Author Journey: March 3, 2023 - Getting Back to Joy

 Welcome back readers and writers! I'm happy to have you here today. I've got a few things to share with you, including a little video of Spartacus. It's harder to catch him doing super cute things these days. He does love to play, though. Let me just get started.

Author Journey: Getting Back to Joy in Writing

Faithful readers will know I've been fighting my way through a seriously bad slump. Though I've kept on writing, the joy had drained away from the work. Not only had I cut all my social media back to the bare minimum, losing many writer connections, I also seriously kicked myself out of the loop of what's been happening on the business side. 

While I won't recommend that to just anyone, I did have a need to do it. Much of the feed was becoming overrun with political sludge from all sides and, frankly, that wasn't what I wanted to see. The mental drag on me was painfully obvious. I miss my author friends from IG, but I do try to keep an eye out for anything they publish. 

With the improvement in our circumstances comes a higher probability of getting books published more often. That's a nice little bright spot in my author journey. I still have to find a print company. I hope I don't have to go with Ingram Spark because it seemed so expensive the last time I looked into it. They also seemed to price the books higher than I wanted my customers to have to spend on them.  I'll keep looking. I was able to watch a video by another indie author who was new to me. She uses Ingram Spark for her print books. I'm going to have to re-watch Mandi Lynn's series on print-on-demand companies. I'll link to just one of her videos on the topic here.

I said all that to say this. I'm finally coming out of my slump. I'm excited about working on my writing again. I'm making new writing friends and cherishing the few old ones who've stuck with me. Things are looking up and it's all due to God that I can appreciate the change. 

Writer's Life: Getting Back to Joy in Living Day-to-Day

I wasn't just in a slump where my writing was concerned. My whole life seemed like someone had slid the dimmer switch to half-light. Things weren't totally dark, but it felt burdensome, almost, moving from day to day. Do you ever walk through life that way, not realizing it is that way until it changes? That's what happened to me. 

In any case, I feel so much lighter right now and I'm treasuring it. I know beyond doubt good and bad days cycle around. But I'm going to treasure this space to breathe, and create, and live. 

Over the last three years, we lost several family members, dealt with scary global situations and reactions, joined and left a church, started a couple of Bible study groups in our home, joined a new church for about three weeks and left that one, took in two kittens and lost one, lost a really good dog to old age, and watched my parents struggle as they learn to cope with some changes they've had to make. 

Things are finally looking up, though, and I'm so excited to see what God's going to do during this period of joy and energetic work. (Energetic...she types as she's slouched in the desk chair, exhausted from prepping blog posts and collecting clip art elements for future projects...😂) 

I'm excited about are hosting the Bible studies in our home. That's really helped me grow in knowledge of the word of God. We also have a plan to pay down our debt within a reasonable amount of time, too. That would improve things for most people, I think. And we are seeing God working in those around us. It's been pretty amazing, actually. 

Alright. I promised a video of Spartacus. I can hardly believe he'll be a year old in a few weeks. 

He's recently discovered where we've been storing his toys. He'll fish them out now and it's super cute. I might be able to catch a video of that in the future. I hope you enjoy the video clip!

Just Keep Writing: Friday Fascicles

It's that's time again! Here's the final prompt for the week. 

If this is your first time participating in this kind of writing exercise, you're in for a treat. If you've done this with me before, just keep scrolling for the prompt.

Rules:

1. You can use any/all of the words and/or the photo in the prompt below to create a unique written work. Fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, even lyrics are acceptable.  
2. Please keep the material you write clean (ie. nothing R-rated or worse) if you wish to share the link to your work here, as well as if you link back to my site. I strive to keep my site free of such things. My readers know and expect this. I respect your right to write whatever you feel you need to write. And you're free to use my prompts. But if your material is graphic, I'd rather not view it, and most of my readers will not wish to. 
3. Have fun! This type of exercise is perfect for growing in the writing craft, or for helping through a rough patch in your current WIP. If you're looking to push your author limits and you normally write in nonfiction prose, try a whimsical collection of lyrics. If you normally write poems about real life events, try your hand at a fanfic. Give yourself some room to explore.

Don't forget to leave a link to your creation (unless you're writing graphic material) so my readers and I can check out your work. I'd appreciate a link back to this post to help me reach more readers, but it's not required. 

Photo by Julia Fuchs

If you haven't visited Julia's photo gallery on Pexels.com yet, what are you waiting for? There's such a nice variety, you're sure to find something which speaks to you. 

Thanks so much for taking the time to read. I'm sorry I didn't have a short story for you today, but I hope to have one next week. I've also got something exciting to share with you in next Friday's post, too. Please do visit again!

Until next time,
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