Dog Sitting in the Islands

Hallie is undecided about it

Aloha from Oahu! This is week 3 of my 5-week stay in Hawaii. Read on, LET’S GO

The friends I am staying with here on Oahu left for Greece today. Dayl is one of my oldest friends, and she’s having a milestone birthday at the end of the month. And ever since her last milestone birthday, she has been planning to go to Santorini for this one. She is a former travel agent/airline reservation specialist, her husband is a captain for Hawaiian Airlines. They love to travel. I do not, which makes me the perfect candidate for dog sitter.

I guess I like traveling, meaning, I like to go places and just be there. They like to go places, meet up with twenty of their closest friends, and do all of the things. Dayl knows me well enough to know it’s very unlikely I’ll join her on a trip like that, so I get to be the introvert friend who watches the dog. Full disclosure: they have many friends who line up to be their dog sitter, based on their condo’s location. I’m just happy I’m on the list.

So now, for the next two weeks, it’s me and Hallie. I think we will be okay; Hallie isn’t sure yet.

Hallie watching the front door

Mostly I’m just working. I have lots of editing to do and then there’s writing the next book in my new cozy mystery series, the Old School Cozy Mystery Series.  They are cozy mysteries. It’s a series.

Last Tuesday saw the release of the first book, The Blingsters. That was fun, and I gave myself a little pat on the back for having put another one out. And a very big thank you to everyone who has bought a copy, and a super huge thank you to those who have left a review. That abhorred but necessary component of “social proof” goes a long way on the mighty Zon.

So, that’s that.

And then a sort of author let-down follows. Now what? This is where my aspie introvertness fails me.

Not only do I have a very small network, but attempting to create a bigger one is too overwhelming. It’s easy to get discouraged by this because the dream is to “make a living writing books” and this logically entails getting people to see said books. It’s also easy to go down about a billion rabbit holes of techniques, trainings, Facebook groups, Bookfunnel promos, and newsletters that tell you how to do this. My brain kind of shuts off at that point.

Intuition tells me to keep writing, keep putting out the best books I can. Keep honoring the muse, keep honing the craft instead of my selling skills. So that’s what I’ll do. On to the next book.

Meanwhile, Hallie and I will chill here by the sea, enjoying soft breezes, good food, and some much appreciated peace.

it rained this morning

P.S. If you would like a free copy of The Blingsters and other upcoming releases by being part of my official ARC team (Advanced Reader Copy), let me know and I’ll put you on the list. It works like this: I’ll send you a book to read, you’ll read it, hopefully you’ll like it, and more hopefully you’ll leave a review somewhere. Easy peasy.

---