If I Had a Billion Dollars

Steph's blog challenged me to write about what I'd do if I had a billion dollars. Okay, I'll bite, though it might be extremely boring. I mean, this goes way beyond the normal million dollars!

The first thing I'd do: Pay off our debts. I'd flat out buy our four properties so that all rental income would suddenly become income! As it is, the rent helps our net be -$200 instead of -$1200.

With that out of the way, I'd finance our dream house up on our mountain. With step 1, I paid for the land. Now we build. The is the Heiner house. The one with a room for all of our kids so when they come to visit with their wives and children, we can have a big reunion in our house! If I only had a million dollars, this house would take up several. But I've got a billion, so I'm still good to go!

Third, Mark and I would go on three missions for our church. I thought about four, but decided that's too much, even for me. So three! These are expensive. No biggy. I've got millions of dollars left over.

Next, we could focus on our philanthropic desires and travel the world at the same time. Two birds with one stone! We love to vacation. We also want to sponsor one family at a time, after extensive research and interviews, and give that family an education and help them get a job. The goal is to have that family become a self-sustaining, productive entity in the community, and thus raise the standard of life for all who come into contact with that family. Our dream has always been to do that for one family. With millions, we can do that for many!

Oh, and somewhere in there, Mark got to quit his day job and open a private school and a group home. That's been his dream.

I'm not sure, but I think I still have a lot of money left over. Well, probably not, because I forgot to calculate for the amount the IRS would take. That's okay! We'd be sitting pretty!

Almost forgot.

Sequel Stats:
today's goal: 5,757
actual: 7,210
tomorrow's goal: 8,210

What's in a Name?

When I received my contract, it came with a letter saying to pencil in any changes I wanted to make, and we'd negotiate them further. Well, I didn't really find any changes I wanted, except one, and that is in my author's name. In my contract it stated that my name would be displayed as Tamara Heiner. I assumed that was because that's my name, and it's what I put on my cover letter when I sent in my manuscript.

I requested to change my name to Tamara Hart Heiner so we could include my maiden name. My thinking behind this is that I know so many people from college and my mission to Brazil, and they may not know my last name. If one of them should walk into the bookstore and see the name 'Tamara Heiner', it might not mean anything (especially since many from my mission never knew my first name). But if they walk in and see 'Tamara Hart Heiner,' they might think, "Hmm. I wonder if that's that girl I knew way back when." Then they'll pick up the book, see my picture, and go, "It is her!" And buy the book, of course, because everyone wants to own a book written by someone they know!

But then I got to talking to another author who's publishing with WiDo, and she said they actually requested her to go by M. Gray instead of her full name. Fascinating! I had no idea the publisher had a preference! With that in mind, I hope they they're not put off by my request!

They probably won't recieve my contract back in the mail until tomorrow. Then I'm sure I'll hear from them and see if it's a Yay or Nay.