A Matter of Ducks

In a lot of ways, ducks are like cats. They’re hard to herd because they tend to go where they want to go.  Every so often one has to sit down and gather up his or her ducks and put them in a row, or a huddle, in preparation for synchronized duck swimming (i.e. getting one’s shit together).

For me this happens two to three times a year. It’s that time again to regroup and reconfigure. Those of you who have been reading my blog for some time know that I sit down and revise my goal lists and, in turn, my schedule at regular intervals. I take some time to reflect and see where I succeeded and where I failed (and why). Writing things down has always been how I sort myself (and my schedule) out, and stay organized.

That said, here are some of the things that fell off to the side this year (unfortunately). I think I was too ambitious, and I shall watch for this pitfall in the future if I find myself with more ambition than time:

• Monthly Fiction Serial: I love the Haunted Cottage series, but for now, I think I’ll only be writing 4 chapters a year, more if I have time.  I don’t think I can commit to more at the moment. There will be at least one more chapter before the end of the year.
• BDSM Bookclub: I managed one, and I have another one about 2/3’s finished. I think two a year for this one is about all I’ll manage. I will release the second one before the end of the year.
• Daemonolater’s Guides: These are temporarily on the back burner. I wrote these little guides to answer the most common questions I get in my inbox. There are eight of them, and they’ve done the exact job I hoped they would – cleaning out my inbox. In the meantime, I’ve decided to do a monthly blog post over on demonolatry.org to address the most common inboxed questions each month.
• Over the past two months I have allowed marketing and administrative work to take up the bulk of my time when my first priority should be working on the next book, story, etc. This cannot happen! So I am going to streamline that where I deal with marketing one day a month (on a Saturday) – where I schedule everything I can (blogs, Patreon, social media), and get back to writing.  Administrative work (answering emails) will happen Sunday mornings, readings will happen Sunday afternoons, and dealing with Sephira Alchemy orders will happen on Sunday nights. I may need to add half a day for things like doing royalty reports, taxes, etc… I may also need to schedule one Saturday a month (or every other month) for videos.

I have also added some new things to my plate.

• I am co-hosting the Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole podcast once a month.  While scheduling guests can take a little time, the prep for this is minimal (reading books, which I enjoy, and formulating questions for guests). It only takes up an hour one Tuesday night a month (plus the reading, which isn’t really work since I enjoy that part).
• I am possibly teaching a class on Goetia that will require me to do a few hours worth of videos. I can set aside a Saturday for that. I still need to make my intro video. Plus I might check up on students during the duration of the class once a week. Note to self – take pic with Anthology of Sorcery!
• I am the membership director of Temple of Atem. I will deal with this on Sundays (which I deem my Daemonolatry day).
• I am the new representative for RMFW’s Independent Published Authors League. I will take care of those inquiries as needed until I get a feel for the job and can work in regularly scheduled “office hours” for that.

I know, it’s a lot, but I can do this.

Now I just need to remind myself that my first priority is writing the next book. The only books I’ve managed to keep on schedule are the Thirteen Covens. However, I’ve really dropped the ball on the non-fiction, Eagle’s Talon Gray, Emily Ever After, and Falling from Grace this year. That’s NOT a good thing.  The second priority is making sure my website is regularly updated. Finally, I’ll deal with public appearances. I might slow down on those as we near the end of the year and early next year, then pick up again next spring/summer. If I have time – I’ll deal with social media, but I am going to cut that down to half an hour per day, and any posts I can schedule ahead of time will happen during my monthly marketing post scheduling. Hopefully this new plan will keep me focused enough to finish the projects I want to finish.  I will be using Dragon on blog posts, emails, readings, and possibly writing to speed up my process.  I type fast, but sometimes it’s just easier to say it, you know?

So that’s my update for mid-September! Oh – AND I have the #DoMagick challenge to start over. LOL  Thank goodness that doesn’t happen every month.  Catch you all on the flipside! I’m off!