HI, everyone!
My holidays were super busy, but good! I hope you all had some nice events to attend and sweet surprises.
My holidays aren't over until my birthday next week. In a two week period, we roll through Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve (our anniversary) New Year's Day and my birthday!
This year I have a couple of milestones. First, this will be Mr. Amazing's and my 25th anniversary! I feel so blessed to be married to the wonderful person I call my soulmate. I was a week away from turning 40 when we got married. Now--for those of you who aren't math majors, that makes me 65 on this birthday! Oh. My. Goodness! I'm a senior citizen. I just received my medicare card and everything! How did this happen? I guess I just hung around for a long time. LOL
As someone who's seen it all (well, a lot) you probably figure I have loads of wisdom. Ha! Not really. I'm still learning all the time. So, what has 2018 taught me? Well, first that I should not have ignored the good advice of my 2017 self and her resolutions! I had one resolution. To spend less.
Like a lot of authors these days, I've fallen prey to an expensive gimmick or two. It seems like every day there are offers practically guaranteeing to make me a better writer, super duper seller, smarter, braver, prettier, blah, blah, blah...
F.T.S. I am who I am. That's the most freeing knowledge I have. Sure, there are a lot of authors who have used a gimmick and wound up ridiculously rich. But that's not me. I spent $400 to be in a box set with ten authors, selling our product for $0.99. Believe it or not, people sometimes make money and hit lists that way! Not me. I received my one and only royalty check for $38. Yup. I promoted my a$$ off, and even bought and mailed promo items costing me another $200.
Do I feel duped? Angry? Sad? Not really. I just feel old enough to know better. If it seems too good to be true... Earlier I got involved in a newsletter building contest. I understood it skyrocketed other authors lists by thousands. My list went up for sure, a few hundred names and I was over the limit for a free list and now I'm paying $50 per month to the newsletter gods. When people received my first newsletter, they started unsubscribing by the dozens. I'm still over the free limit, but almost back to where I started. Sigh.
What should my resolution be in 2019? I'm going to say it's not to make resolutions. I'd like to take a better look at me. What makes me unique. What would I like to work on? I've been racing through my stories to meet deadlines and forgetting about some of the rich moments I could have added. I'll have more time to write the stories I feel like writing on a schedule I choose soon. I look forward to that. I just hope I don't get caught up in the next gimmick, the next sure way to boost sales, the next way to part with the small amount of money I earn and give it to someone else. I need a reset button.
Because I need to tell people about my books, so they know they're available to buy, I'll utilize this space to do so. Especially since it costs me nothing! Zip! Nada! Woot woot! Without further ado, here's the monthly news of my book releases.
March 26th will see the release of book 3 in the Phoenix Brothers series. A Phoenix is Forever is Luca's Story. A rookie cop in a family of firefighters. Link to all preorder online stores
And at some point soon, I'll be releasing the long awaited sequel to Vampire Vintage. Tiger's Night Out. These will be part of the Be Careful What You Summon series, a trilogy. Here's the cover:
Here's to 2019!
Here's to putting out books I'm proud of and knowing readers will like them, because I like them! Here's to spending only the amount I'm comfortable spending and actually feeling like I've gotten my money's worth.
Here's to remembering the other things that are important. Relationships for one thing. 25 year marriages and even longer friendships.
Here's to you!
My holidays were super busy, but good! I hope you all had some nice events to attend and sweet surprises.
My holidays aren't over until my birthday next week. In a two week period, we roll through Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve (our anniversary) New Year's Day and my birthday!
This year I have a couple of milestones. First, this will be Mr. Amazing's and my 25th anniversary! I feel so blessed to be married to the wonderful person I call my soulmate. I was a week away from turning 40 when we got married. Now--for those of you who aren't math majors, that makes me 65 on this birthday! Oh. My. Goodness! I'm a senior citizen. I just received my medicare card and everything! How did this happen? I guess I just hung around for a long time. LOL
As someone who's seen it all (well, a lot) you probably figure I have loads of wisdom. Ha! Not really. I'm still learning all the time. So, what has 2018 taught me? Well, first that I should not have ignored the good advice of my 2017 self and her resolutions! I had one resolution. To spend less.
Like a lot of authors these days, I've fallen prey to an expensive gimmick or two. It seems like every day there are offers practically guaranteeing to make me a better writer, super duper seller, smarter, braver, prettier, blah, blah, blah...
F.T.S. I am who I am. That's the most freeing knowledge I have. Sure, there are a lot of authors who have used a gimmick and wound up ridiculously rich. But that's not me. I spent $400 to be in a box set with ten authors, selling our product for $0.99. Believe it or not, people sometimes make money and hit lists that way! Not me. I received my one and only royalty check for $38. Yup. I promoted my a$$ off, and even bought and mailed promo items costing me another $200.
Do I feel duped? Angry? Sad? Not really. I just feel old enough to know better. If it seems too good to be true... Earlier I got involved in a newsletter building contest. I understood it skyrocketed other authors lists by thousands. My list went up for sure, a few hundred names and I was over the limit for a free list and now I'm paying $50 per month to the newsletter gods. When people received my first newsletter, they started unsubscribing by the dozens. I'm still over the free limit, but almost back to where I started. Sigh.
What should my resolution be in 2019? I'm going to say it's not to make resolutions. I'd like to take a better look at me. What makes me unique. What would I like to work on? I've been racing through my stories to meet deadlines and forgetting about some of the rich moments I could have added. I'll have more time to write the stories I feel like writing on a schedule I choose soon. I look forward to that. I just hope I don't get caught up in the next gimmick, the next sure way to boost sales, the next way to part with the small amount of money I earn and give it to someone else. I need a reset button.
Because I need to tell people about my books, so they know they're available to buy, I'll utilize this space to do so. Especially since it costs me nothing! Zip! Nada! Woot woot! Without further ado, here's the monthly news of my book releases.
March 26th will see the release of book 3 in the Phoenix Brothers series. A Phoenix is Forever is Luca's Story. A rookie cop in a family of firefighters. Link to all preorder online stores
And at some point soon, I'll be releasing the long awaited sequel to Vampire Vintage. Tiger's Night Out. These will be part of the Be Careful What You Summon series, a trilogy. Here's the cover:
Here's to 2019!
Here's to putting out books I'm proud of and knowing readers will like them, because I like them! Here's to spending only the amount I'm comfortable spending and actually feeling like I've gotten my money's worth.
Here's to remembering the other things that are important. Relationships for one thing. 25 year marriages and even longer friendships.
Here's to you!
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