Manic Monday: Trapped in Social Media ...

Hello My Happy People,

We had a wonderful weekend here in Düsseldorf and I hope it was fantastic where you are. So many great things have been happening behind the scenes here and I can't wait to reveal all to everyone, but I have to wait for some of it.

My podcast is now on the major podcast streaming services online and we have had almost 250 shows downloaded just from the Buzzsprouts site alone. Not too shabby when you consider I have no advertising in place for it other than me posting on my own social media. Doing the podcast is so much fun and I LOVE talking to people about books. I have more great guests coming up, keep watching here for names and dates.

I have also finally starting figuring out TikTok. I had created an account a long time ago, but then never did anything with it. I finally looked into it and have started creating a little content for it. It's going pretty well so far. I've gotten a few hundred views on the first few videos I have posted. I plan to do a few today I didn't get finished last night then I'm getting off social media!

I am thinking I will have to relegate social media work to the weekends and use the week for writing, because I am getting way too many social media accounts going. Too many times I have found myself getting online to work on something quickly and look up to find it is four hours later, I have to make lunch or dinner, and my writing time has just disappeared. And then there is the "death scrolling" as I have dubbed that bizarre fascination with just scrolling your timeline feeds endlessly looking at all the things posted there. I know I have been using this for writing avoidance. P.R. has been trying to help me curb these bad habits but even the occasional helpful shout from the living room of "are you writing?" does not always keep me focused when cute puppy videos are plentiful.

I am determined to finish this book! Part seven, Into the West: Family Ties is coming along, but at such a painfully slow rate. I am very happy with how the story is unfolding and I think in part the pace is due to the fact I know there are no more books coming after this one. Because of this, I have to get everything in and how I want it before publishing. I cannot just add in something into the next book I missed in this one (as I have done before), because there will not be a next one. So where the stories just spilled out of me before in a stream of conscious kind of way, this time I am being much more thoughtful about the story. It is so not like me, and I don't really like it, but I'm doing it.

I think I may have decided what my next book will be. I have been thinking about a "not quite cozy" murder mystery with a slight paranormal twist to it. It's about a retired FBI profiler who suffered a psychotic break due to an episode involving psychometry, where they accidently picked up images from a piece of evidence collected from a serial killer's home. After medical treatment she goes back home to Kansas where she start an animal rescue ranch and tries to live a quiet life, but things do not always work out how you plan.

I have been wanting to write my autobiography about going through all of the brain surgeries and my recovery but I was kind of hoping for something really good with my writing to happen like hitting a paid bestseller on at least Amazon with one of my books. I've hit bestsellers lists for free books several times but I would really love to do it with one for paid books. I wanted to have a real high note to end my autobiography on. If I win the SHEro award this November, that would be a fantastic ending. We will see ...

I think that covers most of the updates for today. So if you have TikTok, please check us out there @burckhardt_books. I think I have all of our social media switched over to some variation of Burckhardt Books or Burckhardt Books Authors. I am trying not to keep posting the same exact thing on every platform so people have a reason to follow us on all of them. But it's just me creating content and writing so I do cross post the same things when I am short on time. Which, let's be honest, is most days.

Thanks for sticking with me, people! It's much appreciated!!!!

Now, go forth and be happy!

Dianne

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About Dianne:

Dianne Burckhardt, Award-Winning Indie Author
What is a Chiari Malformation, a Syrinx (Syringomyelia), and Hydrocephalus?
Want to know more about the host of Book Banter with Dianne Burckhardt (formerly Whatever Wednesday with Dianne burckhardt)? Check out Episode 1: Who Am I?