5 Home Office Must Haves for Real People

To say that I'm a "nester" would be a colossal understatement. Anytime I move to a new apartment or house, I drive the people unlucky enough to exist in my crazy-sphere nuts with my overzealous, Type-A desire for everything to be just so. I also tend to combine moving with a general refresh of my living space, since it always seems easier. It's not.

When moving in February, I decided my color scheme would be pink and gold and girly, and proceeded to complete the following tasks -- while simultaneously working full time starting our marketing company, Streamline-Marketing.com, keeping up with book stuff, maintaining friendships, and getting general life things done.

• Painted a random of assortment of vases, picture frames, knickknacks, and the mount to my deer antlers gold.
• Found pleasing arrangements of fake pink flowers.
• Printed a ton of new photos to frame.
• Searched high and low for a pink rug that didn't make me feel like a third grade girl.
• Slept on the couch while new carpet was laid in the bedroom.
• The list goes on...

That's not to say that I buy a bunch of crap I don't need. On the contrary, I like my space to be clutter-free and organized so I can be productive. I find it particularly annoying when I come across articles that stress how much I need a giant pen-holder with a minimum of 50 pens in it. (I only use one at a time, so why do I need 50? And if I don't have 50, why do I need the giant pen-holder on my desk?) Or those articles telling us how we've got to buy a shredder. And not, just a shredder, no. It has to be an expensive shredder. Considering my business is almost entirely paperless, I have no idea what I would do with a shredder.

So, let's chuck all that out the window.

Here are 5 home office must haves for real people.

1. A desk that suits you, and only you.

Okay, it's obvious that you need a desk, unless you prefer to work from the couch with your computer on your lap (which I've also done). For all intents and purposes, we're calling that a desk too. My desk is from IKEA and is three parts, two cabinets that each hold up one side of the glass table top, which looks like a giant fingerprint.

I spent a lot of time trying to decide what desk I really wanted, because a lot of the modern desks that have no drawers look really neat-o. But then, I thought a little harder about what I really need in a desk.

See that top left drawer? That's full of a windstorm of brightly-colored index cards that hold the rough outline of my next novel. There are two pens in there (not 50), and some ear buds. The second drawer has a lot of gum in it, because when I'm writing I get a super bizarre oral fixation and chaw and chaw and chaw.

For me, this desk is perfect, and it's big enough that I don't feel cramped when I need to spread my notes out. For you, it might not work at all. Maybe you're the kind of person that needs all of your files right where you can see them. Maybe you'd feel at home with just a tabletop rather than a formal desk.

I have a couple of chairs that I use interchangeably. I don't like rolling office chairs. I realize that's pretty uncommon. But again, it's all about me! Just like yours is all about you.

What kinds of things are you looking for in a work desk?

2. A System

I don't have much by way of papers, but I do have a lot of things that I feel guilty throwing out. For example, I have owners manuals, vaccination records, maps I've used traveling, and sheet music for the piano. I really don't like file cabinets for this type of thing. They look impersonal, cold and are pretty expensive.

Instead, I created my own system for organizing these things. I bought two packs of Ikea file folders and some pink scrapbook paper. Girly labels that I trimmed in gold completed the look. It cost less than $30.

Whatever system you decide upon, it has to work for you.

3. Things That Make You Smile

That's right folks -- an owl Scentsy makes me smile. Oh, come on, you know what a Scentsy is. It's one of those little ceramic things with a light inside and yummy smelling wax that goes into a dish on the top.

And it's DAMN CUTE. <Insert Smile Here.> See! It worked!

On the left, there's a photo of my brother and I. Clearly, I'm pretty amped that I'm smashing him. He's pretty amped to be smashed. Without fail, this makes me smile.

I also require a lot of natural light. I'm a little like a plant that way -- stick me in a dark cubicle and I will die. I'm sure of it. Notice in the photo above that my desk faces a giant window. During the day, sunlight comes in and half-blinds me. I love it.

What are the little things that you need to make you smile through the day? Anything that can help you reduce stress and get done what needs to get done is worth some valuable desk real estate.

4. Equipment & Stuff

Of course you need your computer, printer, mouse, or whatever else you need to do your job. But that stuff is boring to talk about. So let's move on to the last thing you (a real person) must have for your home office...

5. A Pal

If you're lucky, you have a pal as good as mine. Ciaran (pronounced Keer-in) is my kitty. He likes to lay on the white faux-fur rug beneath my feet and sleep.

If you're lucky enough to work from home, I hope you have a pet, friend, or someone to hang out with.

It can get pretty lonely without one!

-S

Book Formatting Disasters in InDesign

When learning how to self-publish, I read article after article about all of the little things that a self-published author needs to keep in mind when using a POD (print-on-demand) publishing service. Alignment, "em" indentation, and running headers were not things I ever noticed or considered while reading on my own. But, of course, if you design the interior of a book correctly, the point is that you don't notice the interior design. The only time a reader really notices design is if it is poorly executed. Or, if you've tried doing it yourself!

Nearly every article stressed how challenging it is to format your book. I didn't believe it...

...and I should have. So far I've spent about a week trying to make my book pretty on the inside. I'm getting closer, but InDesign has caused me way too many headaches as I deal with the book formatting. A few tips for anyone else out there trying to do this:

Do as much as you can with styles in Word before moving your book over to InDesign. It will save you lots of time. If you wrote your book using styles, you're already far ahead of the game.

• Take a look at books that you've read and note the size of the pages BEFORE you place your text in InDesign. Don't forget to look at margins!  I assumed that it would be simple to change my book size in InDesign after editing my paragraph styles. It isn't.
• Review the interior of  some professionally published books and check out what your preferences are as far as running headers, page numbers, and white space. Keep notes!
• Leading should be 50% larger than typeface. (In other words, use the 1.5 spacing option.)
• Turn ON optical margins.
• The first paragraph indent for each new style should be flush left. The other paragraphs shouldn't be 1/2 inch, the way it's set up in Word automatically. It should be em indented instead.
• Use an established font like Garamond, Minion, Janson, Electra, Caslon or Bembo. Your print book font should be 10 point. EBooks should be 12 point.

The good thing about self-publishing is examples of professional publishing formats abound on your bookshelf. Anytime I felt stuck, I opened books at random on my shelf and figured out what I liked and didn't like about various set-ups. Copy the masters!

Food for thought!

-Samantha

Marketing a Novel! - I've Written Something. What now?

So you've written your novel. Someone edited it. It looks all perfect and shiny on your screen. What now?

It's time to learn about marketing a novel! If you've ever considered how to do this, you might have been completely overwhelmed by all of the opportunity for great exposure! As someone with a background in marketing, I enjoy reviewing and analyzing all of the various choices in an attempt to figure out what type of ROI you may get from each one. You would think that someone with a creative brain wouldn't be interested in the nitty-gritty of numbers-based decisions. But I'm a weirdo.

And of course, the best marketing is FREE marketing!

I set up my author profile on Goodreads last week. Why is it that when you start marketing something, it feels more "real" than it did before the marketing? Here is my new Author Profile on Goodreads! And here is Dynam's Book Listing! Yowza! Look at that! I'm a real girl (not to be confused with Lars and the Real Girl).

I absolutely adore Goodreads, though I am curious to see what happens to the site with the recent acquisition by Amazon. As an author, it is extremely easy to set up your author profile and learn to use the site for marketing purposes.

I also got Dynam's Facebook page set up this week!  Success!

I'm so excited to get the word out there! I can hardly wait to put my marketing budget to good use.

What things have you learned about marketing a novel?

Love,

Samantha

Writing a Novel! From Childhood Poems to a Novel

For as long as I can remember, I've loved reading and writing. As a girl, I used to stretch out like a cat in front of our wood burning stove on a rug and read for hours on end. My dad commanded the remote control at all times, so rather than watch sports or documentaries-which I was not particularly interested in-I would consume books. We lived just one mile outside of our small town in Nebraska, and I would often ride my bike into town and pick out some books from the library. The librarian always looked upon me kindly as I nervously asked if I could take home more and more books at a time. Why was I nervous to ask to take MORE books home than was usual? No idea. But at the time, it seemed pretty damn scary.

We had writing classes in elementary school, which meant even more exercise in stories and creativity. I loved making up stories and poems. The exhilarating freedom of creating a world or person from thin air and writing it down as truth was tantalizing. But I never dreamed of writing a novel.

One day last year, I found a poem I wrote in fourth or fifth grade I thought I would share. It’s pretty weird.  But hey, most creative people are a little strange.

Right?

_____________________________

The Thing

By Samantha Peterson (Year: 1995)

 

The Thing came from beneath the sink, It was slimy and oily and boy, did it stink. I’ve always tried to avoid that place, With that slimy green thing and it’s purplish face.

 

But one day Mom said, “I really should think,” “That’ you’d notice what a mess is that porcelain sink,” “Please help me clean it I don’t have the time,” “If you clean it well I will give you a dime.”

 

“And now,” said my mom, “I am off to my job,” “Don’t spend all day playing with your friend Bob,” So I picked up the phone and called Bob, my friend, “I can’t play till two,” he said, “I have clothes I must mend.”

 

“Well bye,” I said and hung up the phone, And that is when I heard the loud groan. I walked to the sink and thought it must be the thing, It gave out noises and grunts and even a ping.

 

Then all was quiet and I knew that I must, Clean the sink well before it started to rust. So I got out the scrubbers and started to scrub, And then on my leg, I felt a strange rub.

 

It was tiny at first, and ever so small. I refused to go, and I reached for the wall. But the thing pulled me into the sink’s dark place, I saw that slimy green thing with its purplish face.

 

I shrieked and I screamed, I raised quite a fuss. But I was no match for that slimy muss. And then that green thing, just pulled off my face. And smoothed it on him with his own embrace.

 

Then he took all my clothes and got all dressedup. He looked at my things, even my plate and cup. Then he called my friend Bob, and said, “Come and play,” And that thing and Bob played all the rest of the day.

 

Then Mom came home and said, “Here is your dime,” “Thanks for cleaning the sink, I did not have the time,” And so now I’m the thing beneath the sink. I am slimy and oily and boy, do I stink.

 

Everyone tries to avoid this place, Cause I’m a slimy green thing with a purplish face. And OH! How I’m looking for a child to take, too. Are you absolutely sure that it is not you?

 

_____________________________

 

Like I said, I was a creepy little kid. But hey, my mom liked it. And that's good enough for me.

In any case, reading through poems and short stories I constructed as a child helped me gain the courage to begin writing a novel, my first! After all, if I was that unabashedly weird at such a tender age, why should I change now?

And so, in late November 2012 I sent out on a journey to write my first novel.

Love,

Samantha