That’s right, this blog is 11, and things will be slowing down a lot this year.
More on that come Feb 1!
A Brand New Year, A Brand New Site, and What I Did Over The Holidays!
Yes, here I am!
Here at L.J. Diva, the official website.
For those who don’t know, I had my dear old Blogger blog migrated on Jan 21st, 2019. It’s the start of a new era for me. Ten years I was at blogger, ten years I had that blog, but, 2019 is my year to cut and cull.
Again!
Every year I cull some social media, some emails, some web pages. This year I will be culling massive amounts of email adds. I have emails for all of my websites and multiple adds for multiple reasons. Outlook, live, hotmail, gmail, ymail, they just have to go.
Over the next month I will be slowly culling all of my excess baggage, along with my weight, yep, on another diet, and hopefully, it will refine and define my online business so it is easier to deal with.
As for all of the blog posts here at L.J. Diva…
Well, they came over from Blogger. I will be updating or deleting some I no longer think are worthy of being here. Or, are just embarrassing and hideous and I no longer want around. 10 years worth aren’t really worth it in the grand scheme of things. And it’s a new start here on the new site for 2019.
For those who are new, when I started my blog it was called Bitchfest! I then changed it to A Bitchfest! Lovefest!, it was then Lady Jewels Diva, and in it’s final incarnation, it was L.J. Diva. When I started, I swore, so if you don’t like swearing, don’t go back. For those who don’t care, feel free. I blogged about a lot of things, some, received massive attention and scored many comments, but over the last five or so years, I’ve toned down and written more about publishing, writing, books and movies I’ve read. I don’t feel the need to comment on everything in the world anymore, only when I feel like it.
And, since migrating comes with issues, I only went through the last year’s worth of posts and fixed issues, any from 2017 and beyond, I’m not going to worry about, so ignore the horrible issues that came with migrating.
As with every year, I’m sticking around and here’s what I got up to over the holidays.
December 1 – started low calorie diet, also started wardrobe overhaul
December 2 – as above
December 3 – as above
December 4 – skin cancer clinic, had mole cut off right inner knee, continued wardrobe overhaul
December 5 – two doctor’s appointments, some shopping
December 6 – shopping, library, usual
December 7 – washing, housework
December 8 – chiro visit in the morning, started jewellery overhauls
December 9, 10, 11, 12 – continued jewellery overhaul, cleaning, repairs, reorganising
December 13 – shopping, library
December 14 – washing, housework
December 15 – got stuff done
December 16 – xmas shopping, library
December 17 – continued stuff
December 18 – cancer clinic for stitches out. Borderline melanoma
December 19 – continued stuff
December 20 – shopping, chiro, library
December 21 – washing, housework, weighed self, lost 1 stone/6.5 kilos/14 pounds
December 22 – continued stuff
December 23 – as above
December 24 – ran out to get lunch and dessert, watched carols on tv and had munchies
December 25 – home, some work, sister came round
December 26 – some more work
December 27 – shopping, freakin’ hot
December 28 – washing, finished off all of the above
December 29 – as above
December 30 – as above
December 31 – watched New Year’s celebrations and had munchies
January 1 – started new publishing list for this year, weighed self, gained 3 kilos/7 pounds, back to diet
January 2 – sorted out diaries and finished off others
January 3 – shopping, freakin’ hot
January 4 – washing, stuff
January 5 – edited next novel, DeLuca
January 6 – as above
January 7 – as above
January 8 – shopped online
January 9 – edited DeLuca
January 10 – shopping, library
January 11 – washing, finished off stuff, got some blog posts scheduled and planned ahead
January 12 – edited DeLuca
January 13 – as above
January 14 – did back matter updating
January 15 – started Stefan pb edit, 300 pages
January 16 – continued Stefan edit
January 17 – shopping early as it was hot, library, more Stefan edit
January 18 – started scheduling blog posts
January 19 – went back to hand writing and wrote more of DeLuca
January 20 – as above
January 21 – had L.J. Diva blog migrated, dealt with some business
January 22 – finished editing the paperback proof of Stefan
January 23 – tried to get shit done online, holy hell it’s hot here. Tidied up last year’s blog posts.
January 24 – shopping, library, chemist, burgers for lunch
January 25 – washing, caught up on excess stuff and leftovers and dealt with website stuff
January 26 – back to handwriting more Deluca, finished off other things
January 27 – sister came over, some reading
January 28 – editing
January 29 – edited books and dealt with website stuff
January 30 – typed up rest of DeLuca
January 31 – shopping, library
So, what did you guys get up to over the holidays?
Happy 10th Blog Blogaversary Birthday to Me….. I’m Moving!!!!
That’s right, this little old blog turned 10 today.
On January 1st, 2009, it started as Bitchfest! under the domain of jewelsdiva.com.au. Over the years, it has grown by name, A Bitchfest! Lovefest! to Lady Jewels Diva, to the same domain just last year of ladyjewelsdiva.com.
But now, with the brand spankin’ new author site LJDiva.com being released late 2017, I have decided to cut and cull my social media just that little bit more, and have tidied up all of the labels here to be cleaner and leaner.
This blog is moving to my author website on WordPress sometime this month.
After ten years, lots of love, and definitely LOTS of colour, we will be setting up our new home over at L.J. Diva.
It’s nothing new for authors to link up or migrate old Blogger blogs to their new WordPress websites. WordPress has it all over Blogger/Blogspot/Google who have not given bloggers the opportunity to be too much in control.
On WordPress, you are in control of your website and how it looks, with millions of themes available to use, whereas Blogger doesn’t give you much. Although I will miss my kiss background, my huge header space, my side bar (although you do get one on WordPress) and all the wonderfully colourful stuff I’ve done with it, it’s time to adultify myself and move my blog to my adult author website.
Blogger does, however, give you Blogroll, so I will be keeping this profile for now as this blog will be here for the next few months, giving an updated post so people know where I’ve gone. Hopefully you’ll follow me over at my website and continue to post, or even on Tumblr where I send this blog to, same as Google+. If I remember, you can follow WordPress blogs in Blogroll, so I won’t be too hard to find. And I find it better to use than Bloglovin, although my blog is there as well for those on it.
However, when it comes to comments, I may not be providing many on yours. My apologies in advance, but with everything going on in my life (especially the last three years), with the way times have changed, the age I’ve gotten to, all of the books I need to write and have written, and having been doing this for ten years, I’m buggered. Literally! And I need to cut and cull as much as possible and that means no longer following blogs and commenting.
It’s nice taking December and January off without worrying about posting or leaving comments. Instagram and Facebook is where I find all of my info these days and see what’s going on in the world, or there’s Twitter and Pinterest. Feel free to follow me there instead if you don’t want to follow a blog anymore, and I’ll follow you back so we can keep commenting. But I’ve grown tired and worn out and I’ll be 45 in May, so the time has come to slowly grind to a halt.
I’ll see you on the website in February.
Cheers to ten years!
What’s Happening at L.J. Diva for 2019 and Happy Holidays!
The holidays are here and I plan on taking the next two months off…
What will you be doing?
L.J DIVA’S PLANS FOR 2019
As for 2019, the plan is to get as much done as possible. Thankfully, with one name out of the running, there will only be two names to release under, but the Porn Star series isn’t done with me yet. Lots to write and release, unless I decide not to. Still not sure if I can write 30 short stories on 30 different characters. It’s going to take a lot out of me and I’m not sure I can live in that world much longer.
This blog will also be turning 10 on the 1st of January and having its blogaversary, BUT, and I used capital letters for a reason, I have also decided to move it to my WordPress author website so I only have one website to deal with. There will be more on this in my yearly birthday blog post on January 1, 2019.
Until next year, peeps, gosh, haven’t used that word for years, I’m off on my yearly two month holiday to get shit done!
See you all next year.
Royal Star Publishing
Two weeks ago I teased about my publishing house, and now, here she is.
About two years ago, I toiled with the idea of setting up my own publishing house.
It was 2016, I was writing under three names, about to release a plethora of books, and thought about a name to publish them all under.
So, in 2017, I bought a business name, set up a website, and then decided to change the name and the website. Check it out here.
I went from Royal Crown Press to Royal Star Publishing. You can see the website here.
It’s a basic website with a header, front page, and some social media apps. It has pages for series, kids, adult and non fiction.
It is updated every six months with the release of a new book, and generally sits there and is for show.
Now, every time I publish a book, I can use the name on the sales site so it looks more professional. Because that’s the whole point as an independent author/publisher. Having something that looks professional on your sale page and not the names Amazon or CreateSpace.
So Royal Star Publishing was born, and is growing.
I’ve surpassed 50 stories, non fiction, novellas and novels and there’s more to come. So, why not have my own publishing house? We currently have five in house imprints.
Chances is the fiction imprint for sexy and adult novels for women. Covering romance, it’s for more in depth genres, such as drama and lgbt, and features more sex, and mature adult themes.
Chances was named in honour of Jackie Collins’ book Chances. It suits this imprint perfectly as it’s about women and men taking chances on life and love.
Love Beats is the fiction imprint for light and lovely romance novels. Whether they be sweet, comedic, fun or lightweight, these romances will make you laugh before they make you cry. With more love than sex, these will get you through a wintry day in front of the fire, or a lazy day on the beach. (Will be for light romances)
Skull & Bone is the fiction imprint for children, tweens & young adults. Covering horror, paranormal, occult, fantasy, myths, folklore and all other genres with a slightly twisted edge. (All of the T.K. Wrathbone stuff so far)
Dream Star is the fiction imprint for children, tweens & young adults. Covering light and bright themes across all genres, it brings a little fun into their lives. (#teenblogger)
Notes on Life is our imprint that covers poetry and song lyrics. (Poems Of A Musical Flavour)
So, that’s Royal Star Publishing. We are not open for submissions, purely a name only business for myself at this stage. But who knows, maybe when I’m rich and famous and can afford to turn it into a company and publish other people…it might happen.
The Writing Groups I’ve Joined in the Last Year
On the path through any journey, you need to keep educating yourself about your craft, reading, listening, watching, learning from all others that went before and all that have come after you.
It’s a great way to learn of all the new things that are coming our way.
As authors, we need to be across the board and on the ball because the publishing field is changing so much and so fast, that sometimes, we can’t keep up.
But one way of doing so, is to look at all of the writing/publishing groups you come across. Figure out if you can learn from them, if they are supportive of each other and not egotistically narcissistic in dictating how the publishing business is, and how authors should be.
Find a group that loves to learn and help each other out instead of pull each other down. And believe me, there are quite a few of those, apparently.
But the two I belong to, aren’t.
Alliance of Independent Authors I joined last year. Known as Alli, it was started by Orna Ross for authors like herself and grew from that. Alli has partnerships with companies such as Ingram Sparks where we self-publishing authors get a great deal on publishing our books with them.
There are book designers and editors who will do Alli members a deal, and John Doppler wades through all of the information on publishing houses and whether or not you need to beware and stay away.
For an author who’s already published, it’s a yearly cost of $129AUD. Varying levels of membership have varying costs, it all depends on where you are in your writing journey. Also, as a member, you get free books to publishing written by Alli members themselves, and you get to join the Facebook page.
The next group is Self Publishing Formula by Mark Dawson.
A former lawyer and trad pubbed author, when he was dumped by his pub house, as so many authors are, he started self-publishing and slowly built up Self Publishing Formula. You can join the Facebook group, buy the courses, watch or listen to the podcasts, and learn so much it’s ridiculous.
I really wish all of these things had been around 12 years ago when I wrote my first book. Back then, I only had my local writing centre and Romance Authors of Australia. I left both behind years ago.
If you’re a writer or author and are looking for your tribe, these are two groups you need to check out and join.
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