It’s the end of the month and time for my May progress report. After the mass murders at Rob Elementary School in Ulvade, Texas, it feels small and unimportant. Compared to the grief of so many, my report is small and unimportant. My heart breaks for those families forever changed. But a comparison like that is wrong, worse than comparing apples and walnuts. Eventually, those families will move forward the best that they can. In the meantime, it’s up to the rest of us to move forward. And for me, much of my report is about moving forward in May.
Intentions
Instead of goals or resolutions, I use intentions. You can miss a goal. You’ll forget or break your resolutions. But an intention is a focus. When life interrupts your plan, take care of that event or disturbance, intending to return to your primary plan. Every morning begins with a renewed intention.
Making
It was an incredibly busy month. The making portion of my writing business was not the focus. However, I made notes on two stories in development. You’ll see more from the world of the Fellowship Dystopia in the future.
Managing
Being a launch month, book production and marketing consumed me for most of the month. Happily, If I Should Die is now available everywhere they sell books online.
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by host Alex Greenwood on the Mysterious Goings On podcast again. Have you listened to it?
Marketing
My limited efforts in marketing on Amazon and on Facebook are encouraging. I marketed and sold books in person.
Home
My newsletter readers got a glimpse of the unwanted surprise I experienced the last of March and affected the entire month of April and into May. I started rearranging my office to make room for my new sit-stand desk. Surprise! I discovered an exterior wall covered in mold. That led to a rapid move of the “working parts” of my office into my living room. Everything else got packed up. (I had an incredible amount of books and stuff crammed into that space!)
Bids for mold remediation delayed book production activities. It was not the dangerous mold.
They removed the moldy walls and treated all studs. Then the drywall installers came. After all of that, I decided I wanted the floors re-varnished. Turns out that’s better/cheaper done for the entire house. I put that off until after the book launch.
Events
If you follow my tweets or Facebook posts, you know I attended ConQuesT, my local science fiction convention over this Memorial Day weekend. More low-key than usual, it was delightful to be at an in-person event. The volunteers of the con did a great job, especially considering that for the prior two years they’ve prepared and cancelled.
Going Forward
Moving forward, I have many plans for my writing. Writing the third book in the Fellowship Dystopia is a top priority. Growth of my readership through this blog, my newsletter, and my street team remains a priority.
Speaking of my newsletter, join the Reading Rebels to receive a free book and more up-to-date information and snippets from my works in progress.
Final Words
When the world feels unstable, frightening, and incredibly sad, moving forward is difficult. Be empathetic. Keep your head on your shoulders. Remember, tough times don’t last. Tough people do. Don’t let the crazies, the hateful, the tyrannical make you act like them. Rise above. Be strong. You can be the change you want to see. Be the light in these dark times.
It’s the end of March and Kansas weather is teasing us with a day of spring followed by several days of winter with a spring storm to top it off. This is my progress report for the month of March 2022. It was a speed up-slow down kind of month.
Making
I began the month with the copyedited manuscript for If I Should Die and scrambled to make corrections and rewrite passages that needed clarification. As soon as I finished, I sent the manuscript to my proofreader.
With the manuscript out the door again, I stumbled around as if I had nothing to do for a few days. Then I got my act together—sort of.
I’m in the beginning stages of creating some fiction content for my newsletter readers. (I know… What newsletter? It’s coming. Honest.)
I completed only ten out of fourteen blog posts this month.
This wasn’t a very creative month… at least not in producing fiction you’ll see. You’ll never see all the background and behind-the-scenes work went on and is difficult to quantify. It’s all part of my process and it doesn’t feel very forward-moving.
I spent about thirty-seven percent of my work time on Making.
Managing
Learning more about managing this business was a big part of this month’s activities. I won’t bore you with the details.
I tweaked my website to get all the features looking and working in a pleasant and useful way. And I’ve been fine-tuning the integration of my new email service. That should be finished in a week or two.
I also spent a fair amount of time physically moving things around. Funny how small a house can feel when you put boxes of books on the floor in every room! SIGH. It will be worth it. The challenge has been to find places to put things and to put things where I can find them so I can continue to work. It will be another month before the office will show much improvement.
The new lights I had my son install in the office were way-way too bright to work on the computer. My son moved that overhead light to my kitchen and installed a new, much dimmer overhead light in the office. Thank you, son!
I spent sixteen percent of my time on Managing.
Marketing
Marketing took a huge chunk (forty-seven percent) of my time this month. Rather, learning and adjusting marketing strategies and tactics took most of the time. Yeah, no boring details here either.
If you are interested, I can recommend Mal Cooper’s Facebook Ads class based on my experience in her free class. Also, based on the few classes I’ve completed, I can recommend Mark Dawson’s Ads for Authors class. Both of these are not currently open for new students, but watch their sites or subscribe to their newsletters for the next open enrollment dates.
Home
Housework is never done, especially when there are boxes everywhere. But having lights in the kitchen again is a blessing. Added to that blessing, I got to babysit my youngest grandson while his father installed the lights.
What I Learned
Oh, my gosh. I have enough pages of notes that I could write a book! There were several times during this speed up-slow down month of learning that I thought my head would explode.
On a personal level, I’m working hard to be a healthier me. I’ve never been a physically active person, but over the past few years, I’ve become too sedentary. And I’ve paid a price in flexibility and comfort. It has taken some work to get the kinks out, but I am seeing results and those are keeping me motivated to learn how to make exercise a habit.
Going Forward
It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
Confucius
I will spend most of April finalizing the manuscript and producing the ebooks and print books for If I Should Die. Advance Readers will get your copies mid-to-late April. If you’d like to be an Advance Reader, please sign up.
The preorder will go up on May 1. the release date will depend on the response time of the copyright office. It’s likely to be in late May.
March was a speed up-slow down kind of month because I’m betwixt and between. It’s frustrating. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not in a race and that things are moving forward despite the fact that the movement feels slow and isn’t easily measured.
It’s the end of February 2022 and a new season is coming. I’m referring to more than the annual change of seasons. It’s a new season personally and a new season world-wide. First, a reminder for those who are new to my progress reports.
Intentions
Instead of goals or resolutions, I use intentions. You can miss a goal. You probably break most resolutions. But an intention is a focus. When life gets in the way of your plan, take care of that event or disturbance intending to return to your primary plan. Every morning begins with a renewed intention. For more information about intentions read “The Indie Author’s Three Hats.”
Making
The making area was pretty neglected this month. I spent less than a third of my work time working on stories or blog posts. Instead of starting the outline for the next book in the series, I took a much needed break. But never fear, I also jotted down the many ideas that I will use in And When I Wake.
I published all but one planned blog post this month.
At the end of this month, I received my editor’s notes on If I Should Die. Commas and hyphens are my downfall, but she loved the book. YAY!
Managing
At sixty-eight percent of my total work time, managing the office and education took a big chunk of February. I’m tweaking the website, making it function better. I finally found some the hidden buttons in the theme. (Really? Was it too hard to clarify where to change the color of titles? SIGH.)
I’m continuing to clean out my office in preparation for remodeling my work space. I’ve got one more piece of furniture to arrive then I’ll have all the parts I need.
Learning on multiple fronts is blowing my mind. I’m learning to use Mailerlite, about marketing on various online sites, and I’m learning about author branding. Yup. Brain overload warnings are flashing!
I had a huge SNAFU with my online payment for this year’s 20 Books Vegas conference that took several weeks to iron out. Thank goodness, it has been resolved.
Another SNAFU involved software I purchased to download on my computer. The vender told me I had already downloaded it when I had not. It took multiple emails and phone calls to the store and the vender, but that too has finally been solved.
Marketing
I placed learning about my business belonged in the larger bucket of Managing. So I spent less than five percent of my time on activities in the marketing “bucket” during February.
Home
Right now, home looks like someone doesn’t know if she is moving in or moving out. There are boxes of books and electronic equipment in every room. Multiple boxes clog some rooms.
Don’t ask me where a specific book is. I might get the room right, but it’ll take a day or two to find the box that holds that one book.
Of course in the middle of all of this, my overhead light (the only light) in the kitchen go dark. I ordered and then changed the light bulbs. No joy. The light itself has failed. It’s old. It was bound to happen sooner or later. I would have preferred later, but that’s life. A new light was ordered and has arrived. Now I must wait for my son to have a day off so he can install the new lights. (There will be more than one in there soon!) In the meantime, thanks to a friend’s suggestion, I placed a temporary lamp in the kitchen so I can see to cook dinners.
Events
My biggest personal event in February was the first anniversary of my dear husband’s death. I knew that would be hard. Planned for it to be hard. And it was. But I was able to go out to one of his favorite restaurants with the rest of the family. We had a delicious meal and remembered him with love.
If you follow me on Facebook, you know that Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine was upsetting. Miblart, the company that I hired to do the latest covers for the Fellowship Dystopia series, is based in Ukraine. I’ve grown fond of several people there while working together on those covers. I am worried for their safety. Please send good energy, donate if you can, pray for peace and their safety in whatever language or religion that means something to you. Thank you.
Going Forward
The big item for March is the next to last edit of If I Should Die. Once that’s finished, the book will go to my advanced reading team and to my proofreader.
I’ll continue my efforts to understand how to serve my readers better. My marketing education is a long range effort so that will be ongoing for the rest of the year.
After all the books and bookcases are removed from my office, I have a wall to repair. It will take another couple of months before the remodel of my office is finished.
What I Learned in February
In addition to the stuff I’ve learned about branding and advertising, I’ve learned more about personal loss than I ever wanted to know. As a nurse, I’ve stood beside the dying and their loved ones as an involved and empathetic caregiver. I knew their experience of their loved one’s death was many degrees different than mine. In this past year I’ve learned in a personal way that education, empathy, and sympathy are not the same as experience.
Otherness
I thought I understood the experience of being “other.” I have learned that my otherness came from the inside which is bad enough, but it’s not the same.
There have been a few times in my life when I knew that my very pale skin color made me “other,” where people around me saw me, defined me, as “different.” This only happened because I traveled away from my home.
I have been afraid for my life before when I strayed into a place of danger. I have never lived in a place of constant danger.
As a woman, I have chosen my clothing with care for fear that my looks might invite unwanted and violent attention. It’s close, but it’s not the same as not being able to put the hood of your hoodie over your head for fear of being killed for “looking suspicious.”
There is a huge difference between my life and my Hispanic daughter-in-law’s life, the lives of my grandchildren, and many, many others whose skin color isn’t white-enough. Huge.
My empathy and support are tiny in the face of the discrimination people of color face, but I am here. I will do what I can.
Fear
I have felt a tiny, tiny piece of the fear of invasion of my homeland. I lived too far from New York City and the Pentagon to feel the fear on a more personal level. I watched in fear. I worried about friends and family in the area. But it’s not the same as watching invaders drive their tanks down your street, or bomb your neighbor’s homeor bomb your own home.
I don’t say these things lightly. From the loss of my husband, to my fear of wearing the wrong clothes, to my fear for my country…all of those were and remain significant in my life. Neither your nor my losses and fears are lesser than the fear or loss anyone else has experienced. And yet…
Lost
Some of us are lost. Some of us are floundering. Some of us have closed our eyes, our ears, and our hearts to the suffering of others. They deny that such suffering exists. Sometimes they deny “others” capable of feeling. Often, the deniers have the loudest voices. And that can be scary to the ones with softer voices and hearts.
If we cannot learn from those fears and losses, if we cannot empathize with fear and losses across the street or across the globe despite our differences, then we—the human race—are lost.
Am I saying we humans are lost? No. As long as some of us fight the deniers, we are not lost.
Determination
It takes a special kind of courage to keep our eyes, our ears, and our hearts open. Fortunately, there are a lot of you out there who have done that. You are making a difference because of your determination and strength and courage. Some make a difference with a whisper. Some make a difference with a shout.
Strength
While our eyes are on the Ukraine right now, and their crisis seems the most threatening right now (at least to many), theirs is not the only crisis in your neighborhood, your city, your state or region, or your nation. Theirs is not the only crisis in the nation next door or across world. No matter which crisis you face or choose to address, no matter how loud or how quiet, know that you make a difference.
Courage
It takes courage and determination and strength to keep going in the face of fear, in the face of loss. Thank you and God bless those of you who keep going with your eyes, ears, and hearts open and ready to lend a healing word or thought or a helping hand. And God bless the brave, the fearful, the loud, and the quiet voices of support and resistance in the Ukraine and across the world.
The Lesson
I have felt small, insignificant in the face of discrimination and the suffering of others, especially in the light of the war waged on Ukranians.
What lesson have I learned? I’ve received flowers, and words of comfort, and a warm touch (actual and virtual). I know that the smallest flower, the softest word of comfort, and the smallest hand offered in a time of need, does help.
I have learned that a story read by the right person at the right time can do more than thousands of angry voices and raised fists. Sometime that one person will become a hero to one or many.
I’ve learned that though I can do little, the little I can do will help someone. If each of us do the same, if each of us helps one person, it will make a world of difference.
A New Season is Coming
Looking forward may be difficult, but a new season is coming (Spring for the northern hemisphere, Fall for those in the south) and will come no matter how the crisis in the Ukraine works out.
I am moving into a new season in my career and my personal life. It’s an unsettling time, but change always is. In the meantime, I hope to spread make a difference, one small flower, one soft word, and one warm touch at a time.
Keeping track of my progress, reporting my progress to you every month is an important part of my process. The year, 2022, is galloping away from the starting line. It’s the end of January and this is my progress report. After a very long and difficult 2021, I’m happy that there is actual progress in this progress report.
Intentions
Instead of goals or resolutions, I use intentions. You can miss a goal. You probably break most resolutions. But an intention is a focus. When life gets in the way of your plan, take care of that event or disturbance, intending to return to your primary plan. Every morning begins with a renewed intention.
In order to track activities accurately, I divide my intentions into four large “buckets:” Making, managing, marketing, and home.
Making
Making is the process where words get on paper or the digital facsimile. I spent 68% of my work time on making. That’s not quite back where I’d like it to be, but it’s much closer than it’s been. Happily, I put more words on paper this month than any of the previous 15 months.
My intention was to be done with this beta-reader driven revision of IfI Should Die by today. I came very close. Two or three days of double-checking punctuation and spelling, and If I Should Die will fly to my editor.
This bucket is huge in scope. It covers anything that is not creating words (blog posts, stories, or newsletters) or marketing. There are two big news items in the managing area this month.
First is that I finished the first stage of redesigning my website. It takes a lot of time to design and implement that design. Though most of the redesign time happened in December, I spent many hours on it this month as well. There’s still much to be done, but I can do it in smaller bites.
The second big news item is the new covers for the books in the Fellowship Dystopia series. Haven’t seen them? You can see them on my home page or on their individual pages. And of course, changing out the covers isn’t complete either. Having new book covers means new bookmarks and webpages and loading the new covers on all the bookseller sites and social media sites. Of course, I’m not quite finished with this either.
Marketing
Out of necessity, marketing got the short end this month. However, that will change over the coming months.
Home
I’m in the middle of way too many projects around the house. A little progress here and there means the upheaval can be ugly to look at and difficult to live with. Remind me, please, that the tortoise won the race.
New and Renewed Intentions
February will be a busy month. When I receive my manuscript back from my editor, I will turn my focus back on If I Should Die. Once I’ve incorporated recommended changes, I’ll set up a preorder, send the manuscript off the proofreader, and send the ARC to my team of advanced readers.
In between editors, I’ll start work on the third book in the series.
Redesigning is in my blood these days. In my *spare* February moments, I will remove everything in my office, install new shelves, tops, equipment, and a new sit-stand desk. I’ll be taking pictures and sharing them with my newsletter subscribers. Yes, newsletter subscribers, you will get a newsletter soon.
I’m taking a marketing course for authors, an area where I need lots of help.
There’s cleaning and rearranging planned for the “Home” bucket, too.
What I Learned
My focus for January was to finishing the book, so I only attended three short webinars this month.
Two webinars I attended taught new ways to use some specific web tools. The third one was on using touch in my writing. Not only did I learn new ways to write, I enjoyed learning from one of my favorite teachers, Margie Lawson.
My biggest lesson over the past year hits home again as I mark the first anniversary of my husband’s death.
If you’ve loved someone deeply, you will grieve deeply after that person is gone. But gone isn’t forgotten and love is not fragile. Love’s embrace may change, but it endures—always.
What do you think of my actual progress in this Progress Report? Did you make actual progress this month or are the pandemic or other stressors weighing you down?
Typically, my year-end progress report would have come last week, but I was still rebuilding my website. (If you haven’t seen it, take a look.) I had intentions for 2021. Nothing could have prepared me for what would happen. But in reviewing the year, I’m heartbroken at what 2021 took from me and grateful for the good things 2021 brought.
Intentions
Instead of goals or resolutions, I use intentions. You can miss a goal. You probably break most resolutions. But an intention is a focus. When life gets in the way of your plan, take care of that event or disturbance, intending to return to your primary plan. Every morning begins with a renewed intention.
Making
My intentions were that If I Should Die would have been celebrating its first publication date birthday. February changed everything.
During the following 90 days, I did whatever I felt like doing. If I didn’t feel like doing anything, I didn’t. At the beginning of May, I returned to my writing desk. My focus wasn’t back to normal. But I plugged away at the keyboard.
Mid-May I woke with my second bout of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. The first episode had been ten years earlier. I had forgotten it was possible that it would recur, so it took a few days before I figured out why I was so dizzy I didn’t dare move. That kept me from the keyboard until I figured out I could dictate to the computer without looking at it.
It took 90 days of therapy to get to where I could drive the car again. It took longer to get to where dizziness didn’t interfere with what I was doing.
In September I could finally endure longer days at the computer. I completed the first revision of If I Should Die the Saturday before Thanksgiving and sent it out to my beta readers.
I posted 75% of the posts I’d intended.
One of the wonderful surprises 2021 sprung on me was an invitation to take part in the Writers In the Storm blog. (I accepted, of course.)
Managing
Ongoing computer issues got worse, or maybe less tolerable, over the first half of the year. I tried several fixes and finally resorted to making a backup of everything, then wiping the computer’s memory and reloading everything. That seems to have worked brilliantly.
Redesigning my website became a necessity when the makers of my previous theme dropped it from being a supported theme. It took a little longer to get it functional with the new theme and there are things I want to fix or add in the future, but I am happy so far. Take a look.
Sadly, I only read five books in 2021. The focus and connection and joy had disappeared.
In happier news, I won a partial scholarship to the 20Books Vegas Conference in November. It took some scrambling to afford to go, but it worked out. I connected online with the kind and supportive J Lynn Hicks, author of YA dystopian novels, and we agreed to be roommates.
Before I went to the conference, I decided to focus on learning more about marketing there. Even if I attended them back-to-back, there were more panels about marketing than I could attend. I reveal a little of what I learned at the conference below.
Marketing
With everything else going on, I had little motivation or energy for creating new ads. I focused instead on the ads I had. I studied them one-by-one, removed keywords that weren’t working. It didn’t take long for me to see better results from the ads. Sales trickled in.
Thanks to COVID, there was only one in-person book sale I could have attended. But I did not take part in the book sale day at 20Books Vegas.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered my sales increased over two hundred percent from the previous year.
Home
I am deeply grateful for dear friends who have reached out in very supportive ways this entire year. You know who you are. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Life after a spouse’s death is full of decisions and changes. Don’t worry, I’m not making big changes like selling the house or anything. Instead, I’m deciding what possessions that were my husbands do I keep, sell, or donate. I don’t need to bore you with the all the details. But there are a couple I will share.
I’ve decided to make my work environment healthier and more efficient. Yes, as if I don’t have enough other things to do. My office is a spare bedroom. It is a disorganized mess. This project will take months to complete. My newsletter readers, Burrows Bookwyrms, will get to see some of what the process looks like.
Like many middle-class couples, we had my car and his car (an eight passenger van really). After my husband became wheelchair bound, I bought a wheelchair van. Selling his old van would have distressed him. So, we had three vehicles. Before COVID, I used my car for quick errands. After COVID, I think I used the wheelchair van twice. So in September and October, I sold the old his and her vehicles and traded in the wheelchair van for a new car.
Events
Of course, the biggest event for 2021 was my husband’s death.
Plumbing issues, washer and dryer issues, reseeding the lawn, and the gas company’s decision to dig up my new grass to replace the gas meter filled much of my summer.
My trip to Las Vegas for the 20Books Vegas conference was my first trip anywhere in way too many years. There were uncomfortable moments during which I’d retreat to my room, but there were also many amazing moments of learning and connection.
Plans don’t always proceed the way we had intended. So it was with my trip to Memphis to meet my brother and his family. They had a last-minute event arise and could not meet me. They had paid for the VRBO house, so I packed up my dogs and went, anyway. The ten-hour drive there and back weren’t terribly relaxing, but the days I spent in Memphis were wonderfully restful.
What I Learned
The top ten most popular posts on my blog during 2021 are:
My 2021 focus word was productivity. Yeah. Didn’t happen.
Turns out I had two focus words. One was learning. I learned far too much about writing and publishing to share here. I’ll limit myself to share only a few nuggets.
Did you know? Vertigo can stubborn and not respond to therapy. Also, it can be caused by shifting crystals in both ears, but the therapist can only treat one ear at a time. That’s one of the things I learned last year.
Give Yourself Permission Not to Do It All.
Marie Forleo
Permission was my second focus word. I learned I cannot do it all, especially while grieving, but even when all things are good. Most importantly, I learned to give myself permission to focus on my health and happiness. It’s not that I didn’t care about myself before. I did many things to care for myself through the years. But as the months marched onward, I thought I didn’t have time. Many times I didn’t. But that changed. Going to Vegas, listening to all the authors and presenters, finally made me understand I needed to give myself permission to do that.
I didn’t need permission to do what I loved. I still loved writing. It was a place of refuge, a place recharging, a place where the me I like flourished. I will never need permission to write. But focusing on myself, allowing myself to push past previous self-imposed limits—both personally and professionally—that was where I didn’t even see that I had set firm limits. Giving myself permission to go to a writer’s conference was the first step to identifying those subconscious limits I’d set. Attending the conference made me understand I need to give myself permission. Permission granted. Within reason. *smile*
Going Forward
I’m focusing on growth this year. Read my statement of what that means.
I will finish this second revision by the end of January and submit If I Should Die to my editor. After polishing the words, and proofreading, I will publish it this spring. I’ll have a date soon.
I will outline the third book in the Fellowship Dystopia series and begin drafting the rest of Miranda’s story.
Giving myself permission to focus on my business and myself is liberating. And I think it’s a lesson all of us need to remember. We can get so very obsessed with what’s going on, so busy taking care of details, that we forget to take care of ourselves. Especially when we’re in the second year of world-wide crisis (COVID, fires, earthquakes, severe weather events, etc.) I hope that this posts helps you to give yourself permission to let go of some of your stress in the coming year. Give yourself permission to feel joy or peace for however long you can. Give yourself permission to be kind to yourself and others. Feel the freedom and peace granting that kind of permission gives.
Did you enjoy this year-end progress report?
Is giving yourself permission an issue in your life?
