april writing challenge

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?

It’s that time again! April means the A to Z Challenge is upon us. I have completed the A to Z challenge successfully at Surviving Mexico Adventures and Disasters in previous years (See ) and this year I plan on stretching my wings here at Content Creative.

So….drumroll, please! My 2019 A to Z Challenge theme is Blog to Book Project.

What is a Blog to Book Project?

I’m so glad you asked. The idea behind the Blog to Book Project is to turn your blog posts into a book. All the juicy information you’ve been blogging can and should be reworked into a shelf-worthy product.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I am going to highlight different aspects of taking your blog posts and crafting them into publishable prose. Although my focus will be on the preparation of a non-fiction book, you can certainly use the same process to generate a volume of poetry, a work of fiction, or even a graphic novel.

Since this is an A to Z Challenge, I will be focusing on one aspect for each letter for 26 posts in all. And since it will be in order, it might not be in the order you would actually complete that step. Never fear, my plan is to compile these posts (and the other stuff that didn’t make the letter cut) into a Blog to Book Project BOOK shortly.

The A to Z Challenge will pretty much take all of April, but in May, you can expect to see more book reviews, author interviews and maybe even a giveaway or two.