Dating as a international author: Step 1

Words: 5,600
Time: 1:30 pm - 1:30am (3 hrs of breaks)
Mood: Good
Impression: Ummm... does it matter? Good I guess

It's been a while since I've blogged. I'm doing it today as penance. I was supposed to finish my story today but lost steam. I probably have a 800 words left, but it's the hardest 800 words and I think I'll leave it for tomorrow.

I will resist the urge to beat myself up about it. It just means that now I have to work through Christmas. Tiny Tim will just have to do without their father for Christmas. But hey, I already wasted a bunch of time by being sick for almost a week and trying to get my books translated into German and Spanish as well as getting my books onto an Indian Amazon styled website. (It seems that my book 'Everybody Masturbates' is already on the site. So, I guess that makes me an international writer. :-) )

I have to say that either the euphoria of being a full time writer is wearing off or since the fact that I've only gone out into the sun twice in about 3 weeks, I might be running low on my stock of vitamin D. I don't think that I mentioned here that I was deficient for years without knowing it leading to what was a pretty miserable life most of the time. But once I got on it, everything became brighter.

I think I was over doing it for too long and my body was having a strange reaction that I couldn't explain. But then after I got off of it for a few weeks it went away. It could just be coincidence but probably not. But my spark is starting to dim a little so now, I'm back on the buggers. It is going to take a few weeks before I get back to my sparky normal.

I am glad to say that I have cut back on the amount of work that I've been doing since December. I no longer work 15 hours a day 6 to 7 days a week. I now work between 10 & 12 hours 7 days a week. It isn't quite as harsh but I'm still definitely wearing down. Tonight for example. I couldn't write a simple 6,500 word story in one sitting. I did it with my last story, but I just couldn't today.

And because I haven't only published 3 stories so far this month, my sales haven't risen as they could have. They're up, but only by $10 a day instead of the $20 that I had hoped. Also, I was hoping to have 30 books done by the end of this month but I will be lucky if I have 27. Remember 30 is the magic number. After that everything turns into candy canes and rainbows. It's magical! But I guess I will have to complete it some time in January. My plan was to take 3 weeks off starting on Dec 20th. But if I can't get my work done, I can't play outside with the other kids.

I have instead decided that I will take my break after I've completed my 30th book. After that I will take 3 weeks off. During that time I think I'll write another book called: '10 things that every kid should know before 18... and how to teach them.'

It will be a book about what I truly believe every kid should know before they turn 18. And not cutsie things. Real things that help to make an adult's life better and easier. These are things that schools don't think to teach and most parents don't know so that can't teach it. It is sort of my penance for wasting my skills earning a living writing erotica. I have a lot of penances to pay off. Wow, I must really be a horrible person.

I think after that book, I'm back to work on my erotic short stories. After I write another 30 I will allow myself another break. During that break, I will start making serious plans for writing my YA books. It is starting to come together in my head. These are my legacy books. I'm never sure how much time I have left in my life. But these are the books that I will leave behind and say, look, this is what I did with my life. Judge me on it.

I have noticed a sad thing though. With my current stories, every time I wrote a story that I was sure was going to do well, it did really poorly. So I have to write something that might do well, but that I am not sure will do well. It's too bad that what I consider my best stuff, everyone else feels blah about. But hey, all of the stuff I thought was OK at best is earning me a living. Since I rarely love anything I write, it bodes well for me to continue making a living.

I guess I should probably also mention something that's happening in my personal life. Well, I made a promise to a friend of mine that now that my financial woes are lifting I will start dating. What I promised her was that the next time I went out to a group thing with strangers, I was going to ask someone out for coffee. I was actually at something a few weeks ago that had a ton of beautiful women at it, but it wasn't the right place for scoping.

But soon everything will be right and I will again have a dating life. Do you like the way I said that as if I ever had a dating life? I dated more as a 22 year old than I ever did in my 30's. I'm not sure why that is. I guess beautiful women stopped expressing an interest in me. Oh course, I meet less black women now. That might have had something to do with my ease of dating back then. Hmmm... something to think about.