Tis a very hot and humid second day of the last half of the year here today. Hoping you are in cooler less sweltering climes. We're half watching Hurricane Beryl because, well, it's hurricane season and it's a hurricane and those things rarely do as they're supposed to do. Living almost dead center of the American Gulf Coast is like wearing a bullseye. If they come north, no matter which side they go we're going to get sideswiped, and if they come straight up... well, been there, done that, too many times. So we watch. I need to check the lanterns and the batteries and buy more charcoal, start filling bottles and jugs with water to freeze. That's about all we can do right now. We've got everything else. There's no place to go to and we're about fifty miles due north of the gulf, so it will be the wind that we have to worry about. DURING!
It's the after part of a hurricane that's the problem. And not even the clean up. It's the living in one hundred degree heat and humidity with no power that's the problem.
Anyway, that's not what I came here to talk about today. But I always seem to start every post with a weather update.
I know. You don't care. I hate small talk but I do it anyway, because... reasons... I don't know what those reasons are, but I'm sure, they're good reasons.
Sooo, what's been going on with me lately? Not a whole lot. I'm keeping busy. If chasing my tail is keeping busy. I haven't written anything in months. I haven't touched the sewing machine in months either. We've been cleaning out closets and going through stuff. I pulled a lot of stuff out of my ebay and poshmark stores and sent them to the thrift store. I'm working to get new stuff listed. It's not writing but it pays some of the bills. I'd love to make money off my writing, or even my crafts, but that is not happening so, this is what I'm focusing on.
I'm trying to actively divorce myself from book social media. Booktok just won't go away. I try to share the tiktoks of my writing friends when I see them, so I guess that's what keeps me in that algorithm. I'm tired of the drama. It's more than fatiguing. It's demoralizing. It's agonizing. It's... it makes me never want to read another book as long as I live, much less write one.
Ah, but this is a book blog so you hate books and people talking about books, but you keep blogging on your blog with books?
SIGHS!!!!!
I should just shut up and go away. I know. I keep saying I will. Yet, I keep coming back. I guess I hope that by keeping this site up and writing something every now and then, that it keeps me alive, as a has been writer, that is. I hope it finds someone, like me, who struggled with what they once had and coming to terms with the loss of it. And maybe if the AI bot written books every go away, then my books will still be there. Who knows. I don't.
I'm an introvert living the absolute panic inducing life of an extrovert and I don't know how to do that. I'm just trying to pay my bills and feed my family the only way I know how. And right now the two hundred bucks I make in book sales a month isn't cutting it. Sooo... what else is there to talk about here but the weather. I could give more writing advice. My career was one of bitter terror, and it's time to stop beating that dead horse. No one wants to hear it. I saw another author post the other day looking for a developmental editor for their publishing company. I could do that. I almost asked if I could be considered. But I remembered I'm a hardass and overly critical, so yeah, that's not what writers want. They want someone to tell them their book is perfect and there're aren't any problems and they're geniuses and... well, I don't want to be the one to dispel them of that notion because I will be the one that gets blamed... for being honest.
Finding out you're on the autism spectrum while dealing with a kid on the spectrum is never easy. You find out your bluntness, which is perfectly reasonable to you, is considered hurtful and critical by others. I mean, look, if you want to walk around with your fly open that's your business. If you like having your dress tucked into your pantyhose and nobody telling you, you do you boo. I've learned to keep my mouth shut about such things. If your story reads like an outline, then hey, you go right ahead and put that out there. Said the person who has published books that should have had one more round of proofreading but trusted people they paid to catch the issues.... anyway...
Yep, it's the second day of the start of the end of the year, and I will not publish a book again this year for the second year in a row. One day maybe. Not this one.
So, what updates do I have for this month, you may be wondering if you're still here? Well, I do have every book except Beyond Complicated available on every site D2D publishes to, except Barnes and Noble. Every book is up on Smashwords and all of those small European sites like Tolino, as well as Amazon, Apple, and Kobo. And every book including Beyond Complicated is available to read free with a Kobo Plus subscription.
Now, what's up with Beyond Complicated that it's not up on the smaller D2D sites?
Fuck if I know. I know that the epub file that I have is not passing their quality control. That's one of the reasons I never listed much straight to Smashwords, I never could get past the conversion problems. Yet I've never had a problem with anything on D2D. I've had BC listed on D2D before. This exact file. But now, there's a message with every publisher that the file is not up to their standards.
Sooo, I have to reformat the book and create a new epub file. And I don't have Word right now so I can't pull up the file to even try to reformat it. And since I should do a refresh on every file and change my contact information, and since it's been ten years since I updated BC... I'd like to go ahead and just do a complete overhaul with a new cover and everything. And that takes money that I don't have so, Beyond Complicated will not be available on Smashwords or the Tolinos. But is available on Amazon, Apple, and Kobo, and free to read in Kobo plus, so you know, it's still out there.
And, this will likely be one of my last posts talking about writing. If you want to hang around for some Amazon affiliate stuff or some crafting stuff, then maybe I'll see you around... otherwise, I'll keep you posted on summer.
Peace,
Mercy
No comments:
Post a Comment