1,362 words
7 minutes read time

My author update isn’t such a miracle, I’m alive, I guess you can say, probably at the dentist if you’re reading this Monday afternoon. I had a cavity creep up on me over the weekend and luckily they were able to get me in. I don’t like having to wait with stuff like that in my mouth, though I’m still struggling with my anxiety over being “trapped” in a chair. I’m behind on a cleaning appointment as well, so they said they’d at least get the x-rays out of the way. I’m hoping I’m not there for any longer than an hour, but even that amount of time makes me nervous. Still, it has to be done. I’m not worried because it’s the dentist–I’ve just developed an aversion to being in any kind of chair, dentist, hair salon, car, without the ability to be able to get up, since I haven’t felt well these past five years. I was actually hoping to get over that, but I’ve started having some nausea in the mornings that a Google search has said might be a symptom of perimenopause. I can’t do much about it except work with my body and not schedule appointments before noon. I hope doing this will lessen my nervousness having to go out and get things done.

I wasn’t going to get into that right at the beginning of this blog post, but I got it out of the way, and I haven’t given you a health update in some time, so hopefully you skimmed through that, and if you did, thanks.

I guess that does kind of segue into how I’ve been feeling about writing lately, and I’m grateful to say that my attitude has perked up a bit since I started a new book. I’m 36k into WICKED GAMES, and I’m feeling much better about the whole thing, writing- and publishing-wise, I mean. I guess editing all those books back to back really got me down, and that negativity I was feeling last year has gone away. My Facebook ads are still off and my sales dashboard reflects that, but I’ve decided not to worry about it. I knew it would happen, it’s just a bummer to watch it. Still, I’m enjoying the creating process again, and even if no one is around to buy, that’s okay. I’ve been taking it easy, napping if I feel like it, watching a movie if I’m too tired to write but not tired enough to go to bed. I’m where I wanted to be when I was in the middle of re-editing my Rocky Point Wedding series. Not stressed about getting something done, working at my leisure and enjoying myself. I still write a lot, as those 36k words were written in twenty days, but I write fast because I’m having fun, and that’s all that matters.

I’m surprised that I’m still posting regularly on my Facebook author page. I joined a challenge in one of my Facebook groups last month and I’ve held on to that into February. Sometimes I get stuck and I ask Al for help, and he’ll give me ideas. He offers to make graphics and carousels and stuff, but I just want the idea. I would never ask him to make a graphic for me; I prefer to pay photographers and models using my DepositPhoto account or using the photos that are available through my Canva Pro account. Still, he gives me suggestions and then I twist them into what will fit my author page and make what I need in Canva. It works okay, but sometimes I’m just stumped. I’ve been talking about LOSS AND DAMAGES and WICKED GAMES, though I feel that’s a little too ahead of myself considering those books aren’t coming out for a long time. But, supposedly building buzz is the name of the game, and I feel okay talking about them because I always follow through. I’d never talk about a book that I wasn’t going to finish writing and publish.

Besides that, I don’t have too much going on. I finally got my author copies of my Rocky Point Wedding Series, and I’m in the process of hosting my giveaway. (If you want to enter or see what I put on the form, you can see it and/or fill it out here: https://forms.gle/rYt1A1HNi8mpBUmLA) I haven’t gotten too many people interested, but that’s the same for any time I’ve hosted a giveaway, no matter how many or few things they have to do to enter. My friend Melody gave me the idea to use the form in the first place, and I am so grateful. It was quick and easy to put together and if you import the information into an Excel sheet, you can see very easily who wants to be added to my newsletter and who doesn’t.

I’m slowly ordering author copies of my King’s Crossing Series, but if I do a giveaway of those, I might only do one set instead of two, or I’ll wait until maybe Christmas time or something. I just want to have copies on hand, but they’re almost five dollars a piece and there are six in the series. That’s a lot of money to throw down at one time, so whenever I have a little extra cash I’ll buy five copies of a book. I just ordered five of book four, so I’m getting there. I should be able to have all of them by the time book six is out in April.

Sales in general are slowing down, but every once in a while I get page reads for Shattered Fate, book four in that series, so I’m happy to know that books 1-3 sound good enough for a reader to keep going. My pre-orders for books five and six haven’t gone up, so unless I do a promo or something for book one, I think sales of that series will slowly die. I need to look into something since book one is already .99 and I won’t have to do anything to buy a bargain promo. On the other hand, it’s freeing not to worry about sales, and unfortunately, not a lot of my ARC reviewers came through (Cruel Fate only has 34), so the number of reviews will probably affect anything I try to do. So, whatever. Talking about it is kind of depressing, so I’ll leave a marketing chat for another day.

That’s about all I have. I wish I felt better, physically, anyway, but at this point, I just don’t know if that’s in the cards unless I move into full-blown menopause and that makes most of the symptoms I’m dealing with disappear. I could be waiting a few more years for that though (I’m still young!), and with my hysterectomy, I can’t tell by my time of the month or lack thereof. I just have to keep taking it day by day, though if I had to rate how I feel now compared to the last five years, I’m feeling the best I have since I bought those dryer sheets. My mind is clear, at least. The level of anxiety I had I wouldn’t wish on anyone, so even if I don’t feel good in my body, I can handle it because I’m feeling better in my head. I just wish all this pesky adulting would go away. Things I have on the list are, dentist, getting taxes done, and getting my hair cut. After I can force myself to get all that finished, I should be good to go for a bit. Fingers crossed, at least.

This was a short update, but not having a lot going on is nice too. I hope you have a lovely week, and next week, I’ll have an interview up with Brandi Easterling Collins. I met her over on Twitter a long time ago and we’ve stayed friends for years. I’m excited to catch up with her.

Until next time!