A New Year and New Determination

 Welcome, readers! I've been fighting some uphill battles lately, but my determination to keep writing still burns within me. I've been up to a few things and trying to prioritize them better so I can keep my readers informed on a regular basis like I used to do. Keep reading for more!

Grab a cup of your favorite warm beverage and let's chat. 

I've been feeling things were getting kind of stale in my blog. I really dislike keeping things to such a rigid format, but it does help me keep track of the things I want to share with you. The fact that I'm still on such a strict budget hasn't helped matters much, but things may be looking up.

My health has taken an interesting turn. Looks like I'll be cutting more foods from my diet. I'm trying the carnivore diet for now, as recommended by my NP. We'll see. So far, I've lost probably ten pounds since the trouble started up again. I'm super concerned because of the lack of variety in my diet. Please pray for me to be able to find a workable solution. For now, I'm keeping a health and wellness journal to see which foods I'm struggling with and which I'm not. I'm also tracking my weight.

I started keeping a planner. It's going OK. I'm not set in the habit yet, so it's still a work in progress. I do like this planner, though. My sister gave it to me two Christmases ago, but I'd already prepped a different one. So this is the year for the Go Girl planner. If you want to check them out, you can find them on Amazon. (They aren't paying me, just so you're aware.) 

Spartacus is still doing cat things - eating, sleeping, and causing mayhem. I need to make a pie chart. 😆 

This year, I plan to release Surge. The original plan (last year at this time) was to have it out by now, but with my health issues, as well as some life issues popping up often, it's been difficult to sit down with it. I also plan to run a quick re-edit of Ripples before re-releasing it in print. And all The Tale of Outh'n Durr needs before it can be put into print circulation is for me to fine tune the cover. These three goals are my biggies for the year. 

For now, you can see periodic update/writer's life posts on my Instagram, Facebook, X, and Litsy profiles. The last one is only for sharing about the books you're reading. I've found it (Litsy) helpful to keep me on social media in a way that doesn't overwhelm me. 

Another thing I'm going to be checking out is a new email service to send out my newsletters. I think I've found one that is flat rate and will allow me the creativity I want so everything will match beautifully. 

My box was getting pretty stale, so I stepped outside it for a few and entered the cover of Ripples into a cover art contest at Clean Fiction Magazine. I also subscribed to the magazine, hoping to find some interesting short stories in various genres to pass the time. It's hard to find decent, clean fiction, but I think it's becoming easier and I'm so happy! I might even decide to enter the short story contest they're running now. We'll see... 

And last, but not least, I attended an online summit last week. I learned so much! Interestingly, it was mostly focused on romance writing, but there were a lot of important points writers in any genre should know, as well as some handy tips and tricks. It's actually where I found out about the new email service I'm checking into. 

I'm so glad you're still reading my blog posts, even though I haven't been able to post regularly. I hope you'll keep checking back for new posts. 

Until next time,

Keep turning pages...