Writing Challenge

WIP 2024 – May Results

| C.E. Flores

I finished the first draft of Herb Book 5 (title still pending)! I am working on the Appendix, Conclusion, and formatting this month. I hope to have it ready to launch by the end of the month, but we’ll see how that goes. I have a whole slew of Yacata well issues to contend with that cuts into my writing time. And it’s been so hot that I’ve taken to taking a dip in the pool every afternoon. Essential for my core body temperature, but not conducive to getting much writing done. That’s all I’m going to promise myself to get done this month–Herb Book 5. How’s your writing going?

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Can’t wait for Herb Book 5 to be released? Get a head start on your reading with Exploring Traditional Herbal Remedies in Mexico Volumes 1-4.

WIP 2024 – April Results

| C.E. Flores

I’m pretty psyched with my accomplishments for April. I did some plant studies and have whittled it down to 3 more herbs to finish book 5 in the Exploring Traditional Herbal Remedies in Mexico series. I’m aiming for a June publishing date. That means in May I’ll need to do those last three chapters, write the introduction and conclusion, format the appendix, design a cover, write the blurb, proofread, edit, proofread some more, edit some more, check the formatting, pull it all together, and do some more proofreading. Yikes. Well, if I plan for the end of June, maybe I’ll get it all done.

I also managed a small section in the Women’s Traditional Remedies book in April, but I’m not expecting to get that done before the end of the year. AND I got a bit sidetracked on a juice book and want to work on a gardening book too. All of these will be part of The Mexican Apothecary series, which only has one book in it right now. Maybe if I could just settle down and work on ONE of them, I’d be further along. Maybe. 

I also worked a bit on the sequel to La Yacata Revolution: How NOT to Buy a Piece of Heaven in Mexico. That one won’t be completed this year, or most likely even next, because there’s still so much to be done in La Yacata and I’m writing the draft as I go. You can see the latest accomplishments at Surviving Mexico.  

My fabulous illustrator, Claudia Guzes, said her schedule has freed up to begin book two in the Abuelita ¿Qué Vamos A Hacer Hoy? series. I need to check over my draft about la tamalada Lupita and her grandmother are planning and hand it over to the artist to start working on the illustrations in May as well. 

Oh, aaaaaaand I did the Amazon Ads 5-Day Challenge with Bryan Cohen to whip up some ads for El boticario mexicano: Remedios herbales tradicionales para el resfriado y la gripe because I gotta get those sales up in the Spanish-speaking community!

Whew! So, how’s your writing going?

WIP 2024 – March results

| C.E. Flores

Well, March was a better month for writing than February. I wrote a bit of this and that, but I didn’t finish any of the outstanding WIPs. That’s okay. I’m feeling optimistic about April. 

I’d like to take a minute to share ALL of the books that are currently available on Amazon in case you haven’t checked in a while. I’m proud of all my babies (books) and am eternally hopeful that each and every one will find the right readers.

For the Herbalists

For the Kids

For the Expats

For the Aspiring Writers

In Spanish

WIP 2024 – February Results

| C.E. Flores

I’d like to say that February was at least better than January, but that’s stretching the truth a bit. I did get a few chapters done before I came down with COVID and spent weeks recuperating. 

Fortunately, I’m feeling better, and March seems like it’s off to a better start. I’ve decided that I’m not going to berate myself over much for another flop month and just start again fresh this month. 

How’s writing going for you?

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WIP 2024 – January Results

| C.E. Flores

Deplorable; that’s what the January results were. I have a temporary gig that’s been eating away at my time, in addition to the mammoth task of trying to get La Yacata documents organized before the next community meeting in February, so I didn’t get nearly as much writing done as I had planned even with making space on my calendar for writing three times a week. 

I managed two chapters for herb book #5 and two in La Yacata Insurrection book, which is not at all as many as I’d have liked. 

Unfortunately, this month, it will also be tough to meet my goals as this temporary gig goes through March 2, and the next community meeting is on February 11. However, I figure progress is progress, right? 

How’s your writing going?

WIPs 2024–Challenge Accepted

| C.E. Flores

Although I’m pretty proud of my six books in 2023, I haven’t finished my WIP (works in progress) list. So, here I come, 2024 Writing Challenge!

My favorite topic to write about by far is herbs, so we’ll start the year off with that. I have three WIPs in this category right now: Herb Book #5, Wellness Garden, and Women’s Remedies. 

In the Woman’s Survival Guide series, I have a Making the Moving to Rural Mexico Survival Guide in the works and want to revise the Healthcare book. 

In the Yacata series, I’m living (and recording) the next book in La Yacata Revolution series, so that might not be done this year. However, I have drafts in various stages of completion related to employment, building a house, and homesteading life. I will probably need to revise the Revolution book depending on the outcome of my efforts this year. 

In the Animal Antics series, there are two WIPs (Chicklets & Chogs and Battling Nature) that I bet I could finish up this year. 

I also have two WIPs in the Women in the Bible series, one being an activity book and the other focused on Jacob’s family. 

Finally, the Lupita series is intended to be 12 books in all, but I’ve only one out, so the next Lupita book focusing on a tamalada (tamal-making family gathering) is what I’d like to work on this year. 

That makes 12 WIPs with two revisions and probably more than I can accomplish in a year. So, to be realistic, I’d like to do one book from each series. Thus, the ultimate goal is six books for 2024. Aim high, right?

2023 Writing Recap

| C.E. Flores

Well, I didn’t get much writing done in November despite signing up for NaNoWriMo and even less done in December, so instead of a monthly recap, I’ll share what I accomplished during the year and what I hope to accomplish next year. 

I started out running straight from the gate and in January released Abuelita ¿Qué vamos a hacer hoy? ¡Hagamos rosca de reyes!: Versión en español and El boticario mexicano: Remedios herbales tradicionales para el resfriado y la gripe.

The English language equivalents were also out in January, but I did some revisions and re-released both The Mexican Apothecary: Traditional Cold and Flu Herbal Remedies and Abuelita ¿Qué Vamos A Hacer Hoy? Let’s Make Rosca de Reyes!: Bilingual Version later in the year. 

Then I released Exploring Traditional Herbal Remedies in Mexico Volume 4: Discovering the Healing Power of Native Blossoming Plants in May and  A Woman’s Survival Guide to Shopping in Rural Mexico: Where to Go to Get the Essentials in August.

So, 6 books isn’t my entire WIP list, but it wasn’t too shabby for a year’s work. I think I need a little more accountability pressure (although, as I mentioned, NaNoWriMo didn’t work for me this year). 

On that note, Stacy Jubba has a new offer, Vision Board Toolkit for Writers: Empower Your Future, that I’m looking into. In fact, it’s on sale this week with the code GOALS24. Access to the course opens on January 2, just in time for my New Year’s Writing Goals, and there’s an invitation to the Manifest and Mingle Vision Board Facebook Party for Writers. 

Check it out

Here’s to a RIGHTEOUS WRITING 2024! 

October 2023 Writing Challenge Update

| C.E. Flores

Screaming into the void! That’s how the writing challenge went for me in October. I devoted so many hours to working my day jobs that NO writing got done. 

Then, despite all the publicity (See YOUR FAVORITE AUTHOR (ME) ARTICLE & PODCAST FEATURES), October was a dismal month for sales. I’m going to blame it on Amazon Prime days, but who knows? It could have been just a fluke. 

On the last day of the month, I finally got the editing done for the revised version of The Mexican Apothecary. The internet hasn’t been very cooperative lately, so we’ll see when I can get the new edition uploaded. 

In November, I signed up for Nanowrimo mostly for accountability purposes. I am DETERMINED to get some writing done this month. And just because I can, I’m choosing herbs as my focus once again. I’ve already started my research on wild roses in traditional Mexican remedies. 

Yippee kay-ya-eh. Move along, little bookies!!!

Writing Challenge Update October 2023

| C.E. Flores

I’d hang my head in shame since I didn’t complete ANY of my proposed writing projects for the month, but I did get a roof put on and stopped an insurrection in La Yacata, so I’m going to be forgiving of myself this month. AND I get the added bonus of having had some juicy adventures, which I will undoubtedly feature in a future book (or two). 

I have a lot of book marketing planned for this month. Or rather, marketing that I had planned previously has dogpiled during the month of October. I’ll be airing on a podcast, appearing in a print magazine, and in TWO online magazines. Thus, I’ll be tooting my own horn a lot in the next few weeks. Hope you can bear the trumpets!

I also signed up to do an October Reading challenge from bookstore.org and will be appearing every Sunday between teaching classes to Chinese students at the impromptu community meetings that are taking place in front of my house, which often devolve into angry mobs. To say I’ve got a lot going on at the moment is an understatement. 

However, I’m going to see this writing challenge through. My goal for this month is to get that Mexican Apothecary book edited and republished. I also plan on working on books in the La Yacata series, although which book I focus on might vary from day to day. I’m desperate to get back to my herb studies, and I might be able to sneak in a plant or two, but I don’t think I’ll have anything publishable in that genre by the end of the month. 

I guess I’ll just take it one word at a time and see how it goes. What are you writing this month?