It is slap-you-across-the-face, completely unreasonably cold outside. This is even worse than the winter of 2014 when I found myself traipsing around what felt like all of Austin’s city parks, inspecting them for flood damage as part of my job back then. I remember it because it was just after Frozen came out and everyone had a great time blaming Elsa for the terrible coldness that struck Texas at that time.
My girls’ school shut down early Thursday and stayed closed Friday and today, so I’ve been a full-time mom ever since. I’m typing this as fast as I can because my toddler will periodically jump into the chair behind me and grab my hair like a horse’s reins and tug with her tiny-human strength…sooo speed!
Good things are happening.
Book 1 is off with the editor for the very last edit before it’s ready for typesetting, which I learned today that I might have to do myself. Yippee! I’ll also be spending as much time as possible learning about marketing my book, which includes probably spending an obscene amount of time on social media which–I’m not gonna lie–I’m not excited about. It’s so easy to get distracted and lose focus. But I’m turning to a self-publishing resource that I’ve learned a lot from for some concrete to-dos. Also, I’ve been working with the cover designer that I hired to draft the cover design for Book 1; we are getting close, but I wonder if I’m being too picky about some things. I hope not. I sketched a cover concept for her to refer to, and I think it’s pretty epic. Feast your eyes:
There’s some amazing stuff happening on your screen just above this paragraph…
Yeah, drawing is not my strength, but maybe there’s some rich person out there who is also crazy and actually thinks this is art and could be my patron…?!? Hey, I can dream.
Bottom line for Book 1: I’m still on schedule for an end-of-March launch date.
I sent Book 2 off for the very first round of developmental editing! This is the BIG edit service where the editor will read the manuscript and provide very detailed feedback regarding the story; I’m both excited and nervous about the feedback that will come out of this, especially since I did a major rewrite of book 2 right before I sent it off.
Alright, that’s a decent update for now! The toddler is now upstairs and is way too quiet; I need to go see what’s happening.
Sending good vibes to you. You got this!
Thanks, Martin!!