book-review

Post Anxiety, Happy Place and Writing is Writing

/ ccsocialcreative
Photo credit: TaniaRose on Pixabay.

Hey all, welcome back and Happy New Month! Yes, I totally flaked out this week by not posting until today. That was of course, not the plan. I’ve been so proud of myself for keeping up with the whole ‘multiple posts a week’ thing. Creating content to bring folks here to my site and up until this week, it was going well. However, last week when I did my traditional Friday post, almost no one read it. My numbers dropped dramatically after going up over the last few weeks. To say I was discouraged would be an understatement.

I became obsessed with looking at the analytics across my social channels and here on WordPress. Then the internal questions started: Was it me? Was it the post itself? Was it the time I posted/reposted it? What was it from just days earlier when the numbers were up to just a few days later when my post seemed dead in the water? I got mad. I got angry. Not at my readers, far from that! I got mad at myself!

I used to do content creation for a company. I was so in tune with what times to post things and even had a chart on my desk for each platform. Instagram you post at this time, Facebook, this one, Twitter, etc. Blog posts went up at a certain time of the day as well and right now, I have NO clue when that is anymore! I thought I had a handle on it. It had seemed in the past that early Friday posts were the way to go and when I had tried to post later on in the day, I’d lose my audience. So I went back to an earlier  post time last Friday and lost a good lot of you. Again, this is on me. This is ALL on me. And to those who were here? THANK YOU!!! You made my weekend!

After last week’s numbers, I went back and forth on what to do, when and what to write next. Then the week hit and will just say…it has been a rough one. So every night when I’d sit with my keyboard in my lap, I’d come to write something new here.  Instead, end up adding another chapter of my new novel. I keep telling myself that is a good thing. I’m making progress on that story so why am I worried? I am also trying to remind myself that I am not HERE for the numbers. That my writing is my writing and I come here to be open, honest and that even if no one else reads along with me, that’s ok. Then I remind myself that I am kind of hoping this blog gets to the point where I can make some money off of it and I’m right back to where I started. I believe that the moment this begins to feel like work to me? That’s when I’ll have to step back and rethink things, but until then, let the rambling continue! Again, honesty.

Working on this site has become a lifeline of sorts to me. Not just, as I’ve included in several posts, that it holds me accountable on my writing journey, while a major help, that’s not all this is supposed to be. I wanted this place to become a sort of ‘destination’ blog where other writers (and readers of course) could come and see what I’ve been going through and think “oh good, it’s not just me!” We are in this crazy world together after all, we shouldn’t have to go it alone.

So now where does this leave me? I have no clue. I still love this site and of course will continue to write these rambling posts of mine. I just really need to start doing the research again, (and if you’ve been with me for a while, you know how much I can’t get enough of research! If you’re new here? I LOVE it!). I need to figure out how to reach more of you. I also need to calm my mind down a bit because it had been working overtime.

Enough of the numbers game, let’s get back to ‘writing is writing.’ When I opened my new Dashery shop (see link, right sidebar) I made sure to include in my social promotions that it is for writers (and readers) of all kinds and I sincerely mean that. I am a believer that whether you write books, speeches, news articles, blog content, hell even a tagline for a ketchup bottle…YOU ARE A WRITER! Are you writing? YES. Never forget that.

You are also a writer if, like me, you have a parallel story in your head going while you are doing anything else but typing. I was making my dinner tonight and the narrative of my next scene in Chapter 11 (yes, I hit double digits this week hooray) was playing out in my head. I knew where the conversation was going to go, how I was going to get the characters to their next destination, all of it. This story is so embedded in me right now, I feel that I am living it in an alternate universe. I was at one of my doctor’s offices yesterday trying so hard to focus on the questions he was asking me as this was a pretty important appointment. Yet in my mind, I kept picturing the scenery in the town my characters are living in. What was the weather like? Was it about to change? And ‘shit, I really need to change the name of that guy. It just doesn’t fit at all.’ I also consider this a kind of writing because after all, where does the story come from in the first place? Your mind! So keep having those thoughts, just maybe do better than me at the whole focus thing. And don’t do it while driving, that’s just asking for trouble. 

While all this has been going on this week, I’ve also been hiding out in books again. I was waiting for my rather huge haul of books that I ordered during the Amazon book sale, (I went overboard) and was still in the process of rereading a few of my favorites just for pure escapism. I’m a huge Emily Henry fan. I’ve mentioned this before and no one is paying me to say it. I just love her books. Three in particular, are my favorites. The first two, Beach Read and Book Lovers being about writers/editors/agents has helped me get to understand the processes of others a lot better. After all, who better to write about writing than a writer?! Being new at the whole business side of it, while these are considered romance books, do go pretty deep into how they work and I love them for it.

The third book Happy Place just makes me laugh and who the hell doesn’t need that right now? I don’t do reviews. I’m very well established in saying this. I can only recommend what I like and I like, no LOVE this book. I think because it has to do with a group of friends that is very much like my own and it brings me back to the best time in my life. This is one has nothing to do with writing, just about being around those who know you the best. Of course the scene where they all take pot gummies and then ride the Ferris wheel just makes it that just better. 

The book’s title is very much what I was thinking of when I was rereading it. It’s been a hell of a time in my personal life and having this type of book to escape to has helped a great deal. It lifted me up. It brought me joy and I don’t mean that in a cliche or corny kind of way. I think in rereading something you liked the first time, you see things in it you didn’t previously and that’s what happened while I read these three over again. I learned more. Not just about the whole writing process as in the other two, but about me as well. I very much saw myself in the characters and then took more notice of how they developed. It literally became my ‘happy place’ this week and I was really sorry that the book ended. Even as I was staring at this new mountain of books that arrived this week, I still kind of wanted to go back and have fun on that Ferris wheel all over again.

Books do that, don’t they? Give us that escape, that moment, that wonderment. The time to leave what is going on in our own lives to then live vicariously through the characters in front of us.

I started reading a new and much anticipated new release last night by a different author, but another I’ve become a big admirer of. I suddenly had another personal revelation. While I’m sure the rest of the world who reads has already come to this themselves, forgive me if I’m a slow learner here. Books have truly become my own personal happy place. I am grateful to all those who have created these characters that I just can’t get enough of. The ones who make me laugh, make me cry and in some cases, fall in love. I think my own story writing has become all the better for it, or at least I hope it has and I hope that one day my books will be found alongside these good folks.

The next question is, will it be under my own name or a pen name? But that is the subject for another post!

And it is there I will leave you for now. Thanks for being here, all of you and for making it this far in the post. I guess only writing one this week, I had a lot more to say than I thought I did. Hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time…Cheers!!!

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If you would like to get an update of when I post, please click the blue bar button up to the right in the sidebar to sign up with your email!

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To find me on social including my shops and more: linktr.ee/promosocially

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To get your own copy of Happy Place by Emily Henry: Click Here

(If she sees this apologies to Ms. Henry for not getting her new one as of yet. But I will!)

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To read Viola Shipman’s new release, The Page Turner: Click Here

(Please note: this is the book I just started but have been waiting months for. I have not finished it yet but so far enjoying.)

Interesting Inspiration, Writers on Writing, Because I Can

/ ccsocialcreative
Photo credit: steve_a_johnson on Pixabay.

Hey all, welcome back! Thanks for hanging with me again. So happy to say that I may be onto something with changing my post times as this past Monday’s post was my most read and liked since I started this site! Grateful for that and I will work harder to post more when folks are actually awake. 🙂

Let’s get to it…

This year I had a goal of doing my own “52 books in 52 weeks” challenge and have been on track for even more. I’ve hit a wall trying to tackle my ‘save for later’ list on Amazon though, as I have a couple of expensive months coming up and need to save money for life stuff. (Hey it happens.) So, I decided to reread a few books that I absolutely loved last year, because, why not?

While I have interest in several genres: mystery, crime, reading about cults because that is an obsession of mine…lately, when it comes to novels, I have a tendency to lean towards stories about writers or that take place in bookstores, (yes I’m that girl). Here’s the thing about books like this…while cleverly disguised as romcoms, a writer had to write these books, right? So when writing about writers, I’ve been finding more and more inside tips about their own processes and routines. Odd sources for inspiration? Maybe. But inspiration can come from anywhere. A song lyric. A flower. Hell, even a meme can suddenly hit a chord! It just takes an open mind to let it hit you.

Ok so hang in there with me, ok?

I’m currently rereading Beach Read by Emily Henry. I had just finished her new book and I wanted to keep the funny stuff going #becauselife and I remembered how much I had loved this book the first time around. While it has it’s extremely light moments, this one also goes a bit deeper with the characters’ background stories. Without going into too much detail, it is about two authors who write in different genres and are both having writer’s block. They make a bet: each will try writing a book in the others respective genres and whoever sells their book wins. They also teach each other what it takes to write the stories they do. (Yes there is more to this, the whole romcom thing, etc but this is the gist.)

What I am finding is that because this is about authors, I am paying more attention to their different work methods. How they work daily life into their writing schedules; how one paces while thinking and the other plays solitaire waiting for the words to hit. Even the acknowledgment of their daily word counts stand out to me. They explain the research involved for their stories making sure everything is accurate. The discussions between the two, working out the next move of the story or character and even making up stories about people they see on the street. This book, romcom stuff aside, is a writer’s book.

I’m not here to review it. That’s not what this is and I don’t do reviews. What I’m trying to get across here is that out of all the books sitting next to me, I chose to read this particular book again. While I’m personally at a stopping point in writing my own novel, (I wrote myself into trouble), I’m taking it as my own sign that I need to step back and regroup. And maybe learn from these fictional authors how to find where my own characters go next.

For you see, a writer writing about writers gets it!

There is a line in this book that stood out for me in a big way: “…that feeling, that feeling of falling head over heels in love with a story and its characters as they sprang out of me, was unlike anything else.”

That is the heart of a writer right there.

Sure you can write about anything…being on a pirate ship in the 1800’s and sailing around the world stealing and pillaging towns along the way. Research is of course key to this. But you weren’t there. The details of daily life on that ship for example are lost.

But writing about writers? You have your own inside track there! Some of your own habits will trickle in and that is what I love about books like these. I like to see if I’m the only one who does this or that. If I only write a certain amount in a day/or don’t write for a few days,  does that make me a failure at the thing I love to do most?

I mentioned word count above. This one baffled me. You see, I write the way I talk. Fast and with endless run-on sentences. Think Eminem or Gilmore Girls and you’ve got me. (And that is what editing is for. The writing, not my mouth which gets me into a lot of trouble.) When I read that someone only wrote 500 words that day, I’m baffled by that. When I sit down to write, I do one or two chapters and write thousands of words at a time. I can’t stop until a chapter is completed. I don’t know if others write like that, I’d like to think I’m not the only one, but writing such a small amount, again to me, is something foreign.

The only time I wrote a small amount was when I wrote a few 100 word stories and my biggest hurdle there was getting my ideas down to those 100 words. I wanted to see if I could do it and I was so happy when they were published. That made me realize that yes, I can slash my work to bits in editing and be ok with it. I also learned how to take criticism from an editor and not want to throw something. (I have a temper and don’t take criticism well at all. I am going to need to learn how to, in order to make it in this biz so this whole experiment were many lessons learned. Also, I don’t really throw things. But I want to.)

So now I’m looking at my book pile to see what other books I’ve read that maybe I should read again, not just for fun, but to see if there are any other insights I may have missed. Not just the fun fiction ones and not just novel writers either. I know of one off the top of my head I read a few years back about a content writer I had interactions with years ago and she penned an autobiography about her escape from her father’s cult and how she created her business and learned to write for business purposes on her own. We all have our own backstories and we all write in our own ways. Learning from each other is so vital and I will personally never stop wanting to read about and more importantly, write about it!

I’ll admit that at first, I was sad that I couldn’t tear through my save for later list. There are so many books out there I want to read and some of my current favorite authors have new books coming out as we speak. But I’ll tell you this, the ones I read over the last year or two? Those stories still play out in my head. They pop up at weird times. Maybe the smell of my nightly cup of tea will bring me back to a book I read last fall, or I remember a line from another while I’m doing the dishes, whatever. So going back and rereading these books? I now have no issues with it. In fact, I’m rather enjoying it!

I was never one for having to read a book. I’d never join a book club because I don’t want to be told what to read or frankly, dissect it afterwards. I want to read because I want to. I read for enjoyment and to escape life. Because it’s something that looks interesting to me and I’m one of those who believes that the right book comes to you at the right time. I’m now finding that rereading these books is happening the same way and how cool is that?

It’s my current way of adulting. I can have a Devil Dog for dinner. I can watch a movie that I’ve seen 20 times. I can read a book over and over again. Why? Because I can.

And that is where I leave you tonight! Thanks again for hanging with me, putting up with me and coming back!!

Until next time…

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I always save any affiliate or relevant links for after my posts so they are not intrusive. Here’s a few to check out and I thank you for the support:

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Beach Read by Emily Henry

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My 100 word stories can be found by hitting the ‘Past Works’ tab in the menu bar up above the post!

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Woman Rising: A True Story, Julia McCoy’s amazing book about her journey from escaping her father’s violent cult to creating multimillion dollar content companies is so inspiring on many levels.

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Like to document, review or just keep track of your current reads? I designed a blank Book Journal for Amazon. (More designs to come, but really happy with this one.) It has blank, lined pages to use as you’d like.

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My linktree for this site has links for my social pages as well as a new linktree shop of stuff I love to use. Always more to come, but I think it’s off to a great start and you can shop right from the linktree: Linktr.ee/promosocially

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If you’ve made it this far, thank you and will be seeing you soon! 🙂

Book Life and No Money

/ ccsocialcreative

I never thought I’d be ‘that person’. The one who can’t wait to get into my book time of the day. The one who has the story she’s reading (or even read months ago) still going through her head non-stop. And I sure as hell never thought I’d be that person who reads fiction!

I have been a book snob for many a decade now. I mentioned something in my last post about how I wouldn’t read anything fictional due to a ptsd thing from my school days. I’m not a listen to authority type of gal and if you tell me to do something, 9 times out of 10, I’ll do the opposite. So having to read certain books because a teacher told me so, always fiction in those days, I wouldn’t. Absolutely stupid? You betcha! But there you go. But out of it came my love of non-fiction. Searching for the truth.

True crime, biographies and books about cults became my go-to’s but history, especially local and American history and yes, I will fully admit, anything about haunting and ghosts were my weaknesses. However, as much as I loved it, I was still never a huge reader. Maybe a book a year for a while if that. I had better things to do and it was really only in the last 10-15 years or so things have changed.

Of course when I was doing research for an article, I’d hunker down and dive in, but even then, it was mostly looking up articles, sections of books and all kinds of research materials. It wasn’t like I’d sit and read an entire book on something just to find the one passage I was looking for.

Sure I got inspired by a lot of the stories I’ve read, (see on the bookshelf Woman Rising about a woman who escaped her father’s cult as an example), but I was ‘above’ reading fake stuff. Made up stories, you know, like the ones I write and submit to literary journals or the novel I just completed. Those kinds of things. 🙂

The last 8 years since my medical condition changed, my habits as far as reading and writing have as well. Once I was browsing Amazon and spotted some book deals and a title popped out that looked kind of fun The Bookshop of Yesterdays. As someone who always wanted to own a shop like that, I thought, hell, I’ll give it a try. If I don’t like it, I won’t finish it. And thus gentle readers, a book lover was born.

It was that book that inspired me to finally sit and write my own novel. It was something I had always wanted to do, the story popped into my head while I was reading and well, now I had the time being in bed and all. So if you think artists can’t inspire other artists, you are mistaken. In fact, I just happened to write an article on that very subject!

Anywhoo…you must understand also here that I am broke. Tough to admit but extremely true. So here I was, a budding book lover with no money for books! While I do run two micro-businesses, one an estate and vintage jewelry eBay based thing and another shop(s) where I design bookmarks, stickers, cards, etc, (blank journals too) they are wildly unsuccessful. I get sales here and there, the jewelry more so, but hey, those pesky bills right? So if I had a couple of extra bucks here and there, I’d grab another book or two.

It wasn’t until last year when I was at a dr appointment, I happened to look at the desk when I was checking in and the girl had a copy of Verity by Colleen Hoover next to her. I asked her about it, she was loving it and while I was waiting for the doctor, I ordered one for myself. Never a fast reader in my life, partially due to mild dyslexia, I actually read the book in one night! Then I was talking to a friend of mine about it and she said, “wait here” and proceeded to lend me two Colleen Hoover books . Again, not one to go with the pack, if I hear something is ‘trending’ I run in the other direction. But I was hooked.

Another thing about me is, I am completely OCD about the books I read. First off, I have to own them. I can’t check them out of the library. I am not an ebook girl. I have many on my kindle app, one, yes I’ve read several times because it is excellent and I have many freebies I’ve downloaded, but I have trouble reading for a long time on the iPad and like the feel of a book. The biggest rule for myself is that it must be a paperback! I absolutely hate hardcovers. I have some trouble holding them but they are just big, heavy and bulky and takes away from my enjoyment of them. I have a few from book signings that I treasure, but I have been known to buy a paperback version of them for reading purposes. (Yes, I am that bad.)

So ok, I’m now on the Hoover trail, right? Well, I got through four of her books, each read in one night and I got hungry for more. But I wanted to branch out. I started looking more and more on Amazon in the book deals sections and when something would strike me, I’d throw it in my save for later.

When the Read Every Day fundraiser for the American Cancer Society hit last October, it really got me in the habit of reading, well, even just a little every day. Unfortunately I had lost momentum durning the holidays but when the January blahs hit, I knew I had to pick it back up. After all, January is so gray and bleak, what else is there to do but binge watch, eat and sleep, right? I started trading screen time for book time and was getting more and more into it.

My mom had major surgery then and my routines had changed immensely during this time. My doggie and I had become an our own entity and I’d start to read while my dinner was cooking every night. Then I’d find, I didn’t want to stop once dinner was cooked and would pick the book up again. Next thing you know, I’m reading a few hours every night, which led to the next fundraiser in May and now I’m averaging about a book a week!

On my facebook page for this site, I post about the books I read. Books I still can’t believe I love but can’t get enough of. My old non-fiction snob of self is now all about Emily Henry and Kristan Higgins escapism and I live for each and every one. But again, how does someone with no money afford to get this amazing stack pile of paperback trophies?

I did get lucky over the summer with my jewelry business and would put aside like $5 here and there towards my obsession. But when sales came to a halt in September, that money of course had other priorities (please let the holidays change that trend).

i belong to a number of cashback apps and the rewards for a few of them can be gift cards. So I started hoarding my points and cashing in the gift cards (and the cash) to put towards my beloved books. Another thing I do, which is a test of my patience, is wait until the sales hit. I am constantly checking my Amazon cart for the beloved “messages about your cart” deals to see what prices have decreased. I also look for the book deals themselves, sometimes they do “buy 2 get 1 free” or have coupons on them, etc. Today’s deals, are a good place to start as well. Combine all that with say, Prime Days and like today, I got two books that I had bought during the October days, with a gift card and a coupon and only paid $3!

So while it looks like I’m spending hundreds of dollars on my books, in reality I am not. I am very frugal about how I buy my books and some I’ve actually had sitting next to me for a year or two, it just wasn’t the right time to read them. Or, I will snag them while they are on sale, but I have a TBR list ahead of them to read. So when I post, it just looks like I’ve recently bought them. But if you budget it right, work the deals and the gift cards, you can easily compile a nice little library like the one I have this past year. Plus, your Book Mail days will feel even better because you’ve earned them!

I’ll throw some links for you at the end of this for the cashback apps if you are interested in checking them out. Hey, with the holidays coming, every dollar counts, right? (Btw, you can play games on one for points as well, don’t even need to buy anything!) But getting you to sign up for stuff isn’t the point of this post. The point is that sometimes the things we do for ourselves can be the most important things of all. These past months personally have been tough, but to be able to escape into something else, to get away mentally when I couldn’t physically? I wouldn’t change that for the world.

I’d also like to add that another great way of affording your next read is by checking out thrift and library shops. Our local library system has their own bookstores filled with volumes that have been donated and you can get some amazing books at highly discounted prices while supporting the library. So don’t ever count that out as well!

This may be my own thing, you may have yours. But I’m just here to tell you that somehow there can be a way to make it work.Even if it is something simple like buying a book. 🙂

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Thanks for reading and whenever you need a little inspiration for your next read, you can always check out my On the Bookshelf page here on the site! I have lots of different genres on there and will be updating as much as I can. 🙂

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Cashback apps to check out, use my codes for extra sign-up bonuses:

Fetch Rewards – this is not only for shopping and such, but I play games thought this as well and earn lots of points that way. This way, no money laid out and more books coming in!

TopCashback

Rakuten

Coinout App (no referral link there, check the App Store sorry)

And always be sure to look up Amazon Book Deals!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation (a life update)

/ ccsocialcreative

When thinking about this post, I could have easily gone with a myriad of titles, but I decided to use one that hasn’t graced a page since elementary school. I don’t get technical “vacations” anymore working for myself, and I’m not really a Summer person, but nevertheless, here we are!

This year has been a bit strange and the fact that it isn’t over yet has me both happy and not happy all at once. The ‘ber’ months are my favorite time of the year and some years it seems to take much longer to get to September than others. This was one of those years. But that aside, this Summer, I did hit two goals that I was pretty proud of.

To say the Summer started off horribly is an understatement. The last days of May, we lost our dog Kiwi. He was my boy and I am, (and probably never will be) not over it. Even though he was our second senior rescue, it was still unexpected and he will be my boy forever. I tell you this, not to bring you down or to dissuade you from continuing to read any further, but you must understand the mindset I was in. I was a mess.

I was already dealing with some health issues of my own, a relapse was starting to occur of my previous illnesses, (see first post for context) and was having a hard time. When the little guy suddenly got sick, it exasperated my condition and it has been a slide since. Walking is not really an option these days and as someone who has a history of depression, I needed an escape or end up diving further down the abyss. So escape it was!

The beginning of May found me taking part in my second “Read Every Day’ fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. I had done one in October of ’23 and it was a great success! I doubled the inital donation goal and had hoped to do it again. While I didn’t quite reach it this time, the fundraisers really reignited my love of reading.

For years, I prided myself on only reading non fiction, history in particular, my genre of choice. Being someone with authority issues, the last real time I read fiction books was back in my school days when I was forced to for the purposes of grades. I am one who tries to go against what I am told to do or do things in my own time. Call it ptsd of school days, but even in my 50’s, this is why I can’t join a book club…I don’t want anyone else dictating what I read.

About two years ago, a book title caught my eye on Amazon and decided to order it. Set in a bookshop, it had a little mystery and great characters and it became an instant favorite and also sparked a new genre love for me, books taking place in bookshops! (Because why not, right?) After I read that one, I would occasionally sprinkle in a fiction read in between my normal local history and Doris Kearns Goodwin volumes.

When the opportunity came around to take place in the first fundraiser last October, I added a new book to my stack. The month of reading a little something every day got me to read a little more. And then it tapered a bit with the holidays and life stuff. I was able to get one or two more books read at the beginning of the year, but again, 2024 showed it’s ugly side early and reading really wasn’t on my to-do list. Enter May.

The next fundraiser event was about to start and I went to Amazon and filled up my cart with new titles to sink my teeth into. I started to read just a little every day, thus the title of the event, and by the last week of the month, I had about 3/4 of a book done. I was never a fast reader and for this month, I wanted to at least honor the tone of the event. The month had brought around some life things that made it a little hard to concentrate on the pages in front of me, but I was true to the event and was proud of myself. Then came the end of the month and my world was turned upside down.

I started to realize that the only time my mind wouldn’t wander to Kiwi (and the only time I would stop crying) was while I had my nose buried in a book. I started reading all the time. I was also adding to my Amazon cart’s save for later after looking up books I thought would make great summertime reads, or by authors I had only just discovered. I decided to make a goal, I would read 7 books before September 1st.

I know there are many who could do that easily, but I’ve never been a fast reader. I am also mildly dyslexic, something I was finally diagnosed with only a few years back. But there was something about these books that had me focused and even staying up all night to finish.

So there it was, a goal set. Well, one goal set.

I had something else in mind for this Summer and having the time while laid up, I decided this would be the time to complete it. I started something a few years back and it was a project I was passionate about…a novel. But not just any novel. A novel I was writing!

Only a handful of people knew about this and I had given out the first few chapters to them to guage their opinions on just after I first began. While it was something I had always wanted to do and had planned on doing my whole life, it became something that was getting harder to finish, especially with my health the way it is.However, I refused to let it be something I started and never completed. This was going to happen no matter what.

I had started to attend local author events including one by a local Stamford thriller author about how to get a book published. I was the geek in the audience who went old school with a real notebook and pen, vigorously taking notes and making sure to meet the author afterwards. When she hosted another event at the library, I made sure to reintroduce myself to her and the other author who was there for a book signing and take more notes. I have always been committed to finish but like any writing, or really, any project you do, you need the inspiration.

My story in the beginning had started to write itself. I would easily write 3 chapters in one sitting and did that for a bit. But again, that life thing kept getting in the way. Besides the outside world invading my brain, I was in pain and was put on meds that made my thought processes all fuzzy and distant. I couldn’t focus and would start to look at my laptop like the enemy. I became severly blocked and had no idea how to get the story going again.

They say artists influence other artists and musicians to other musicians, well, so do authors to other authors. I noticed that when I started to read these books, my own story was starting to pop back up in my mind. Soon, I was pulling out the laptop or my ipad with my shiny new retro style keyboard and churning out pages again. Thus, the second goal of the Summer was marked down…finish this book.

So that is how the Summer went. I’d read a book, write a chapter. Write some more, start a new book. The chapter and page numbers started to get higher while I wrote and more books on my tbr (to be read) pile, would be read. All of this while creating new designs and listing new things for my online shops and of course, watching the Yankees and 90’s era reruns. I may have been laid up, but I was still busy as hell.

When it got down to the last two weeks of August, I still had two books to read to make my goal of 7 and I was determined to do it. I had developed a habit of what is called ‘mindful reading.’ I learned this from a small business youtube creator who, while much, much younger than myself, has taught me so much. One of these lessons was taking the time every day to read for a bit to gain inspiration from others as well as tuning the mind out to the life stuff. I began reading a chapter or two while waiting for my dinner to cook every night and would find I was really making a dent in whatever book I was reading. Then, without realizing it, at least one weekend night each week became all about finishing whatever story I was on. This is pretty much how the Summer went. And lo and behold, at 10am August 31st, I finished my 7th book. (I have always been great at meeting a deadline in the last hours.) Ok, so one goal down, one to go!

Those last two books really had a grip on me. Like any good story, it took a little bit to get my head out of, well, in this case, upper Michigan as ironically both of the final books just happened to take place there. Two different authors, two different stories and each had me wanting to book a flight to see the Tunnel of Trees, take a cottage on the lake and go to the the cherry festivals there. But I digress…

I came out of the Michigan fog and started to write again. This time, my second goal was on my mind and now it was serious. In the past, I had hoped to finish and publish my novel in time to have ready for holiday presents, for Winter book clubs, for Summertime beach reading, but now, I just wanted it finished.

I would write for hours on end one night and have to take a break the next because my fingers hurt too much to continue. Then start writing again the night after. Soon, the pain didn’t matter anymore and I would just play through the pain. The twist to this was that because I think in what I call, ‘constant spirals of parallel thought’, I had two other story ideas pop into my head. So there were a couple of nights when I veered off of my original novel and began to write two other books that had nothing to do with this first one, ironic since I had always planned that the first would turn into a series of at least three. These new stories were new and oh, did I mention I’ve been working on a local history book at the same time? No? Well, yeah, that’s for another time.

Anyway, I buckled down, got back to my original story and got myself on a schedule, which is something I just try to avoid like covid. I had started reading a new book, would spend time on that. Eat. Watch a few shows, then at 4am, the writing would commence. One thing about keeping reverse hours than the rest of the world, (up all night, sleep during the day, dinner at midnight) is that I have none of the normal distractions of those with 9-5 lives. I’d write for about 4-5 hours at a time and soon, I could see the end in sight.

Then, last week, after having started this several years ago and after almost 6 straight hours of writing without breaks, I FINISHED!

Now, here is the funny thing about finishing such an involved project. I thought once I hit that last word, that final sentence, that ending chapter, a ticker tape parade would commence like it did in 2009 (last time the Yankees won the World Series). But you know what? It didn’t. It was after 10am. I had typed continuously for 6 hours and my eyes were killing me from staring at the screen for so long. In a nutshell, I wanted to just go to sleep.

The next hard part has of course now begun, the editing. The self criticism. The changing of character names and plot points. And that’s ok! What is so damned important to me here is that I finished my first book. That first draft is everything I have always wanted to do and more and damn it, I did it. (I REALLY DID!)

So to the person who coined the phrase, be careful what you wish for? I have to thank you. While I had always wished for time to write, I indeed got it, but at the cost to my health. However, I didn’t want that to be my legacy. I wanted to write a book. Ok, I want to write many! But the first one is always the hardest they say and I have now completed that first one.

So, what did I do on my Summer vacation? I lived in a literary world for several months, both reading and writing. It is now 3/4 of the way through September. I have now started my third book of the month and have started editing my own manuscript. What will the next few months hold? Not sure. But I will forever know that the Summer of 2024 started off rough and ended with my accomplishing something that many do not…I wrote a book.

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For Kiwi 🙂

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To check out the books I read over the Summer as well as tons others in my personal library, head to the ‘On the Bookshelf‘ page of this site!

Click here if you’d like to make a donation to the American Cancer Society. (As a survivor myself, it is greatly appreciated.)

If you are in the Stamford, CT area and are thinking of adding a furry friend to your family, I ask you to please check out our friends at Red Leash Rescue. They work with mainly senior and hardship dogs that are always the hardest to find homes for. We got our Kiwi from them as well as our previous pal, Murphy. Both seniors and both we would take all over again if we could.