The life of a writer does not extend in a straight line. Mine, in particular, has followed a rather crooked trajectory, zigzagging like the blade of a pair of pinking shears. Entering 2026, I found myself once again following that old path that has haunted me since the days of my youth. And that’s why you haven’t heard much from me since January.
It wasn’t intentional.
I’m all for creators taking a break once in a while. A New York Times bestselling author I know takes a publishing vacation every December. He doesn’t publish new content to his blog or two podcasts during that time. I suspect he uses that time to plan the next year’s content calendar.
That was not why I took a break in February and March. In fact, I hadn’t planned on taking a break at all. But, I needed the breather.
As it were, my wife and I needed a vehicle. We’d retired our camper van in April last year and was driving my dad’s truck in the meantime. We just weren’t taking long trips as we’d been doing since 2020. Instead, I diverted my energy to client work in order to save the money we’d need for a replacement vehicle. I continued to sell books at craft shows, farmer’s markets, and grocery stores, but my primary occupation was freelancing.
While doing some gig work, I also worked on my author website, fixing some technical challenges. Before I knew it, that was consuming all of my non-freelancing time. It became the headache I didn’t know I had.
Now that I’ve worked out those details (hopefully, they won’t return), I can get back to creating new content. That means writing my newsletter more frequently and working on new books. Of course, I’ll continue to freelance while continuing to work toward my author goals.
On the good news front, my wife and I drove home in our new-to-us vehicle yesterday afternoon.
We are now the proud owners of a 2008 Hyundai Entourage. Pretty, isn’t it?
Categorizing Books Like a Librarian
One of the big changes I made to my website was putting books into specific categories to make them easier to find. You can see how that looks below, or check out my book shop.
Rather than simply listing my books by genre, I’ve also included a “formats” category to allows readers to find print books, e-books, and audiobooks easily, depending on their preferences. And I’ve included another format—chapbooks. These are short books that include poetry, flash fiction, or short stories. Currently, the chapbooks are only available in print, and rather than be fulfilled by Lulu as my full-length books are, the chapbooks will be mailed to readers directly from me. They’ll be printed on my Canon MegaTank printer, which I bought for just that purpose.
Soon, another category will be added: coloring books. I’ve already got one of those published with more on the way. The coloring books, like the chapbooks, will be printed and mailed by me personally.
Anyway, I don’t want to get longwinded. I did want to touch base with you. I appreciate all you fine folks who have subscribed to my Substack. Look for more to come soon, with some major announcements on the horizon. Free fiction and nonfiction coming your way soon!
The lead image was created by ChatGPT. This post was first published at Substack.