Taking it for granted...

I don't view myself as someone who's technologically-dependant.  Oh, sure; I never leave home without my smartphone - an iPhone 5s with a measly 12gb of memory - but it still rings and makes calls and connects to the internet when I need it to, so why upgrade?  And I have my original iPad - the one that only works with a WiFi connection, and a second generation Kindle.  Do you see a theme?

So, I had no intention of replacing my functioning (albeit a bit slowly, but, hey, I'm no spring chicken either) 8-year-old desktop anytime soon.  Apparently, Windows 10 had a different idea.  No longer able to support the updates that continuously buffetted her systems, last Sunday my Gateway decided she'd had enough and cloaked herself in the Blue Screen of Death.  No amount of cajoling, begging, or pleading on my part could convince her to change her mind, so off to the tech hospital she went.  It was touch-and-go for a few days, my hopes rising mid-week only to be dashed on Thursday by news that the old girl just couldn't handle the demands being placed on her.  Allowing her to retire gracefully seemed the right thing to do - she had, after all, been a faithful companion for well over her projected lifespan - and a shiny new Dell Inspiron was purchased to take her place.

Which brings me to the title of this post.  I take for granted that I can work whenever the mood hits and being unable to walk into my office and sit at my computer this past week has been stressful, to say the least.  Those seven days felt more like seven months, and it occurred to me that I'm as plugged-in as the rest of society.  Bringing home my new desktop last night filled me with a sense of contentment, and while I'm not enjoying the process of reinstalling 1439 fonts one file at a time, it felt great to wake up this morning and plop myself down in my well-worn chair and power up my shiny, new contraption.  Still, I think I'll wait awhile before I get a new phone.  Don't want to overload my circuits with too much new techy stuff to learn. 

Besides, these font files are keeping me busy... 

When my characters stop speaking to me...

I occupy my time by working on other book projects.  This week, it was redesigning the covers for the Hidden Springs series.  While I love the original versions, it was time for a makeover - a bit of freshening up, if you will.  After all, who doesn't love a new look now and then?

So, without further ado, I present to you the Hidden Springs series!!

Aren't they pretty?  I'm hoping new readers will think so too, and one-click one - or all - of them.  They're pretty great stories, or so I've heard!  Of course, I have an 'in' with the author!

Now that I can check this project off of my to-do list, it's time to get back to writing.  Hopefully, I can entice Finn and gang to come out and play, and crank out some words in my WIP.  Finn-agled is still on track to be released by the end of the year, so I'd better get to it!

For more information about Hidden Springs, or any of my books, please visit my website.

Now, back to my manuscript...

5 years...

Five years ago today, I sat down and began to write.  Eighteen days later, Here to Stay was born.  With the help of my friend and fellow author, Laramie Briscoe, the first novel in the Hidden Springs series made its debut two months later, and my life changed in ways I'd never imagined possible.

I've befriended people from around the country - and the world - who have since become family to me.  I've written seventeen stories and published fourteen books (Seasons of Love is a collection of four short stories).  I've attended author events in cities around the US that I otherwise would've never visited, and I've hosted two of my own.  I've expanded my vocabulary, brushed up on my punctuation and grammar skills (though I heartily recommend Grammarly as an additional tool), and photographed models for some of my covers.  I've counseled other authors in their moments of doubt and been blessed with the same from them during mine.  I've laughed, cried, and cursed; at times, swearing that I was never writing another word, only to turn around the next day and pound out four thousand of them on my keyboard.

I've received emails and messages from people who've cheered on my characters as they faced life's challenges; for a time, enjoying the escape from their own.  One reader (who's become a dear, dear friend) pestered me until I turned a stand-alone story, By Dawn's Early Light, into a trilogy because she wanted to read more about the town of Celebration and its inhabitants.  You're welcome, Barbara.

I've left my comfort zone in the dust and embraced new challenges (most of the time), have spoken up and asked for what I want; no longer afraid to hear the word 'no'.  I've grown as an author and as a person, and, most of the time, am proud of what I've accomplished.

Still, five years ago, when I envisioned what this day would look like, it wasn't this.  I've fallen short of almost every goal I've set for myself, sometimes due to personal reasons (surgery and the issues leading up to it sidelined me for close to a year) and sometimes due to my own lack of experience and motivation.  Sadly, time is the one thing I can't get back, and I've wasted more than my share over the past sixty months.  Wow, when I put it that way...

I'd like to say that I'll not waste a moment going forward, but I know that's not true.  I'll grow uninspired, frustrated, melancholy from time to time over lack of sales or missing a deadline and opt to binge watch a Netflix original rather than suck it up and write, but - and this is a very big but - I WILL NOT GIVE UP!!!  For better or worse, I'm an author.  Writing is in my blood.  It's in my breath and sweat and tears, and I'm going to achieve my version of success if it kills me!

So, here's to another five years.  Sixty months.  Two hundred and sixty point seven weeks (have to account for those extra 'leap year' days).  New goals.  New achievements.

Never giving up!