Falling Behind and Springing Forward

I keep reading all these posts about how important it is for a self-published author to grow their mailing lists. I'm sure the authors of these posts are probably right, but how does an author who is strapped for time keep up with writing a newsletter once a month when they do good to post on Facebook occasionally. 

I have a newsletter that I have been sending out periodically to the 30 people on my mailing list, but I also have this blog and a website that I try to keep up with. For those of you who have been following me for awhile, you know that my partner and I have been raising three of my grandchildren on top of working. My partner retired which helped a lot with the grandchildren, but the loss of her income put us in a tight spot financially.

On top of working a full-time job and writing when I can, I've taken up delivery for DoorDash part-time for extra money. Trying to spread myself into so many places has worn me pretty thin. Now, just because I didn't have enough going on, I'm going to have to have surgery in a few weeks. 

The surgery is to remove a lesion I have on my head. When this was first discovered on an ultrasound the word "metastatic" was added to lesion and it floored me. Metastatic lesions are usually something that come about when you've got cancer in other places in your body. The surgeon who is going to take out the lesion said he didn't think it was metastatic, so I'm praying he's right. 

The result of this new health issue has made me take a good look at what I'm doing with my life and what I want to be doing. Now, if I could have my choice, I'd be making enough money writing so that I wouldn't have to do anything else, but that hasn't happened. If I had a second choice, my partner, Rosa, and I would be travelling and getting by any way we could. That hasn't happened either. The result of this introspection is that I need to decide where I really want to spend my time, and where I have to spend my time. 

My day job as a librarian provides an okay income, but more importantly it provides insurance. My writing provides me with joy and some extra income, but not enough to quit my day. I've decided that if I want write for joy, I'm going to have to let go of something else. So, I've decided to give up trying to write a newsletter. Most of the information I put in the newsletter I put in this blog and on my Facebook page, so it's kind of redundant. Plus, the fact that I only have 30 newsletter readers is more than a bit depressing. On top of that, I spend the time I used to spend trying to think about something to write in my newsletter to write on my books. 

There's really not a lot of exciting things going on in my life to add to a newsletter, and I can always post giveaways of my books on this blog or Facebook. 

I do have a few exciting things going on though. My oldest grandson, Jacob, passed his ASVAB and will be going into the National Guard after he graduates from high school this May. Jacob is the first person in our family to graduate from high school in a very long time so we're all very excited about it. 

I am also working on having my very first published book, Suddenly, edited again and I'm considering a new cover for it. I'm also working on the continuing story of Jamie and P. J. from Suddenly on Kindle Vella. It's also available as College Hill on Inkitt. That's been going pretty slow. So many people have wanted me to write a sequel to that book, but it has not come easy. Hopefully, it will start to really flow soon and I'll get more episodes up. 

Learning to Love Again is still doing really well in sales on Amazon. It's getting a lot of Kindle Unlimited reads and a lot of good ratings. I'm working on more story ideas, but with the impending surgery coming up, I've been a little distracted. 

I hope that 2022 has started out well for all of you. The Spring Equinox will be upon us soon and I am looking forward to seeing more flowers and trees blooming. 

If you're a praying person, please say a prayer that my surgery goes well. If you don't pray, a few good thoughts will be appreciated too. This world is crazy so stay safe.