Here's our home for the next couple days.
Oh my gosh.
It's so cool.
Aww.
They got us special, a special gift.
That's cute.
And we can watch the birds.
Ooh.
We don't have a mirror in here, which is fine.
We probably shouldn't be putting makeup on in the woods anyway, but
I like to wear this stuff because it has SPF 50, which is actually more
than a lot of my like daily sunscreen.
So I'm gonna use the SP finder.
As a mirror.
Oh shoot.
I already messed up.
I got it in my hair.
Homeboy wore combat boots to the beach.
It ain't hot.
So the main purpose of this weekend's trip is to finish my book proposal.
I've been working on a book since December and I have, I think I've
decided that I want to at least give traditional publishing a shot.
So when you're writing a book, you can either choose to self-publish
using Amazon or something like that.
I already have one book.
That's self-published is like a low content book.
It's just a journal that's pretty easy to do.
And you can just start selling it.
You.
On your own traditional publishing is when you'll, you know, look at the
back of the, of a book and like this one is published by can we focus?
Don't think so, but that is penguin.
This one is Harper Collins.
Anyway, the publisher will actually help you through some of the process.
Now I've heard lots of, they gave a coyote morning on our literature
in there, so I'm like, Anyway.
Um, yeah, I have heard from friends who've done both that, you know,
traditional publishing, they don't really help you a ton and that's fine.
I think it's all about what your intentions are with the book.
Like the goal of it is not to become a millionaire off my book, obviously.
That's cool.
If you know, it does really well and is commercially successful.
Great.
The main intention for my book is thought leadership, if you will, and
just brand building and getting me to kind of that next echelon, and I
feel like a book is a good way to do.
I feel like traditional publishing in particular may have the
opportunity to open some doors when it comes to that kind of stuff.
I, I at least wanna try it.
I was telling Norris that, um, even if I'm not successful, even if I'm unsuccessful
with traditional publishing, at least I will be getting feedback potentially
from agents saying, or publishers both.
Maybe this is why this isn't gonna work, or we don't see
this being commercially viable.
And then maybe I can go back to the drawing board and self-publish.
Or try a different route for my book, cuz I'm not necessarily married to the topic.
You know, the particular angle I have for it.
I'm open.
I know I wanna write a book about marketing, but I could take it
a lot of different directions.
So I think at the very least this can be a good opportunity for feedback.
So, you know, apply that to your life.
I know a lot of you all are not.
Or not writing books, but oh my God, what is that?
I should bought a citronella candle for out here.
I know a lot of you are not writing books yourselves, but maybe it is
for pitching to clients, right?
Just go after the big clients go after your dream clients.
And if they say no, ask them politely for feedback, and maybe
that will take you to the next level.
Now, when you go to pitch to another dream client, or you can, you know,
change your positioning or whatever.
Apply this to your own life in whatever way you see fit.
But if I wanna do traditional publishing, the first step really
is to write a book proposal.
I already have much of this book written, but I decided to stop writing.
I'm not gonna finish a full manuscript until either I decide
I'm gonna do self-publishing and then I have to write it all.
Or until I get a book deal and somebody is paying me to write the thing.
So the book proposal is a pretty, the book proposal is a pretty intense document.
It is many page.
And you just basically, um, sell the book you sell, the reason why a, an
agent would want to represent you, which an agent goes out and then
pitches your book to the publishers.
So I'm not gonna be selling directly assuming I can get an agent.
That's the first step.
Then my agent would be the one doing the pitching to the big publishing
houses and things like that for me.
So that's what I'm working on today.
It's gonna be boring.
I don't really think I'm gonna have much to blog because I am just, my
goal is to finish this book by the time I leave here or finish the
proposal by the time I leave here.
So I've got plenty of bug spray, plenty of SPF.
I'm gonna try to work on my leg.
Tan simultaneously.
I realize I look a little bit ridiculous with this hat on, but
this is the only hat I had in my car.
I should have probably just brought like a baseball cap.
Anyway, I have a little template, a few template.
And one of the things that it asks you to do is do a competitor section and
research a few of the books in your genre that could be considered competitors.
So, or, you know, similar titles.
So I have these, I own these, and I've read these all already, which
is helpful, but I brought them with me just so I can reference specific
areas of them and things like that.
So that's what these books are for.
Wearing poles in the carpet
gown sets to the backboard, same song from the screen door.
Yeah.
How cute we got this little, like.
Sitting area
pretty
living on the edge.
I am living dangerously.
I never really eat well.
I never drink pop.
I probably have two sodas a year.
I had one last night as well at the fire.
I had an lollipop.
I don't know if you all have ever tried.
They're pretty good.
They're like pretty low sugar and they have a lot of fiber in
them, but I saw this at Myer.
It's a grocery store here.
Zero sugar, cherry Cola.
I have so many memories of cherry Cola.
When I worked in retail, I would always go to the gas station before my shift and
get like a big fountain soda of cherry Coke, or maybe it was cherry Passy.
Um, my boss actually used to buy that for me all the time.
and it's like very nice memory and you know what?
I don't camp every day.
Whatever I need a little caffeine.
We don't have coffee.
Are these beacon?
I was gonna say before it gets too messy.
I wanna give you a tour, but it's already too messy.
So just imagine this without stuff everywhere here is the getaway house.
I'm sure you've seen these things on Instagram before, decide to give
it a whirl and it is pretty cool.
Let's go to that last.
We've got our little kitchen here, so we brought this cooler, but all of.
Um, utensils and stuff were provided.
Here's a little cooked up.
I cooked baked beans on it last night and it worked well.
Um, this is just a cup.
We have our toothbrushes in, because this is the only sinks cups mugs.
Oh, I couldn't find a mirror, but there is a little mirror in here.
How cute.
Some books, a radio.
And then down here we've got, this is kind of like our trash
bin, recycling B, stuff like that.
And then this is the fridge.
So we brought.
a bunch of food that I already showed you in a different blog
probably or earlier in the blog.
This is the heater and AC, and then over here, this is a hot mess,
but this is the desk slash table.
So it's pretty cool because you know, there's this chair here and
then over on this side, hopefully that's not like my underwear.
Um, what is that?
That's a shirt.
An undershirt.
Okay.
We're good.
, this is a bench.
You can use it for like storing stuff, but then you can also sit.
So two people can comfortably sit and share a meal or talk or
play a card game or something.
And then here's the bed with the beautiful, beautiful view.
I mean, this is really like why you get these things is because of this view.
So pretty fricking awesome.
Oh, and then yeah, the bathroom, which is a hot mess, I'm actually
hop about to, I think I might hop in the shower for a second.
Towels were up here and then.
Tiny shower, which is, it was, it was scary.
I'm gonna be honest.
I don't know if you've seen, you know, uh, daytime talk shows or
whatever, like the price is, right.
Or the view or whatever, where they throw people into these little, see through
containers and then they try to catch as much money as they can, or try to
catch like a ticket to win something.
I felt like that is what the shower felt like.
It was kind.
Scary.
Like, I don't know that I would say that I have, um, what
is it called claustrophobia.
I don't really think I do, but I felt very claustrophobic in that shower.
So
what
you doing over there?
Sitting by.
Norris is currently grilling some veggie hot dogs.
He put some potatoes on, so we can do some baked potato type of deal.
And I changed my outfit.
I look.
Like I belong in this cabin with this shirt on which I kind of love.
Um, I'm gonna make a quick salad for us.
I'm really hungry.
I can't wait anymore.
So let's see what we got here.
We've got these nice fancy woos arugula shake that in there.
Alternate with some spinach, which some of this looks really disgusting.
So be careful here and then we're gonna do.
Chick peas for some protein, how much protein's in this
six grams and half a cup.
It's a little bit, I'm gonna do some beets with no salt.
And I like olives for salt and I didn't bring any dressing.
I couldn't find any good vegan dressing that wasn't just like pumped with junk.
So just gonna use a little bit of olive oil.
My.
Hello, we're just gonna do a little light tos with olive oil and salt and pepper.
We'll just go ahead and do, I'm just gonna do like a little
cap full, maybe a little more.
I'll do a little more.
Not too much salt, just like a little bit to bring out the flavor.
And then same thing for pepper, actually pepper.
I go a little nuts with, I don't have anything Pepper's bad for you.
Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, then I'm just gonna toss with my clean hands.
thank you.
You're welcome.
The little mashed potato concoction, which we're supposed to be baked potato,
but then I decided to mash them, throw some butter and salt and pepper in 'em.
So good.
Favorite part of meal.
So we are making some more on our campfire here.
They took about, I don't know, two hours to make the first time.
So there'll be like a little midnight snack.
Oh my gosh.
I smoke going right in my face.
Cool.
Anyway, here's what we did.
We poked some holes in.
I got 'em a little wet, but with that said, it is time for me to get back to it.
Progress, updates on the proposal.
It's going well, I'm down to the marketing section now, which this is paint by the
way, these are the pants I painted in.
Um, the marketing section, I thought I was gonna be like super excited about,
and I thought it was gonna be the easiest section for me, but it's actually.
I feel like so much rides on it, you know, because I am a marketer and because I do
have something of a platform already, it's almost a little harder because it's like
real, I think a lot of first time authors, this is a section where they're like,
well, I'm gonna start an Instagram and I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do, but
it's like, I already have those things.
So now I have to get really strategic about how to activate the.
For the book.
So it's actually getting a little complex.
I also have a lot of different channels, you know, I'm like, okay,
there's YouTube, there's TikTok, there's podcasting, there's speaking.
There's all these things.
So it's getting it's fun, but it's definitely a lot of work.
So gonna continue working it is seven, 18.
I don't think I'm gonna finish and have it buttoned up tonight, but we
don't have to check out here until 11.
So I'm probably gonna wake up early.
And get to it tomorrow
morning.
I've just got two sections that I need to finish up one.
I don't think I'm gonna finish today.
I think I'm gonna have to finish that at home.
Um, but.
I am working through the chapter outline.
I figure that's a good stopping point.
I've got a couple hours before we have to check out of here and I have the chapter,
the chapter is planned out already.
So I just need to write a little blurb about what they're all about.
And then what is the last section sample chapters?
I need to decide which ones I wanna include.
And I'll probably wanna go through a deeper revision on them, um, because.
I've written several chapters already, but, uh, you know, I didn't
go through a deep revision process for them and that's pretty much it.
So I would say job accomplished.
I was listening to a podcast last night.
It was with a publisher, like with a editor, somebody who choose.
Which books, um, Harper Collins, let's keep these on which
books Harper Collins picks up.
And that's not like my dream house.
I, I don't really care who publishes a book, to be honest, I'm not picky.
I just want somebody to publish it, but I felt like I was doing everything right.
According to what she was saying.
So, uh, next step after this is to look for an agent and then my agent can.
Okay.
You know what, actually, you need to work on this section a little more, et cetera.
I figure it will be easier to start with something than nothing,
you know, makes sense to me.
So that's what I'm gonna do next week is really start reaching out to agents
and, um, sending this to them, I suppose.
So we shall see it shall be an adventure.
Sure.
I'm gonna do a lot wrong.
This is my first book.
I don't really know what I'm doing, but, um, you.
We gotta go after the things we want to, right.
You ever in the woods and you just feel an animal behind you that just happened.
I'm like, it was either a deer or a coyote.
It didn't bother me, but I definitely felt like I felt.
You know what I mean?
Maybe I'm hallucinating anyway, done with my chapter, outline
drinking this, pour over coffee.
I have this cool mug.
I'm feeling really accomplished.
Like I highly recommend doing this.
If you can.
I wanna do more.
One of the big reasons that I wanted to go freelance is so I could do more
of this stuff, do more traveling, do more time in nature, whatever.
Like, I would've loved to stay here for a week personally, or even like four days.
But.
It's just not always possible.
So I just realized I don't have sunscreen on I'm gonna do go do that.
I'm repeating my outfit.
I so wish I would've been vlogging to be honest, but I spilled an entire
bottle of olive oil all over myself.
So yeah, I couldn't wear that shirt any longer.
and so I guess I'm wearing this outfit that I kind of wore yesterday
and I feel a little ridiculous.
Like, I don't know, but you know, we're just gonna roll with it.
Anyway, my book proposal is basically done minus the sample chapters.
We're about to head out to my hometown for just a little morning.
We're gonna do breakfast there.
Go to my favorite book.
Shop there, go to my favorite health food store.
See my sister for five minutes and then head on back home.
I wish it was a longer trip back home, but we're actually
gonna see my mom this weekend.
So I don't think I need to hang out and wait for her, but good trip.
Good draft.
Yay.
Right.
Has bear legs.
You like sharply
trick, you played you in a big way.
Didn't have to go.
And like that be like that, be like that.
So.