So, just things in General

I'm thinking I'm going to start posting here a little more often, at least for the upcoming month. January and early February are always a bit rough for me, not as bad now as when I lived further north, but SADD (or whatever it's spelt like) does effect me, and while December is always busy with family and holidays and such, January isn't. So things do set in.

Probably the biggest side effect for me in this is that it really slows down my writing and my productivity at creative pursuits. So starting a new book at the beginning of the year is a difficult task. Add to that, that I am always slow in the first few chapters and it's been a bit rough getting started. I'm barely through chapter two in the new book, but at least I've got a lot of the later chapters already scripted in my head.

Now I just have to get there.

On the other side of things, it does bother me that the sequel to Interregnum isn't going anywhere. It's low priority simply because I know I'm going to lose money on it. It's more of a 'passion' book than a money maker, and when all of your work needs to bring in a decent return, it's hard to justify something that you know you will be losing money on.

However, I may have hit on a way to make it pay. Simply put, I'm thinking that I will write about a chapter a month in that story, and I'll put it on my patreon page. I'll make it available to everyone who pays at least a dollar a month to read. Yes, that means that it will probably take close to two years to write, but at least it gets written and people get to read it. Then, when it's done I'll just put it up for sale on Amazon for everyone else who might be interested.

I would of course still be making my weekly posts of my current projects, this would be something separate. Anyway, it's an idea that I'm thinking about. I'll float it by a few places and see what people think.

Also we've started to look for a new house. California is really too expensive for a writer to live, and while the increasingly 'hard on gun owners soft on criminal' laws have been pissing me off (along with the ever increasing tax burden) the whole 'banning' of all shopping bags really just put it over the top. There were no reasons to do that, well no scientific or logical ones, and it just proves that morons are running the show here, and it's time to go before they ban toilet paper (you laugh, but it's coming, that or something equally stupid, trust me. The power hungry never are satisfied and once they start with the stupid shit, it always goes downhill fast).

Nevada is looking promising. I'd like to go further east, but there are reasons to not go so far (namely my other half has been told that their employer will continue to employ them if they move to a particular area in Nevada). Plus we like to go to the air races every September and there are a few other things we go to Nevada for as well (and no, not gambling).

However, I really hate moving. Selling and buying houses is a nightmare, and I honestly hope I never have to do it again. I also am really tired of moving. I have moved a lot since I left college, and I have lived all over the country, and I've had to travel a lot for work. Part of why I was happy to quit my day job and go to full time writing. I got tired of spending weeks at a time away from home.

Back on the work front, I'm trying to learn how to do marketing. Most of my sales success had little to do with my appalling lack of marketing ability. So now, I'm trying to expand my readership and reach new people by actually engaging in advertising. The problem is, I really don't know where to do it, or how to best reach my target audience. Hopefully I'll learn. I'm also trying to push the audiobooks, because I've been told that they won't do another one until sales hit a certain level. And the people who did them did such a nice job, I want them to make money too.

I really need to learn how to market better :-)

And for all of those who have responded to me, either here or by email, on the cover question, thank you!