March | 2010 | Journey of the Heart

Monthly Archives: March 2010

Bad News Be GONE!

Posted on March 13, 2010 | 4 comments

Here it is Saturday morning, I woke up at 6:04…yeah, A.M. Who the hell gets up at 6 A.M. on Saturday morning? I try to sleep until at least 7:30, otherwise I begin to wind down by 2 ish.

This past week has been plagued by one bad thing after another, a few of the highlights are the five bombings in Lahore, Pakistan where we have family, my ISBN Log (where I assign ISBN’s to our books and keep track of the titles and authors, cause each book and format has to have its own ISBN) got corrupted and ate all the info, and my Plantar Fasciitis is in full major pain mode (like I have time to soak my foot.)

But while these and a myriad of other things have been hell on my stress level, there have been some good things to mention.

We have completed and are sending the adoption papers to INS. Yup, hubby and I are adopting a baby from Pakistan. We are certain he will grow up to be President of the world. I’m just sayin’.
I got a person at Borders Corp. who is actually going to help me get the money Borders owes me for books. Woohoo!!!
The snow is all melted here in Laurel, MD. Okay, it took a lot of rain to do it, but you can see the grass! Yeeha!!

If those things aren’t enough to make you smile, then here are a few links to get the ol’ happy juices flowing. I leave you with the good…

A Haiti adoption with a happy ending *this is especially interesting to me since we are adoptig internationally. All children deserve happy and loving homes.

Alex on track with its first childhood development centre *being a former PreK teacher it warms my heart to see that South Africa is doing so much to help raise the next generation for success and happiness. Go South Africa!

Charming Prince gives monarchy a boost Down Under *This young man has so much of his mother in him. He will make her very proud.

Building free homes for wounded vets *I have nothing but love for those who give back. This man is more than a hero, he is a role model!

Have a HAPPY HAPPY Saturday!

4 Comments

Posted in Blatherings

Tagged adoption, books, Borders, family, happiness, ISBN, Laurel MD, maryland, Pakistan, plantar faciitis, publishing, snow

Out Damn Stress

Posted on March 11, 2010 | 17 comments

I can’t tell you how many times I have this conversation with people.

“So, what do you do?”

“I’m president of Echelon Press.”

“What’s that?”

“The greatest indy publisher in the business” ::smile::

“Wow, what do you publish?”

“We do mostly fiction, but are always on the lookout for great non-fiction.”

“You mean like James Patterson?”

“Actually, I think our stuff is better.” ::smile::

“Well, that must be so exciting to get to work with all those writers in New York.”

“Well, I have Tom Schreck in NY and he is pretty awesome. But our writers are all over the world.”

“Really, like where?”

“Israel, New Zealand, California.” ::smile::

“So you get to travel all over the world and everything. Flying first class must be awesome.”

“Yea, it must be.” ::snort::

And on it continues until my eyes glaze over and my tongue starts to sweat.

What’s my point? I went to the Doctor yesterday (actually my Nutritionist) and it seems I am riddled with stress. Now, where the hell is the glamour in that? I’m supposed to be flying First Class, the rest of world says so. I am a publisher for Pete’s sake.

I have actually had some variety of that conversation several times over the last month or so, even during my trip to Pakistan. Back to my stress. J (we’ll call her that to save her privacy) says that I need to find ways to relieve stress. Huh, ya think?

I am currently working on royalties, editing several short stories, rebuilding my ISBN database that got corrupted during last weekends computer stupidity (its, not mine) and trying to market a number of books.

What I want to know is what the heck I am supposed to do to relieve stress. I am sure that others suffer from this horrible thing, as well as me…or it it I? Anyways, I’d LOVE for you to share some of the things you do to relieve stress.

And let’s be clear, if anyone says “walk” I will hunt you down and make you suffer. Walking does not soothe me…it gives me time to think, and then I get wound up about all the things I should be doing instead of walking and then I feel guilty, and then I eat. Eating is great, but not stress eating, so I am looking for anything but walking. And for those of you tracking my health, I do wlk because I have to for my health, but not as a form of stress relief.

So come on people, give me some of your best ideas for relieving stress. I REALLY need them.