Year-End Ponderings 

I feel like I blinked and this year’s almost over. That being said, it seemed a good reason to look back over the year and ponder. My first thought was less than encouraging… there’s probably nothing that happened anyone would be interested in. It didn’t feel like an important or busy year. Instead, I was constantly trying to catch up with time, and the older I get the more I realize the futility of doing that.

Nostalgia kicked in and I vaguely remembered the abundant energy I had as a kid. I also recalled how long it took for an entire year to pass. It felt like forever! I desperately wanted to grow up, and it wasn’t happening fast enough. Until I graduated from high school… then time seemed to speed up incrementally each year, and then a bit faster each decade. I am now 55 and this year passed by in a blink.

As I pondered the year’s events, I realized that a lot happened in that blink, so let me begin with the final polishing of my first novel and publication on March 1/23 in paperback only. During those first three months we also listed our house and it sold the day before Sister Lost released on Amazon. All plans for a proper book launch went out the window as a house hunt began and took us all over two provinces. What should have been straightforward, became complicated as we searched for something that ticked off all of our necessary boxes.

The closing date arrived on March 21/23 and we had nowhere to go but a hotel. We placed our belongings in storage. This did take a heavy toll on my body and other things. On April 17th we moved into our new-to-us house in a small town 0f less than 500 people situated in south central Saskatchewan, very close to the US border. It then took another three months to get the necessary lifts installed so I can enter and exit the house in my wheelchair without my husband having to physically lower my wheelchair down each step.

During all of that, I stumbled on a software program called Atticus, which ended up being a lifesaver. I was able to use it to format and publish the ebook version of my debut novel on October 22/23. I thought for sure the ebooks would sell much faster than the paperback had, but that didn’t happen. I had some expectation for sales that I thought were reasonable, but as the year progressed those numbers became a pipe dream.

There was a pleasant surprise in the opportunities that were granted to me to be a guest speaker on four different podcasts: three in North America and one in the UK. I also was privileged to be a virtual speaker at “The Royal Warriors Conference,” which allowed me to share why Cerebral Palsy doesn’t define who I am and enabled me to share my novel as it deals with the historical treatment of people with disabilities in Canada from 1880 – 2000. I look forward to further speaking opportunities next year.

I confess to being a social media and marketing newbie. It’s not something I want to do and that’s being entirely honest. If I could afford to pay someone to do it for me, I would, but disability pensions only go so far. With hyperinflation rising to ridiculous levels, it’s not stretching as far as it used to. I’m not complaining, only stating facts. In a perfect world, I would simply write and have a team of people to do the rest. But that requires consistent book sales and I am not there yet.

So, what have I learned this year? Being an author is a marathon and not a sprint. Having one book published isn’t enough. I have more ideas for books than I know what to do with, but I have my goals set for 2024. This post is much longer than I anticipated, so I will save those goals and share them in my next blog post the first week of January.

Last but not least, I want to thank all of my followers and readers. I couldn’t do any of this without your support and encouragement. I have plans to get to know you all better through virtual events TBA. So, I wish you a Happy New Year 2024. Here’s to more goals being met and dreams achieved as I toast you with the words instead of champagne.