Five Lessons I Learned from My Cat

For those of us who have spent an entire lifetime living with a variety of cat companions, we have gained a deeper understanding of how the cat's mind actually works.

Cats learn a variety of things from us, mainly on how to be domesticated. Don't scratch the furniture, it's wrong to climb the drapes, or pee outside the box.

We in turn learn a variety of life-saving tips from our special furry loved ones.

Here are five lessons that I have personally learned from my cat, Isabel.

1. Sometimes it's okay to spend all day in bed. Cats sleep an average of sixteen hours a day. Humans sleep an average of eight hours a day. Sometimes when we're not feeling well, whether mentally or physically, it's a day best spent snuggled up to a warm kitty cat in bed, reading a book. Have a nap with them, they love sharing their lives with their fellow pride member.

Please click here to read the remainder of my article on Catews.com.

Queen Victoria's Wisdom on Writing

Happy Victoria Day! I decided to dig through my archives for a post from a couple of years ago.

Queen Victoria wrote a minimum 6000 words in her journal each day. She received her first journal in 1882 when she was a young girl of thirteen years old. It is unclear where her journals were stored as she finished each one, but a staff member of the royal household deemed them valuable enough to store away in the archive of her life.

Queen Victoria's entire journal collection can be found online at the Queen Victoria's Journals website. 

Women have extremely busy lives with work and famiy but Queen Victoria fitted a week into one day. She had the time to pen 6000 words each day, so I do believe that I can find the time to do the same, minus a zero or two!

As my vacation looms, I have promised myself to work on my steampunk writing projects at least 5 days in a row. It's been discussed whether I'll go into hiding, perhaps at a seedy hotel, or will I inhabit the local coffee shop and pretend to be JK Rowling? 

Ironically I was heading home one day when I nearly had to smack myself on top of the head! It's so true that we don't pay attention to our surroundings after the first few months. Stay tuned for my further writing adventures. I do know that the Queen did not stress about where to write, she just set pen to paper and wrote it.

If anyone here should finish reading Queen Vic's journals in their lifetime or write 6000 words a day, do come round for tea.

Time for Some Quick Reads!

While socializing at an event, many people will ask what I do for a living. I'll tell them about my writing journey. They're curious about where to find some of my short stories. Generally, I only write for pay. You can find a few of my free short stories scattered over the web if you look hard enough.

Here are a few spots where you can buy my short stories. Don't worry, most of them are only a few dollars to purchase. You really can't go wrong!

What the Cat Saw - Would you kill for your cat? This is a short crime fiction story, with a cat. Only 99¢ on Smashwords. It's quick and easy to sign up and you can pay with your Paypal account.

What the Cat Saw, available at Barnes and Noble Nook Book - Same short story, different location, also 99¢.

The Glass Marble - An ancient Egyptian story about a family struggling to survive, with many temptations available at the town bazaar. About one dollar (site is in the UK).

Zombies Against the Confederacy of Steam - found inside the Confederacy of Steam Vs Zombies Anthology by Marion Margaret Press. Normally zombie stories are told from the point of view of the humans. But what about zombie rights?

$2.99 US, available on Smashwords.

The Third Annual Vancouver Fan Expo 2014

Olympic Cauldron outside Vancouver Convention Centre

Vancouver Fan Expo was an exciting blur of a long Easter weekend with working and playing. 

My BC Crafty Geeks group booked a table to sell our crafts. We had an early move-in on Friday morning. We totally lucked out and had an extra table. Since there were five of us, we could spread out. We had a variety of items on our table to tempt buyers. Crocheted dolls, hats, bags and cat toys. Handmade cross-stitched pins from Doctor Who to Space Invaders. Laser etched glasses and pendants and logos. Doctor Who Dalek and TARDIS soaps, ornaments, Steampunk pins and magnets, Harry Potter miniatures, plastic canvas crafts, stickers and collector's cards. 

Cross-stitched pins for sale

Doctor Who merchandise

With five people, we always had the table staffed with one or two people. We had plenty of time to shop and run around looking at the displays from Lego, to the huge Walking Dead poster, to R2D2 and Mutt (Steampunk K9) driving around. 

Bruce Boxleitner

I had the chance to go to four Q&A panels. Bruce Boxleitner was entertaining, sounds like a "to the rules" sort of guy, much like Captain Sheridan. Bruce Campbell was just the opposite, making the audience be the panel, instead of him. Very outgoing, quite the showman. Charisma Carpenter was charming. Just think Cordelia but without the snobbery. The Tom Felton Q&A had to be the best panel I attended. He was delightful and charming. 

I only partook of one autograph, as they were so pricey. I lined up early Sunday morning for Tom Felton, right before his Q&A panel. Being the Slytherin that he was, he was an hour late to his session. But that's all right, I was nearly one of the first in the lineup. I had him sign my Chamber of Secrets DVD and also got a free photo, which I promptly lost. Fortunately, a friend found it for me later.

Tom Felton's Autograph

At the autograph session, can you see me?

Mel Dawn in the TARDIS

I was a bit disappointed at the lack of handmade goods at Fan Expo, not including drawings or paintings. There were about 20 different spots to buy Doctor Who merch but none of it handmade and I already owned all that stuff anyway. 

The new convention venue was so much better than the location last year, at the old convention centre. Vancouver Fan Expo ran smoothly this year with plenty of space to spread out into. The food concessions were good and reasonably priced. Plenty of washrooms. More than enough graphic novel/comic book vendors, plenty of paintings, drawings and t-shirts to buy, though the t-shirts were all over-priced.

All in all I was pleasantly pleased with this year's Vancouver Fan Expo and look forward to the guest list announcement for Easter long weekend next year.

A giant Walking Dead poster

Even R2D2 came

My process on how to write a blog entry

What have I been doing all month? "Where are the updates?" my readers have been asking. Have I been snuggled up to my cat in her basket? Why yes, I've been working on other projects, from writing, to a website, to making crafts for Vancouver Fan Expo.

I recently signed up for article writing on one of the many websites out there for that purpose. Constant Content, Scripted, Helium, etc. I was bemoaning my waste of time, as it can take hours and hours to set up a profile, when suddenly, article orders started coming in. It's still not enough to quit my day job, but I have to start somewhere. Oh wait, this IS my day job. 

Today I thought I'd write about how I go about writing a blog. Since I'm writing to order, they give me the topic and the website. So, let's post in a numbered format, and I'll let you know how I actually accomplish this task. 

1. Research the topic. Generally my client will give me their website URL. They'll give me keywords to optimize SEO. This will significantly allow me to narrow down the topic. For example, the website is about a lighting company. I could despair of ever finding a topic to write about, but my client has given me the keywords of "LED lighting", "low-cost", and "energy-saving". So, right there, I have my topic. I'll write about effective low-cost and energy-saving LED lighting, tailored to the products on their website.

2. After I know what I'm writing about, I'll start making point form notes. 

3. Next, I'll start writing the article. If there's some research that needs to be done, I'll just leave brackets for information to be added later.

4. Now I'll do a read-through. I'll correct grammar. I'll add in the missing research, make sure owner's names are spelled correctly. I'll check and make sure I've made my word count. 

5. This next read-through will confirm word count, as well as ensuring that all key words can be found in my text. I'll correct any highlighted spelling errors. Depending on US or Canadian markets I'll adjust spelling. I'll make my article engaging and clever.

6. The final editing and proofreading stage. I'll read my story out loud to be sure it sounds engaging and friendly.

7. Submit through the website portal. One last chance to double check that everything is correct. 

Rejoice! My homework is done! Mix and repeat.

One hour of surprises!

After a lifetime of working various careers, jobs, and for myself, I've come to realize that I need to set aside one hour a day for surprises. It doesn't matter how much time I spend working out my schedule at the beginning of the week, or how much work I want to get done, invariably, at least once a day, the surprises come.

Surprises come in many shapes and forms. One day the toilet breaks, another day a pipe leaks. A phone call comes from a sick family member. Or my cat barfs all over my bed. I suddenly realize I forgot to buy insurance yesterday. Or a friend says they're going to Las Vegas and I want to figure out if I can go too.

Surprises also come in the form of happy events. For example, today I was all set to work on a short story and my new website. I decided to take a break and check my email. Not only did I sell another article but an author invited me to join her Facebook Like for a Like event today! The article is not due until later in the week, but the Facebook Author's Page promotion is only on for twenty-four hours. Many authors signed up, so this took a great deal of time today. But it was a great idea, as my Facebook page was in sad need of promotion. It was also a fantastic idea that I hadn't had time to think up for myself. Sometimes when you connect with others, they have fabulous networking ideas.

Today I lost an hour of working time, but it was for a great cause. Be sure to keep an hour free from your schedule each day for those daily surprises!

Can you really make money with Gigbucks, Google Adsense, Ebay, Craigslist and Fiverr? The Results are in!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to test out some old and new market websites to see if I could actually make any quick cash online. I decided that a one-week time frame for each website was fair, as well as making five items available for sale, approximately $5 to $10 each. Dealing with some of these websites was an exercise in frustration, with mixed results.

Let's start with the top-performing ones and go from there.

It was no surprise to me that I'd make the easiest bucks with Ebay. I've been on Ebay since August 1997. This was the year that Auction Web decided to buy their ebay.com URL. I can't find what the original URL was, likely it was the host company's and involved numbers. Anyway, I probably spent about an hour taking photos of items that I wished to sell, making up descriptions and listing them on Ebay. Three of my five items sold, in this case, dolls wearing outfits. The dress without a doll didn't sell, nor did the magnet that I had made. You can list up to 50 items for free on Ebay, but the fees were a killer after that. I think the final valuation fees were around 10% of what I made, plus Paypal took another 12%. Paypal fees are a bit hazy, depending on where your seller is located, and whether they pay by credit card or existing Paypal balance. My two buyers bought three items and these were two ladies that I already knew through Facebook doll groups. They were both friendly and I gave them both A+ positive feedback and would be happen to deal with them again. I messed up and shorted myself $2 on shipping one of the items. I calculate I spent about 1.5 total hours selling items through Ebay. I made $50 after all the fees and postage were subtracted. While this sounds great initially, likely I paid more for the dolls originally than $50. But from the point-of-view of clearing out my closet, I MADE $50!

Let's talk about Craigslist next. It probably took me about half an hour to take the photos for the five items I wanted to sell on Craigslist. Listing was even shorter than on Ebay. Their simple web interface allowed me to add a description and load photos in minutes. I quickly figured out how to turn off the map, as you don't want strangers knocking on your door before you've had a chance to screen them through email and a telephone call. With five items, I only had three people contact me. The first person wanted my cake decorating kit. I gave them all my info. They never called me at the appointed time, nor to even send me an email to ask to reschedule. A second person wanted the kit for his wife. He sent me a few emails and agreed to show up at 1 pm on a certain day. I was just about to head out the door when he called me, an hour late. But at least he showed up. He looked at my other items for sale, but ended up buying only the one item. So for about an hour's work, I made $5. I hadn't originally paid any money for the item, it was a gift that I already had, I didn't need two. But I think the aggravation of waiting for people probably added a few hours to my hourly rate. The third person that contacted me wanted to buy my teacups and saucers. I almost thought I had the sale, until they offered $10 less than I was selling. These are teacups that sell in an antique shop for $25 each, and I was offering for $10 each. I suspect this was a dealer contacting me. I never heard back from them after I said no, I didn't want to take less cash.

My third revenue option was Google Adsense. I added it to this blog. How it works is that Google place ads within my blog. If readers click on the ads, then I make a few pennies. I think the scale goes up from there but I'm not certain how it all works. I made about sixty cents in one week.

The last two revenue options were Fiverr and Gigbucks. Fiverr was such a big waste of time. They were so fussy about my photos and the guidelines weren't all that great. After fiddling around a bit for two full days I finally had five micro gigs posted. I took those five gigs and copied them directly to Gigbucks. Gigbucks was a whole lot easier to use and they aren't as fussy about copy or images. But in the end, I bombed on both of those websites.

In conclusion, Ebay was the best quick and easy source of revenue for me. If you're cleaning out your closets anyway, it doesn't matter if you take a loss on your item. Chances are that item would have been tossed out or given away eventually. So making a bit of cash is great. Make sure you know your postage rates and add a few dollars in for Ebay fees and Paypal fees. I think the $50 I made on there was well worth it.

Don't waste your time with Fiverr or Gigbucks. If you start a blog, go ahead and set up Google Adsense but just be aware that unless you blog daily, you likely won't make more than a few dollars to buy a coffee each month.

As for Craigslist, they can go stuff it. I'm not wasting my time on there anymore.

If anyone else knows of any other revenue options on the web that have worked for you, please post a comment below.