Month: November 2020

“I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.”
—Erica Jong

I’ve decided that writing and publishing is a necessity but also have figured out that it can very easily break my soul. The journey to self publishing can be a painful one. Building my own publishing business while also working full time is also painful. But the though keeps coming to my mind, what doesn’t break me, makes me stronger.

I have had a rocky thanksgiving so far. This is the anniversary of my brother’s death, so I never am fond of Thanksgiving. It drums up bad memories every year. I prefer not to be with friends and family because I have a black cloud following me about.

So I had big plans to do final edits on my book 3 in the Aspen Ridge Holiday Hearts series. And wow! Did I mess it up. First, Mr Anderson and I decided to refinance our house for a better interest rate. As there are no comps similiar to our house in the area we live, we have the pleasure of paying for a house assessment, and the mortgage asked us to have no clutter or messes anywhere. So we have frantically been packing up stuff, donating and making many loads to the dump.

Then I didn’t pay attention to my deadline to have my book Romantic Heart published with Amazon by December 1st. So of course, I missed it. Its all on me. But then I did a stupid thing by unpublishing the book that was available for pre-order. Which of course stopped all those orders and removed the book from being searchable.

Then to add insult to injury, I was uploading my manuscript and it kept coming up with errors. Because I didn’t pay attention to the notice that I needed to update my software. Gah! I am completely responsible for all this, but it amazes me how quickly things go bad.

My conversation with Cooper the dog this morning was all about this was a learning process and rome wasn’t built in a day. But geesh! I hate when I do stupid stuff! But I own it. I can only do better next time.

So on exciting news, I hold in my hand, the first two books in paperback form! I can’t wait to get book three – when all the issues are resolved – so I can send a copy of all of them to the Library of Congress. Last year at this time I couldn’t even fathom being a published author. This year, I have three books published and two in the works, all while working full time.

Coming from a small town, I understand how much duty and honor mean. Mr Anderson is a Navy Veteran, and served during Desert Storm. I remember Desert Storm vividly because I would stay up late at night watching the news on Public Television (we only got two channels on antenna) and I remember being scared for our future as a country. If I was that scared, I can’t imagine what it was like for anyone in battle For that, I thank them.

The only other time I remember as vividly is 9/11. At that time I was working in Downtown Portland and they put a TV in our conference room so we could wander in and out to capture the latest information. I felt so lost. Our world as we knew it changed so much.

Yesterday, I loaded up my second book, Beautiful Heart: Aspen Ridge Holiday Hearts (Book 2). It felt so good, but I was almost late in loading it. I had less than 23 hours to get it into Amazon before the Go Live Date of 11/15/20, I hope if you are reading this blog you will check it out. I will say, I loved how easy it was to write the store of Carrie Ann and Erik. Their relationship was amazing.

I am completing final edits on Romantic Heart: Aspen Ridge Holiday Hearts (Book 3). And while doing this, I realized I’m going to have to write a couple more books in this series. I love the idea of love at first sight.

Growing up in my small town, there was a couple there that were quite old. As I grew up I learned that the couple had met when she was a nurse for the Army and he was on leave for a week. They met and married and were till together after all those years. It started my obsession with finding out how people met. Which is why I started the Podcast: The Stories Women Tell.