What's going on?

Being a child of the 60's, there are certain songs that have cemented themselves in my memory. This one by Marvin Gaye stands out. The awful thing is that the words are once again so relevant. 2020 has been a nightmare in general. Besides adjusting to becoming a widow and living alone for the first time in my life, I'm dealing with all of the same stuff everyone else is when it comes to the violence against innocent black people, the pandemic, and the upcoming election.

With all that's been happening, I've done a lot of soul searching about my writing, among many other issues. I LOVE writing, but the post-publication work has worn me down. The self-publishing world is constantly changing. Each month it seems as though there's another promotion/marketing site being touted as "the best place to promote your books." I've participated in classes and webinars to educate myself on how to stay on top of what's working (and not working) with book promotion. My problem is that I'm not up to doing all that work anymore, and self-publishing is A LOT of work.

I don't like to think of myself as being in competition with my author friends, but it's reality. We're all working like maniacs to get readers to pay attention to our books, and it's getting harder and more expensive every year. So, I've come to the conclusion that, being a woman of a certain age, I no longer want to work like my sisterscribes who are 20-30 years younger than me. I don't have the mental or physical energy to constantly trying to reach new readers. Unfortunately, I don't have a team to do the work for me, and I just can't do it anymore.

WE ARE FAMILY was released in March at the very beginning of the pandemic. It did okay considering I didn't put everything into promoting it the way I should have. 

My readers are wonderful women (and a few men) who have supported me over the past ten years. They mean everything to me, and I hope they continue to have my back. My plan going forward is to continue to write what I enjoy without putting so much pressure on myself to promote on all of the top marketing sites, make personal appearances, do podcasts, etc. I'll do my best, but whatever my books sell will be fine with me.  

                         
I've had no interest in blogging and have been concentrating on finishing SEBASTIAN, Book One in my Champions series. Even that has been somewhat of a struggle. At the moment, the book is at 79,502 words. The major drama has happened, but I'm not sure exactly how to end it. 

With that being said, I've run into an issue with The Champions Series. SEBASTIAN was written in third person past tense. A few weeks ago, I realized that I want the series to be in first person, and I posted the question in the author groups that I'm involved with. The general consensus was either that I rewrite Book One in first person or leave it and continue the entire series in third person. It's been hard enough for me to get the book finished. I'm not about to rewrite it! Right now, I'm considering doing the subsequent books in first person and letting the chips fall where they may. We'll see.

I hope everyone reading this post is staying healthy and handling all of the changes in our lives the best way you can. God only knows when I'll post here again, but I'll keep you post on the release of SEBASTIAN.