Was 2018 a crazy roller coaster ride for you? Smooth sailing? Milestone events?

My author pals and I are remembering the happy moments as well as lessons we learned from challenges this past year in our blog hop: The Ups, Downs and In Between Times on our 2018 Writing Road.” Check out our personal reveals, then visit the other #Gr8Blogs linked at the end of this post for more shared recollections and lessons learned along the way. We hope you’ll be inspired to dive into your own special memories of 2018!

January 2018 through the summer months were busy times here at “Books by Rose.” In August, I released my 8th children’s book, “Moonshadow Mae.” Leading up to that, I had to work on setting up an all new website. Whew! It took me five weeks to figure it out, but with the help of all my tech savvy friends, I made it! This is my third time transiting websites. The first and second time, I painstakingly replaced everything. This time, I started fresh and new. Did it bother me that I lost all my content? Yes it did! The only thing that got me through was looking back and realizing all my posts would of required updates on those I interviewed and posts I created that had changed. So, as sparse as it may look at the moment, I hope to fill it fast with all new content in the coming months.

Getting back to “Moonshadow Mae.” This is my first hardcover and our goals are to see this sweet story in bookstores and libraries across the USA and then some. It’s full of wonder as Mae loves the moon and the glowing shine it leaves behind. Fun facts, a recipe, and a really cool craft is in the back of her book. I hope you will share it with your friends in your hometown. Click on this link to see her 5 star reviews: Amazon

Rosie Russell

Summer was filled with birthday parties, BBQ’s, reunions with friends and, of course, BASEBALL. If you have followed me by now, you know we are a huge baseball family and love supporting our home team and our little league teams.

In November, I was ready for a fair I signed up for.  Lots and lots of work went into making crafts to go along with my books. I would also like to add, the work involved turned out to be a good thing, as it got me away from the computer with hands on activities. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was the healthiest thing I could have done for myself. I really have a hard time not working on writing and illustrating more books. Since the crafts all pertain to my stories, it was the perfect time for me to give myself permission to take a break. I really recommend this for all you writers and illustrators to take breaks from time to time. It’s so good for the soul. In the long run, it will make you more productive.

If you would like to see some of the crafts I made, check out my November blog post here

 

 

Now friends, are you ready to see what our other author friends have been up to in 2018? I hope you will click on their links below to read their stories. You may find some new authors you have not heard of or known before. You are in for a treat when you see all their wonderful books and blogs.

Don’t forget to leave a comment letting us all know how 2018 went for you. We would love to hear from you!

If for some reason a reply form does not show up on your side, please go to the top of this page and click on comment under the title of this post. Thank you for your patience as I’m still learning this new website.  🙂

Happy Holidays!

Rosie

Cat Michaels Writer

Sandra Bennett

Julie Gorges

Rebecca Lyndsey

Auden Johnson

Carmela Dutra

Corrina Holyoake

Shana Gorian