Writing this post on Monday morning and back dating it to 11:30pm last night because my relaxing Mother's Day meant not opening the computer at all.
We had a busy week here last week. I spent the early part of the week working hard on revisions to my contemporary romance so I could get it out to my editor and beta readers. I plugged away and wrote a lot of words and got thing done and out by Wednesday afternoon. Phew! Then Thursday I spent working on the proofreading updates and paperback of RECLAIMED. Once I got that taken care of, I sent the files to Createspace then ordered a proof. I should have that by Wednesday.
I also worked on the cover for the new contemporary romance and tweaked the cover for FACE TIME because both of these books will be under the same series umbrella now. In June, I'll be pulling the paperback of FACE TIME offline and won't be offering it again, and I also won't be offering paperbacks of my new contemporary romance. No one buys them and it's a waste of time and effort for me. My scifi romances will still get paperbacks though.
What else did we do?
We went to the park and I read, back in my favorite spot.
I celebrated finishing another book!
Me and the youngest went to IKEA and had a blast. I love that place.
I got my first ever piece of fan mail. Yes, first ever, after being publishing for 20 months. I honestly didn't think it was going to happen. All of my author colleagues get fan mail all the time, or get invited to book clubs, or whatever. That never happens to me. I was afraid I would get hate mail before I ever got fan mail. Let me tell you how much that piece of fan mail meant to me. A WHOLE LOT. I heard from someone halfway around the world that she loved my books and she read them when was feeling low, and they made her feel better. That right there is worth more than all the money I could ever make at this job. I know I don't have a lot of fans because I write books way outside the norm, and I feel that way deep in my bones. I was beginning to doubt I reached anyone with my books because reviews, comments, mail, or any kind of interaction is so low, and I put myself WAY out there. I'm available and reachable at all times.
So this piece of fan mail reaffirmed that I should keep going because I have honestly thought of quitting several times in the past two months. But no. I promised myself I would keep at this for 20 years. Yep, 20 years. It was nice to get a little validation in Year 2 of my journey. I needed that.
I don't know that I'll be updating the blog that much this week, except for Teaser Tuesday, of course. I'm going to play it by ear. I need to write down some post ideas and build up some stamina for plenty more posts to come.
