Over the past 3-4 months, I’ve been doing lots of “learning” in preparation for focusing more on my writing, editing, and publishing activities. I was keeping track of my learning activities on my penandpapermama.too blog, while I decided if I should start a writing-focused “author site” instead of focusing all my “business” activities (including tutoring and other education-related activities and writing) on my “penandpapermama.com” hub site. As you can tell, I have finally made the plunge and started a “normajhill.com” site. As a quick review of my previous blogging, here is a list of my learning and prep activities drawn from that blog:

Books: reading and note taking:
Writing Articles That Sell (inspiring me to start writing freelance magazine articles again)
The Sin of Certainty by Peter Enns
Keeping a Nature Journal (Leslie/Roth)
Guide to Query Letters by Wendy Burt-Thomas
The Heaviness of Things that Float by Jennifer Manuel
Business for Authors by Joanna Penn
Writing for Cash
Writing the Short Story

Creative Activities:
Ebook on the basics of publishing choices–using Canva’s “Presentation” software. Goal: set up an email list and e-newsletter on my new site, and offer this e-book as a freebie!
Wrote a memoir/historical story and submitted it to Archivos Magazine
Added a couple items to my Penticton Pedestrian and My Church Journey websites
Wrote snail mail letters to my grandkids and various friends (I love writing old-fashioned snail mail letters) and e-mail letters too 🙂

Conferences:
Okanagan Valley Writers’ Festival here in Penticton April 8, 9, and 10.
CHEC BC Convention in Kelowna on April 29-30, representing (along with 4 other great women) the BC Home Learners Association, of which I am a board member.

Writers’ group meetings:
Penticton Writers and Publishers (Penticton)
Okanagan chapter of The Word Guild
COWS Conglomeration of Writers Society (Kelowna)

Webinars:
Children’s Book Illustration
Selling Books to Libraries
Indie Author Fringe webinars (listening and note-taking):
– How Author Associations Help Your Self-Publishing Career
– Book Marketing Begins at Home
– Get in Front of Influencers
– Freelancing to Pay the Bills
– Seven Essentials for Self-Publishing authors
– Ten Amazing Tools for Indie Authors
How to Grow Your Email List To Have a Profitable Course Launch
Self-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing – How to Make the Right Choice for Your Book in 2016
Mail Chimp tutorials
Writers Retreats
Using Blog Posts to Write a Book (Taylor Pearson)
Getting Things Done–Productivity (David Allen)
Using The One Thing and Time Blocking
Getting Noticed in a Noisy World With Your First Book (Michael Hyatt)
Radio program on writing memoir
How To Create Online Courses (Teachable)
Leverage Your Books to Create an Online Training Program (Thinkific–Greg Smith)
Seven Steps to Discover Your Calling (Jeff Goins)
SEO webinars

Reading, note-taking, and learning exercises: posts, articles, e-books, short courses:
Audience from Scratch
Jane Friedman’s 2016 publishing chart, “How to Start Blogging”
9 Mistakes Memoir Writers Make
Take ‘You’ Out of Your Fiction
Contracts 101, The Grant of Rights Clause
Know and Find Your Audience
How to Start a Goodreads Profile (I already have one–but it’s high time I started writing reviews!)
Become a Motivational Speaker
Pricing Strategies
8 Steps to Creating an Awesome Intro to Your Book
Business Planning Questions to Ask
Create a Start Here Blog Page
Facebook Pages for Authors
Become a Better Faith Blogger
Creating Space: The Case For Everyday Creativity
Create Content for Your Online Course
The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Better Book Descriptions
The Learn In Public Workbook
How Much Does it Cost to Publish a Book?
MailChimp video course on SkillShare, and studying at least 15 articles, e-books and short courses on email lists and Creating e-books for email lists
2016 SEO by Brian Dean at Backlinko
Articles on writing good book proposals and synopses
Articles on ghost-writing
How to choose WordPress themes
How to change documents from Word to Pages and vice versa

Magazine and journal reading for inspiration for my writing:
The Malahat Review
Glimmer Train Stories
Faith Today

Writing seminars:
Writing and publishing seminar led by Elsa Schemenauer (prolific educator and author of 75 books)
Blogging seminar led by Lester Patrick

Preparation activities:
Copy home-school and editing advice I’ve given to clients that I can pass on as useful info to others in my Pen And Paper Mama blog posts
Also copy useful advice I’ve given parents of my tutoring students that I can share with others in blog posts

Big plans for summer:
Read all the books and articles I’ve been putting on my “wish to read list”
Write a first draft manuscript for a book about my First Nation experiences (2000 words per day goal)
Write more chapters of my “Summerland Stories” manuscript
Write articles for magazines
Start blogging regularly!!!
Write reviews of good books I read
And I paid my annual fees today for BC’s Teacher Regulation Branch, so I’m all set for another year (2016-2017) of tutoring
Really get going on my business facebook page–and on the Okanagan Valley Writers Festival page