Manic Monday: Down the Rabbit Hole!

Updated: Jul 9, 2022

(Photo by Yan Krukov from Pexels)

Hello My Happy People,

I have been thoroughly not enjoying the rainy weather we have right now. Storms keep coming and going and the constantly fluctuating barometric pressure is messing with my head. It is so hard for me to concentrate when things like this are going on constantly. I have been trying to work, but I get so easily distracted. I start to work, get lost in a side task, and then I look up and it's 9 or 10 at night and I have accomplished only a small portion of what I had actually planned to get done on the book.

My husband is doing his best to help keep me on task. He is even giving me his own deadlines for word counts to finish by a certain day. If I do not meet his deadlines, I get "punished" by him taking on more cooking and chores so I can finish my writing. Before you ask, no, I do not miss them on purpose. But I seriously have no idea how I get so lost in pointless, mindless things sometimes. I feel like I drop down a rabbit hole some days and have no idea how to get focused. Thank God my husband makes the best support team ever though. I would be way worse without him!

In fact, even with these issues I have gotten quite a bit more done on the book than I expected to have written by this point so that is good, but it is not nearly enough. The concentration problems are a real disruptor. To give an example, I had thought of a great thing to do for my podcast, Book Banter with Dianne Burckhardt (<--- link), but when I went to go prep it, I had completely forgotten my idea. I still have not remembered it. I'm working on recovering that memory. All I remember is I wanted to do the same things the first Wednesday of every month like I used to always do with the Monday Movie Madness blogs and still do with the Friday Funnies. I know it was book related (duh), but that is all I can remember. I hate these moments. They are so frustrating!

Speaking of the podcast though, I have gotten commitments from more authors who want to come on my podcast and share their work. We are just struggling with scheduling issues. It's hard when the times zones are 7 hours or more apart. We will not just be sticking with historical fiction authors, we are branching out into all genres. So we will likely have a guest or two whose work is not your cup of tea, but I want to support as many indie authors as possible no matter what their subject matter or target market.

Personally, I happen to be a very open minded person and the podcast will be a reflection of that openness. I plan to uphold my commitment to inclusivity for all in my guest authors. I try to live my belief that my job on earth is to just be a good person, love my fellow humans, and leave all judgment to a higher power. I want to actively spread that message now more than ever.

We will also have some guest talk about how to improve marketing skills for indie authors and anyone who is self-employed and working on a budget. Marketing can be the hardest part for an indie author or self-employed entrepreneur so I want to find as many guests who can give pointers for us all.

I thought about adding a segment where I give a writing prompt at the end of my podcasts and ask people to write a short piece from it. Then anyone who wants can send in their piece to have it read in the next podcast. If I get a few I will randomly draw one or two. It just seems like something fun to do. Maybe even post them on our website and have people vote on them and maybe once or twice a year give out a prize for the piece with the most votes. It's a thought.

If you have any ideas of things you would like to hear in my podcast, just drop us a line, use the chat box on the main page of this website, or leave a comment on this blog. We would love to hear from everyone!

Enough rambling for today ... back to work!

Go forth and be happy, people!