A Year of Sneaky Progress

2018 was a year of doing brave things, but sneaky. Like a ninja. At the beginning of the year, I challenged myself to be brave and confront the deep-seated fears I have been carrying around. So I published 3 books in 3 different series and one omnibus while I wasn’t paying attention (nobody else was, either, but hey–I’ve got all the time in the world to run promos).

I finally did some promo that didn’t feel like I was going to bring down the world if I didn’t have everything lined up perfectly. I crossed a Rubicon by letting go of perfection, especially over things I couldn’t control.

Remembering the Joy

2018 was also the year I got my groove back on the fun part of writing. If you’re in the indie publishing community for any time at all, you hear a LOT of people talking about how you have to treat the writing as a business (and to be fair, that ain’t wrong at all), but what they mean is that you have to treat the publishing part like a business. But you have got to leave that shit at the door when you go back into the writing cave, and I was dragging it in with me like a dead carcass that didn’t even have the good meat left on its bones. I spent some time writing for nothing but pure joy this past year and not only did it re-invigorate me, but it helped me identify some deeper themes in my writing and refined my process a little. Hopefully, that’ll show up in my future work.

Turtling Up

2018 was also the year I taught myself to “turtle up” for real. I’m naturally an extrovert, but as any extrovert will tell you, the only way to be extroverted in a healthy manner is to know when you have to step away and let your introverted flipside take the wheel to help you refine all that social energy that comes from being a natural people-person. Turtling up doesn’t mean “lurk on social media” – it means really stepping away from social interaction (even passive social interaction) and letting your brain turn off the social awareness for a time. The end result allowed me to become more discerning about my social interactions and more aware of the level of “noise” I was creating with less-than-meaningful interactions. Not to say that I don’t get on SM and joke around–I do–but I pick my battles (and my parties, don’t get me wrong) better.

2019 Moving Forward

I’m continuing to shed unnecessary carcasses, cleaning out my cave, and forcing myself outside my comfort zones. Expect to see different things from me this year. I’m still writing the same Athena Grayson stories with emotionally-cognizant men and quick-thinking, dynamic women dashing through deeply-developed worlds that feel like a real place you’d want to visit, and quirky, sometimes magical. elements that would make your stay an adventure.

I hope you stick around.