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Hello My Happy People,
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. P.R. and I went out and had some quality husband/wife time on Saturday. We ran out to the mall, got tattooed together, then went to dinner. Yes, you read that correctly. We now each have three tattoos and all are deeply personal to us.
I know many people still assign a stigma to people with tattoos, and that is totally their prerogative, they can feel how they want to feel about it. My husband and I, however, do not agree. In fact, not only are we not the only people in our families to have tattoos, but I have a few tattoo artists in my family. My very first tattoo was given to me by my cousin when she was first learning to do tattoos.
I am sure many people wonder why I share things like this about myself that might put off some of my followers and hurt my potential sales. Honestly, because this is me. I am and have always been a very authentic person. I will go to my grave being who I am and if that costs me sales, followers, friends, or even family, I will accept that, because living life worrying about what everyone is thinking about me is just too exhausting and I have other things to do with my time.
Speaking of time (see how I worked that segway in there), it is just crazy how time can sneak up on you. I had put off working on Into the West: Family Ties because it just wasn't working for me. Plus, I had wanted to release it at Christmas, because there is a Christmas scene in it. But when we got too far past Christmas, I just lost all enthusiasm for it. Now here we are, just a few weeks before Christmas again and I am wondering if it would be possible to get it finished in time for the holiday.
I have the She Inspires awards ceremony to go to in the United Kingdom next week, then we have to get ready for one of our daughters to come visit for the holidays. I think it is doable, but will I drive myself and P.R. crazy trying to finish it all in time? That is the question! I'm willing to give it the old college try, but we will just have to see what I can get done.
This past year has taught me that I need to take breaks more often and quit finding more projects to do that are not actual writing. I enjoy doing these blogs, and keep up the website, doing the podcast, making TikTok videos, and my advocacy projects . . . but . . . it all takes time away from actually writing my books. It's hard to be a successful author when you aren't publishing anything.
I know I need to reassess my priorities and reduce my commitments on things so I can focus more on writing. The one thing I will not give up is time with my family, they will always be first. It would be so much easier to decide what to cut out if I hated doing all these other side projects. The problem is, I'm such a nerd I could spend all day just creating things on my computer and be perfectly happy. Maybe it's time to just write them all on scraps of paper and toss them in a hat. Whatever I draw out, gets scrapped. It's a thought.
But for now I am going to go write. Yes, you read that correctly, I#m going to actually write on my books! It's a wild concept ... I know!
Be sure to check out this weeks Book Banter podcast when I will share what I got written this week, or at least some of it.
Have a great week people!
Dianne
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What is a Chiari Malformation, a Syrinx (Syringomyelia), and Hydrocephalus?
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Carrie Donovan - writer/musician (Episode 37, October 26, 2022)
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