What I wished I’d known my first time at LeakyCon

Yes, I read through many first-timers tips before attending my first LeakyCon in Denver, 2022. I even attended the Ickle Firsties meetup at the convention. While these were all good and helpful, I felt like several key tidbits of information were left out, and I wished I’d known them.

Tidbit #1: Ribbons are a thing.

Okay, I actually did find out about this really fun trend ahead of time, and came prepared with ribbons. But many first-timers knew nothing about this, I discovered. So here’s the thing: attendees at LeakyCon really love handing out and receiving ribbons to attach to their lanyard, eventually creating a very long trail of ribbons down their front, lol. The fun part is anyone can print these ahead of time (not just the merchants and shops), and you can have anything printed on them: a fun picture like Luna Lovegood’s glasses, or funny quotes from the Harry Potter books or other sayings. One ribbon simply said “Grandpa” and made me laugh. I printed three different colored ribbons with different words to help promote my book and YouTube channel (I am a fantasy author, after all). My quotes were also related to Hogwarts, just as my books are, indirectly (I’ve written a real potions textbook which probably escaped the Restricted Section at Hogwarts…)

Tidbit #2: Bring a water bottle

Even more awesome if you have a Hogwarts water bottle or one in your house colors. Yes I know I live in Colorado, and everyone in Colorado always carries around a water bottle. But I was going to be in a hotel the whole time, and who wants to carry one when they’re cosplaying? (I cosplayed Professor Trelawney.) I discovered that most attendees knew this tidbit and carried water bottles. And that the hotel was sometimes lagging in refilling water coolers in the rooms, and not all the rooms had water. I was so busy running from one session or panel to another, that it was challenging finding time to go look for liquid sustenance. I sat through the Hufflepuff meetup very thirsty. I even tried using my wand, shouting “Aquamenti!” at the water cooler several times, to no avail. The cooler suddenly refilled just as the session ended, though I didn’t see anyone fill it, so maybe my spell decided to work after all.

Tidbit #3: Remember to always carry your wand

Speaking of wands, whether you bring one or buy one there (so many cool wand shops!), be prepared to always have it on you, just like at Hogwarts. There are merchants selling wand sheaths, too. This was one of my favorite things about LeakyCon! Finally being somewhere where it’s normal to always have your wand on you! (I kept forgetting and having to run back to my room again.)

Tidbit #4: You’re on your own for meals

I was used to the writer’s conference where meals are a part of the ticket and everyone eats together. I searched and searched online, but could find no information on meals at LeakyCon. That’s because there is none. Everyone is completely on their own for all meals and snacks. At the hotel in Denver, they offered a breakfast for pay (not included with the room) and there was a pub restaurant for supper. They had wonderful service, but such limited staff at the pub that everyone had to wait 45 minutes to an hour to finally get their food. For lunch, the hotel offered several offerings in the merchants hall, for cash only (see Tidbit #4). There were a few places to eat nearby, but not very many, and I heard attendees complaining at the lack of local options. One couple ordered pizza delivery, and waited at least two hours to get it! (I’m not sure how long because I left to get ready for the Esther Earl Ball.)

Tidbit #5: Cash is king

I ended up having to retrieve cash from the hotel ATM (paying a nice fee) twice. Not only were the lunch foods cash-only, but I needed cash to leave a room tip. And it does help the merchants to pay with cash. Most merchants accepted cards, but you never know who might not. I ended up having to run to the ATM to get cash so I could buy a book from one of the presentor’s. Thank goodness he waited for me while selling and signing books to others. Next time I’ll bring cash for all my shopping.

Tidbit #6: Prepare for some culture shock, especially if alone

If you go with friends you might not deal with this so much, but I often find myself trying out new experiences, countries and groups solo. And just like in the SCA, with larping, and with international travel, I experienced bodily fatigue and feeling “out of it” just from culture shock, especially on the first day. It’s okay, just stay hydrated, try new things, take breaks and power naps if you can, make sure you eat. By the end of the weekend I was adjusted and didn’t want it to end.

Tidbit #7: How to dress for the Esther Earl Ball

One fun thing about LeakyCon’s Saturday night ball is that you can dress however you want. There were people in the same casual or house clothes from the day. Some wore modern ball gowns, some wore medieval gowns like me, and some wore Victorian-era ball gowns. Several cosplayers came right in their cosplay, allowing us to dance with Molly Weasley, Ginny Weasley, a couple of Hagrids, a glowing Patronus, and Bellatrix LeStrange. I found myself wishing I’d done the same. I even almost ran back up to my room to change out of my medieval gown and back into my Trelanwey cosplay. They were giving and having so much fun! But I didn’t. I’ll simply stay in cosplay next time.

Tidbit #8: The sessions are more fun that you think

When I was planning ahead, the panels and sessions only sounded “okay” to me, and I chose just a smattering of them to attend. But when I actually tried them, I discovered they were more fun than I expected. I ended up wishing my broken Time-Turner actually worked so I could attend a couple of them at the same time. Make sure not to miss the Wizard Rock Cafe.

Tidbit #9: Every LeakyCon is a little bit different – plan for the littles

I learned several things about LeakyCon. One is that it is a traveling con, and attendees go to wherever it is being held each year. Two is that each venue and event will be a little bit different. I heard that the one in Dallas has the four house common rooms to relax and hang out in. In Denver one “Quiet Room” was available, but no comfy chairs in there. Also, there wasn’t much for the littles to do in Denver, I noticed. There was a little craft area with two self-directed fun crafts in the merchant’s room, and that was about it. Most of the littles wouldn’t enjoy the sessions. If you’re bringing littles with you, search the panels ahead of time — they might enjoy the cosplay contest — and make a plan of what they might like to do. (I have some awesome creative ideas for sessions I want to present, and if they choose me going forward, we will have some rocking activities which even the littles will go crazy over.)

You will have fun

Everyone is so friendly, the wares so unique, the panels and sessions suprisingly interesting, the cosplay delightful, the Wizard Rock rocks, and the Esther Earl Ball is a blast. No matter what, have fun! I know you will. It turns out that attending LeakyCon is addicting. I’m alread planning on next year. (And FYI, they are going to be expanding to add more fandom things, like elves and dwarves, hobbits, D&D, and more!)

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Make Money Online Easy – the Wealthy Affiliate University Review

Nowadays we have more opportunities than ever to build various sources of income, especially with the internet and a global market. This also means that there are more scams out there than ever – how does one know which program to trust and which to not? In this post I’ll talk about what everyone’s searching for – can you make money online easy? Well, that depends on how you define easy. Here I’ll give my Wealthy Affiliate Review.

PLEASE NOTE: There is a new scam out there calling themselves “Wealthy Affiliates.” Note they have an “s” at the end. I’ve looked at them, and from what I and my friend can tell, they are totally a scam. The legit one is the Wealthy Affiliate University, also known simply as Wealthy Affiliate. Please note the logo for Wealthy Affiliate. This one is legit, whether you sign up primarily to take advantage of the Wealthy Affiliate University online training, or want to use their awesome SEO tools to build any kind of website you want.

For myself, I started with Wealthy Affiliate in order to learn affiliate marketing as a blogger, since I’m building my career as a writer. But then, I decided to also use their SEO and website building tools and training to launch my own author website and blog, since I’m already a member there, and my first novel is being pitched by my agent as I write this in 2019.

Is Wealthy Affiliate University a Scam?

Please note again – if the company has an “s” at the end, as in “Wealthy Affiliates,” then yes, they are a scam as far as I can tell.

But Wealthy Affiliate University, aka Wealthy Affiliate (in the singular), is legit. I’m writing about this right now because they’re about to have their annual Black Friday sale, and this is the time to go premium with them.

One of the things I love about Wealthy Affiliate is that you can actually try them out for free. You can even launch some actual websites for free with their platform. They provide all the training you’ll need to build a successful affiliate marketing business through their Wealthy Affiliate University. The platform keeps track of your training and there are step-by-step tasks to help anyone become successful.

If you like the program, you can become a member for $49/month. This includes all of the training – and there are many various types and levels of training – as well as hosting up to fifty websites with them. They provide everything to easily buy your own domain name for any of your sites, if you wish (or use their free tool instead), and host your sites with them. I’ve now followed their instructions and have set up three different websites. They include all sorts of valuable extras with your websites with them, too, to help optimize your sites and keep them protected. Their tech support is unparalleled.

The best thing is the community – you will meet, follow and be followed by all sorts of wonderful people all over the world doing this along with you. Everyone is so friendly and supportive, it’s so awesome. My own mentor recently spent a month or more in Thailand while doing his laptop work from there – so cool.

So now with the Black Friday deal, it’s the time to purchase an annual membership – instead of the $49/month or the $359 a year, during the Black Friday sale you can get an annual premium membership for only $299 for the entire year. Once you get it on this price, you get to keep this low price from then on. Now this is a deal worth taking!

Make Money Online Easy

Is it easy? No, not really. For anyone who is serious about building a legit business, it takes lots of time, energy, focus and hard work. Will it pay off? Absolutely. There are so many successful marketers in the Wealthy Affiliate community to help and encourage us along the way – some of them are consistently making well over $2,000/month, some are at three figures a year. But this is from consistent, ongoing effort – going through all the training and spending at least a couple of hours a day consistently. Keep in mind, when you first start any business, you quite often have to put in a year or more of free work as the owner. It’s the same with affiliate marketing. You may start making some residual income in less than a year, or it may take more – it depends on you, how hard you work, how consistent you are, how focused you stay on the goal, how many articles you publish each week, etc.

You don’t have to be an experienced writer to do this successfully, the Wealthy Affiliate University gives you all the practical training you need to be successful. It just all depends on you.

Review of Wealthy Affiliate University

This is my review of Wealthy Affiliate University. I’ve been with them for over a year and just started making a tiny amount of money on my affiliate niche website. The reason I haven’t yet made more is because I’m simultaneously building my career as a freelance and novel writer. I need immediate income, so most of my focus and efforts have been on that. I finished my first novel, queried it out, and got an agent three months later. Then I spent time with agent, sending it back and forth as we honed and polished and edited my manuscript until it was perfect. Now she’s pitching it to publishers.

In the meantime, I got the idea to use Wealthy Affiliate to also build my author website. So I’ve started that and have been building up that site, not so much as an affiliate site (though I do recommend books found on Amazon once in a while on the craft of writing, etc.), but as my main author site. I’ve been using the SEO, research and training at the Wealthy Affiliate University to help me with my author site.

Since then, I became a Norwex consultant, mainly to get the awesome products at a discount, so then, I started a life hack website to specifically blog about all the great Norwex products as well as general life hacks.

I also started working as a freelance writer and have been ghost-writing novels for my first client. I’m no building my portfolio and getting some new ghost-writing clients for nonfiction as well.

So my focus and energies and time have been a bit scattered, and I’m working on three websites instead of one. I was getting a little discouraged that I’d fallen behind on the training and progress at Wealthy Affiliate, but one of the community members there (did I mention how great the community is?) encouraged me, reminding me that my novel writing is very important and that I’ve made much progress in that area.

Oh, I’ve also started my YouTube channel to eventually help promote my novel. In it, I play an inept magical school substitute teacher at Burrowgroves School of Magic. So that’s taken a bit of my time recently, too.

Wealthy Affiliate University Reviews

If you do any research online at all, you will quickly see that Wealthy Affiliate University, aka Wealthy Affiliate, is absolutely legit and a wonderful deal which you can even try for free. And don’t forget the Black Friday deal, to get their annual premium membership – now is the time to get that.

And remember that the online company calling themselves “Wealthy Affiliates” is a scam, from what I and my friend were able to tell (she accidentally signed up and was getting all sorts of email spam), so stay away from that one.

Make Money Online Easy?

It’s easy in the sense that you can work on your own time and from any location that has internet. It’s easy in that anyone can follow the step-by-step program and succeed at it. It’s not easy in that it takes consistent focus and hard work, and you can never give up even when you get discouraged. You have to be in it for the long haul.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely. For me, even though the passive income has been slow in coming (and my work very on-again, off-again as I do other career-building projects), everything I’ve learned and continue to learn has been very valuable. I’m building my author website in anticipation of my book series getting published, using the best SEO and website tools in the industry.

And did I mentioned the community on Wealthy Affiliate? They’re awesome!Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

A Law of Attraction Secret – Steps in Writing a Novel

I’ve been studying and applying the law of attraction in my new business of writing and becoming a novelist, learning many law of attraction secrets and law of attraction tips, as magic has unfolded before my eyes. When you learn to live in the flow, serendipity happens and you find yourself living a life of miracles. The law of attraction works in real life. You won’t believe the incredible ways in which the law of attraction has brought about specific things for me to experience in my various steps in writing a novel.

Law of attraction works

My debut novel is all about alchemy, and interestingly enough, the early alchemists were in actuality learning and experimenting with the law of attraction, I believe, discovering the law of attraction secrets through their various explorations and alchemical experiments. Alchemy, after all, incorporates the spiritual plane and the goal of transformation of one’s inner self as well as the physical plane and the outward transmutations of the metals, herbs, water and materials. They believed the outer reflected the inner, and vice versa.

I’ve been applying the law of attraction steps in writing my novel, and it’s been the most amazing and strange journey. Most of it of course was just my life of researching and writing, but the unusual occasionally occurs, and when it does, it’s something vital to my story.

Learning law of attraction secrets through alchemy

As I researched, studied and practiced alchemy, it coincided with my learning law of attraction secrets and tips in my own inward journey. I’m still just a beginner at alchemy, as I’ve focused more on law of attraction in real life, but far along the way I suddenly had a eureka moment as I believe I may have figured out the true meaning of the philosopher’s stone!

Alchemical steps in writing a novel

So what are the processes involved in writing a novel? Just like in alchemy, first I had the germ of the idea, the inspiration. Then I did a lot of research and learning, followed by the experimental work of writing and finishing the first draft. Mind you, I was working a separate business so I only worked on this part-time in fits and starts at the beginning.

But after the first draft was completed, I then spent time transforming my manuscript by revising, editing and reworking it. I would sometimes get flashes of insight on major changes to be made, and I also had beta readers give me feedback on the first draft, which helped tremendously.

When it was finally finished, I queried it out and lo and behold, I got an agent! (I still love just saying that – my agent!) Then she and I went through my novel, purifying and working on it more and more, bringing it to its most exalted state.

At one point I had another eureka moment. My particular novel, Encyclopedeia Magica: Volume 1 – Alchemy, is actually three books in one – it’s a novel, a puzzle workbook and a real alchemy/potions textbook. I had been inspired and had written it altogether, all three components intertwined as I wrote the first draft.

My agent (!) had the brilliant idea of separating the three components – this is exactly what you do in alchemy – in order to focus on each part and bring it to its best self, then eventually we’d recombine it all back together. I couldn’t believe it – this whole process, these steps in writing a novel, in my novel, are following exactly the steps of doing alchemy. Real alchemy was being done to my own novel.

These are the kinds of miracles I’ve been experiencing all through the process of writing my novel.

So we dove in. I took the painstaking effort to separate out the three components of my novel. Then we focused on each part, polishing each until it was perfect – the novel part, the puzzle workbook part, and the potions textbook part. Finally, when all three were ready, I did the painstaking work of recombining the three components and putting it all back together.

Then my agent and I were able to do a final polish, smoothing it all over and making sure it worked. Now we had a perfect, finished and exalted piece of art!

What are the odds that we would end up doing the literal steps of alchemical transformation on my own novel about alchemy? This is another way the law of attraction works in real life, tailoring to each situation. The law of attraction is real.

Law of attraction in real life

The miracles didn’t end there. My husband and I got to take an anniversary trip to London and Ireland. The London portion was specifically to do research and fact-checking for my novel, set in 1665 London. And you won’t believe it – the day we arrived, my agent emailed me to say my novel was ready, and could I send her some graphics so she could start pitching it?

“No,” I answered. “I just arrived in London and won’t be back to my laptop for two weeks.” No problem, she assured me, just get to it when I return.

Well the law of attraction had things in mind (or God? or the universe? all of the above?). Not only did I end up discovering several key elements I needed to fix, change or add to my novel to make it right – one was because I happened to speak to several locals and was a key bit of action at a pivotal point in the story – but I got to experience several of the experiences my own character had when she first arrived in London in 1665.

But the most surprising thing was something I didn’t plan for at all, and just happened. Right before our trip I’d noticed a mistake in the planning and I had to make some last minute changes to our Airbnb accommodations. This change made it so that we had one less day in London, but we did have all afternoon to travel by train out to Essex near the Stanstead Airport (instead of trying to make that trip super early in the morning to catch our flight to Ireland). We got off in a tiny town, then had to walk about twenty minutes, pulling our luggage to get to our traditional English cottage. I didn’t fully realize it till that evening, but we were walking a stretch that was almost exactly the same my character walked on her way to Londontown. In my novel I had her eating wild raspberries, but on our walk we discovered that the English countryside is just bursting with wild blackberry shrubs, and we enjoyed delicious fresh blackberries on our walk. Later, over supper, I looked at a map and saw how close we were to Ware, a town my 17th-century character walked through. And I knew another important detail I needed to change in my novel – blackberries! I couldn’t believe that I got to walk near the same area as her, and this was completely accidental and unplanned on my part – it was all the law of attraction in real life, working its magic.

Steps in Writing a Novel

These are just some of the amazing experiences I’ve been having in the steps in writing my own novel. Becoming a writer is my new career, and I’ve been using the law of attraction in my business the whole way. I love living a life of miracles. We had a great trip, I fixed my novel, and my agent is pitching it. It’s so exciting to see what will happen next!

So far here are the books and resources I’ve used in learning law of attraction secrets and tips – the books can be found on Amazon.com:

  • All books and YouTube videos by Esther and Jerry Hicks, sometimes they go by Abraham Hicks
  • The Secret DVD
  • Jesus’ and Paul’s teachings in the Bible
  • Books by Nanice Ellis: Is There a White Elephant in Your Way?

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Latest Update on Being a Writer: My Writing Projects

What’s going on with my current writing projects? Here’s my ongoing updates:

Encyclopedeia Magica: Vol.1 – AlchemyEncyclopedeia Magica Volume 1 Alchemy

  • Quite a while ago: Asked Spirit for inspiration for my own unique novel idea – received it as I awoke next morning.
  • Over a few years: Worked on my novel in starts and stops. I was also running two business startups and parenting four teenagers. Biggest struggle – finding the time and discipline to write consistently.
  • More recently: Feb – GalaxyFest in Colorado Springs, where I attended a writer’s workshop and met full-time author Susan Lambdin. She became so excited over my novel idea (pun intended) that she offered to write the back cover blurb. Her enthusiasm acted as a catalyst and I started working seriously on my novel. Joined a local writer’s group, started participating in NaNoWriMo events, etc.
  • April – Attended BarCon at Pike’s Peak Writer’s Conference. Met and got to pitch to my very first agent: Natalie Lakosil with Bradford Literary Agency in CA. She immediately got the vision and asked for the full ms – even though I wasn’t finished with it yet. This was a miracle.
  • June – several revisions later, I finally finished my novel! After several rejections, I landed Natalie Lakosil as my agent in August. Honing it back and forth with her until we got it perfect. It’s a multi-layered never-been-done-before book.
  • Natalie had the brilliant idea of separating the three components of my novel (novel, potions textbook encyclopedeia, and puzzle workbook). I’d written it all together. Once separated, we were able to work on each separate part, making them perfect. Then we re-combined them and finished the story!

Other Top Secret Writing Projects

  • 2018: Playing around with several new novel series – shhh.
  • 2018: Attended a Pike’s Peak Writers Workshop on Freelance Writing. After that I landed my first freelance client, and have been ghost-writing her four-book fantasy series. It’s amazing to be paid to write novels! Finished Book 1 by Christmas.
  • 2019: Finished ghost-writing Book 2 by end of May.

Blogs

  • 2018: Needing income after closing my businesses and saddled with business debt, I started learning how to do affiliate marketing with the Wealthy Affiliate platform. Such a great community with lots of classes, training, tools and help from a friendly people.

My Uncommon Life

What am I up to? Several of these have to do with my writing projects.

  • Learning to read and write Egyptian Hieroglyphs, along with learning all about Egypt, ancient and modern.
  • Learning Astrology in preparation for the second book in my Encyclopedeia Magica series.
  • Learning to use GetResponse CRM and email list tool for my author site – highly recommended by a successful business friend.
  • Working my way through the Wealthy Affiliate training program, building my coffee site and my author site.
  • Taking my 17yo son on a short trip or two to visit potential colleges, starting with UPenn in Philly.
  • With my husband, training and preparing for our 3-hour hike on the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland this August.
  • After my hip replacement surgery in March 2019, I’m starting back larping again this month – hooray!

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