I took a look today at how far behind I have gotten with my publishing.

I have several short stories out that are only in electronic (and some in audio too) form. I also have a whole bunch that need to either be out “in the mail” submitting for magazines or published. That doesn’t even include the two books that are nearly ready to go and just need some final touches.

Then there’s my website and my Etsy page. Egads!

I definitely need to rearrange some things. I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on writing (which is important, don’t get me wrong), but it needs to get out to readers as well.

So, some things have got to change. Yes, I’ve been working on that, but I really think I need to allow myself dedicated time to do that. Which is going to be interesting considering my current life. (grin) I know how I want things to be, but I also know that wish and reality are two different things. I have some good things in place — yes, I went and actually bought the digital timer today and it’s counting down on my blog writing time right now, so I will have to be absolutely strict with my time (more on that below), and I have my scorecard system, and a calendar. I also need to get a grip of where I’m at with everything — how far behind am I on my publishing, on my website, etc. Now, I’ll take it slowly. I hope I can get to the point where I can plan a week at a time for what I’m going to do, but right now, for this next week at least, I’m going to just go one day at a time. I’m going to try really hard to not overbook myself. But I also don’t want to not stretch myself and find myself getting distracted or just not getting things done.

I did get my bookkeeping done from the show. It’s good to have that current. I also ordered more books. I still have a few other things to order, and a few more books to do as well (but I have some corrections to make before I order them).

I also worked on a cover for a new short story — one of the ones that has been written and just needs published. I sat down to start on it at about 3 o’clock this afternoon. It may have been a little bit later than that, but it wasn’t after 4. I knew it would take time to find art and I did some research on covers in the genre. And it did. I tried about 5 different mock up covers before I found a piece I liked. Then I tinkered with it and came up with a really nice looking cover (or I think it is). I bought the art and put the cover together. When I was done, it was almost 8 o’clock. Okay, I admit that creating book covers for me is fun and playful. I usually stumble upon my cover when I mess something up. Today it was more of a What if scenario. But, it took the whole afternoon practically and into the evening. I probably should have given myself two hours to play and then made myself move on to something else. Granted, sometimes that makes my creative voice very angry to be forced to stop playing (and I think Temmy is a little terror!). But I’d been hoping to get some art in today, which is no longer going to happen because I gave myself free rein for the book cover. (Okay, Boss, but don’t you think that designing covers and drawing are both pretty artsy? — Don’t make me pull this car over!) But that’s the predicament I find myself in repeatedly.

We’ve all seen how I need to be doing something consistently. But when I just give myself leeway to use my time as I please, I get led astray far too often. I need a better structure. Not that I can’t stray from that a bit. My timer went off several minutes ago for the end of my blog writing time, but here I am continuing because I just need to finish this up. I’m also very aware of the time since it went off. I do notice that it makes me speed up and not linger so much.

Well, this is still all a work in process, but at least I’m being more aware of my habits and trying to adjust them to work for me. After 15 years of doing this, it’s about time. (grin)

Cheers.