October is a mixed bag, filled with fun

The month of October has become a mixed-bag for me but thankfully, it’s a mixture that hasn’t made me feel overwhelmed, and hasn’t affected my word count.  

On the writing side of life, I’ve enjoyed having more time to write and being able to reach my daily word count on a regular basis. This might sound corny but it makes each day feel complete.    Much of my summer and also September involved completing and promoting my non-fiction book, time spent away on vacation, author conferences and webinars, marketing and promotion, and admin duties a mile long. I’m happy to step away from the more “serious” side of the business so that I can focus most of my time on the “creative” side for a bit.

And on that note, I’m still trying to decide whether I should join NaNoWriMo this year. Today I had the thought that if I’m making my daily word count anyway, it won’t hurt to join, and it will help me stay on task through the holidays. 

If I decide to join NaNoWriMo, I’ll be posting on my blog to help with accountability.

Speaking of holidays, Halloween is coming…duh…but I would be remiss to remind you I have a short ghost story out. 1313 Psycho Path is a quick read, apparently a bit scary to some (I’ve been told), and at .99 cents for the eBook (or free if you have Kindle Unlimited) and $5.50 for the paperback (free shipping if you are an Amazon prime member), it’s less than a large latte at the coffee shop. 

Or you can read it my way, with a paperback in one hand and a Pumpkin Spice latte    in the other. Yup, I’m one of those.

Okay, just had to get that dash of promotion out of the way.

One last note about my writing life: I received a memory on Facebook of my very first book signing after No Mother of Mine was published. To anyone who has been following me since the beginning, it has been six years since that day!

Moving on to the personal side of life, I’ve been able to spend some quality time with family, including out-of-town relatives who ventured to our neck of the woods for a visit. Due to the beautiful weather we’re still having (although it was gloomy today), I’ve been able to take Jozee out regularly for walks that we can both enjoy, especially with all of the beautiful falls colors.

There were a few tasks around the house we had to tackle, since the weather will be changing soon…putting outside furniture away or under cover, burning branches that had been piled up and put on hold due to the burn ban, cleaning out gutters, recaulking the windows…those sorts of chores. It always feels good to play the responsible homeowner.

I didn’t mean to, but I also spent some time organizing a file cabinet in my office. It was an author-related task, mind you, because I realized I had file folders full of records and documents I used for my PI business that I no longer need. That file space could now be better utilized for all of my writing materials I’ve accumulated over the years. Why am I sharing this? Because I thought it was hilarious when I found these floppy discs in a batch of documents I still had from when I first became a licensed PI. I don’t know what’s more interesting: the fact that these discs were very old (from the late 1990’s) or the fact that I still had them! I have repeatedly been called a packrat, and I have been working on it the past few years, but it’s going to take me some time to get through everything. J

Overall, October has been a “fun” month, with fall colors, family, finding plenty of time to write, freeing up space, finally tackling necessary homeowner tasks and, of course, my favorite: the fur babies.

Carry on, read on and enjoy the rest of October!

Reading tires Booker out