The title of this blog post is pretty self-explanatory. It’s mid-July now and my home is starting to look like a savannah. I’ve lived here much longer than many people have been alive (ha, so if you’re younger than I am, you have less experience and know less. You have also not seen as many hot, hot summers, although I’m not sure that that’s a point against you.)

Anyway (tee hee, rambling here) we’ve been swimming once a week over the last month. We missed swimming or did it rarely for several years and we found it really was something we liked doing. Just dipping in a local splashy pool for a while until you work up a comfortable scent of chlorine, then find a little chair, put a towel on it, and watch the little kids hop around and yell. At least, that’s what I do. My sister goes and sits under a fountain that drops huge buckets of water on her head.

I have been very tired recently and am possibly getting slow and belated heat tiredness, especially since we swim in the bright-and-sunny afternoon. Two years ago we went to the pool on the 3rd of July, lay beside it for hours, and came home with horrible heatstroke the next day. Which was the 4th of July. So we couldn’t enjoy the food at all, we felt run over by a truck, and my dad was talking about some movie and I couldn’t even answer him. I was just in a dazed stupor that felt sick. Since that time I’ve been more careful and I’ve never felt like THAT again. That was weird. But still—lots of sun can get into your brain.

Which is why I’m writing about it, obviously.

And there will be more updates.

There’s not much that’s very special about some of my publishing, which had the usual ups and downs for a beginner to the world of marketing and media. I had all the writing skills, but didn’t have the knowledge to navigate the industry as well as I needed to. That’s typical for new writers. The sheer number of people writing can be a shock to a new publisher, as well as the formatting, online marketing, social decisions, FB groups, this-thing-called-twitter, and scouting outlets for sales. And of course the not so nice people lurking in corners, the ones who always find the new kid.

I also had a low budget, literally shoestring at first—again, like so many authors. This created a bit of a vicious cycle for a while, since you need to put in money to get something started. Sometimes the covers weren’t the fanciest—sometimes I made connections with people I shouldn’t have because I was so eager for networking. Signing anything is a little quicksand of its own, since there are always people interested in it, but you do have to be careful. I’d spend hours a day learning the little logistics of formatting books—now it’s just a snap, since I’ve figured out what works—and over time, I learned. And learned. And learned. And learned.

People can often mistake a beginner publisher for a beginner author. This isn’t true. There are some hobbyists, and some people just trying to get across a message rather badly. But most people who start publishing have already achieved an acceptable level of craft. They’re beginners at zoning their work towards an audience and navigating the little alleys and side streets of getting to that audience. By now I have a lot of years with my stories out in the world instead of in drawers tucked with my dreams. 

And there will be more updates.