Pre-Holiday Updates

Much has been going on since my return from Poland. Besides the Thanksgiving holiday and catching up at my full-time job, I have been moving forward with a number of projects.

The “Raising Our Humans” site continues to grow as the days pass. I am working with another site to create a relationship between her site and my own, which should increase traffic to both sites as well as to give both of our readers more content to explore and enjoy. I am going to be updating the multimedia library soon, with a new video and some more pictures.

“Hike For Play” has been in a bit of a holding pattern which I am planning on changing very soon. I have a couple of trails to add, as well as some fun nature facts coming to the site soon. I am planning on creating a photo gallery that amateur and freelance photographers can utilize to show everyone what nature has to offer to the world through a camera lens.

My book continues to progress, though very slowly. I have recently completed a re-work of the first chapter after I found some information that helps to make it feel much more authentic. I have an open ended release date at this point still, but I will get a more finalized date in place by mid to late February. The most difficult challenge to date has been verify the authenticity of some of the settings around the stories that take place within the book. Although this is a historical fiction book, my goal is to limit the fiction to the character and his interaction with the world while keeping everything else as factual as possible. So far, so good.

The sports player/team profile site I announced in my last post is now in the final planning stages. I am planning on making it live on March 1^st, 2012. My first two profiles will be related to NCAA March Madness, and by this point of the season the field of teams going to the Big Dance should be pretty much set.

Lastly, I have two exciting announcements that will be made shortly so stay tuned!

Great to be Back!

It has been a while since my last post, and for this I apologize. I have been in Poland on the trip of a lifetime, which I will tell you all more about in a separate post.

I have great news that I will lead off with, though. After sending out a seemingly endless stream of query letters, I was able to receive the response I was looking for. A publisher has expressed interest in one of my book projects, and we are now working on finalizing everything. I will release the what, who, when, and where as soon as I have all the details ironed out. I have two full chapters completed, though most of the second chapter was handwritten and will need to be typed in. Once this is done, I have a small panel of readers with varying reading preferences lined up to provide feedback to what I have so far.

I have continued to update, write on, and promote the “Raising Our Humans” site (http://www.raisingourhumans.com), which has been maintaining its steady 20% monthly visit growth rate. I have since introduced the newest member of our family, as well as update the media section with a number of photos and a couple of new videos. We still have one kitten left to place, which we hope to do very soon. There will be some upcoming changes on this site, as I look to expand the types of content available. There will be a new section coming up that will reflect homeopathic pet care. The reason for this change is that one of our own cats was recently diagnosed with feline asthma, and after examining all of our long term care options we found that homeopathic care had a much better outlook than traditional pet care. We will still continue to take him in for his normal veterinarian visits, and our homeopathic vet and traditional vet will be working together with us to provide the best level of care possible.

On the “Hike For Play” site front (http://www.hikeforplay.com), I have been able to explore a couple of additional trails that I hope to have written up and posted by months end. My goal is to begin to heavily promote the site leading into the spring of 2012. This will allow more time for playing around with tone, content and overall site layout.

I have officially shutdown the “Fantasy Sports Spot” site, and will be launching a new sports site this spring that will focus only on player and team profiles, from all sports and levels of play. I am very excited about this site, as it will be relatively unique in its content. I will be providing more information as the launch date nears.

Query letters have been flying around thanks to me, with mixed results. There are a number of environmental issues that I am researching and targeting for future publishing.

Overall, progress has slowed a bit as is usually the case during the summer months. I am planning to accomplish quite a bit over the fall and winter months, which will see many exciting items come to fruition.

Summer Fun = Summer Delays

I have not been able to make much headway on most of my projects over the past couple of weeks. Events such as the 4^th of July holiday weekend, a couple of family birthdays and my own birthday have shortened time for writing. What I was unable to accomplish with the pen I was able to make up in other areas.

I began a role as an editor for a blog whose subject matter is Palestinian women, which has gone very well. The blog’s author is passionate about the subject, and we have plans to work on a number of future projects together. Her passion and vigor towards these projects will make these very exciting to work on.

Posting on the “Raising Our Humans” site is all that I have posted over the past couple of weeks, but I did land a new sponsor for the site. I am putting the finishing touches on a new “Hike For Play” article, as well as my “Windy City Hoosier Source” debut piece highlighting the Marquette Golden Eagles 2011-12 recruiting class. I am hoping to finish these up by early next week so that I can move onto sending out a few more query letters.

Lastly, I will be heading to the Wisconsin north woods this weekend to deliver some of my mom’s artwork to a new gallery that she will be selling through in Minocqua. If you are in the area, be sure to check out “Wild Women of the North and a Few Men”. They have great art pieces for all tastes and price ranges, all made by local artists.

Things Are Heating Up

This has been a very eventful week to say the least. I was able to begin the posting of trail write-ups for the "Hike For Play" site, and will soon have another trail write-up ready to go most likely after this weekend. The overall goal for this summer is to have all of the trails in the Kettle Moraine Wisconsin State Forest system plotted out and written out, as these are the most popular hiking destinations in Wisconsin.

“Raising Our Humans” continues to grow in viewership and content, and this week I added the new arrivals to our family into the mix. I will be posting pictures of the new kittens as the stories progress, so make sure to check in each week for new stories and features. There will be a few new partner sites that will be added to the site, as well as a new sponsor coming on board.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I was kicking around the idea of retiring the “Fantasy Sports Spot” site, and launching a site called “Sports Player Profiles”. I have decided to make this a reality. The “Fantasy Sports Spot” site will be taken down on July 31^st, and no further content will be posted. The launch date for the “Sports Player Profiles” site (final name pending), will be announced soon. I will continue to host my partner podcasts on this site, and the iTunes Podcast store feed will be updated accordingly.

Lastly, it looks like I will be writing for a Rivals.com type of a site called “Windy City Hoosier Source”. The site, due to be launched in mid-July, will focus on NCAA basketball. I will provide more updates as the site gets closer to launch.

Although the weather this summer has been cool, the opportunities have been heating up. I look forward to providing more reading material for my fans and clients as we get into the dog days of summer.

The week in review

This past Saturday’s Guitar’s for Vet’s event was an incredible experience. The music was fantastic, and those that attended were very willing to share their thoughts on the event, the organization, and the cause of supporting our veterans as a whole. I look forward to presenting some of these thoughts in the future.

I have continued to take advantage of the great weather that has been around on the weekends to get out hiking. This past weekend, I made a large dent in the trails at the Zillmer recreation area in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest in Wisconsin. I have the longest and the shortest trail left to do, and am hoping to do so this weekend. The New Fane trail summary is almost complete, and should be posted within the next day or two.

Rumors are spreading that the NFL lockout may be coming to a close, which is great news for football fans everywhere. Once the off season is underway, I will be able to get the post-draft write up out there, as well as player rankings, so that everyone can begin to browse them in preparation for their own fantasy football drafts. I will be posting at the all-star break an updated baseball player rankings list, and in August a September call-up review sheet for the playoff or stretch run.

I am seriously contemplating the retirement of the “Fantasy Sports Spot” site, as I have not been able to post as often as I would need to maintain accuracy and to keep up with changes. This does not mean the end of my sports writing, but rather a new beginning. Once I have made up my mind and have connected all the dots, I will announce my intentions on this subject.

The “Raising Our Humans” site continues to grow in views and repeat visitors, and I am working with a number of other sites to co-promote one another. There will be an expanded photo and video section coming later this month as well.

Guitars For Vets

Tomorrow night, Saturday June 11^th, 2011, at 6:30pm, Guitars for Vets will be throwing their annual fundraising bash at the Harley-Davidson museum, called “Rock the Rumble” (http://guitars4vets.org/events.cfm). This event is particularly exciting for me as this will be the first Guitars for Vets event that I will be attending not as a music fan or potential donor, but as a writer for the organization’s newsletter.

The few stories that I have heard about those that have received the gift of G4V’s form of music therapy have been both heartbreaking and uplifting. The magic that the strumming of a guitar can introduce into ones the spirit is absolutely amazing.

I look forward to presenting some of these stories in the coming months, and I hope those of you reading my blog will check out this great organization.

The Weekend That Was

The "Raising Our Humans" site (http://www.raisingourhumans.com) will be getting much more interesting over the next couple of months, thanks to the arrival of four kittens yesterday evening. Mother and kittens are all doing great, and have already begun to make very interesting stories that I am sure the site's readers will enjoy. The site has surpassed last month's hit count by 26%, making it five months in a row with a 20% or greater growth increase. I will be adding some new features to the site this week, including feedback and possibly a discussions area. If you have not already, give the site a try for some light entertainment, pictures, tips, and videos.

This past weekend finally brought some nice weather to my area, and I was able to get out on the trail for a nice 3.5 mile hike. I am working on the trail review now, and it will be posted this week on the Hike For Play site (http://www.hikeforplay.com). The weather for next weekend looks great as well, which means that I should have a few more trail reviews coming up next week as well. I am looking forward to my new hiking boots arriving, as the old ones were not very kind to my feet yesterday.

Lastly, I am finalizing my involvement in the writing of a newsletter for Guitars for Vets, and am very excited about this opportunity.

Upcoming Projects

This is meant as both informative for those of you out there that are interested, but also as a good way to get my ducks in a row. There are a number of projects that I am involved with, but the below list are my confirmed in progress projects for the summer. As things start, I will update this list accordingly. Ok, here we go:

1. "Raising Our Humans" site (http://www.raisingourhumans.com). My site has been growing view wise about 20% a month now, and I will be looking to promote other pet enthusiast sites on my site, as well as to have my site promoted on other sites. I will be expanding the multimedia section, and am looking for a vet to donate their time and writing skills for the "Tips and Tricks" section, in exchange for promotion of their practice. Lastly, I want to create a section for pet adoptions, having local animal shelters promote a particular cat each week.

2. "Hike For Play" site (http://www.hikeforplay.com). I'm just now getting back into hiking, and want to grow this site, as well as to generate content. Looking to get past the typical hiking site style by interjecting various articles for a variety of hiking skills, doing detailed trail reviews, and noting nature items to keep an eye out for during ones travels on the trails.

3. "Natural Resource Alternatives" blog (http://altresources.blogspot.com/). Whether or not one agrees or disagrees with climate change, our dependence on fossil fuels is a large risk to our country. This site looks to inform a wide audience of alternative resource usage techniques that will save consumers money, while making them energy independent.

4. "Fantasy Sports Spot" (http://www.fantasysportsspot.com). Research and analysis from different angles on the subjects of various fantasy sports leagues that are out there. Although published infrequently, the goal is to generate alternative strategies and analysis that other sites do not provide. Also, I will increase the hosting of sports related podcasts.

5. Guitars For Vets Newsletter. A very new opportunity with a great organization a friend of mine started. I am looking forward to this greatly.

6. "Amish in Wisconsin" project. Still dotting the "i's" and crossing the "t's", but this will be a book about Amish culture that is completely different from anything else out there.

7. Book editing. There is one book I have been asked to edit. I cannot reveal the project details at this time, but will do so when possible.

8. Historical "fiction". I will be researching and writing short stories the contain historical facts, but are written from an "eyewitness" perspective. These will be geared towards 12-16 year old readers.

Phew, it's going to be hard getting the above going, but it is exciting to work towards completing all of these.

Welcome!

Welcome to the first ever post on this blog. In the upcoming weeks and months, I will be using this blog to keep you, my readers, fans, and curiosity seekers, up to date in the goings on in my literary world.

I have been working on promoting my “Raising Our Humans” site (http://www.raisingourhumans.com) for the past 5 months with great results.

Also, I have a possible regular column on the horizon about the world of Open Source software, and will be updating and promoting my hiking website, Hike For Play (http://www.hikeforplay.com) more often as the weather warms up this season.

You can follow me on Twitter (@carykostka) to get quick updates on what is going on,

Have a good evening everyone, and stay tuned.