I. Am. Mika.

I am still here

I am still here, still fighting, still writing with the hopes of helping other women. With this novel, I have something to teach women [better yet, all of us] about the art and sheer cussedness of hanging in there, fighting for what you believe in, standing firm in your convictions, and, above all else, pursuing your purpose in life.

Knowledge < Imagination= Evolution.

Imagination is greater than knowledge.
For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces, transforms, stimulates, inspires, and frees the subconcious mind. Imagination manifests all things intagible into a tangible reality, thus stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
-A Mika Miller/Albert Einstein collabo

What I Want

“I want to find my place in the world–at the table, so to speak. I want to give away warmth. It want to love a man so hard it feels soft. I want to see how far I can go alone and how far I can go with someone else. I want to be smarter. I want to be the best mother friend, sister, lover, daughter I can be. I want to respect other people’s feelings as much as I can.

I want to be a good person, a worthy person, a strong woman that people can depend on and know that my word is my bond. I want to be charitable and loving and I want to be light, and airy, and free to be me–flaws and all.

This is what I want.”

I Feel Like Crying

I never thought this day would come.

My manuscript (you know, the one that I have been talking, stressing, pining, and obsessing about for the past 3 years) is nearly complete, and I can’t believe it, but more than that…I feel a mixture of bittersweet emotions overtaking me, as the book’s completion demarcates the end of one chapter of my life…and the beginning of a new.

As much as I have talked about finishing this book, I don’t think that I ever took the time to actually visualize what my life would look like with the finished project in my hands. I am now forced to move on, even though I am not completely ready to. The words, “The End”, after the last, typed, period…at the end of the ultimate sentence… at the closing of the final chapter…beneath the last page among hundreds; forces me to turn the page–to bind the copy–to release it.

And move on.

Now I have to remove my heart, remove my emotion, and no longer nuture the birth of the novel. I have to, now, grow. With the completed manuscript in my hands, I must take on a new role. I must become more logical, more sensical and more prepared to handle its maturation. It is now about the business. The business of writing, and becoming a publisher, and public relations person, and agent, and distributor, and my own motivator.

My perception of what this book is, and could be, my hopes for its potential to change, my desire for this book to cause people to stop and think and question everything that they believed in before they became acquainted with my words, must now become my reality.

I never thought this day would come. I never thought that this day would come. I never thought that this day would come.

I am coming down from a wonderful high. I am falling from the sky. I see the ground from such great heights. I feel like crying…

Give Your Book Its Best Selling Chance

Imagine thousands of people buying your book all over the world in the coming year. Sound far fetched? Believe it; it could happen to you! I’ve done it…and so can you.

CAUTION: Keep reading only if you want to give your book the selling chance it deserves.

To start with, every part of your book should be a compelling part of your message. Every part should be written passionately and designed to touch your readers’ emotion with passion for your topic… and that is how you sell more books.

Here are QUICK TIPS to help you along:

Tip #1 Write Your Book’s “Thesis Statement”

Write your book’s central thought or main point into a one sentence thesis. This one sentence thesis proclaims the general mission of your book. If you want your readers to keep reading to the end, write a tightly focused manuscript. Make every sentence and every chapter support your main goal.

Tip #2 Find a Niche. Direct Your Book to One Targeted Audience.

I don’t want to hurt your feelings but not everyone will want your book. Even so, I am convinced there’s a audience of people who want to read your story, as only you can convey it. Knowing your market before you write will help you write focused, compelling chapters. Writing for a “specific” person or group of people in mind, will keep your readers reading to the end.

Tip #3 Focus HEAVILY on your Book Title and Cover.

Your title may well be 90% of the pulling power for your book. Researchers say you have 4 seconds to hook your potential buyer. Well designed book covers sell! Hire a professional graphic designer to help you. The cover of your book helps make the important first impression with readers and even book-sellers. Remember, the attention of your potential customer is captured largely and first by the cover design.

Tip #4 Don’t forget about the Book’s Back Cover.

How many times did the title and front cover hook your interest enough to pick it up? Then usually you turn it over to see if you really want to read it. On the back cover, you put the most compelling ad copy, blurs and a bio about yourself. If your prospective buyer likes it they will buy instantly. If they need more information to make the decision they will usually preview your first page/introduction.

No matter how good your book is, if you don’t use the above simple tips in setting it up you may never sell as many books as your message deserves. Enthusiasm and passion are contagious. Give your book the best selling chance possible. Fill it with enthusiasm and passion for your topic to sell more books than you ever dreamed.

You are the Author of your Life

Here’a secret: Your life’s purpose is not what you think…

The truth is your life’s purpose is probably more than you’re currently expressing. There are an endless number of possibilities with what you can achieve and how you can live your dreams. You are more powerful than you’d probably like to admit (because let’s be honest, it’s a bit scary to own your true power).

Yet, something is probably getting in the way of you expressing your true potential. Maybe it’s a limiting belief or mindset you’re holding about yourself or the way the world works. Maybe it’s some kind of social conditioning that you know is bullshit but you can’t seem to break. Maybe it’s a situation where you feel you’re stuck without any desirable path to choose.

Right now I’d like to offer you some help with that. Because, maybe you need some support with this. I mean, of course you could be rugged and do it all on your own, as I have much of my life too. But I’ve found that I accomplish much more when I have help. It’s been hard for to accept and acknowledge that I need help, but it’s something that has really changed my life for the better. Now I’m getting better at it, and things are getting a lot easier for me. It feels nice to have support.

“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are” —Joseph Campbell

A lot of people talk about life purpose. They say it’s something you’ve got to find, something you have to figure out. It’s this elusive, intimidating thing, that if you don’t discover, will cause your life to be forever devoid of meaning.

Pretty terrifying, right? Finding your life’s purpose is a frightening idea to approach. But it’s not hard to figure out, your purpose is not ambiguous. Discovering your purpose is more like opening the door to a labyrinth; which is your soul.

That’s because your purpose is to become who you are.

That’s it.

Nothing else. No big, fat mission statement. No saving whales or ending world hunger. That’s not your purpose. Those are activities, and albeit they may be worthy ones, but they’re still simply goals. Your purpose is not a goal, an action, or a cause. Your purpose is much bigger than that.

Your purpose is to express your fullest potential, to unfold, and spiral out the truth of who you are.

When you realize that you are the author of your life, you start to realize that you don’t have to live by the rules as long as you make the choice to step outside them. You’ll find something interesting; that all those lines you’re not supposed to cross… they’re imaginary. No alarm sounds. No spikes rise up from the floor, or yellowish gas is released from some unknown source.

So your job is to test your assumptions. See what happens when you do what you want. See what happens when you follow your own path. Even when you’re not sure what that path is, just take the step that you feel called to. You have to learn to trust yourself since all of this time you’ve been following someone else’s plan. When you set out to create your own plan, your own map, it will be blank at first. That’s pretty terrifying. So just start doodling. Create lines, then draw outside them. Crumple it up and burn it if you don’t like where it’s heading. Start over. Start daydreaming again. Pick your favorite colors and get to work.

Because your purpose is not what you think. Your purpose is to become who you are.

Don’t know what I’m doing

I’m attempting to learn this whole blog-thing as I go along. Trying to figure out what this “quick press” feature is all about, I’m trying to master the art of HTML, adding tags, plug-ins, linking to other blogs and search engine optimization, flash etc etc…UGH! I’m definitley learning as I go along. And, by the way, I’m doing all own my own, so I guess that is something I should be proud of. It’s a work in progress, I know.

My Progress

I am still almost continuously working on a very overdue manuscript deadline, but I’m in the home stretch. My hands are really struggling, so I have to alternate the writing with other things, and it works out because I have the attention span of a goldfish and I get tons done when I have to switch back and forth. So, I write for a half hour, then go do some laundry, then write, then go weed for a half hour, then write, then unload the clothes dryer, etc. It sounds more like the workings of a hamster on cocaine, I know, but it actually does keep me quite productive, and I keep my hands from going idly numb: win-win.

REPOST: Day 1 of the 21 Day Book Challenge (A Writing Exercise to discipline yourself to finish that F’ing Novel)

Okay, so here we go again with the challenge. Yup, I failed miserably at it the first time. I had mad drama going on in my personal life, that I needed to handle, but that’s water under the bridge now. Im ready to move on and move forward!
I am a task oriented person, who is motivated by deadlines; in other words, I’m a procrastinator, therefore the following exercise is right up my alley. So if you are like me, and have a manuscript that you are working on and dying to finish because you’re tired of talking about it, but it seems like completing the novel is an exercise in futility, then I say we motivate one another, and allow this exercise to be the framework.
You down? C’mon people, we ain’t gettin’ any younger…
Ok, you’re down to try, then, here we go…

Most people believe that it is impossible to write a novel no matter how much time you have. Well, I say to those people that I am from a different school of thought. And to prove this, as of 10:19 a.m. on Tuessday morning, May 18, 2010, I have committed myself to finishing the first draft of my new manuscript in less than 30 days (twenty one days to be exact)…and do you know how?

I am just going to write from my inner soul: write from my heart, then rewrite from my head because I trust that my heart is smarter than my head is. My heart already feels this novel, it has already written this novel; its just my head that gets it on the paper.

I’ve already done the hard work. I’ve already explored the story and done the research. I’ve already created the vision and brainstormed the characters, events, and made it linear and, at times non-linear. I’ve already shaken it, smelled it, and looked at from every angle–even upside down–I’ve even dreamed about it. And, I’ve already decided how the story should sound, look, and I know the feel of it and the tone. Therefore since my head has already done the had part, it’s time to let my heart go deliciously free, and to not let the two interfere for the next 21 days.

DAY 1- SPEED PAGES
The plan is to throw down as fast as I can, as fast as it comes to me.
Rule 1 : Don’t think
Rule 2: Take a deep breath, imagine what I see as if it were a movie on the screen. Write what I see.
Rule 3: Go for it

TIMELINE:
From Day 1 to Day 7 I’ll write a very fast and rough random draft. I’ll write for no more than five hours a day, (in broken down intervals, if I have to) that way I can still grocery shop, cook dinner, dust, do laundry, do homework and play with my son, work out, take a bubblebath, read a bedtime story, and have some resemblance of a life.
On Day 8 I rest. (Even God took a break on the 7th day)
On Day 9 I will read my random draft
From Day 10 to Day 17 I will rewrite; doing specific pages each day.
Day 18 to 21 I will tweak and polish

HOW TO BEGIN:
I’m going to turn on my inner movie projector. I’m going to close my eyes and look for visual clues, then I’m going to intensify the images. When I am ready, I am going to open my eyes and type, type, type type, type. I will work with a stream-of-unconsciousness.

The key to accomplishing this task is to turn a hard thing like writing a book into something very simple because Lord knows that my middle name is “Little Miss Perfectionist”; which basically means that I obsess over every little detail. Yes people, even a person as motivated as myself can take forever to write a book, and honey I aint having that. A year from now I refuse to still be bloggng about writing this book. in fact, a year from now I plan to have already moved on the next phase: published and promoting.

So ladies and gentleman, off I go into the wild blue yonder. I will most certainly update this blog tomorrow. Until then, even if you’re not an author, maybe you can apply these basic principles to another aspect of your life. Remember, if God gave you legs and arms, and if you are breathing, then you can do it. Just Free your mind…and the rest will follow.

Two words

Learn to just say, “Fuck it”. It can transform your life.