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A Day in the Life of an Indie Author

I have to tinker with the Lulu jacket for the third or fourth time and add 20 pages to the manuscript as books with less than 80 pages aren't eligible for global distribution, even though kids' books are normally only like 40 pages. The jacket and manuscript are perfect at Amazon and BookVault, but Lulu distributes through IngramSpark's network, which is vastly superior. So here I am, revising a finished book and redoing a finished jacket, just to appease the industry gods. Then they'll charge me for another round of proof copies before approval for distribution. And somewhere, someone is bitching about how authors like me don't deserve to profit from our writing because we paid $30 to Midjourney instead of $300 to an artist. Six hours later: She did not work on the manuscript or the jacket all day. Instead, she made stupid fucking pixel art memes, chicken and dumplings, and a detailed business plan for upscaling Carolina Moon Tarot into a luxury brand. Time for F...
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The Publishing Journey

     As soon as the idea came to me, sometime in February, I knew that I had to write it, but I put it on the back burner to focus on more practical and pressing matters: housework, making money, etc. One of my favorite YouTubers said something that struck a chord in me, "You're going to be stuck forever" (if you don't act on your goals and dreams now). The next time the inspiration nagged at me, I instinctively tried to shove the idea back into a drawer for later, and a funny thing happened: I heard her say that line in my head. Again, I tried to tell myself that I had other, more important things to do, and again, I heard her voice calling me out, "That's a scarcity mindset." So I sat down and wrote the first draft, and then I cried because I had finally done it, finally written a children's book as I'd always dreamt of doing--and finally found my voice.     Writing the book was the easy part. As a survivor of trauma myself, I knew already what...
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Hello, world!

It's been many years since I kept a blog, and I thought it might be a good way to connect with readers and build a loyal audience. As I get older, I find myself doing a lot of reflection but not a lot of talking or writing, and it seems like a waste of good ideas, although it has been a peaceful break from mining my own imagination for content. College was so much reading and writing that after four years I felt completely burnt out on literature. I didn't want anything at all to do with books, which are impossible to avoid as an English major because everyone insists on gifting us books for birthdays and Christmas! I've written precious little and read maybe a handful of books since graduating five years ago, most of which were audiobooks. I have been busy weathering some tough life challenges and keeping my family afloat financially, which doesn't leave much time or energy for creative pursuits. Things are improving now that my oldest son is working full-time and help...
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