An Excerpt from Unfrogged

July 10, 2020– Have you read Unfrogged by Tamara Botting (cover art by Christopher Botting) yet? If you haven’t you should! Unfrogged is not your average fairytale and is perfect for middle-grade readers who love adventure. Here is an excerpt from the book, available at Pandamoniumpublishing.com/shop

The carriage lurched and shook as it worked its way over the dirt-packed road. Even though it was one of the best carriages in the kingdom, there was no escaping all of the dips and bumps. Meredith and Frog were well-cushioned, though; the inside of the carriage was, as Frog described it, “like being in a pillow.” Meredith looked out the window eagerly, hungry for a view of the world outside the castle walls. She didn’t realize before now how badly her shyness had crippled her ability to see the world around her; to go on a trip like this, even back to the first home she had known, was an adventure. …They stopped for lunch and gave the horses a rest. Meredith and Frog were happy for a chance to stretch their legs; Frog took a short, refreshing swim in a happily chattering brook. As Madame Lench and the guards were some distance away, Meredith dared to leave her silken stockings bunched into her shoes on the bank and dip her feet in the cool water. 

Unfrogged was the second book ever published by Pandamonium Publishing House, and it’s still one of my most favourites! If you don’t have this book in your collection, you’re missing out on a wonderful story and thrilling adventure.

 

 

Eat the Frog…Don’t Eat the Frog

March 25, 2019-Should you eat the frog? Not eat the frog? Wait, eat what?  We’re not talking about actual frogs here, thank goodness! We’re talking about a book by Brian Tracy called Eat That Frog in which the statement is a metaphor for tackling the most essential tasks first on your to-do list.

You and I both know that there will never be enough time to complete each and everything on your list, but the most successful people don’t try to do everything anyway! We need to remember to focus on the tasks that have the highest return on investment (ROI), that being what can we do right now that will have the greatest impact on our business or writing career? Let’s look at my list of to-dos for today as an example:

1. Finish writing Jessica Westlake
2. Send Becoming James Cass to the editor *
3. Follow up with all clients to ensure they have their questions answered *
4. Blog posts for the month (12)
5. Podcasts for the month (8)
6. Inventory and supply ordering
7. Accounting
8. Events
9. Obtain new business *
10. Social media post scheduling

My MIT’s or Most Important Tasks have an asterisk beside them, notice that I only picked three of them:) Why? Because the current tasks have the greatest ROI and frankly, everything else can wait or be delegated. Here’s my stream of thinking: I’ll be able to write Jessica Westlake while I’m waiting in the airport and while on the four-hour flight. The blog posts are done for the rest of the month so I can schedule the posts for April without being in a panic, same goes for the podcasts. I’ll delegate the accounting and inventory ordering to my accountant and I’ll get my assistant to see what events we should be going to. I have three days worth of social media posts scheduled and ready to go, so I’ll deal with scheduling more in a couple of days or while I’m waiting somewhere.

All it comes down to is being organized and knowing what your priorities are. Make your list and look at it truthfully, what can wait? Which frogs do you need to eat first? What can you delegate?

Here are some questions that you should answer to get clear on what you need to do:

1. Which of your daily tasks are really helping you achieve your goals?
2. Which tasks are just really distractions to keep you from doing the important stuff?

Once you can answer these two questions truthfully, you’ll be productive rather than busy (which is another word for unorganized, unmotivated, and procrastination). Eat that frog!

Unfrogged! It’s Finally Here!

July 3, 2017-Well friends, this weekend was wonderful in so many ways. Not only was it Canada Day on July the first but I’m happy to announce that Pandamonium Publishing House along with a very talented author, successfully launched Unfrogged by Tamara Botting. Unfrogged is a middle-grade novel that is based on a fairytale, but I must say that I like this version a whole lot better! Princess Meredith is the definition of anti-princess, and that’s just one of the things that make her so relatable.

Here is a picture from the weekend of author Tamara Botting with her novel, Unfrogged for the very first time. Way to go Tamara! Unfrogged will be available in stores such as Coles, Indigo, and Chapters as well as Amazon this coming week.