Forcing myself to stop and smell the roses...

What people often think of as the hardest part of being an author - that is to say, the development of a story and then actually putting words to paper - was, and continues to be, the easiest part for me. Whenever I'm having a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep, my mind tends towards story creation. A character will pop into my mind and then I'll just let a story develop around that character until I drift off. Sometimes, I'll like the character so much that the story will continue to develop and new characters will get added night after night. If I don't like the character, then it's "buh-bye!"

For me, the hardest part has been everything that has come after the writing was done. Getting the courage to put my story out there was like climbing Mt. Everest. But that's a story for another blog post....

The next hardest part has been publishing and marketing the book and...ugh...myself. Learning how to use Kindle Create, KDP, Instagram, Facebook, Wix, Amazon Ads, Goodreads, etc.; registering a domain name; running ads on social media; finding bloggers and other marketing outlets to feature the book; asking for reviews...it's a steep learning curve.

It's been just over two weeks since I published The Summer Breeze. Today, my husband reminded me to stop and smell the roses. Or in this case, stop and appreciate the support and positive feedback from family and friends. I'll end this post now so that I can go re-read all the thoughtful reviews.