Holiday Plans So Far: No More Books

.. at least, for the rest of the year. All 28 days of them.

Instead, I’m going to take it easy on the author front and kinda just write when I feel like it and publish when I feel like it.

Speaking of publishing, Naughty Pen just published her third story today. Didn’t break bestseller records, which is okay considering no one knows anything about her and I’ve yet to do some marketing. But with one more part to complete, it’s going to be a few more weeks before I do, so might as well wait till 2018 to get that ball rolling.

Unfortunately, I had to say no to a friend who wanted to know who the naughty pen name was so she could help. I hope she didn’t take offense even when she assured me that she’s a big girl and can handle the raunchy stuff in naughty pen’s stories. The answer was still no (and, guys, I hardly ever say no!).

Outside of four people who know naughty pen’s name because they’re the cover designers involved or marketing people I’ve touched bases with for future promos, I rather like—and need— the anonymity. I want to be able to write whatever I want again without the burden of ‘the’ author brand weighing over my shoulders.

On the other hand, I know that Naughty Pen would benefit from some publicity and my platform could totally help with that. But if it’s at the cost of being able to write the word f*k 38 times in a 38k-word novel without a care in the world, then I’ll make do without the publicity or the sales. Besides, it’s a completely different audience, one that Naughty Pen needs to find on her own even if she’s up against a powerful conglomerate of Kindle publishers with a gazillion pen names of their own.

Suffice it to say, I felt bad for not giving my friend the pen name but there has also been some shady stuff going on in the author world that’s made me regroup and rethink who my “friends” in the business are. It’s made that circle of friends smaller, way smaller than it was last year to the point of it only being one or two friends. In the end, you gotta take care of yourself and if it means pulling up the drawbridge and locking up the castle, then so be it.

Is it really important to spend more money on that new “course” that promises to get me to to the ten grand a month club or should I simply start applying the things I’d already paid to learn?

It’s also that time of year to look back at the year and take stock of things. What worked and what didn’t work? What am I spending too much time and money on with hardly any return? Is it really important to spend more money on that new “course” that promises to get me to to the ten-grand-a month-club or should I simply start applying the things I’d already paid to learn? Most of all, it’s time to take care of myself, too, something I haven’t been doing because a part of me wants so badly to be more “successful” than I was the day before, to sell more books than I sold yesterday that it made me realize that while it’s true that the target is always moving, my body and my mind can only do so much. Some time, I gotta stop and rest, refuel and do something that has nothing to do with books at all. I don’t know… knitting, spinning, drawing, or taking those weekly walks with friends again and see how they’re doing.

Funny how I stopped walking with my friends because I was determined to publish four books this year (or was it six?) only to freeze like a deer in headlights and only produce three books, and not all of them full novels at that, and not all books I’m especially proud of either because 90% of the time, I was operating under the constant state of Comparison-itis.

It’s pathetic. This year, I traded so much to get back so little.

So from now on, I’m taking it easy and taking care of myself and my family. For one thing, I’ve got my son’s wish list to go through. I was able to knock off one item the other day and I’ve got five more to go. He even added a P.S. for Santa…

“I’m counting on you. Don’t let me down.”

Cheeky kid. As if his mom isn’t stressed out enough already… 😂😂😂

Anyway, here’s a bit of phone app fun. The top left is the original Mona Lisa. The rest of the pictures would probably be her making herself fit in with the Tinder crowd. Ah, the pressure…