It is not pretty in the House of Crystal at this moment

Because my ADHD ass was like...Hey! Heeeeeeeyyyyyy! We can put "Apollo and Hyacinthus" out in, like, five days. Edited twice. I'll zip back through twice more.

But that's not the business.

The business is...filling in ISBN paperwork things. Adding the titles on Amazon. I make my own covers so had to shrink those bastards down to 300 dpi. I have 29 tabs open in my browser, and the air turned a dark shade of blue. Cobalt, if you must know. I'm giving manic an entirely new definition.

AND...the boys are playing tonight. Going to punch our ticket to the NBA Finals. Thunder Up! Woot!

Okay. Back to losing my shit. 

I forgot. Not surprising, really. Have the fucking memory of a goldfish. 🙄

Not a fan.

Antyway...I was so intent on polishing this mfer up to spotless, when the reality of being an indie publisher bit me on the ass. As it do.

It's ME. (cue Taylor and Brendan...because we need matching earworms)

Current situation:

locked in at my desk

Murphy sleeping behind me

70,000 words to eyeball for the 9,756th time

Do I feel pressure?

*Bowie and Mercury play me out*

Under pressure

I do this to myself. 

I mean, if I don't, who will? 😶 

I'm the writer and publisher. Simba's content to lay at my feet and sleep. What a life. 😊

Working on the billionaire romance and the third one wants to interfere before the first is written. Working on a dark fantasy romance. And after finishing one of these, I need to write the last book in my "Canary" series. That will be incredibly intense.

And then I have those moments I think all writers do. It's not burnout, it's more like full immersion maybe? Overexposure? Where you eat, breathe, sleep, sweat, and swim in your book and characters. You want to spread your beautiful pieces all over social media and share your creation and its fixtures. Like I want to explode like a freakin' piñata and rain down all the loveliness all over social media.

It doesn't work that way. Wouldn't it be cool, though? To have like an emoji of yourself? And a countdown? And then you're kind of like a piñata, and you beat yourself, and when you actually crack open, your social media would be flooded with the information about your book? Wouldn't that be AMAZING??? 

It's been said that authors should concentrate on a genre and play in it only. That's not me. That way they build their audience of steady readers who know what to expect. I am unable to make orange popsicles my entire existence. I need to make grape. I need to branch off into fudgesicles. I need vanilla cones dipped in chocolate. I need variety.

The fact I write in variety makes it hard for my neurodivergent self to keep up with social media and how and what I post. I've tried to straighten myself out. I am SO crooked. And people who have made a success of this state that posting on social media daily is as must!

I cannot fathom hitting up Insta, TikTok, X, and FB on the daily. argh

Good news is that I've sold books in the local bookstore and will likely do well when I head to Des Moines in a couple of weeks. I love the in-person events with other authors and readers!

I need to put my swag together soon and make sure I have the books I need to travel.

If you're an exhausted author, don't give up! We're a tenacious lot. And if you're a reader, what are your thoughts on social media? Does it influence you that much?

Always writing*

...and putting together swag bags...