Of that I am both sure and determined to make true.
Soon.
I spent yet another day editing, but good news! I’m finished!
Which means maybe tomorrow I can get caught up on a few things I’ve been putting off. Like packing my mother’s stuff.
I posted the first chapter of the new book on my fiction blog. If you’re curious about what I’ve been working on, click here.
I get the feeling that when this month is over and the book is released, my mother’s room at the retirement home is empty, the A to Z Challenge is finished, and we’re all still stuck at home, I’m going to miss being so busy. Life is so frenzied right now, I barely have time to think.
Enjoy every minute, my friends. Especially if you have your family close.
Why I’m writing this post:
Because if you’re like me and stuck at home already, or if you’re going to be like me soon, the days of the week are going to be hell to keep track of. We have a wonderful community here on WordPress and all over the Internet as well, and I’m sure many people are feeling nervous and/or isolated. I want to make sure every one of us has somewhere to congregate and someone to talk to.
I want everyone to know that you can start discussions with each other in the comments, and if you’d like to write your own “What Day is it Anyway?” post, you can link to this one. Hashtag #WDIIA.
I’d like to start by saying thank you to Ritu for her prompt word, “publish.” Thank you, Ritu! You can find her Just Jot it January post here. Go visit her and say hi, and give her a follow if you haven’t already!
Now that I’ve decided to take this publishing gig seriously–I plan to publish at least six books this year–I’m considering what to do about creating my own imprint. Mostly so I have a single name to publish under, particularly if I decide to change genres and go with a pen name, but also so I have a name for a company, should I make enough money to register it. Don’t laugh–I have my editing business that I can put in there too.
It means I’ll need a logo … and a name. I have a couple ideas for the latter, which is actually amazing since I can’t come up with a title for five out of the six books I want to publish.
What do you call a romantic comedy series that centers around an Irish pub that has male strippers every Saturday night? And no, I can’t call it anything that will get me booted off Amazon for being too racy. Considering the premise, the writing is actually quite tame. I need titles that will reflect that too.
The sixth book, my passion project, is Book 3 of my PNR series, The Great Dagmaru. It’s a killer story that turned out to be quite difficult to write. Heartbreaking, but hopeful. The plan is to start releasing the romcom series in March, and get one book out every ten weeks, with Book 3 – “The Magician’s Soul” published by summer. I think I can, I think I can …
But back to the publishing business itself.
I’ve toyed with the idea of publishing other authors, but I don’t know if I’m ready for that kind of investment. Especially not when I’m having this much fun writing my own books. I have a thousand ideas but only 365 days in a year. Does 2020 have 366? I’ll have to factor that in if it does.
Still not enough?
I’m determined.
And inspired.
I’m interested to know whether any of my readers out there have set up their own publishing companies to deal with their own books. It seems like a lot of work at the beginning, but it might end up making my life easier in the long run.
Much appreciation to John Holton for our prompt word today! You can find his Just Jot it January post here. Check it out, say hi, and go ahead and follow him!
I really need to apologize for not showing up for my own prompts in a timely manner.
I’m doing a paid edit on someone’s novel and I’m on a deadline, so that has to take precedence over everything else. In a close second are the writing of my own book, the editing of two of my other books, my blog, the kids, the animals, the housework, the groceries, exchanging Christmas gifts that don’t fit, paying bills, dealing with everything that Alex being in the school play next week entails, and appeasing my mother who will perish if she doesn’t get a pack of cigarettes soon.
Is it any wonder that I just got distracted by the cat who’s laying beside me on the couch snoring?
Better than Facebook, I suppose.
Oh hell, why not just toss that into the mix too. It’s always good for a few lost hours.
In the grand scheme of things, I’m not that bad off.
When you think about suffering, there are many degrees. There’s having your house burn down around you (that’s really suffering), and then there’s sitting in your living room and being hot but the fan is aaall the way over on the other side of the room (that’s also suffering, but to the 1/1,000,000th degree).
Do I feel empathy for both of those people? Sure. In about the same degrees in which they’re suffering.
I try not to complain about my personal challenges because I have it relatively good.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel sympathy for those who have it even easier than I do.
Because a struggle is a struggle. And you never know where someone else’s breaking point lies.
Right now I’m in my own living room, drinking a beer, the dog sleeping beside me. I finished work for the day at 1am, and I feel good about what I accomplished, even though I didn’t complete what I set out to for the day.
I’m grateful for all the well wishes for my MRI–I should get the results this week coming.
For now, my eyesight is good. And there’s no rain in the forecast–the barometer is holding steady, which is likely why I can see.
Now, it’s almost 2am, and I still have writing of my own to do.
By now it’s no secret how busy I am. I’m juggling so many balls at a time, I can barely keep track of them.
Do I drop ’em every once in a while?
Rarely.
I’m not a very good juggler, but somehow I almost always manage to catch ’em before they reach the floor.
The real struggle, though? Is when I have to use one to justify the other.
I can’t do this because I’ve got to do that right now, or that won’t get done before I drop the ball.
Organizing the juxtaposition of my balls is almost as hard as keeping them in the air.
And yeah, sometimes I have to bullshit my way through it all, in order to keep my sanity.
Because, you know what? I’m not perfect.
But the alternative is having a whole mess of balls on the floor. And if there’s one thing that’s worse than juggling?
It’s cleaning up balls.
Thanks to the three lovely ladies who gave me my three “J” words for today’s oversharing not-A-Z post. You’ll find their links under the words “juxtaposition,” “juggling,” and “justify.”
This will be the last time this week that I’ll look for suggestions, since the “L” word will be Saturday’s SoCS prompt. So, “K” words? Anyone? One per person, and keep ’em clean if you please. I’ll accept the first three I get … remember, the oldest comments are at the bottom of all the comments on my posts.
It’s been more than a year since I secured (and paid for, twice so far) my editing website. I have a price schedule set out, and I have testimonials from a few authors. Like, people who would testify that I know how to grammar and everything. (Please don’t judge me by that last sentence. I’m joking.) And yet, I’ve been too busy–editing, mostly–to complete the website. I have return clients lined up who will potentially keep me working for the better part of the year, though I’m not precisely sure when they’ll call on me.
But it isn’t only being busy that’s prevented me from setting up shop. My home life gets so chaotic sometimes that I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep up with the demands of the job. Which is a completely unfounded fear, because aside from the instances when my clients haven’t delivered their work on time, I’ve never missed a deadline. My own doubts are preventing me from expanding my horizons, so to speak.
So that’s that–that’s all the news on that front.
And it gave me an excuse to use the word “testify.”
What ever happened to those hardback digest versions of books, compiled by Reader’s Digest? You know, the ones with the dark brown covers. My mother had a bunch of them when I was little. I remember trying to read a story out of one of them when I was a kid … maybe 10 years old? I think it was Moby Dick or Treasure Island or one of the old classics. I got bored with it. And I also recall wondering if I was going to read the story, why not actually read the story rather than a glorified synopsis of one?
Maybe that’s why they stopped making them …?
Or do they still? I haven’t seen one of the Digest books in years, unless they were in a used book store.
Speaking of books (and not to make this a sales post … I don’t want everything on my blog to be a sales post, but lately it seems to be all I do. More on that in a minute …) did you know Amazon has a coupon for $5 off, if you spend more than $20 on two paperbacks, until tomorrow? The coupon code is NOVBOOK18. I would be grateful if you bought one of mine, but it’s good for whatever you choose.
Which now brings me to what I’m loath to digest, and that’s that I can’t keep this up. I’ve spent more time writing and trying to sell my books than I used to, and the evidence is here on my blog. Or, I should say, the evidence is the lack of my presence here. Something has to give, and when it comes down to it, I have to follow the money. I need to spend more time doing things that will earn me money, or I’m not going to have the Internet to be here at all. Or food. I could give up food.
But it’s tough, you know? I feel like y’all are family here. And I don’t want to let you down. Nor do I want to give up the pleasure I get from contributing to this community I’ve built around me.
I won’t give up SoCS as long as I have a computer to host it on. Nor One-Liner Wednesday. But I may need help … no, scratch that … if I’m going to do Just Jot It January 2019, I’m GOING to need help. But I’m not sure how to do that anymore either, since WordPress has changed the guest blogging rules.
Suggestions are welcome.
I do know that I’ll be working a full time job (editing) in January, so my time will be very limited. I may drop the coloring club not because I don’t have time to post, but because I never have time to color. If anyone wants to take that one over, let me know via email at bacamjoly@gmail.com.
So that didn’t end up being a very uplifting post, did it?
Maybe next week …
I hope everyone has finished digesting their Thanksgiving dinner by now. For us in the rest of the world, it’s business as usual.
Well, I’ll give myself a pat on the back. This is two weeks in a row that I’ve missed my own prompt on the day it was supposed to be posted. My excuse this week is insanity.
It’s funny. I’ve been driving myself nuts with all the preparations and advertising and stuff for my book, and what have I been wishing for? Those nice, calm days when I was busy editing someone else’s work. Which is crazy for me, because normally I’m not happy unless I’m writing. Somehow I must know this, even when I’m not conscious of it and you wanna know how I know? Because I signed up for July’s NaNoWriMo camp.
Because I have nothing better to do. HA!
I’m totally rambling tonight. Can you tell? And I haven’t even been drinking. Not since the cup of coffee I had at dinner, at least. I did just put a bottle of white wine in the freezer so I can have some before bed though. Kind of insane, if you ask me.
I should probably rein in all this craziness. But that’s me. I can’t stop challenging myself and I have no idea why. It’s almost as though if I slow down, I’ll waste away to nothing. So I just keep piling it on. I may just explode one day. Though I should probably implode – less messy. And the last thing I need is more housework on top of everything else.
I’ve spent much of today attempting to find some sort of balance. In times of stress and knowing that I have an overwhelming amount of work ahead, I fall back heavily on Taoist philosophy. There is a certain logic in it, much like Newton’s theory that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In Taoist belief there is no such thing as absolute – even though balance may fall to one side or the other, neither fully black (or yin) nor fully white (or yang) exist. This is of course a very simplified explanation. One would have to study the Tao Te Ching to come close to understanding it all, and even then…
But this isn’t meant to be a philosophy lesson. It’s about having too much of one thing and not enough of another. In my case it’s too much thought–or forethought–and not enough action. The solution is to do things. Today, while I await the start of my week and all the tasks that I can’t complete or even start until the time is right, I needed to keep myself busy and I did, to an extent.
Next week, when I’m busy as all hell, I’ll be looking for ways to sit and gather my thoughts so that I can organize my time so that I can get as much done in the small space I have as possible. In between, I hope to be able to blog. That is my reward. I go crazy when I’m not able to create. I feel useless; unproductive. Even if I’m getting lots done.
Balance is something I strive for all the time. Most of the time I’m unbalanced anyway. Please wish me luck for the next week.
lindaghill.com 