April 2018
Blog
This one
is for me. It’s time to put my ducks in a row.
Duck
Soup: A Haiku
Just
as well, perhaps,
My
ducks won’t line up; they would
Make
easy targets.
The
unfinished symphony that is my life is better described as a cacophony of
strident chords punctuated by uneasy silences. Before I go to wander aimlessly
among the souls in purgatory, I need to attempt some basic harmony in both my
personal and my professional life.
It
has occurred to me that “I may not live out the year” gets more likely as each
year passes. So…
It’s
time to get so organized that even my labels have labels and so productive that
each literary debut is greeted with “another one? I haven’t finished reading
the last one yet.”
My
deepest regret is that this effort will require two things I am loathe to
relinquish: (1) my frequent nap times and (2) spending so much time working
jigsaw puzzles on my computer. The next thing to go would be my Twitter time,
but I’m hoping simply to make that more
productive.
As
to the need for labels – I am tired of looking for things I know I have
somewhere, and replacing those things is an unnecessary expense I can ill
afford.
I
grew up being told there is “a place for everything” and to put “everything in
its place”. I never realized, when I was young, how important that would be to
an “old person”.
The
labels themselves need to be bigger, the older I get. Also, inventories are
very helpful (with locations) – so you know what you’ve got and where it is. This is especially
important when you possess literally hundreds of books and VHS tapes and DVD’s
and CD’s. It’s also nice to be able to grab last month’s bills to make sure you
actually paid them (assuming you remembered to pay them and actually made a
note on the bill).
I know I promised myself to do all this before,
but those “shiny objects” that always seem to pop up have buried my good
intentions under so much glare, that I need a list to remind me to look at my
lists.
Did
I forget to mention lists? They are particularly important the older or busier
you get. (That’s it! I’ll claim to be busy. Age has nothing to do with it.
Right! And on that note, my memory fails me.)
I’ve
taken to making lists of the things I need to do each day, but I find I frequently need a list each
morning to reference the things on the list I need to do. And if that’s not
complicated enough, I need to do those things of a morning, so I can spend the
afternoons being literary, literally (Had to throw that in).
In
the early afternoons I need to find time – to write, to edit, to publish (including
formatting), to promote – you know, all
those things important to an indie writer’s career.
For
writing, I need to finish several manuscripts that have lain dormant way too
long. Then they join my “for editing” list which currently includes the second
of three ‘Black Oak” western paranormal novellas.
My
“waiting for publishing” list includes more “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade”
collections, the Black Oak sequel and the Sam Rock on which I’m still working.
All that will require a lot of formatting. I guess I should include putting all
my books on audio, especially the novels. Audio is so popular these days, I’d
be remiss not to tap that market.
Promotion
is still my biggest problem. I need to post my catalog on Twitter at least
daily and make use of other sites that do promotion, although my funds for such
are extremely limited. I realize you can’t “hide your candle under a bushel”
and expect to be successful.
So
it looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. But if I don’t get at it, I’m
going to leave an awful lot “unfinished” with no one knowing how to complete
what I had in mind.
I
feel I owe it to myself, my family and my friends to get as much out there for
posterity as I can.
We’ll
see how many ducks I can put in a row this first full month of Spring – traditionally a time of renewal.
Until
next month, I welcome your reactions and responses to any of my blogs. I love
to hear from my readers. Also, here are links to my Twitter and Facebook
accounts, if you care to share your thoughts with me there:
All
of my books are available on Amazon.
April’s
featured novel is my Young Adult fiction: “The Chronicles of Acqueria: Blood Moon Treachery”. https://tinyurl.com/ydbhv3ae
This
month’s featured poetry chapbook is again “The Castleweaver's Tales: A Dozen
Glimpses of Medieval Madness: 25th Anniversary Edition”. https://tinyurl.com/ybllonvw
By
the end of April, in honor of this being National Poetry Month, I plan to debut
my second “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku: Volume Two:
The Write Life”.
