Unlike many NaNoWriMo participants I have talked with, I did not reach the 50,000 word goal during the November 2011 challenge. I made it to a paltry 20,000. My failure mainly had to do with a lack of knowledge of my setting, which was 1850s Kansas. I had a runaway thirteen-year-old girl traveling from a small settlement near Pawnee to Kansas City, but I had only a vague idea of the people and places she would encounter. While I stopped to research, time slipped away. Although I failed to reach my word goal, I was led to a deepening interest in Kansas history and to new directions and adventures.

Part of my research plan for 2012 is to visit Kansas museums and report on what I find. If you have a favorite Kansas museum, please let me know. I'll be writing a brief review of each one I visit. If you are interested in Kansas museums and history, you may want to subscribe.

It's that time of year again, the time between my birthday on December 1 and the start of a new year, the time when I begin taking stock of what I have done in the eleven months since I made my New Year's resolutions. Correction: I look at what I haven't done and get depressed. I have not achieved poster status for healthy living. My novel is not on the best seller list. Who could have predicted that I would fail to achieve such lofty goals?

Seeking to overcome the glumness that accompanies dwelling on goals not reached, I decided to focus on my 2011 accomplishments. As I started listing them I was surprised at how many there were.

• Organizations: I joined or renewed membership in Kansas Authors Club, Kansas Writers Association, Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc., and Writers Matrix.
• Awards: My short, short story "Flashes" took first place in Kansas Authors Club and Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. (OWFI) contests.
• Conference: I attended the OWFI conference in May and got excited about e-books. 
• E-book publishing: I published novels and short story collections on Smashwords and Amazon.
• Videos: I learned to shoot and edit videos with my Kodak Play Sport camera and Microsoft Moviemaker software and uploaded book review videos to YouTube.
• Vlog: Partnered with Bonnie Myrick to start Keyhole Conversations, where we talk to characters about their authors.

Looking at my accomplishments, most of which were not on my 2011 resolutions list, I feel much better about the year. So much better, in fact, that I'd like to spread the cheer. Let's all say goodbye to 2011 feeling a sense of accomplishment. Please continue the discussion by leaving a comment and tell what you did do.

Have you ever searched your name on Google? I have, and I think I need to make it clear who I am not.

I am not the first Hazel Hart entry with a Facebook link. I am on Facebook, but the link will take you to Hazel Hart in Lethridge, Alberta. This lady is running for alderman. While I agree with her stand on synchronizing stoplights, I am not a politician.

On about page three of the Google results, I found a link for the pedigree of a thoroughbred named Hazel Hart. I am not a race horse.

Somewhere on the first three pages of links is a listing for a vacant lot on Hazel Street, in Hart, Michigan. I am not a vacant lot.

And every Google search page for my name brought up listings for the Hazel Hart Hendricks Elementary School. Although I share a passion for education with the woman whose name is a part of the school's name, I am not that person and certainly not that school.

So who am I?

I am the Hazel Hart who teaches at Butler Community College and is rated at RateMyProfessors.com, but I am too chicken to click on that link and read the comments.

I am the Hazel Hart who co-wrote Dark Side of the Rainbow and Edge of Nowhere with B.J. Myrick. I also wrote two suspense novels, The Night before Christmas, available on Smashwords,  and Like Mother, Like Daughter, available on Amazon.com. My book of short stories about a talk show and its guests and viewers, The Nancy Nolan Show, is currently available on Lulu and will soon be on Smashwords. 

My goal now is to find a way to beat out a politician, a race horse, a vacant lot, and an elementary school for a top spot on Google search. Any ideas? 
Hazel  

It isn't fall on the calendar, but school starts next week, and that has always been a signal of new beginnings for me. In the two weeks since the summer session ended, I have updated my online composition courses and spent the rest of my time dipping into Smashwords, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Now that I'm on all those places, I'm not sure what to do with them. My biggest social media accomplishment so far is uploading a book trailer, created by B.J. Myrick for my novella, Kiss Mummy Goodnight, to YouTube.

Uploading the book trailer has been my big achievement on social media. As for publishing with Smashwords, I have managed to upload four books and get them in the premium catalog. If you'd like to download samples of any of my books, go to my Smashwords page and click on a book you'd like to sample. The link will take you to a download page. 

That's about enough of the shameless self-promotion for one day. What I'd like to know from you is whether you are on any or all of these sites and what you like or dislike about them? Did you join, like I did, because everyone said you should? Have you found them useful? Do you have a tip for the new people starting out?

Share your thoughts on social media sites, and as soon as I learn how to do something on them, I'll share mine.
Hazel

My grandmother used to subscribe to the saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." That attitude is part of what makes me a seasoned aspirer, and being a seasoned aspirer brought me back to the NaNoWriMo challenge. Although I tried last year and fell far short of 50,000 words, the idea of a complete draft of a novel in thirty days was too much of a carrot not to try again.

This year, I have a writing buddy. I also have a list of write-ins and other NaNoWriMo events being held in Wichita. I am hoping some interaction with others who have the same goal will keep me focused, while at the same time, I want to be careful not to be social that I forget to write.

If you are a writer and up for the challenge, there is still time to sign up. Then, if you like support, look for your home region to locate write-ins in your area. And if you sign up, please post and let us all know how you are doing.
Hazel

On September 25, 2010, the Hutchinson Public Library, Hutchinson, Kansas, hosted the Prairie Book Festival. In connection with the event, the library held three contests, one of which was a "longest sentence" contest. I was not a winner. Not having anything else to do with the sentence, I thought I would share it with you. While it was written during the primary season when people of the same party were battling each other, it applies equally well now that opposing parties are smearing each other. Are you as frustrated by all this as I am?

Here is the sentence, all 356 words of it: 

If you have turned on your television recently, you have probably heard all the nasty, negative, revolting, dirty, underhanded, slimy, reprehensible lies about me that my mudslinging opponents have been packing their ads with, particularly the ads approved by Jill Washington Insider, who claims that I, Joe Candidate, a congressman running for U. S. Senate, have voted for abortion, tax increases, government takeover of health care, legalization of illegal aliens, giving rights to terrorists, and gun control, and, the most reprehensible lie of all, that I, Joe Candidate, am a politician; I want to assure you that I am not a politician: I was not born in Canada, my parents are not French, and what I am, beyond the shadow of a doubt, is a U.S. citizen with a birth certificate on file in Topeka, Kansas, because Kansas is the state of my birth, my father's birth, my grandfather's birth, and my great-grandfather's birth, not to mention all the women in my family who were also born in Kansas, so all this talk that I am an illegal alien trying to ship Kansas jobs to Mexico is pure hogwash, hogwash being a good Kansas term for stupidity, along with terms such as gibberish, claptrap, hooey, and bunkum, and I, Joe Candidate, am, was, and always will be a businessman (not a politician) whose roots run deep in Kansas, and if you elect me I will stop big government, tax increases, government bailouts, and get the government out of health care, and I am also pro life, pro gun, and pro death penalty, so if you believe as I do, that Kansas needs a senator who will stand up to the Washington politicians, then vote for me, Joe Candidate, not a politician, but a businessman who has created jobs, unlike my opponent, Jill Washington Insider, a woman you cannot trust who spends all her time rubbing elbows with Washington politicians instead of spending time in Kansas and finding out what Kansas citizens with small town Kansas values want, and I am proud to say that I am Joe Candidate (not a politician) and I approved this message.

Early on the morning of Thursday, September 8, I was packing to leave on my trip to the Writer's Digest Intensive in Cincinnati. At about the same time, my sixteen-year-old granddaughter Kasi was leaving for school with the promise that on her return home that afternoon, she would bake a cake for her father's birthday, which was the following day. 

 At six o'clock that evening, as I was putting the last suitcase in the car, my daughter (Kasi's aunt) called. "Kasi was in an accident," she said. She's dead." 

 My son's beautiful, smart daughter, so full of life, was gone.

Minutes later, my son called and confirmed the sad news. "I don't know what to do," he said.

My heart echoed that thought as I cancelled my plans and headed for Emporia. That night and into the next morning, the details of the accident became clearer.

Kasi and three friends were driving home from school when the car veered toward the edge of the road and the driver pulled back too sharply. The car slid into the oncoming lane of traffic and was hit by a pickup. Thrown from the car, Kasi's body flew threw the air and landed hard on the ground. In only seconds, she went from a vivacious teenager to a dying girl. And she was not alone.

None of the four teenagers were wearing seat belts. Three of the four died . 

 Kasi will not bake her father a birthday cake. Instead, her parents must bury her. 

 Please, if you don't wear a seat belt, start buckling up. There is no time when the crash comes.

As a seasoned aspirer, I really like it when I can accomplish two goals at once or, as the old saying goes, "kill two birds with one stone." Traveling to new places is the first bird. This coming Thursday, I will do just that as I go on a road trip to Cincinnati, Ohio, to attend a Writer's Digest Intensive. I will be traveling through several states, including Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio on the trip out and Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas on the trip home. With the exception of Trimble, Missouri, and a tiny bit of Kansas City, that state and all the others mentioned are new ground for me. Travel has been one of those activities I have put off until "next year" for decades. A year ago, travel became a reality with a road trip to California and my first trip to the Pacific Ocean. With this trip, I am continuing the the quest to see more of our country. 

The second bird and major reason for this trip is to attend the Writer's Digest Intensive on September 11 and 12. The first day, Saturday, will be devoted to presentations on marketing. Chuck Sambuchino, editor of Guide to Literary Agents will be speaking on queries and agents. Jane Friedman, publisher and editorial director for Writer's Digest, will discuss  using digital media in various ways, including networking, website building, and blogging. On Sunday, I'll have a thirty-minute one-on-one session with a WD editor to discuss the first fifty pages of my novel, The Rune-Master (women's fiction, suspense) with an eye toward what I need to do to make the book market ready. I am preparing for this trip by reading the presenters' blogs and making a list of questions to ask.

I will be taking my laptop and blogging about my experiences as I go, so check back for first-hand reports from the travel/marketing front on such exciting topics as "Have Bed Bugs Really Taken Over the Hotels and Motels of Middle America?" and "How I Learned to Tweet as Well as Tweety Bird."

I got word this morning that my author page was up in Amazon.com's Author Central area. I've added my picture and bio. I think the bio needs additions and was almost ready to use those additions as an excuse to wait on posting the bio. However, I was able to recognize that excuse for procrastination and overcome it. Here's the link to the Hazel Hart author page.

If you have a book listed on Amazon but haven't signed up for an author page, visit Amazon's Author Central for more information.

According to the statistics gathered by GoDaddy, it has been ninety-seven days since my last post. All of the technology for marketing, including My Space, Facebook, Twitter, and You-Tube, overwhelmed me. Just thinking about mastering all these "necessary" avenues for reaching an audience, branding myself, and building a platform left me mentally frozen.

However, with October's activities fast approaching, I'm attempting to thaw out. On Saturday, October 10, I will be speaking to a local writing group about the pros and cons of self-publishing. The following weekend, October 16-18, I'll be attending the Kansas Authors Club convention in Topeka, Kansas. Finally, on October 24, Bonnie and I will be selling our books at the Chisholm Book Festival in Duncan, Oklahoma.

With so much happening and a new book--Like Mother, Like Daughter--to promote, I am taking baby steps toward social networking with a goal of one activity a day. Since my books are on amazon.com, I started there yesterday by signing up for an author page with Amazon's Author Central. Having the page will allow readers to follow a link from my book sales pages to my author information. It will be about a week until the author page is available. I'll post a link here as soon as the page is live. 

Getting back into blogging is my baby step for today. I'll let you know what tomorrow brings.