Trying To Get Caught Up with Reading Writing and Promoting My Business

 

Check out one of my learning sessions I gave at the Writers Alliance of Gainesville Marketing Coalition group on Zoom. Now I may even be given a 45 to 90 minute talk at the 2026 Sunshine State Book Festival at their Writer's Day Conference the day before the festival. - (Oh My!!!)

Yes, I will be graduating from Florida State College Jacksonville this month with my first bachelor's degree. You know it took 3 other tries and 40 years to get it. And YES! I have been accepted to the University of Florida - College of Journalism and Communication online masters program in Social Media! Now all I have to do is find the funds to pay for it all. I have been given the federal student loan limit for graduate students with will pay for tuition and books but I have to pay off the new Apple laptop (Baa Hum Bug!!) that I need to learn now to use efficiently as well as pay for some software to help me in my course. They were very sweet and gave me a $1500 per semester grant. (YEA! don't have to pay back.)

My Flowers For Mothers Day

I will have to get a car soon. That will entail, gas, insurance and repairs and probably a car payment. I also have to pay off all of my credit cards. My credit rating is not going up any so being able to pay them all off and just use them for current expenses each month will really help me. I am trying my best to get that over 700 because I just may want to buy a house for myself next to my brother's land. I would rather get one in town but I like the peace and quiet here.

In the meantime, I am trying to get together enough funds to remodel the two back bedrooms in my brother's trailer (He has stated flatly that these are mine as I pay rent as well as the internet fee, the subscription fees for half of the streaming services and extra groceries each month). The biggest headache and expense for that is moving the bathroom from the middle of the trailer to a corner of the new space I want to create with an outside door and three windows. I want floor to ceiling shelving for all of the books I own and am selling as well as being able to get to the crafts that on our Southern Women Crafts Online Store.This way I can come and go as I please and when I please. I can lock the area up when I go on trips too.

House cats silently judging me as I work

Yes, I started another project. It is called Solo Sojourn. I am learning how to create an app to sell on Google Store and Apple Store that promotes solo women travelers, campers and workampers. Just because they are single through divorce, widowhood or by design women need reliable resources to help them find safe places to enjoy nature, perhaps meet up with like minded women, and have a good time. I am beginning with Florida, of course, and building out a database from all the information within my book, updating it along the way, but still concentrating on just the public land areas to camp and workamp. I would like to revisit each of the camping state parks and interview the volunteer coordinators and other workampers along the way. To that end I will need another camper. So, another reason to improve my credit rating just in case the Kickstarter I am learning how to create doesn't net enough funds to purchase a good used one outright. 

Jolene's Avatar on Solo Sojourn Project

To all of this I have updated some of the offerings on my UpWork Profile, I may do the Fiverr one as well, and then review everything on my Southern Dragon Publishing website, of which I have about 40 more podcast episodes to edit and post for Jolene's Book and Writers Talk. I am throwing so much paint on the walls of my many pages, projects and social media that I am just looking for one thing that I love to do that will actually bring in some much needed funds. 

But, then again, aren't we all just trying to do the same thing.