Trying to pull up out of a stall isn't easy.

 Dear Reader,

My late Grandfather was a pilot. One day, he was talking to me about how it takes a lot of guts, skill, and knowledge of your craft to pull an airplane out of a stall. I've been stalled and the ground's coming up at me at terminal velocity, but I'm not worried because I can kick start the engine and pull this thing out before it crashes. I've done it before, I can do it again, it's just been a wild few weeks.

That side business that I was doing reading tarot cards went belly up in the ugliest way possible. That kinda left me emotionally reeling. What I thought was a long term book project appears to be falling apart and this has me struggling after all the effort I put into it. I'll be taking those books and putting them aside in case that stalled project turns out not to have crashed. But it's taken a bit of an emotional toll on me to have these things happening.

My days are completely out of sorts because what schedule I had is gone and I am now in the process of rebuilding my schedule. I will be posting material more frequently now that I have more time. I will also, hopefully, be making more progress on my books. Check back in Monday for a Craft of Writing post. I'll be talking about the most valuable reference book that I own. I've probably already done a post on it and it's buried in the archives, but this book has been so helpful that it deserves to be posted about again.

The serial stories are going to take a little time because I have to review my notes (once I find them in this mess) and figure out where I was going with things. I can't give you a date when the next installments are coming, but they will be out in a little while. I'm also going to take the previous installments and wrap them together into an ebook at some point. This way you can read the whole story from the comfort of your e-reader and not waste time on the internet scrolling through a blog post. 

♥

Craft of Writing: I've got Nothing.

 Dear Reader,

I have no pithy comments or witty bits of inspiration for you. I've been slogging through the tail end of a depressive episode and about a month of chaos. I am not participating in Camp NaNoWriMo because I have barely had time to write in my daily journal, let alone take care of other tasks and projects. It's been rough going here.

My dear friends, I deeply appreciate you and your faith in me. When I have days where I feel like all is useless and hopeless, Beloved reminds me that I have you all out there eager to read what I have to share. My husband is a dear man and quite smart. I really should listen to him more often when my moods get down and the brain weasels are gnawing on me. I would like to apologize for the fact that I left you all in a lurch. I sincerely planned on doing more writing. Then I got sick for a week. My kids had a surprise superintendent conference that shot one day of work down. I forgot that they had a week off the following week. And there was the business of Easter dinner with my in-laws, which is always an experience.

Now that things are beginning to settle down, I hope to start posting more often. My side business reading Tarot cards is defunct. It is simply because the platform that I was on became unfriendly towards readers like myself who don't fit the newer business model that the new president of the company envisions. I was on there from 2007 until a few weeks ago. It wasn't super profitable but it boosted my confidence a bit to actually make money using a skill that I have.

I've decided to take this as a sign from the Universe that I must focus now on my writing as a serious business effort. I know nothing about  marketing. I am rather ignorant about traditional publishing but I seem to be doing ok for a beginner in a niche market as an independent published author. I'm attempting to screw my courage to the sticking place and actually submit work to publications. The last time I did that, there wasn't any reply back or anything. The time before that, it was a fly-by-night operation that tried to steal a book that I wrote. I sent them a nastygram and I got my manuscript back, shredded. (This was in the late 90s when people were still accepting paper submissions.) The experience has me a little gun shy about trying to get work out to magazines and such.

But, life has altered my course and I suppose it is time to get to work. Tomorrow, I will not be on-line and there will not be a post because I am going to the eye doctor to get checked for glaucoma. I am as nervous as a cat in a rocking chair factory but Beloved is confident that everything will go well. Look for another post from me on Thursday.