor. They all kept marveling about how my blood work was actually fine. I was, on paper, a healthy woman. If not for the pain, they’d never have found the cancer. (Or perhaps not until it was too late.)

Then last night on NBC Nightly News they did a report about a regular-size lady and one who was overweight but active. The regular-sized lady was the one who’d had to have heart surgery at 50, whereas the other lady’s heart was in great shape.

Which also made me think of the 60 Minutes report they did on a lady who swims in very cold water and sets records. Guess what? She’s not the picture of health. She’s got some flub…but it’s what helps her do her record-breaking swims in the very cold water like she does. (Well, flub and a screw loose. Why anyone would purposely find cold water to swim in to break records is beyond me!)

150 would be great if I could ever get there. But since I like food as much as I do and am not motivated to change my eating habits, it’s not likely to happen.

However, I do exercise. Volleyball, walking, and now tennis. In addition to WiiFit. (Which some might scoff at, but let me tell you some of those exercises will get you sweating and your muscles sore if you do them right!)

And I’m aware that it actually does take a certain amount of fitness to do them. Chemo about did me in. On my good weeks I’d go to Owl Park and aim to get in two laps. A normal walk would be 4. Two was pushing it. Some days one lap was all I had in me. (And it was sometimes all I could do to complete it!)

I also couldn’t walk Murph very far. And when I went back to volleyball the first time? I kept falling! (Luckily it was in the sand.)

Still, I’ve played sand volleyball four to five nights a week every spring and summer since we’ve lived here, plus two to three nights a week indoor in fall and winter. I’ve never lost weight playing, but seeing what chemo did to my body made me realize I’d been in better shape than I realized.

So the moral of the story is…I may just be doomed to 180+. (Unless I decide to drastically alter my eating habits. Not that I eat all that horribly. But I do like certain things a bit too much!)

However, don’t judge me by my cover. I’ll give you a run for your money on the volleyball court, the tennis court, or on Wii. (I’m just about unbeatable at Wii Tennis. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!)

I’ve been moaning to my writing gal pals (specifically Chris of Candid Canine and Jan of the newly launched Your Space and Time) how I’ve been on this awful rejection streak. It’s lasted like six months! (But it feels like a freaking lifetime!)

Last year, even with starting it off one-handed, sick from the chemo, and battling for my life, I somehow managed to write. It actually inspired me to keep going.

It was also one of my most productive fiction submission years since 2007. (I submitted 46 stories then. I did 29 last year, compared to only 10 in 2008! However, I did have some major life upheaval in 2008, so I do have to take that into consideration. Yet overall I was still down. In 2005 and 2006 I was submitting 50 and 60 pieces a year. In 2004 I did 80!)

Anyway, when I got the news I had cancer I did some soul searching and decided, as much as Wayne hates it and thinks I’m wasting my time and tries to discourage me with his pessimism, writing is my passion and not pursuing it denies my authentic self happiness. Which is just no longer acceptable.

So…I set out on a quest to write, write, write and submit, submit, submit during my good weeks. (Meaning, my non-chemo, wretching into my pukey bucket every five seconds weeks.)

I was on a roll until mid-August. With the exception of one flash at Flashes in the Dark, everything else was getting rejected. Or the publishers were going out of business. Or they flat just never responded period.

I got discouraged and decided to instead focus all of my energy on Haunt Jaunts.

I told myself I’d also work on Shadyside, my horror novel, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was suddenly gripped with not being able to handle the rejections.

Which has never happened to me. Rejections usually inspire me to try harder. Not this time. They were paralyzing me from acting. Both writing fiction and submitting.

But by the end of last year, I had that itch again. (And it wasn’t just from the case of Shingles I got! It was that itch to write.)

I’m never short on story ideas. I was getting more and more every day. The red book I store them all in was growing and growing.

I know Life can be cruel, but no way would my Muse be sending all these ideas if I wasn’t supposed to do something with them.

So, I resolved to get back on the horse. It throws me off again? Tough. Wipe off the dirt and get back on again. And keep repeating that process until I’m able to stay on that darn horse!

Well, what do you know?

Sylvia from Bylines, which I’d been featured in twice before, wrote with an acceptance congratulating me on my essay being included in this year’s calendar too! I had given up hope on that one because I usually hear back from her way before December. She’d had some Life challenges too which had caused a delay, but the calendar would still be released.

Woohoo! That was my first streak-breaker!

Then this morning I checked emails and had one from Lori at Flashes in the Dark. She was writing to tell me that my submission “Between the Wolf and the Dog” (my first one not just for 2010, but as part of my “Ride That Horse No Matter What!” campaign) would go live on January 18th.

SWEET!

Streak broken! Confidence reboosted. For now I have a grip on the reigns.

But if the darn horse bucks me off down the path, which I know it will, woo doggie, I’ll be ready to brush myself off, tend any bruises, and get back on it again. Yee haw!

Yep, that’s me. Cowgirl Courtie, saddled up and ready to ride in 2010!

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Starting as early as late last week they were forecasting measurable snow for us here in Nashville today. Then all this week the chances for that happening were 90%.

What a disappointment to wake up this morning and not find the promised snow. (They were estimating between one to three inches. That’s not a lot, but for somewhere unaccustomed to getting much snow, it’s a big deal.)

However, schools shut down.

Ever since we moved in here 2005, every time there’s snow, even if it’s only a quarter inch, schools close.

The first winter that left us stumped. Both Wayne and I grew up in Denver. Both of us lived there through some pretty significant snow storms, and even a blizzard or three. Like any red-blooded American kid, we relished snow days. But do you think Denver Public Schools (DPS) granted them often? No, they did not. It had to be as near to blizzard conditions as you can get them before they’d even consider shutting things down.

But that’s Colorado where snow’s a part of winter life. Here, even though they have sand trucks and some snow plows, they’re really not equipped for true snowy winter weather.

Also, in 2003 there was a snow storm that set the “Declare a Snow Day at the Drop of a Flake” precedent. The snow didn’t start until kids were in school. It picked up fast and by the time they decided to let school out early, it was too late.

Too much snow had fallen and slicked up the roads. Buses –filled with kids– got stuck. Parents didn’t know where there children were. It took hours before some got home.

In short, I guess it turned into a nightmarish mess. No one wanted to repeat that mistake again. Better to be safe than sorry.

So, that’s why people rushed out in droves to grocery store last night. And that’s why school was canceled today.

Because, even though we woke up to only overcast skies, there was still a chance that, like in 2003, the snows could start later in the morning and become heavier.

It’s been spitting snow off and on most of the morning. For the past hour and a half it’s been picking up somewhat. Some is even now starting to stick to the sidewalks and powder the lawns. They say an inch is still possible.

All I know, snow days are good. But when we got snow days as a kid and actually had snow to go along with them, nothing beat a morning of sledding, snowball fighting, snow fort or snowman making, followed by a good cup of hot cocoa, a little rest, and then an afternoon of resumed outdoor fun.

Nashville kids don’t know what they’re truly missing!

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This morning I saw an email from an old writing friend waiting for me in my inbox. It was from Jan Christensen. Who I also know as Ant Jan. (It goes back to when we were both more active on the Short Mystery Fiction Yahoo!Group.)

Anyway, in addition to dishing a little bit about writing, she was also dropping me a line to let me know she had finally launched her blog, Your Space and Time. (Which, I went to check out and was instantly impressed by. Lots of good stuff there. I highly recommend it.)

It was as I was replying back to Ant Jan that I started thinking about my many pen names.

See, she knows me as “Courts.” I started using Courts Mroch as a writing moniker back in 1999 when I first started writing mystery shorts. But I’d had the name before that.

I’d gotten it when I played on the women’s club lacrosse team at the University of Arizona. I’d forgotten about it, though, until several years later when I took a job at the law firm Snell & Wilmer.

My attorney was also a UofA grad, as well as an alum Lax Cat himself. He couldn’t believe I’d played goalie, so I brought him in the proof: a pic of me with my team. Our coach had given us all nicknames and had printed them on our copies. He saw the “Courts” and said, “What a perfect name for someone working in the legal field. And if you ever do write those mysteries, that’d be a catchy pen name.”

So, a few years later when I did start writing, I remembered that and now many who first met me back when I was starting out know me as Courts.

While I never did get my mystery career in gear (or at least not yet; I guess there’s always still hope), I’ve since acquired a couple other pen names.

• C. Le Mroch – I use this one for my horror stories. I’ve had a couple stories published under it. I’m hoping to truly finish Shadyside, my first horror novel, this year and take a stab at getting that published.
• Mackenzie Pryor – This is my romance nom de plume. I haven’t actually completed any of the romances I’ve started, but I have some so far underway it’s a crime they’re not done yet. All it will take is a good couple weeks being disciplined about writing every day, but do you think I do it? Of course not. Because I know that’s all it will take and think, “Oh, I can easily get to that.”
• Courts Mroch – I already covered it, but I do have 3 ideas for mystery series. I never thought I’d be a mystery series kind of writer. I sure didn’t start off thinking along those lines. (I started off more suspense and usually seem to gravitate that way.) However, as I’ve gotten older the ideas for series have come so…one day I hope to actually pursue them!

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I’m done making my standard New Year’s Resolutions, which are almost always:

1. Lose weight
2. Eat healthier
3. Be a better person

Booooring!

Plus, I never accomplish them anyway. So this year I decided to set myself up for success rather than failure –by giving myself permission to make mistakes.

That’s right. This year I resolve to make as many mistakes as possible. To let it happen. To not try and stop it. To have every kind of experience possible, not fear failure, and to learn from it all I can.

Seems to me that’s the best way to live. And I’m all about living the best way I can anymore. Last year certainly taught me that!

And there must be something to this kind of thinking, because look at just a few of the great quotes I found about it!

“If I had my life to live over… I’d dare to make more mistakes next time.” ~Nadine Stair~

“Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.” ~Al Franken~

“Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.” ~Sophia Loren~

“She had an unequalled gift… of squeezing big mistakes into small opportunities.” ~Henry James~

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