NOTE TO SELF by Kathleen Lawless @kathleenlawless

 

It’s my birthday in two days. Last year I celebrated my special day at a decadent resort in the Caribbean, a once-in-a-lifetime splurge.  Had I put the trip off for a year to save more toward it I would have been majorly disappointed, given what’s happened with travel this year. Note to self:  Don’t put things off if they are important to you.

 This year’s celebration will be much closer to home with a weekend at one of my favorite spas, and I’m hoping Friday the 13^th will prove to be lucky.  I don’t know about you, but I always feel a bit of a slump the month before my birthday.  I am definitely more introspective, looking back on the past year as well as forward.  I chalk it up to a kind of death-rebirth phase.  Shedding what didn’t work, planning to change things where I can.  It’s my mental inventory time.

 Checking in: Over the last year I didn’t lose any weight.  On the plus side I didn’t gain any weight, so I’ll call that a win. 

 Note to self:  I am not here to pay bills and lose weight.  I am here to be the best person I possibly can.  Best mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend. I feel my track record is pretty good, not perfect, but what is? 

 In an effort to ramp up my fitness, I started meeting a friend once a week to trek up a mountain and see the view from the top.  It’s not easy, but it’s getting easier and we’re getting faster.  Win: I don’t huff and puff as much as I did at the beginning.

 Professionally this year, I published 9 books and 2 novellas. Some are selling well.  Others are struggling to find their readership—or have the readers find them.  I expect that to be ongoing.  I’ve heard that 90% of book sales are earned by 10% of the authors, which tends to be a trueism for sales generally.  Those top 10% don’t have to do much except show up with a new release.  Readers know them.  Readers continue to buy them because they deliver—meaning they meet or surpass reader expectation.  Even if they occasionally fall short, their fans forgive them and line up for the next release. 

 As long as I continue to deliver a satisfying story with a happy ending, my fans will find me.  That’s the thing that keeps us seasoned writers going.  Plus the fact that we don’t recognize a life where we’re not writing.

 I have no projections as to what the next year might bring because sitting on a white sand beach this time last year, watching the sun go down and listening to the waves lap against the shore, who could have guessed everyone’s world would be turned upside down.  I’ll just keep writing, and if I never go back there in person I’ll always have my memories.  And possibly a setting for a new book.  Because right now, readers need an escape and happy ending more than ever before.  

Speaking of Happy Endings, have you snagged your copy of the feel good holiday anthology, Christmas Comes to Dickens?  It's still only 99 cents and the accompanying Cookie Recipe Book is a bargain at Free.  

https://books2read.com/DickensChristmas

                                    https://books2read.com/dickens-cookie

 

Since today is Remembrance Day, Veterans’ Day, Armistice, or whatever it’s called in your part of the world, take a minute to honor the world’s true heroes, past and present.  Like a happy ending, we also need our heroes more than ever before.

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