One of the best movies I ever watched was Mr. Holland’s Opus. The quote “Life is what happens to you when you’re making other plans” really stood out to me. The roller coaster ride I’ve been on for the last two years was precipitated by a massive flashback/memory recall that made me question everything about my life. It sent me into a spin that now, after having processed through this new information for two years, I’m only beginning to understand just how much it changed not only my own internal image of myself but also my ability to cope with life on life’s terms.
I basically took off months to go finish up at community college so I can begin pursuing my Bachelor’s at a four year school. I’ll begin my journey toward my Bachelor’s in the Fall. An accomplishment, finally, one that I wasn’t sure I could ever achieve. It would be so easy to just tell myself to forget it. My books never sold well. They sold a few copies. Some people read them. I didn’t get any feedback. Didn’t really succeed at anything by all the measurements currently being used. And all of that is true. But this began as an experiment during the pandemic. I wanted to be published and I am! Being a published author was one of my dreams and I made that come true.
Kindle changed the file format and requirements for formatting a manuscript. This new format they’re using is so much easier and faster! So much less processing time and mess to wade through. However, I’ll need to learn how to make it what it needs to be – page size and margins and fonts, oh my! – to meet their publication criteria. My hope was to get it published in May but a funeral took that possibility out of consideration. My new goal is June.
I’m learning so much about writing and publishing doing this and it’s been so much fun but my life has gotten busier post-pandemic. I was basically retired then after a 36 year career in caregiving. I had a steady income that was sufficient and life was decent. But retirement didn’t fulfill me. That prompted me to go back to school to pursue literature and art. I’m hoping to learn more and get better at all of this that I’m just playing with right now. In addition, life threw some hard hits at me and it took time and a lot of energy to process through all of that. Getting diagnosed with Osteoarthritis and another autoimmune disorder took away the time I had to push Dorian 2 off the 10 meter board and into the publication pool. The updates Amazon is making are really beneficial. Updating the platform they use allows authors to self-publish with the best quality and most ease. I can’t argue that most of their updates are spot on. But it takes time and initiative to learn how to use those new platforms to make changes that may seem too small to matter but will directly affect how the book looks when the finished product is done. It’s not a completely new type of document but rather one that’s existed for decades so finding this information shouldn’t be hard or cost money. It’ll just take time.
I don’t know how many dedicated readers I have after not publishing the follow-up to Dorian 1 in a timely manner. I appreciate all who have stuck around and come back to check on things. I love your dedication to story. Dorian’s growth in this coming book is important because he’s assuming a throne he doesn’t want with responsibilities he never desired. In order to be the person he wants to be, to make the impact he hopes to make, he’ll need to grow into his new role. Those decisions will help Rossyn and the rest of their royal friends to stave off the coming disaster as, across the Dragon Mountains, evil is just beginning to reach out the weapon that could change the future of Krel entirely.
I hope that a couple weeks with my internet connection, restored after recent storms went through my area, will get me the information I need to transform the manuscript in the required ways to meet publication standards and then I’ll be able to push publish and get Dorian’s big finish out into the world. That will complete volume two of That Girl From Crestival series. That would be three accomplishments that I can be proud of.
W. M. Tag Writes 