Loving October!

I dearly love October! I love the colors, the sharpness to the air in the morning, even the need to wear a sweater or jacket. It is a great time to go walking, and it has dried out enough here that I can get a bit more of the autumn cutting back done in the yard. I look forward to getting it finished, so that I have a few months sans yard work, before the cycle starts again.

My Halloween decorations are up, and I am thoroughly enjoying them! This year I have three young kittens (around four months old), sharing my house and porch. They are so much fun to watch, but a bit of a pain when they start up in the house, which they do every night! They are all feral cats - one of them, a Gray Tabby that I named Gray, has wanted to be a pet since he showed up! The Orange Tabby, Pumpkin, is just now letting me pet him. Their pure black brother, Midnight, wants nothing to do with me. Having said that, they are all three convinced that they own the house, and now sleep on my bed at night! When I move, only Gray is going with me. The remaining two will be fine - all of our neighbors feed the feline population, and there are plenty of places to sleep. They are neutered, so they won't be adding to the population!

My sister asked me to go to a conference in Vancouver, BC, with her. It's called the "Millionaire Mind Intensive", and is all about how we view money, and the place it has in our life. I told her that I would go, and I am refally excited about doing so. The only problem is that I have delayed getting either a passport, or an Enhanced Driver's License! So, I took what I thought was a copy of my birth certificate in to the DMV (30 minutes away - the local DMV office does not do EDL's). It wasn't what they required, but they were nice enough to put it in the system and start the process. I went home, and asked my mother if she had my birth certificate. She did, but she had to get it out of her safety deposit box. I took that in Saturday. You guessed it - it was from the hospital, and not the state, so was "A cute piece of paper to put in a baby book.", according to the clerk at the DMV. Sooooo happy I did not have her the day before, or I wouldn't be in the system! Bit the bullet, signed on the the ND licensing site, and ordered a certified copy of my birth certificate - to be delivered post haste! I certainly hope that things fall together so that I can go to Canada!

There was some good news this week, though. I have a book up at Lulu (Tarot In Review). I just got notification that they have converted the e-book version into ePub format, and that they will be submitting it to iBookstore and Barnes and Noble e-Books .

I am pleased to see that Google + is working out so well. Many thanks to those that remember to click on the little + sign! It helps us all to do this.

Stay tuned in the near future for what I hope will be quite an interesting conversation between one of the twelve Birth Card pairs - I haven't decided which one yet! My book, "Tarot, Birth Cards, and You", offers insight into each of the pairs, and how you can work with them. Check it out!

Wishing you all a fabulous week!

(c) October 2011 Bonnie Cehovet

The Beat Goes On

I am still trying to catch my breath over the release of my new book, "Tarot, Birth Cards, and You". Life does not happen a vacuum - I still have to work the "9-5", I am still doing reviews of other peoples work, attending incredible webinars of other peoples work, and getting ready to do a basic webinar on my book (with Linda Marson), and a focused webinar on my book (the affirmations aspect) with Mary Nale.

In a drawer in the kitchen I have the laminated copies of my cover that my publisher (Schiffer Publishing) sent me. I need to start making some calls to local bookstores and getting the name of their purchasing agent, so I have a "real name" to address the query letter that will accompany my lovely cover. "To Whom It May Concern" does not seem to get it when I want to gently encourage these people to carry my book in their store.

I am running a contest for the month of September, giving away a signed copy of my book. The contest is a simple one, but I have had no response to date. I am trying to see how I can present this in a better way, rather than taking things too personally. ;-)

To balance things out, I have the honor of reviewing the new deck out from Christine Payne-Towler and Michael Dowers (The Tarot of the Holy light). It is outstanding for so many reasons - its place as a Continental deck, the incredible artwork, the in-depth (but not overwhelming) esoteric symbolism, the beautiful, intense colors ... the list goes on!

Life is good ... may it remain so!

(c) September 2011 Bonnie Cehovet

My Journey As An Author

My book, "Tarot, Birth Cards, and You" is out. Each step of the way I think I am fine, then when I get there I am nervous! It is incredible to have it in my hands, it is incredible to be able to actually sign copies and send them to friends! It is incredible that my friends are doing reviews of my book - which they do not have to do. I would have sent them the book anyway!

It is very strange to be on the other side of the interview table - answering the questions, rather than asking them. The questions have been very good ones, too! Including the one ab out whether I had another Tarot book in process, which I do. Subject dwelling in the mists, for now. Proposal is out to my editor, I will have to see what she thinks. If it is accepted, I am sure that she knows she won't be seeing the panicked little person that she saw the first time around. I know what questions to ask, this time, and I know a bit about the process.

Interesting things have been happening - did you realize that a package will get to Sweden before it gets to Western Canada? (They were sent on the same day.) I think I also have it down that I have to fill out customs paperwork to send anything out of country. (I grabbed a fistful the last time I was at the post office - it beats filling them out at the post office!)

I have to ask my editor about books from brick and mortar publishers going into e-book format. I am not sure how they handle that. I do suggest that people click the "Do You Want To See This On Kindle" button on Amazon.com - that might help.

Speaking of clicking buttons - many of us are now using Google +1. When you see this on someone's site, blog, or article - please take the time to click on it. Unless you don't like the site, blog, or article - then just be polite and move on.

Focus for this coming week - edit my Power Point for my webinar with Linda Marson. Thank you Linda for setting the files up for me - I would not have had a clue!

(c) September Bonnie Cehovet

The Art of Promoting

What a weekend I had! On Saturday I did my first webinar with Mary Nale - and it went very well! Deep sigh of relief here! Many thanks to the wonderful people that attended this webinar - I appreciate each and every one of you taking the time to be there! I also appreciate the fact that Mary took the time to go over the "room" with me beforehand, so that I could bring up pages and move my little cursor around with some semblance of knowing what I was doing! I think that Mary chose an excellent site to work with, and wish her much success with future webinars. Two of those webinars will be mine - one will focus on Tarot, Birth Cards, and Affirmations, while the other will focus on Tarot, Birth Cards, and Journeying.

On Sunday morning I joined Dax Carlisle, Mark Reed, and Mary Nale on Tarot Today. I am listening to the show in archives as I write this blog, hoping that I don't sound too bad. I want to thank all of the people in the chat room - I appreciate your dropping by to listen! I also appreciate all of the people that will be listening to the show in the archives! The chat about my book was wonderful, I chatted with the people in the room a bit, and had a wonderful chat with Colin, who called in from the UK! Many thanks to Colin for calling in. He is a marvelous individual, and just an incredible artist!

Following Tarot Today I attended a two-hour seminar with Stephanie Arwen Lynch (Tarot By Arwen). The seminar was for writers, and addressed character definition and plot development. If you want to work with Tarot and writing, please check out the services/seminars that Arwen offers. She is an incredible reader, author, and teacher/mentor.

I have a webinar coming up on the 21st of Sepember with Linda Marson of Global Spiritual Studies. I highly recommend working with Linda if you want to do a webinar. Like Mary Nale, Linda works with her presenters to get the Power Point pages set up (note: Mary's pages are not Power Point), and to make sure that the presenter knows how to work witht he pages, and work with the pointer. I will be chatting with Linda this Wednesday night to get a better idea of my next step. I have my pages together, and my graphics for the cards ... and I thought this was "good to go". Not! The first thing that Linda told me when she saw my pages was that I needed to add visuals to retain the interest of my audience. I dragged my feet on that one. However, when I did my webinar with Mary, the same thing came up when I beat people over the head for feedback. So, I am taking the work that Linda did re my pages, and looking for good visuals to go with them. I have to redo the text that I gave Linda into bullet points (Linda did this for me, but I want to change them a bit). I consider myself incredibly lucky that I connected with two very professional ladies that are making my presentations look very good! :)

I have one more thing that I need to do on promotions, and that is to send the laminated book covers that Schiffer Publishing sent me to local bookstores. I have to write a quick promotional letter to go with them, and they will be off!

I am learning the art of promotion slowly but surely. It is very much easier for me to promote other people through my reviews and interviews. Promoting myself ... that is a whole other ballgame!

(c) August 2011 Bonnie Cehovet

Promoting, Promoting, Promoting!

Within the next two weeks my new book, "Tarot, Birth Cards, and You: Keys to Empowerment" is due to be available from Schiffer Books. I am in the process of setting up webinars with Linda Marson , and Mary Nale & Company. I have the graphics ready, the handout and outline done, and just need to get the text together. I am really looking forward to working with both of these ladies!

On Sunday, August the 28th, I will be doing an Internet radio show with Dax Carlisle, Mark Reed and Mary Nale. All of the material is ready for this show.

This morning I placed my personal order for my books with Schiffer Books. These are books that I will be signing and sending out to friends that have helped me along the way. I am very happy to be able to do this.

I am continuing with my blog (one Birth Card pair a month) on the Birth Card pairs, and recently started doing a little Animoto video with the basic information on each Birth Card pair. I have nine out of twelve videos completed.

I need to research local book stores to send the lovely book covers that Schiffer sent with my author's copy out to (along with a cover letter, of course!). With any luck, one or more of these contacts may lead to an in-store lecture or book signing (or both!).

My little Cappie self is overjoyed with things to do to get my work out there! I hope that you all enjoy what I have to offer!

(c) August 2011 Bonnie Cehovet