Diane Keaton is one of my favorites and this song is lovely and sad and I’m so happy she’s done this… She inspires me because she’s still trying new things, doing new things, exploring new things at the age of 78. She’s always had her own style (I mean, the polka dots!! and the hats!!!), embraced her own quirks and lived her life, by all accounts, on her terms. I hope to be more like that over the next 24 years of my life…
Miranda Lambert has a new album out and it has been on repeat on Spotify for me since it came out on Friday, September 13th.
It is so great. I have all the song lyrics memorized. it’s classic Miranda and yet it’s not. Her last 3 albums… Wildcard, Palomino, and now Postcards from Texas have been her best ones and I have listened to her since her very first album, Kerosene. She’s grown, she’s changed, she’s been through so much, and her music always reflects it. She’s one of my favorite artists, one of my favorite songwriters, and her music has helped me write so many books, and so many short stories.
I’ve been revising an older novella and have been listening to this album through the process. I had to drive to Charlotte over the weekend and it’s about an hour forty-five from my house here in western South Carolina. I listened to the album in the car all the way there. Twice. That’s how much I love it.
One of the things about these endurance races is that they keep me in a seat… The desk, the dining room table, the couch, the chair on the porch… And the more I’m in a seat, the more writing I am likely to do. I don’t want to miss any part of the race, and I want to get words in because I want to finish at least one of these books. There are 4 that need to be finished and finished before May. There are personal and professional reasons for that.
So, some facts about the Sebring race…
-12 Hours… morning to night.
-The track itself is a former WWII training base/airfield. It is a combination concrete and asphalt surface. The facility covers 348 acres. It is located 79 miles south of Orlando.
-Speeds in some parts are around 200mph.
-The first race was run on the track in 1950 with the first 12hr race run in 1952.
I’ll be working on 1, maybe 2 of the books that I need to finish today during the race. The green flag has dropped and they’re 30min in.
I’m going to get some food, some coffee and get to work.
The starting word count of the book(s) I plan to work on today are…
I look around and wonder where the hell the first part of the year went… What have I done? What do I have to show for the first 70 days? I had such grand plans for 2024 and though it’s not anywhere near over, I’m struggling to find my way and dig myself out of the hole I’m in.
I have a lot of books I want to write. I have a few I’d like to revise. I have a new pen name I’d like to get off the ground. And I have Ella Claire that I’d like to add more titles to. Plus…so much other stuff. I’m not getting any younger over here.
So, why have things gone tits up for me this year? A lot of things out of my control. A lot of stress. A lot of healing past trauma. A lot of thinking to the point of overthinking. And, a lot of nothing. I’ve written words but can’t seem to find the end of the books. I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself and had multiple panic attacks. Anxiety has been at an all time high for me with writing. What I find weird, is that I used to be able to turn to writing. It didn’t make me anxious. It didn’t render me unable to do this. I really, really, really want to blame it on menopause.
I haven’t had a vacation in years. I haven’t gone anywhere, done anything in years. I have a feeling that has a little something to do with it.
I’ve picked up some hobbies again and they serve to calm me and give my hands something to do.
Comparisonitis on social media doesn’t help. That I do recognize is an issue and I’ve taken my own and other’s advice and decided on putting it away through the rest of the month. It wasn’t helping me anyway, at least in the book department… Okay, that’s not entirely true. It has helped me find a lot of books that I want to read and that have been added to my books list.
There’s some perfectionism going on, too. I want these books that I am writing to be amazing. I want anyone who reads them to love them. And I’m fighting myself over every word, sentence, paragraph, chapter as a whole.
And there’s some discouragement, too. I haven’t had any book sales since December and even then with a new release, there weren’t many sales. And I think it’s the first time in years…if ever that I haven’t had any sales at all for months in a row. I have 4 titles in Kindle Unlimited and there’ve been no page reads. Those things are disheartening and discouraging. Am I going to put all this worry and effort into new books only to have them not sell? Is it because I won’t put cartoon/illustrated/vector covers on them? Am I in the Amazon dungeon? Does Draft2Digital have a dungeon, too, because I haven’t sold any books there, either. I don’t know. I do know that it’s really scary to have a backlist and not even one sale, not even one page read. And I honestly don’t remember this ever happening to me.
Yes, I know I had to cancel some preorders, too, but no one was even preordering anything, so…
I mentioned to a friend yesterday about it all and she said I need to write in a different subgenre of romance. I’ve wondered if I need to walk away from romance all together. I don’t know. But at least for now until the end of March, I’m going to be concentrating on new words, blogging here, sending out newsletters and not checking or doom scrolling Instagram or Threads. I already didn’t doom scroll on Facebook. I definitely know better. I’m going to focus on the words I write and the people on my newsletter and anyone who may still read my blogs.
…And I’m a romance author who writes about racing.
I haven’t been too interested in NASCAR the last couple of seasons, but for some reason, I’m kind of excited about this one. Maybe it’s because I’m working on (yes, I’m still working on) Checkered Curves (Stick Shift Motorsports, Book 3) and have another racing series planned that I’ve started writing and have a lot of ideas for other stories and spin-offs in my fictional sports world. I hope that’s it. I’ve missed watching races and being interested and keeping up with it all.
It could also be that the Netflix documentary about last season’s NASCAR playoffs, NASCAR Full Speed was pretty good and kind of got me in the mood for some racing.
Whatever the reason, I’m ready. I’ll be watching the whole weekend from my couch… Duels tonight, Craftsman Truck series tomorrow night, Xfinity and Arca Menards series Saturday, and the Daytona 500 on Sunday. If I’m not revved up and inspired to get back to some serious word count by the end of Sunday’s race, then I don’t know what will do it…
My driver is still Kyle Busch who is now in the number 8 for Richard Childress Racing. It’s his second season with RCR and I hope it’s even better than the first one.
