Two Years and a New Book Later

Hello Everyone,

It's been an awfully long time. Again. I have wanted to start a post so many times, but then just felt overwhelmed with the task.**

First of all, for those of you who haven't heard, YES! Copper, the second book in The Glister Journals, is at long last out and available in both ebook and paperback. Why did it take so long? That's harder to explain.

Second, as many of you know, I am autistic. I make no secret of this and I don't use it as an excuse, but if you know anything about autism, it might help in understanding my difficulties.

Bronze, the first book, was written and edited in just over three years. It was my primary focus (okay, obsession) for that entire time and beyond, and seemed so easy to write. For reasons I don't remember, I didn't start on Copper right away but continued to make notes and do research as I also continued to tweak Bronze; nothing major but tightening up and cutting somewhat. Marketing and promoting took up most of my bandwidth in the years following and is still a very difficult to understand topic for me. I wish I could afford to pay someone else to do it, but I can't.

Once I finally put pen to paper (yes, I like most of my first draft to flow through an actual pen), Copper also flowed easily, for the most part. But Copper goes a little more deeply into difficult topics, which I'm still conflicted about. Did I handle them okay? Will people understand? I had a fantastic critique partner for the first half of the book, where most of that difficulty lay, and their ideas, reactions, and opinions helped immeasurably. Then stuff happened and I wasn't able to write much and time kept going by and I lost them. I also had friends who were able to correct and clarify some things for me later, but for the most part it felt a little like writing in a vacuum, which is never good. The second half of the book was actually finished many years ago, but then a series of protracted events prevented me from doing anything about it. I simply couldn't focus at all.

**I'd forgotten I'd already written about most of the things that happened from 2019 to the beginning of 2021 in another post, and I wrote about them all again. So I'm glad I checked on previous posts! If you didn't read that one and are curious, it's HERE.

Catching up to today: Summer 2021 I was packing and planning for the move. My daughter chose to move to Seattle, so we got her situated first, then I was driving with my cat and a car full of instruments cross-country to Minnesota.

That was November 2021. I began riding again that December, but otherwise I really just tried to relax and recover from years of non-stop, overwhelming stress. And just make it through my first Minnesota winter. Last fall I began substitute teaching (because I still need to work) which is incredibly tiring and very stressful, so I'm looking for other options. I still have music students I teach online but I'm working on something completely new because I'd really like to be able to only work from home.

I'm determined to start the first draft of Silver, the 3rd Glister Journals book, before summer is over, and if possible concurrently write at least parts of book 4. What I really need right now are reviews for Copper. If you've read it already, would you consider leaving a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads and/or other booksellers? If you haven't, I'd like to make this offer: If you have read and reviewed Bronze and would like an epub of Copper, please send/leave me a link to the Bronze review and I will send you a free copy. If you are someone I've gotten to know a bit better, you can just ask and I'll gladly send you a copy.

If you can afford to buy either book, that helps even more. Bronze is available right now for only .99 cents. It's not the money involved, but each sale makes the book more visible and will pop up on more searches for new readers. THAT is what helps the MOST. If you read and like either book, please spread the word. I care about these books deeply, but promoting and marketing is a language I just don't seem to be able to understand. I desperately need some grass-roots help!

So that's where I am today. If you've read all the way to the end, thank you. If you've skimmed to the end, I totally understand. I know a lot of people only followed me because of giveaways. I may do some from time to time, but I won't be able to all the time. If I review a good book on Goodreads, I'll post it here. Otherwise, I will try to update on at least a semi-annual basis. Also, apologies for not updating the The Glister Journals website. It just takes a level of time and concentration I simply haven't had. I will get to it eventually.

For those of you who have hung in there with me, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Every time I hear of someone liking my books, it encourages and inspires me so much and makes it all worthwhile!