I went the entire month of July without posting a blog - after a year of faithfully posting every week. Why? I have lots of excuses: I've redesigned my website to include a blog and it's extra steps to post both there and back at Wordpress, but I'm not really sure which is better, because I have less control over my content at Wordpress, but at least I had some followers there and has anyone found my website? Besides, there are so many other things I need to be working on, and I'm not even sure anyone's actually reading my blog. And I really need to focus on one thing, except I can't because publishing my new novel requires marketing, which requires dozens of tasks to be juggled all at once, and I really need to do more editing work to boost my income for this year... and besides, I like editing. There are clear-cut limits to the tasks and real deadlines. When I set deadlines for my own tasks, they're way to easy to push on to another week... Like I said, lots of excuses.
When overwhelmed, I stop doing what I need to to altogether. Instead, I binged the four seasons of Outlander.
Then I got back to making progress on my promotional plan for my new novel, including making improvements to my website that were recommended months ago and setting up a nine-month calendar on which I'm entering deadlines for tasks that need to be completed to have a successful launch (successful meaning a reasonable number of sales and reviews). I've also updated the front and back matter of the eBook version of Running Away so I can do a re-launch of that first. Why? Because the new novel, Peg's Story: Detours, is about the mom in Running Away. Readers asked for her story. So getting new readers for Running Away should help those initial sales of Peg's Story: Detours.
The calendar is helping me stay on task better with the promotional plan, and it has days marked off for a family trip that will occupy a week, and a ten-day adventure planned. More editing jobs are coming in, but that will simply mean working more hours per week, and I seem to accomplish more when there's more pressure, so...
I've started reading the Outlander books, but there will be no bingeing!
