Being an Indie is exhausting

I need a break!

After almost four years of non-stop working, I'm fairly exhausted. Happy, but exhausted. Six published books, one other novel waiting to be rewritten and the one I'm working on right now, I think it's fair to say that I've worked my arse off, not only the writing and editing, but also the marketing, including special promotions, interviews, guest articles, not to forget updating own Blog, Twitter and Facebook. It's all work, but I love it. Nevertheless, it's quite draining, particularly when you see that the books are not taking off like you've wished for them. Don't get me wrong; I'm proud of all my books and grateful for the readers who either left reviews or contacted me in person to tell me how much they've enjoyed what they've read. I'm most thankful for those who continue to support me, nag me for the third book in the Branded series and humbled when people repeatedly say I'm talented. That's half the road to success, I think. I'm still experimenting with genres as I get bored easily and I believe it's the only way for me to grow: write in as many genres as possible. So far I've covered humour, paranormal romance, non-fiction, thriller and meta-fiction; loved each and every one of them. I'll work on sci-fiction and erotica next before I get some contemporary fiction and dystopian fiction on the way. I think that's basically all genres I'd like to cover. Oh, and clean chick lit. I'd like to try that, too. 
I'm also planning to turn the Branded series and the thriller into screen plays at some point. I have one idea which I'll probably write as a screen play, rather than a novel. It's got to do with football, that's all I can reveal.
As you can see, I'm still very much in love with what I'm doing, but am on some kind of a break. Well deserved if you ask me. It became increasingly difficult for me to relax, particularly while writing; panic took hold of me after the last two books that had me reeling on several occasions when I got stuck. The frustration is beyond belief. 
Then there were a lot of 'fights' going on behind the scenes, one of them being my 'stalker' as I call him, spreading lies about me, trying to ruin my reputation. I can only imagine how it is for a celebrity to read the lies printed about them. It's infuriating. One of the reasons I don't want fame. I'd like to have fortune, but could care less about fame. I don't think I'd handle it well, but then as an author, unless you write for YA, you should be fairly safe. Teens who'll scream their little lungs out every time you make an appearance, aren't for me to be honest. I hate screaming fans. I remember being at a Backstreet Boys concert (looooong time ago) and right behind me (left) was a girl who screamed the whole show. Well, she probably would have if I hadn't turned round to tell her to shut the fuck up, which she thankfully did. The guy next to me cracked up and wiggled his eyebrows at me. Never understood that phenomenon of screaming. I go to a show to enjoy the voices, not to hear my own. Never mind, that's a topic on its own.
I guess I won't be in danger of becoming world-famous any time soon. Lucky me. I'm slowly getting back into writing after a week off and am still hoping to make the 31st of March deadline. Brooding over the title, after the word plays of No Wings Attached and Candlelight Sinner I want to continue with it. All my titles are unique, so here's a challenge for me. Another part of being independent: you have to come up with everything by yourself. Personally, I love it and wouldn't want to have it any other way, but it's your responsibility. All I'd need now is the bestseller to be able to make bigger things happening. 
Oh, by the way: after that Blog disaster with my old Blog URL which is still on the top of Google when search for Stella Deleuze, my Blog with its new URL has finally made it to Google's first page. Yay me. I hope it's going to replace the old link soon. Blogger hasn't removed it yet, and I feel it's not going to happen; slow is an understatement when it comes to them acting on copyright breaches. If you are wondering what happened, here's the post I wrote about it.
Please keep your fingers crossed for me that 2013 will be the most successful year I've had so far. I'm successfully losing weight, but that's fodder for the next post.

The troubles with Blogger site feed. A rant

Some of you will have heard my cries for help about six months ago, then again three months ago and finally today again. The reason: readers of my blog who wanted to subscribe, couldn't. I added the gadget 'stalk me via 'e-mail' button, to provide at least some sort of possibility to follow, but it wasn't what I wanted. I like it nice and clean.
Searching for an explanation via Internet left me puzzled. What I found were terms like feed burner (I might burn food, but I haven't got a clue what that feed burner thing does or is used for), redirect link(?), Blogger feed url, etc. I wouldn't know how Blogger feeds urls. I feed my animal and myself, and that works just fine. If I have visitors, I even feed them.
You see I love my facebook friends, because they rock. I posted my cry for help in the afternoon and had two people immediately replying, trying to help. Now Sudam, the wonderful man, is an IT wizard and that, you can imagine, left me with my head nearly exploding. I was even more confused after his kind help and the links he sent me.
Rachel, the lovely girl and I, we messaged back and forth until she had to leave and all the while I e-mailed with my friend Marcos (50 e-mails!) including screen shots on my side and finding solutions on his side. To no avail. I was devastated.
He finally started his own blog to find out how it's working, advised me to delete my blog url from that field and asked me to change 'full' to 'none' and back (saving between the steps. And don't ask me what that's for, if you did ask if I had a clue, I'd probably say exactly that: 'none', while I'm 'full' of anger.) So I did as he asked me and miraculously, the feed is now working.

But I wonder:
Why is there no explanation out there following the elimination process?
Questions like: if you go to your dashboard/design, settings/other and where it says Post Feed Redirect URL, is that field empty? Then it wouldn't be such a problem, would it? Best with screen shots. 
But no, all you get is an array full of terms nobody is able to understand, at least not this person here. I'm usually not that stupid with technique. But this tiny error of having my blog url in that field, kept people from subscribing.
At least it's working now and everyone who'd like to see what I'm up to, my rants or how the iguana is can subscribe. Wonderful world of Blogging, eh?
Thank you to my three brave friends who tried to shed light on the subject. You guys are awesome!

And to finish on a humorous note, this one here makes me smile every time:

Am I famous now?

Probably not, but I've had

visitors on this very blog. They came from all over the world, many leave wonderful comments, start discussions, give feedback or just say hello. It's rather wonderful and I'm chuffed. I started the blog as a platform for my writing, but it has become so much more. It's about my experience as a writer and editor, as a keeper of one feisty iguana, a resource for quick, easy and delicious recipes as well as my take on life in general.

Many people find me through search engines, seeking advice on iguanas, a lot seem to like Spaghetti Bolognese and I've also quite a few visitors searching for tips on writing.

I will continue to post regularly and that with gusto.

Thank you, everyone, who has visited, contributed, recommended and come back.

I love you dearly.

Blogging isn't just sharing, blogging is an art

When I started out with blogging, I was rather reluctant. I didn't know what to write and why I should do it in the first place. Having an online diary and sharing it with the world didn't appeal to me. I thought, who'd be interested in my life anyway? I stopped writing in diaries as a teenager and only had two in my life. But after a few posts and months later, I will admit it grew on me, I gathered a small following, found my blogging voice and I loved to share my experiences with the iguana. There are a lot of people coming to my blog, mainly searching for answer regarding aggressive iguanas or tail injuries and I'm so glad they find me, because you can't find anyone more passionate about those wonderful creatures. Or, at least, I'd like to think so.
Readers will find information about my books and plenty of excerpts to judge my writing, and writers, well, writers possibly find that we have a lot in common. Oh and many people seem to like Spaghetti Bolognese :-)

Now, it's been a little while since I received a versatile blogger award and I said I'm going to continue with this tradition of handing it over to other versatile bloggers. It's been difficult to choose out of so many wonderful blogs, but I found them and I'd like you to take a look at the ten I chose:

Congratulations to the lucky winners, you've created wonderful blogs for people to enjoy:

L. A. Shaw
Carolina Valdez Miller
Janeaustenwannabe
Jackie Buxton
Kathryn Brown

Sue Moorcraft

Two Ends Of The Pen

Susanne Burke

Anna Dase

Chick Lit Central

Please check them out :-)