Early Spring Blooming

I mentioned in my last post that things would be blooming soon. When I wrote I did not imagine just how quickly things would move. Spring has come early, and everything is moving at full speed! Although the burst of activity has not enabled me to add any new projects, the time I am spending on my current projects have been fascinating and rewarding.

I will lead things off with my longest running endeavor, the “Raising Our Humans” website (http://www.raisingourhumans.com). The traffic to this site increased 62% in the last month! The funny stories that I have been posting have been decreasing as a result of the kittens all getting a little older and developing or exhibiting fewer new funny behaviors as time passes. In a way this has been good. I have been able to bring the media gallery up to date, and I have been able to focus more attention towards the other aspects of cat ownership. A few articles that I am researching for future posts involve dealing with cat scratching, my take on the “declaw or not” controversy, and a look into the world of holistic cat care. The funny stories, pictures, and videos will still be coming but will have a less emphasis on the site.

My new site, “Sports Profiles” (http://sportsprofiles.wordpress.com), is live and running. The opening post is an in-depth look at new Milwaukee Brewers 3B Aramis Ramirez, which was posted this past Sunday. The initial response has been positive, and I am looking forward to the challenge of promoting and creating more material for this site. The next player I will be profiling is Marquette G Todd Mayo.

“Hike For Play” (http://www.hikeforplay.com) has taken up the majority of my writing time lately. Most of the content I have created is interlinked, which is why it has not yet been posted. Once this has all been completed and posted, a pleasant surprise is in store for all the fans of the site. My goal is to have all of the material up by the middle of March.

In the podcast world, the changes to the “Brewer Nation” are coming to fruition. I am finalizing some odds and ends with our new feature artist, who will be announced on the pre-season edition of the “Brewer Nation” podcast towards the end of March. We are looking to have a bit more formalized outline of the show, and to bring you more interviews than ever before. We have one potential interview candidate in the works that may surprise you.

Sharp Thinking Communications continues to move forward as a full launch is not too far away. STC will provide a very needed and vital service to the international business community. It is exciting and exhilarating to be part of this venture and to watch STC founder Sadiqua Hamdan bring her vision to life.

Otherwise, many query letters have gone under the bridge since my last post and I am largely playing the waiting game on most of these. I’m not in too big of a hurry though, as you can see from the above work has not been hard to find. I have been renewed to continue my Big East basketball and MLB baseball scouting reports through the 2013-14 seasons, and am in the process of renewing my deal with Microsoft. My book has been slow, but I was able to connect to a historian who has brought me a fresh direction in the plot of the book as well as to help the events become even more authentic.

One last bit of housekeeping before I go. You may (or may not) have noticed a third tab on my blog, called “General Ramblings, Mischief, Etc.”. This will more for as a place for me to post anything and everything random that I come up with from time to time. No categories, no purpose, just words flowing from the top of my head when I feel like.

I hope you all have a great February, and feel free to send an email my way or comment on the blog. I will post, probably in the summer when I am a little lighter with my workload, some of the better questions I have received. You can follow me on Twitter (@carykostka), or look me up on LinkedIn or Google+.

Until next time…

Hitting 2012 Running

Now that the holiday rush has come to a close, the time has come to dive into 2012. I am approaching this year with eager anticipation of great things to come. Much of the ground work laid last year has sprouted up and should be in full bloom very soon.

I have started posting more on my “Hike for Play” website (http://www.hikeforplay.com) and have a ton of content coming up that will have you going even more stir crazy this winter. “Raising Our Humans” (http://www.raisingourhumans.com) continues to explode in readership; it has seen a 40% increase in traffic since October. More is expected to come as I will begin a partnership with two other cat lover websites this spring.

Remember the sports player/profile site I mentioned in the past? The site is now up and rolling, with the first profile expected to be up by the end of next week. It is called “Sports Profiles” and can be found at http://sportprofiles.wordpress.com/. I will also be hosting the “Brewer Nation Podcast” here in the near future. For now, you can find the podcast at http://www.hikeforplay.com/partner-podcasts.html.

Speaking of the “Brewer Nation”, we are close to announcing a featured artist to provide podcast music clips, intros and outros for the 2012 season. We are looking to have everything finalized in time for our 2012 season preview podcast.

The book has been coming along pretty well although sometimes at a maddeningly slow pace. A number of changes to the first two chapters needed to be made in order to ensure accuracy, and a handful of minor edits were needed in the first chapter.

Query letters will continue to fly in 2012 to open up new avenues for my writing. I have a couple of articles coming out this spring and summer in “Wisconsin Natural Resources” magazine which were very exciting and thought provoking to write. It is funny at how deep the rabbit hole can go when researching for articles within the topics of these two. What are the topics? Hmm, I’ll let you know when the issue is out so you can pick one up at the newsstand.

Ok, so you may be wondering what the two big announcements I mentioned last month were? Well, I can tell you one of them now. I will be working for a startup called “Smart Thinking Communications”. The founder, Sadiqua Hamdan, is a great writer with an incredible pulse on the meshing of Arab-U.S. cultures (and was also kind enough to edit the first chapter of my book). I am very excited to be a part of this venture, as not only do I know the amount of determination and time she has put into this, but can see the passion and strength of her vision. The website is being developed, but you can follow STC on Twitter (@SharpThinkingCo) for the latest and greatest that is going on.

I hope all of you out there had a great holiday season. Feel free to drop me a message or comment. You can also follow me on Twitter (@carykostka), or look me up on LinkedIn.

Until next time…

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.