Happy book anniversary, Rachel and the Mighty Arm that Built Egypt!

I know a lot of people call this the book “birthday”… but it seems to me it was birthed before it was published, soooooo I’m just gonna go with anniversary. It’s hard to believe a year has passed already, yet it feels a looooong time ago that I released Rachel and the Mighty Arm that Built Egypt. Time is weird.

In honor of RATMATBE’s anniversary I’m running a special free promo for the kindle version of the book. If you haven’t read it yet, now is an excellent opportunity to do so at no cost to you. If you want me to make money on the book you can still buy the paperback, read it on Kindle Unlimited (which won’t cost you any extra if you already pay for the service), or wait for the ebook to go back to regular price on Tuesday.

I thought I’d have the sequel and the final book of the trilogy out by now, but neither book is complete. Until I’ve kept you waiting as long as you’ve waited for George R. R. Martin I don’t wanna hear you complain. (Okay, you can complain a little.) Lots of life has happened in the last year to slow me down, distract me, and sometimes discourage me. But that’s okay. Slow doesn’t mean never. Distracted doesn’t mean forgotten. Discouraged doesn’t mean given up completely. Because I still personally love the story—and after an entire year the reviews are all good from readers—of course Rachel’s story is still going to be finished.

I’ve been working on other (unfinished) projects, though.

These projects include a couple of non-fiction holiday books (ways to make every day special and add a little more fun to any and all holidays) and a few middle grade books that lean towards fantasy. If I can get all of my “in the works” projects completed I’ll have quite the catalog of work! I’m hoping to find my way back to a steadier writing schedule soon, which leads to more consistent output. Wish me luck and bear with me as it takes me time to complete everything!

“It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled
It’s been a long time since I did the Stroll
Oh let me get it back let me get it back
Let me get it back baby where I come from

It’s been a long time been a long time
Been a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely time
Yes it has”

-Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin

Tap, tap, tap. Is this thing on?

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog post. Again. Yes, again. Only the last time I said it had been a while it had only been a month since I’d blogged, and this time it’s been five months.

Oops.

I’m not making any promises this time about how I’m going to try hard to blog more regularly. I’ve got a few blog ideas. I’ve got things I could share that would explain my long absence from blogging. Maybe I’ll write those blogs. And maybe I won’t. Like I said, I’m not promising anything.

When I started blogging I did so because I thought that’s what I had to do as a writer. There are just things you have to do as a writer. Like Twitter. Writers have to tweet and blog.

But do they?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not deleting my blog or my Twitter account. I’m just saying if I’m not doing great keeping up with the blog and when I tweet no one really cares, why am I doing this? Both these things take energy. And isn’t my energy better spent writing another book instead of blogging and tweeting into the wind?

Maybe I can still do all three. I see other [super human] people who do. Lots of those people are parents, too, or have other full-time jobs. They must have 30 hours in a day instead of the regular 24 I’ve been given. Maybe all the time-turners weren’t destroyed, Hermione. I don’t know. Whatever it is—however they do it—they have my respect.

So maybe I’ll blog again soon. Or maybe I’ll see you in 5 months. 

“You live in a dream; you manufacture illusions.”

-Tennessee Williams

As the days march on from that first one where I clicked “publish” on Kindle Direct Publishing, it feels less and less real. I thought it would be the opposite—the more time that passed since publishing Rachel and the Mighty Arm that Built Egypt, I thought it would feel more real, more concrete, more natural, more like, “Of course I wrote a book. I’m a writer.” But instead I feel more detached, more like it was a fluke, more like it was a mistake, more like it’s not real.

I just clicked to enlarge the image of my cover on Goodreads. “Wow,” I thought, “that looks like a cool book.” Not my cool book. Just a book someone wrote. Me? Logically I know that I did, but I’m back to feeling that paralyzing fear of failure, that writing books is too big… even though I’ve already done it.

I’ve got partial outlines and an absurd amount of notes on the two sequels I have planned for Rachel and the Mighty Arm that Built Egypt. I’ve also got three partially written non-fiction books that I meant to have finished by October.

That’s not going to happen now.

Forgive me the cliché, but… life has gotten in the way. My health has been awful all summer. With the stall in my writing due to my health, the seed of self-doubt has had time and room to grow again. I’m well practiced in self-doubt, self-sabotage, and low self-esteem. The struggle is not deciding I’m a failure just because I’ve had a setback.

This is me just being real.

I really do love my book, too. And I know I’ve got so many more books in me, but right now I’m feeling stuck. There are so many other stressors in life and there’s my poor health. I want to pretend like all of the world doesn’t exist and wake up feeling well and just write book after book. Unfortunately the stress of life adversely effects my already poor health. So I’m just struggling through each day. Not even opening up a word document to work on my books. Writing a blog post once a month. Hardly posting on any social media. Wondering when/if I’ll finish what I’ve said I would. Feeling like a fake and a failure. Staring at the beautiful cover of my published book. Hoping it’s really mine.

You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy books and that’s kind of the same thing.

-Anonymous

I haven’t posted a blog for a while, and  I’ve been feeling terribly guilty about it, so I figured now was as good a time as any to post. Today I got another five star review on amazon. It fills me with giddy anticipation every time I see someone new has rated my book. I am simultaneously excited and horrifically nauseated as I scroll down to see what my latest reader has to say. Fortunately, so far folks are really enjoying my book. And I have no problem admitting that makes this author feel extremely validated.

I know reviews aren’t everything. We all have different tastes in books. Heck, we have different reasons for reading books. Rachel and the Mighty Arm that Built Egypt might not be your ideal. But it thrills me to know that so far folks like it.

My hope is Rachel and the Mighty Arm that Built Egypt becomes that book that maybe not everyone has heard of yet but you recommend to friends and family. Do you have those books? Or is that just me? I try to find those special books that might not have gone supernova mainstream yet and share them with my loved ones who have similar tastes.

Lately I’ve been recommending almost anything by Charlie N. Holmberg. I generally start with The Paper Magician, but most recently I picked up a copy of The Fifth Doll as a gift for a cousin. I think the thing that makes a great book is the writer’s voice, and Charlie’s writer voice is clear and easy to follow. Her stories are fresh and creative as well.

I’ve also gifted and recommended more than one copy of the first of the Island of Fog books by Keith Robinson (and gotten folks hooked on the series, thank you very much). I had the treat to beta read for Keith on two of the books in the series. Such a fun set of books, especially for those of us who love mythical creatures and daring adventures.

For fellow Disney nuts, I wholeheartedly recommend The Disneyland Quest and its sequels. Author Matt Ainsworth knows Disneyland top to bottom and his descriptions make you feel like you’re in the park.

And then there’s The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson. I’ve lost count of how many loved ones with whom I’ve shared that delightful book. It’s such a fun fantasy, and I read somewhere it was one of the books which inspired J.K. Rowling to write Harry Potter.

Thank you, readers, for the wonderful, thoughtful reviews and support! And if my book becomes one of those books you share and recommend with the folks most special to you, thank you for that, as well.