Happy Sexy Millionaire

The Blog of Kristen Helmstetter

Going Back to Italy, Writing Novels, Happy Sexy Millionaire

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Hello & Ciao, my friends.

I thought I would write a quick update on what’s going on in my life.

Writing Novels!

As you know I attempted my first novel in April and I finished it. I also started a second novel and finished it. And I am now starting my third.

I have found a true passion. As I mentioned before, in this piece, I never thought I could be a fiction writer. But I completely change my mindset and filled my head with the right affirmations and self-talk, and here I am banging out novels.

And, I absolutely love it. There isn’t anything I’d rather be doing. And I don’t just mean for work. Every chance I get, I want to sit at my computer and write, or walk and dictate. That’s what I’m doing with pretty much all of my time the past couple months. :)

I think my first romance novel will be available in the next couple days! My novels will be written under a pseudo name, and the cover for the first book will be ready to show you, maybe later today! Stay tuned.

ALSO! When I release my books, I will make them free for five days in the Kindle store so that all of my readers can get them.

Happy Sexy Millionaire Formula

Of course I still follow my Happy Sexy Millionaire formula! There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t do my Morning Mirror Magic or my Manifesting Meditations! Those are the first things I do every morning BEFORE I sit down to write.

They give me confidence, calm, and inspiration. Plus it makes me happy!

What about getting backed Italy?

Before we came back to America for a visit in February, we signed a long-term lease on an apartment in one of our favorite spots in Italy.

As you know, we have been staying in Arizona until travel becomes safe and we can get back to Italy. As of now, although we’re still watching it on a weekly basis, there is a good chance we can return in June. Italy lifted its lockdown last week. My goal is to wait and see how those first couple weeks in June go and if all goes well, we will go back to our home there.

Stay healthy and happy!

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Today’s Tip for a Great Day: The Game I Love…

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Here’s today’s tip for having one of your best days ever.

It’s the game I love. Now, the name of the game is I Love and it also happens to be a game that I love.

Here’s how you play:

You’re going to spend your day constantly thinking about the things you love.

To remind yourself of this, get 10 pieces of paper.

They can be Post-it notes or scrap paper with tape. And on the 10 pieces of paper you write I love….

Now, take these and put them in random places around your home.

I have one in the kitchen by the sink because I spend time there.

I have one by my glass of water where I take my vitamins.

I have one on the table and my laptop covers it, so when I pick up my laptop and move it, I see it.

I have one on the mirror.

I have one on my yoga mat.

I have one on the door so when I leave the house I see it.

The goal is not to only think about things you love when you see these notes, but they are to serve as reminders that for the entire day you want the running dialog in your brain to be I love and then you pick something.

This fills your day with love and appreciation. But in a more playful way.

I love coffee.
I love oranges.
I love steak.
I love the sunshine.
I love my toes.
I love my bed.
I love this chair.
I love my laptop.
I love my mom.
I love my husband.
I love trees.
I love birds.
I love the smell of roses, lavender, jasmine, and vanilla.
I love my daughter.
I love fly swatter’s.
I love blue sky.
I love smooth pavement.
I love swimming.
I love boots when it’s cold out.
I love air-conditioning.
I love my legs.

You get the point, and that is to constantly think about things you love all day long. Simple yes, and I guarantee it’ll boost your mood. :)

Here is the next important step.

At the end of the day go around the house and pick up your notes, and put them in a Ziploc bag to store for another day.

By making this a purposeful activity with the notes that you do maybe once a week or every couple weeks, or heck, once a month… maybe it’s the first day of every month, it adds mega juice and sparkle to your day.

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Quarantine Things To Do

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Today I’m sharing a few things you can do in quarantine. :)

Draw in chalk a happy message for others to see who are out walking. I’ve been writing happy self-talk messages to people, too (not shown here). The picture above is my mom and Kamea thanking UPS for delivering all the packages they order.

Listen to my latest interview…

I was interviewed on The Ancestral Minds podcast and we chatted about the carnivore diet (where I’m at with it, how I eat meat while traveling, how I cook my steaks, etc), my family’s world travel, and my Happy Sexy Millionaire life. This was recorded in February and it was fun talking with these two guys.

My Daughter’s YouTube Channel

She recorded a video with things for kids to do in quarantine. It’s a cute-n-playful video, and if you have kids in the house, they might like her whole channel! She does all the editing of her videos by herself, and she is self taught in that.

Write a book.

The news on my first novel is that I completed edits (three rounds) and it’s now in one of my editor’s hands. Yesterday, I started working on my second novel and have about 12 ideas for others, too. Now is a great time to enjoy creating something whether it’s coloring, music, dancing, a book, poetry, etc.

The time is flying by for me because I’m so busy writing and loving every damn minute of it. In fact, I’m gonna get back to it right now… see ya!

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A Writer’s Life: 1st Draft DONE & My New Talisman

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My baby. My talisman.

Mission. Fucking. Accomplished.

I set the goal to write the first draft of my first novel, 50,000 words, in the 30 days of April. Yesterday, I finished. I ended up at over 60,000 words. Over a week ahead of schedule.

Anti-Climactic?

I was doing cartwheels in my mind when I typed “The End.” But there’s also a part of me that knew this day would come, with absolute certainty. Because I told myself it would, and I believed it. So when the day arrived, it was more like I’d just done the work, as opposed to accomplishing something that I might have failed at.

Self-Talk Power

My self-talk powered every day of my writing!

I woke up excited every morning and ready to dive into my story, kicking ass, smoke coming out of my keyboard. And let me clear… it’s not like I have a background in writing fiction. Far from it. I used to think I didn’t have any stories in me. Heck, I always pushed Kamea’s bedtime stories onto Greg.

Coffee Power (in a special cup though…)

I will say that I also powered my writing project with coffee.

LOTS of coffee.

And my coffee was in my special good luck mug. My new talisman.

Truthfully, I like coffee so much that I can drink it pretty much in any style (even the instant sh*t), in any drinking vessel, in any temperature (including coffee that’s been sitting there for hours). Because, to me, any coffee is better than no coffee.

But also, I know how epic coffee can be when done right.

The right beans… the perfect grind… the accurate water temperature.

And? The right fucking cup.

A good cup can make the difference between good coffee and EPIC coffee.

With my new mission to write a book in a month, I really wanted to treat myself to something wonderful. I knew that having the perfect cup filled with coffee and tea all day would make me smile with each sip as the caffeine fueled my words and flow.

The Perfect Cup

After quite a search, I finally found the perfect cup. Like I said earlier, it’s my talisman. For writing.

You see, coffee drunk from fine bone china has the best flavor. The thickness of the rim (or more specifically, the perfect thinness), the fine china itself… these things allow for the best flavor on your taste buds and aroma in your nose.

But when I went on a hunt for a coffee cup made from fine bone china, I wasn’t sure I’d find anything. Most of them are teacups. Small handles and small capacity.

But one day during my search, the the dark clouds parted, angels sang down, and I found the most glorious cup.

The perfect cup.

Where? Amazon, of course.

Why was it perfect? For starters, it was fine bone china. From England. Second, it was BIG! Like 16 ounces big! Third, the handle was proportionately larger as well. I dislike those dinky handles that make it hard to hold the cup.

Last, and definitely not least, it was both beautiful and super cute. Sophisticated and playful. Instead of the typical flowers or hummingbirds, my future bad-ass talisman had books on it. Yes. Books. Perfect for inspiring my writing.

Not so fast though.

It all looked good on paper (well, on screen). But I wanted to dig deeper before dropping $40. Like, was this quality china? Is it legit and from England? I scoured the reviews and details. Everything checked out. My heart started going pitter-patter.

Could this be it? Would this be it?

$40-some bucks though. Hmmm.

One last check — I jump to the company’s website. At first glance, I’m feeling good. Looks profesh and all that. The cups are indeed fine bone china from England.

I type “books” in the search bar, looking for that specific cup.

There she was.

Looking purrrtty as ever. I’m pretty sure I even heard her whisper my name.

And then I saw the description, and it was all it took to make me pull the trigger no matter the price. It described it as a cup for “the aspiring author.”

Done.

I went back to Amazon, and bought that beauty.

Though, I did a little something extra special. I added a gift receipt.

To my self.

And here I am, sipping my coffee, doing my daily coffee self-talk with her, and writing novels.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. BOOYAH!

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My Daily Writing Routine While Self-Isolating During Covid-19

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Dictating my first novel.

Here’s another dictated blog post.

I love taking walks and dictating because it’s healthier (not sitting all the time) and more fun (fresh air, sunshine).

Not to mention, much faster.

As I mentioned in the last post, my days are consumed with writing my novel. I’m at over 30,000 words now and loving every minute of it. Today I walked for 32 minutes and dictated about 2600 words. I came in from the walk and used Dragon Software to transcribe it.

Then, I edited it, because y’all know I’m writing a steamy romance novel and the transcribing software thinks I’m saying “clock” when I really mean, uh, a part of the male anatomy that rhymes with clock. What can I say? Romance novelist problems.

Morning Routine

I start every morning the same way. I’ve designed my routing to get my mind ready to kick ass with my writing.

Mirror Magic

First, I wake up and go into the bathroom to do bathroom stuff and mirror magic self talk. So, basically, I start my day loving myself in the mirror.

Coffee Self-Talk

Then, I pad to the kitchen and get my coffee. After filling my new fancy “writer’s cup” (more on that in the next blog post), I settle down for 10 to 20 minutes with my Coffee Self-Talk. This is essentially the very reason I’m able to write a novel right now. My self-talk pumps me up and puts my mindset in a great place, making me feel unstoppable.

Meditation

Then, I smoothly transition from my Coffee Self-Talk to meditating with my favorite meditation teacher, Dr. Joe. It’s less than 30 minutes, and I get to go on a magic carpet ride in my mind.

Next up? Movement!

Next, I move my ass. I do 5 to 10 minutes of heart-pumping exercise. This can be some jumping jacks, 20 full squats, maybe a few jump squats which, suck and I love them, and then some walking lunges. Throw in a couple 75-second planks and finally finishing with my favorite exercise band for some biceps, triceps, and shoulder work. Done.

I like doing this before writing because exercise makes me feel strong, in both my mind and body.

Writing

Then I dive into my writer’s life and write.

This is simply a mix of reading and writing all day long. I’ll write for a couple of hours. This can be a combination of editing stuff I wrote yesterday, developing my characters, or writing new content.

I make sure to read a lot, too. As a newbie novelist, I’m still reading articles and books on “how to” write. I also make sure to read plenty of other romance novels to learn the flow, styles, and other conventions of the genre.

Miscellaneous Stuff

My day gets broken up a little when I make food for my family or I take a walk or bike ride. If I take the walk alone, I’ll often listen to an audible book or I dictate a blog post like this one you’re reading now.

I also homeschool Kamea, but she’s now at an age where I can manage it for the most part instead of directly teaching her. There are some exceptions, like math, which still requires a lot of hands-on work from me.

After dinner, I typically read. By then, my writing muse is winding down. I take the opportunity to enjoy passive inspiration, whether it’s reading fiction or watching a show with my husband.

And of course we like to meditate at night, too.

Then, it’s sleepy time. I wake up the next day jazzed to jump back into my book. Rinse and repeat.

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Week 1 Writing My First Novel

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Hello, everybody!

I’m writing this by speaking into my digital voice recorder. Why?

As you know I’m writing my first novel this month (YEAH!), and one of the things I want to do is get into the habit of dictating because it’ll increase my word count rapidly.

So, here I am… practicing dictation by dictating my blog post to you. :)

How’s the novel writing?

The project is going really well. I continue to be over-the-moon excited about it.

I’m so busy thinking about my novel and imagining different scenes in it, doing research, reading tons of other novels that I actually don’t have time to do anything else! Definitely no time to watch the news.

I like this because it supports my blissed-out bubble during the pandemic conditions we’re all living through.

Working on this project is a mission and I love it.

As you know, I have set a goal to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of April. We have several family members and friends doing the challenge, too.

My daughter’s word count is already over 15,000 words with her children’s fantasy book (her goal is 30,000 and she had a little head start because started at the end of March). And my husband has written over 10,000 words of his — wait for it — pandemic apocalypse novel set ten years in the future. He has lots of book ideas, but he chose this one, aside from the obvious reasons, because it would require the least amount of research.

Our “CoronaWriMo” writing challenge is, by design, meant to get authors straight into writing, rather than procrastinating with stuff like research. (CoronaWriMo is our modified version of the popular NaNoWriMo challenge, or “National Novel Writer’s Month,” which happens every November.)

We have so much fun chatting about the experience and talking with each other. We go on long walks in the evening and talk all about characters, plot, and other writer stuff. It’s helped each of us figure things out as we grope our way through this unfamiliar process of writing fiction..

My Book: Romance!

I’m writing an “opposites attract” romance novel. The big question for me regards the sexy parts. How steamy do I go?

You see, my mom usually proofreads my non-fiction books because she is really good at finding mistakes (even when I swore there were none). But, uh… I can’t see myself letting her read a romance book I write with steamy sex scenes. Gulp. (Greg suggested I just take those scenes out of the copy that she proofreads. I might do that.)

And what about other people I know? Do I really want friends and acquaintances reading about all kinds of throbbing such-n-such? Yikes. I’m new to all this and unsure of how to proceed. I did, however, decide to publish my romance novels under a pen name, for marketing reasons. (Amazon’s algorithms can get confused when an author has books in multiple genres. If you’re not careful, sales in both genres can crater as a result.)

I’m well on my way. I’m actually freakin’ doing it!

Yesterday, I wrote the first couple chapters of my book. I had spent the first week planning: chewing on the outline, developing my characters, and creating the project in Scrivener. Scrivener is arguably one of the best software products for writing. I use it for all of my writing, including my non-fiction books and blogging.

WRITE WRITE WRITE!

I admit that I find it easy to get distracted with other things like reading other books (research!… right?), studying the craft of writing, and even blogging, watching Netflix, etc.

But I know that the only way I’ll be a great writer is to write. Getting my ass in the chair and the word count up. Pushing my way through, figuring out things on my own. So, that’s what I’m doing.

I like my system.

I’ll share my approach to how I’m writing in future blog posts. For now, read this post that explains how I realized I could even write a novel (we all can!), and buy this book to encourage you starting now (No Plot? No Problem)

Love, Kristen

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