Book Review. Million Dollar Diva

Million Dollar Diva. The Smart Woman's Guide to Getting Rich Safely by Tristi Pinkston, Brett Kitchen, and Ethan Kap

This book is a fast and easy read with great information. Tristi is a writer friend of mine and when she asked for people willing to review her book, I jumped at the chance. Free book right? What could be better than that? Well, the information in the book is so valuable I really encourage you to check it out. If you do it quickly, you can get the book for free until June 15, 2012, just pay the small shipping fee.

So let me tell you about the book and why it would be a great read.

Tristi and her husband actually put their real figures and their real debts out there for you to see. You can get the specific advice that Brett and Ethan (both financial advisers) give to her. I've heard these get out of debt principals before, but seeing it in the works for a real person helps. See their website here to learn more about Brett and Ethan

First off, start putting money into savings and plan for retirement. With that money out of the way and not thought of as yours, but as your retirement age self, you'll never miss it.

 Pay off your smallest debt first as you continue to pay the minimum payments on all other debts. When first debt it paid off, then apply the money you had going to first debt to the other and soon you'll have things paid off completely.  Sound advice. Easy right? As long as you remember to keep paying that to the other bills instead of using that "freed up cash" for something else. I've seen it before, but actually seeing the charts in the book showing Tristi's examples and seeing how soon she could have things payed off helped to solidify it for me.

They also talk about how to adjust your spending, looking for ways to cut out unnecessary things. In Tristi's case, they didn't have a whole lot of wiggle room for cutting anything more. They'd already cut plenty. But when they brainstormed and discovered they could adjust their Tax withholdings to free up money to pay off debt instead of giving Uncle Sam an interest free loan they could take control.  Also coming up with ideas to use what they have, or getting lower interest credit cards just by asking the bank to help. Also how to think of ways to bring in extra income by doing things you know how to do.

One thing I really liked about the book is they tell you that becoming a Million Dollar Diva happens in 3 steps.
 1. Taking ownership.
 2. Living the proven wealth process.
 3. Having a "Dream Scene" to keep you on track.
You don't have to give up everything. You don't have to live so frugally that your pennies scream cause you hold them so tight. You just need to plan for your expenses. If you want nice clothes, plan for them. Save for them. Don't go into debt to buy them.

As I finished the book, I determined to make some small changes in my spending. We are pretty fortunate and don't have a lot of debt besides the house and the car we are paying off, but I do have a tendency to let the credit card build up. After paying it off completely recently, I vowed to never let it get out of hand again.  Just as said I wouldn't buy anything I didn't have cash in hand for, my dishwasher died.  So holding true to my promise, I haven't bought a new dishwasher yet. We washed by hand for a couple weeks, but a friend of mine who had just upgraded their dishwasher let me have the old one for free.
We also got the kids on board. They've been saving up their money to buy their Wii game they've been begging for. We also let them know why we don't just buy what we want when we want it. We've explained how the whole money thing works at our house and why paying bills and putting money into savings is so important. So I can say it's possible to be frugal with your money. You just have to make the effort.

A few times as I read the suggestions the financial guys gave, I thought: I'm already doing that. Or That makes total sense, I should do that. Or That will never work for me. Or I don't agree with that. Or the thing I have in effect now works great for me. Nice thing about this book is they give you ideas, brainstorm with a real person and then you get to go to the website and see as Tristi posts updates to show how things are working.




Go to the website here to get your free copy until June 15. You only pay the shipping fee. I think it's totally worth it.

If you happen to read this after June 15 you can go to Amazon HERE to find the book.

What have I been up to?

I've been working on a new project and have really enjoyed the process about as much as I've hated it. It's hard work, but so much fun.

Let me explain. I am either new at this or I've been doing this whole author thing for awhile. Depending on your point of view. Some writers have done this for years and years and even decades. I'm approaching 4 years of writing, though only 3 of it would I consider myslef as being serious about it. In those years I've been fortunate to go to a couple of writing conferences.
  Recently I went to LDStorymakers conference in Provo Utah. It was awesome and while I wished it could have gone on for a few more days, I also knew there was no way I could have absorbed any more information and been able to keep my mind. I needed to take a break at the end of it. Take a long nap on Sunday and try to wrap my mind around the awesomeness that was presented there. And I even had to miss about 8 classes that I really wanted to take because I was attending another really important one scheduled at the same time.

Now while I can't even begin to tell you of all the awesomeness, I wanted to share a few pointers that I garnered from the conference. Some are direct quotes from the presenters, and others are from the way my own mind interpreted what I heard. (Don't worry, you're allowed to do that.)

* Writers need other writers. Spouses, family members, and friends are valuable to the writer and support them in so many ways, but a writer can THRIVE when they have other writers to socialize with. We need other people to GET us.

* Formulas for stories can be very helpful as you are building your plot, but a formula shouldn't be followed exactly, or the story will get boring. Write the story how it needs to be told. If that means breaking a couple of the "RULES" of writing, then do it. But you better know the rules before you break them.

* "Been done means squat." according to John Brown. All stories are the same in some ways, but since the author puts thier own twist on it and tells it their own way, you can have the same premise and it will be a completely different book. See his youtube video about the Hunger Games and what it did right HERE

* You can write anything you want to write. You can build whatever fantastic and unreal world you want. Just remember to pick it apart and poke holes in it as you do so you can fix those holes and make it stronger and better as you develop your story.

* When writing a series according to Dan Wells, author of the I'm not a Serial Killer trilogy, see his blog HERE you can elaborate on the first book by keeping in mind what people liked about the first book and develop it, but don’t repeat it exactly. If your audience loves something, deliver on it, but don’t overdo it. Give them what they want and you have to interpret what it was they wanted while still give them something new they don’t expect. (if you can't get the jist of it from my class notes, I'm sorry, you can interepret it how you want.)

* When editing your own manuscript, watch for all the normal gramar and punctuation stuff, but don't forget to watch for repetive words or phrases. Make sure the word you use really means what you think it means. This is where you should remember Inigo Montoya and Vincinii in the Princess Bride. Is your character reacting realistically? Condense your words. Use fewer to say the same thing. Example. He was going to go to the store. Change for Bob went to Albertsons. More information with less words.

* The price of magic class was great and though I can't give you all the notes I can send you to Writing excuses podcast and have you look for their discussion on it. Go HERE to hear the magic system and rules and then spend more time listening to their other podcasts.

* One great thing I learned as well is that since it takes practice and hard work and contiued effort to become successful in anything, if I want to become a published author it's totally up to me. And as Howard Tayler said so wonderfully in his class I'm going to do it so someone can say, "Wow, you must have worked hard on that." Another great quote from his is "I've been practicing the wrong thing" so if you find you've been doing something wrong, then change it and practice it in a better way. See a youtube of Howard Tayler discussing how talent is irrelevant HERE

Thanks for letting me sum up what I learned and only touching on the surface of it. What kind of advice would you give to a writer? share in the comments and then go check out Natalie Whipple's blog post about it HERE

What are your goals?

My goals change daily.

When it comes to my writing goals, I have the goal to get a book out there into stores. To do that I have to get published. To do that I have to get a book deal/publishing contract. To do that I have to get a manuscript accepted. To do that I have to get a manuscript read completely. To do that I have to get an agent to either read it and or pass it on to an editor. To do that I have to send out a partial. To do that I have to send out pages. To do that I have to send out a query. To do that I have to have a completed manuscript. (I have 2 so I'm doing alright there, but I'm needing another to send out soon). To get a completed manuscript, I have to have a completed first draft that I can give to my critique group to read and make suggestions that I accept or reject. To do that I have to write the last chapter. To do that I have to write the chapters that come before the last one. To do that I have to write. To do that I have to stop this blog post.

To do that I will hit publish post and get onto the writing part of my day.

And one last thing before I go.

What are your goals?

Laura

The more you know...

The more you know about writing the harder it gets. When I first started writing a few years ago (I can't believe it's actually been that long) it was so fun and easy. I just wrote what came to mind and let the ideas flow. Of course after reading what I'd written it was obvious that I was very much an amateur. I didn't know the rules and ins and outs of writing, but it was fun. I came up with a passable plot and some good characters, but it was lacking in conflict and wasn't more than a pleasant read for those I could get to read it.

Once I joined a writers group and started going to conferences, researching online about the whole publishing process and basically teaching myself about writing I realized I had a lot to learn. I was naive thinking that you could write a book, send it out to an editor, they'd tell you how to fix it or fix it themselves and it would be on the book store shelves in no time. (HA HA) that is definitely not how it works. I have been working on my craft for some time now and am still far from being published. But I'm getting better with each word I write.

Now working on this current project, I've begun to fear it a little. What if it ends up being no good? Why should I spend this much time on something that won't be seen by anyone besides my critique group and beta readers? Then I think to myself, if its just practice writing, then it's better than quitting. No one ever succeeds on accident. Athletes, artists, business owners, scientists, doctors, and so on spend countless hours perfecting their craft. And so will I.

Don't worry, I'll be sure to let you know when I do succeed but for now, it's back to practicing.

What are you working on?

So many ideas become distracting

It's kind of funny what a writer will do to get out of writing.
I've been working all month long on trying to get a story pounded out. I started the month planning on working on a project I had more than 30,000 words in. Then the more I wrote, the more I hated it. That made me decide to put it on the shelf for a while and get back to a project I'd shelved earlier that I've had in the back of my mind. I worked on it for awhile, but I still wasn't loving it.

In the mean time, I had an idea for a story come to mind as I was driving down the road to visit my sister. I plotted it out as I drove, and when I got home I was so excited to get started on it. But I didn't want to drop a second story that same month to begin this new one. (Plus when I began telling my husband the idea he kind of shot it down) He was washing dishes at the time--I know, lucky huh-- and didn't really focus all his attention on my words. ((He's since heard it again and has told me it actually sounds kind of cool, once he let me explain the whole thing.))

Now that I finally decided to give this story it's turn, I find myself getting distracted by other things. A writer friend of mine posted a funny comment on facebook, and how he and I are chatting about how that would be the funniest premise for a story. Who know's maybe we'll collaborate on it and sell it as an ebook.

There are so many ideas out there and so few writing moments that we could never write them all. But we can sure have fun brainstorming and daydreaming.

What would you like to write about if you had the chance?

What have you been reading lately?

I've been trying to read and write during my free time. Though I've found I'm spending more time reading than writing. And that's ok, but today I started on my writing again after a few days off and realized I'm influenced by what I just read.

Let's see if I can explain this better. On my first story, I had been reading the Twilight series most recently before I began writing my book. After finishing it and sending it to some readers, many of them said, "you know, even though this isn't a story about Vampires or anything, it reminded me a lot of Twilight."

Then in my next story, I tried to be more careful about what I was reading and how I was writing so it didn't sound like I was trying to write in the same style as the author I was reading. I've heard many authors say they have discovered the same thing in their experience.

Lately I've been re-reading a couple of the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan to get ready to read the final book being finished by Brandon Sanderson. Now my story is nothing like the WOT, (It's more of a dystopian at the moment) but I find myself thinking of the way the story is done in his world. I have to conciously stop myself from using some of Jordan's terminology.

It's a fine line to walk. You want to read other books, see how authors did it right, but you also have to make sure you keep your own voice. I guess it helps to take a break from writing for a little to do some reading. You just have to make sure when you get back into your writing you can keep the little voices in your head separate.

So what have you been reading lately?

We can learn from our mistakes. (I mean experiences)

I have been writing furiously on a few different projects lately and have come to discover that sometimes I don't like what I'm writing. I'm not saying that my story is junk, I'm just saying I'm not feeling the love for it right now.

I've been forcing myself to finish a story thinking the only way I could get better at writing was to finish it and learn from the experience. While I believe that is true, it is also true if you don't write what you love and love what you're writing then no one else will.

I had a partial request that just came back as a "no thank you". And while it was dissapointing that they didn't want it, I also discovered that I feel relief knowing the next project I work on doesn't have to be the follow up that would go with that story. This is the thing I've been working on recently and what I did my NaNoWriMo project on.

So in my last post I made myself a challenge to do a mini writing month and get 30,000 words written. I am still going to do that, but as a writer/creator I can decide what project it will be on. I have another story that's been percolating in the back of my mind that I'll be jumping into. I'm excited to see where it goes.

There are also a few blogs and things I've read recently that I thought I'd share so you can benefit too. I hope they are as helpful to you as they've been for me.

Reading this blog post from Natalie Whipple gave me some much needed reminders and lessons I can learn through her experience. Check it out HERE

Betsy Love, a friend of mine online, though I feel like I know her in real life though I've never met her had this on her blog.It's some great information about what agents and editors really care about. Check it out HERE

Also a couple of agents or blogs or podcasts about writing I think are great

Writing Excuses

Nathan Bransford

Rachelle Gardner

Please share in the comments some blogs or websites I should look into. Thanks

Laura