Day 1-
Today is a tough day for me. Not only am I dealing with the sadness of not having my mom, my best friend in my life but I also consciously aware of the upcoming one year anniversary of her death. I just want to cry, cry and do some more crying until I am fully spent. To top this off, I am also dealing with my dad’s failing health problems while trying to ignore my own. My husband and I have a new dog which we found out is more of a puppy. We have no kids and this dog/puppy is driving us insane with sleepless nights, endless chewing of objects, play time starting at 10 or 10:30 at night every night and chasing and eating anything that moves plus eating wet grass outside, creating her own salad mixes. She’s also only partially house trained so you never know when you might end up with a nasty, unexpected surprise in your house, like this morning, for example.
To top this all of, I am one of those unfortunate but very common authors that works a full time day job. Things have become so stressful at work, I want to scream at the top of my lungs, run away and tell them to take their job back but unfortunately, as the bread winner of the family and the one who provides the health benefits, I do not have the luxury of leaving a job that interferes with my real career in order to pursue my writing full-time. I will be lucky one day if I can work part-time instead of full-time but because I married for love and not money, this is my plight in life and I must deal with my lot.
As any other author, I too want to make it big but I don’t know how. My days are filled with angst, stressing over book sales and why there aren’t more when I market my books to more than 100+ Facebook groups and pages every other day. I am trying to reach my population- the readers who love Paranormal Romance or even Paranormal Erotic Romance since my books are fitting more and more in this category. I crave interaction with my readers and am saddened by the low level I receive. How does an Author make it and what are the tools? I wish the Author community was more generous with information, too. It seems Authors like to withhold information and this saddens me deeply for learning the trade and all that comes with it – the extensive marketing and social media platforms- is hard in itself. If you can help someone, why wouldn’t you? Fortunately, I’ve encountered some good people along the way, generous and giving, offering to help promote me for free- I am thankful for such loving, kind souls.
All these thoughts and ideas go through my head as I sit here at Day One, with a WIP I am struggling to get through, a book under contract, expected to publish by August 2016 and three books already out on the market. But instead of appreciating my accomplishments, I am wanting more, just like most authors. The life of an Author is hard, it’s a struggle, it’s a dance between what you want and what you have and trying to figure out how to get to where you want to be with the resources you have.
And this is Day One.
TK Lawyer 