One Year

One year ago, I started this web site.

One year ago, I’d just gotten my first acceptance.

I was so excited to share it with family and friends. 

A lot can happen in one single year. 

I haven’t posted anything new for quite a while but I have a really good excuse: I’ve been pretty busy. (See – that is a really good excuse!!)

I built this site to be a repository for my publications but it became a little bit more than that. It became a place for me to talk about writing and how I was affected by the process. I wrote a(nother) novel for NaNoWriMo. I got published twelve more times after that first, thrilling, one. I wanted to document it all because I love this game. 

I thought about things like “author platforms” and how to self promote without being annoying (work in progress, that). I started this web site, initially, because an editor told me I should. So, I did. Then, another editor told me I should be on twitter. So, I did that, too. Then, someone suggested an author Facebook page and boom: I did it. Every single thing I could do to keep moving towards my goal, I did it. 

All the while, I was writing and submitting my work. I was involved in my writer’s class and my writer’s group and I talked, talked, talked about writing all the time. All the while, I was working a full time writing job. By January, I was more than exhausted. I had hit a point of internet fatigue. Little known fact: I was also pregnant. I had my daughter on March 7 and since then, I haven’t gotten a lot done. 

See – when I say I’ve been busy, I really wasn’t kidding.

I never tire of the writing. I never tire of talking about it or working on it. But, the other stuff – listening to other people’s voices and opinions, constantly lamenting where I am versus where I want to be, striving for attention from new readers: It all started to distract from actually writing. So, in one year, I went full circle: back to concentrating on what is really important. Nothing in this industry – the author platforms, the promotion and constant screaming for attention – is as important as just quietly getting the work done. 

So, if I’m quiet, imagine me at my desk, getting the work done. 

Or, maybe more realistically, imagine me changing a shitty diaper. 

This is where I am supposed to be right now.