Risks vs Reward - April 2022 Quarterly Newsletter

 

Risk vs. Reward

I use a "risk vs rewards" concept to make decisions.  I suffer from huge  FOMO  - fear of missing out, so when it comes to doing something that I want - I weigh the risks.  For my birthday, I wanted to go on the Wild Africa Trek at Disney's Animal Kingdom.  It comes with lots and lots of risks, here is a small excerpt of the warnings; For your safety, you should be in good health and free from high blood pressure; heart, back or neck problems; motion sickness or other conditions that could be aggravated by this adventure. Expectant mothers should not participate. The safety harnesses used for this experience may prohibit Guests of certain body shapes or sizes from participating.  You must have physical stamina, comfort with heights, and the surefootedness to negotiate small hills, foliage and unsteady rope bridges on this tour. 

For me the biggest risk was no bathroom access for over 3 hours - and they give us a free water bottle and constantly remind us to hydrate!  What a risk for an old lady with a tiny bladder!  But I did it and the reward was worth the risks.  I got to see my favorite animals up close and personal.  We went behind the scenes of Disney's Animal Kingdom and got to eat an amazing meal out on the savannah amongst the animals.  This was a big bucket list item for Keith.  He had originally wanted to go on a real African safari,  but downgraded it to this.  He worked very hard over the past five years to recover from his stroke and regain his balance to enable him to make this excursion.  He minimized the risks to enable this reward.

Profit Accounting Guide

Now, I am embarking on another huge risk; becoming a full-time writer.  I spent the past fifty years working my way up the ladder in the automotive technology world.  I would often make a few jokes; trying to get car dealers interested in technology is like trying to get nuns to like pornography and yes, most car dealers are highly qualified and have a PHD, which stands for "papa had a dealership."  That career had lots of risks, but the rewards were numerous and you can read about that in my free Profit Accounting Guide below.  But I was able to minimize the risks in that career by becoming highly qualified; earning my accounting degree and CPA, learning computer programming, and training myself on dozens of different DMS systems (the software that runs dealerships and communicates with the factory.)  I ended up designing my own  DMS, DealerStar and sold that three years ago to a bigger company, DealerTeam.  To hear more about this journey and maybe help your accounting skills, it is now available on Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/Profit-Accounting-Guide-Profit-focused-Dealership-ebook/dp/B09YYJ93ZV

Amazing Animals of Disney's Animal Kingdom

But now I take a new risk and I have been diving into it over the past few years in my free time while turning over my company to the new management.  I tested the waters of self-publishing and wrote a non-fiction book about one of my passions; the Amazing Animals of Disney's Animal Kingdom.  Here is a download link below to look at the pre-final copy that I'll upload to Ingram and Amazon on April 30th.  If you'd like to be in the acknowledgements - just send me an email to sandi.jerome@gmail.com with your comments, suggestions, blurbs, etc.  I have been handing out free copies at the park to the cast members and guests and the reception has been wonderful. 

Sleep Warrior

During the Covid lock down, I gave my granddaughter the job of teaching me fiction by having her convert my award-winning screenplay, Princess Quest into a novel and used the wonderful graphics of my other granddaughter, Tulaasi (who did the graphics for the free Profit Accounting Guide above) and the graphics of my best friend, Laura.  Again, we self-published.   I found that book publishing and promotion takes away from what I truly love; telling stories.  

One of my passions is genealogy and I try to write a Facebook posting every week called Throwback Thursdays to share in my two family groups; The Phillips Family and Nellesen Family. It is great having 36 first cousins and thousands of 2nd and 3rd.  When I was researching the Native Americans on my paternal grandmother's maternal side (Phillips;) I found the Native American that we trace our roots to; Clarissa Phillips.  She became the dream spirit superhero of my first fiction book, Sleep Warrior - for the middle school audience.   

I think the time is right for this type of book.  On page 28 this month of Anadisgoi, Official publication of the Cherokee Nation  https://issuu.com/anadisgoi/docs/no.13_anadisgoi_winter_spring_2022 there is an article about the Marvel Voices Heritage - Indigenous Voices that will have a Cherokee character in a future series.  This is the artwork created by a member of the Cherokee Nation.    

My own novel, Sleep Warrior is about a preteen girl, Aya, who is half Cherokee, but looks like she is right off of the ‘res’ as the kids at her new huge public middle school in Asheville, NC refer to her. After moving from Oregon during the summer, Aya hasn’t been able to make friends like her twin brother, Alec. When the ever-popular mean girl, Chrissy, makes fun of her brother’s severe stutter, Aya gets Alec to smile again with some clever revenge, but it comes at a price.  

To make matters worse, Aya starts sleepwalking. She discovers that her ancient Cherokee ancestor, Clarissa, is taking over her body each night.  Clarissa is your typical superhero; flying around on a talking bear, saving a little girl from drowning, rescuing a hiker, and now she wants to expose the danger of a new dam.  Aya desperately wants her body back and to fit in at her new school.  With the help of another Cherokee kid at school and two talking bears, Aya discovers that sometimes to fit in, you need to find your own tribe.

I am looking for family and friends (old and new) to read this and provide me with a critique or review of the book.  Please send your comments to sandi.jerome@gmail.com.  It has been a long time since I've been around middle schoolers; my own granddaughters are now grown in their 20s, so my only input is listening and observing them at the Disney Parks which we frequent a few times a week as Annual Passholders.  Please download a free copy here.  Download PDF link - https://www.sandijerome.com/free/SleepWarriorSandiJerome.pdf

Now comes my big risk.  I will be having this critiqued at the SCBWI conference next month and also be sending out query letters to agents and publishers.  I have minimized the risk by reading a fantastic book over 9 times and doing ALL the exercises; including waiting 90 days.   It is by Mary Kole - Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers 

I made the decision to change from self-publishing to being a PAL - Published and Listed author.  This means that a major publishing house has published my book.  I was a "PAL author" in 1990 when I wrote a computer manual for Lotus 1-2-3 (a popular spreadsheet program before Excel.)  I was lucky; I came up with an idea and sent out 3 query letters.  This was before the Internet so everything was snail mail and 2 letters came back as invalid addresses.  The 3rd one ended up with a phone call from an editor at Compute! Books saying he was publishing my book!  It was exciting and I used the money to buy a laser printer which cost more than my car.  But now, I go into the other "R" arena and the risk of rejection since the children's book market is huge.  My new question for myself;  is it worth the risk AND rejection?  The risk of my finite time left on this earth, the humiliation of criticism and rejection for the reward of being a PAL author again?  Yes, it is - because I have so many stories to tell and I get up wanting to write.  

I hope you like this Sleep Warrior story and if you're not already,  please Subscribe to my Quarterly Newsletter - I'm changing this from monthly to Quarterly to give me more time to write.  I will send you a link for this update; next time in July 2022 and maybe some more FREE things to download. Go to https://www.sandijerome.com/subscribe.html and enter your email address and then click Subscribe.  You'll get an email from SmilingEagle (our self-publishing venture) to Opt-In after you click the Subscribe button.  That email might be in your SPAM.  

Thank you for reading!

Sandi

https://www.sandijerome.com

  

 

 

Everybody Needs Deadlines

 

Keith and I work differently.  

Whenever I have a task, I see if I can finish it now; or at least before the end of the day.

Keith (left) always asks, "What is the deadline for this?"  He works off of that date and often waits to the last minute to start a project.  The reason for this is that he thinks about it for a LONG time. 

Sometimes we'd be walking and I'd ask him a question and he wouldn't respond.  I'd ask him, "Are you programming?" and he'd smile.  Yes, that is the reason why he waits to start a project; he starts programming it in his head for days.  I instead, start outlining the project and create a planning document of the steps I need to do. I work with deadlines also, but rarely wait until close to the deadline to start the task.  Yes, I was that person in school that asked, "Can we start on this now?"  I like to get things done early and there is a problem with that.  If you don't spend the time to "program" it out in your head, you might miss some valuable ideas.

We recently went to the Magic Kingdom to see the progress of the new Tron ride.  We found  this sign with Walt Disney's quote, "Everyone needs deadlines."  I thought it was so fitting for Keith and took this picture.  Disney is a big part of our lives today.  We both grew up going to Disneyland since it opened right after we were born and our grandparents lived up in Orange/LA area - so that made trips there special.  After we got married, we'd go there at least once a year and then when we moved here to Florida over a decade ago, we became Florida Resident Annual Passholders.  This means we pay one annual fee and can go as many times as we want.  We currently go twice a week but when we fully retire in two more years, we'll up that to three times a week.  

Guess what?  We don't like to ride most of the rides.  Instead it is a great place to walk.  Keith had a stroke over three years ago and lost his balance.  Instead of the more common, ischemic stroke, Keith had the very dangerous, hemorrhagic stroke that only has a 26% survival rate.  It happened at a training seminar that we were presenting for our software and across the street was the hospital.  The wife of our General Manager insisted on taking him over there (he wanted to go home) and we think that saved his life.  If he had gone home, he would have gone to sleep and probably died. It was deep in his brain; in the cerebellum area that controls balance.  It took many months of physical therapy to get him walking again and now years of continued walking therapy to increase his balance to prevent falls.  

My favorite place is Disney's Animal Kingdom that has uneven walkways through winding paths and lots of things to look up and see.  This is great for Keith's balance therapy.  Going to the other parks when they are crowded provides a whole other challenge; dodging little kids, strollers, and ECVs.  Now about 4 years later, he is about 99% recovered and has lost almost a 100 pounds.  He can go up ladders again, although I'm always next to him for safety.  Next month, we're walk/running a 5K at Disney which will be a challenge since it starts in the early morning dark.  But we've been training for it all year and we're excited for the challenge.  We knew the deadline of the run, and worked backwards on what we needed to do.  So, yes - everyone needs deadlines; it helps get you to the finish line.

Visit my website for info on my books - https://www.sandijerome.com/