Does this author thing ever become overwhelming? Yes.

You’re trying to feed any momentum there is and the urge to put work out is pretty substantial. I refuse to put anything out that I’m not proud of which slows the process down. When it slows down, it’s frustrating. If sales slow, you panic. You lose rank, you panic. Add to this that I’m still working a full time job and raising three kids and the stress can become overwhelming.

I started writing my first novel January of 2011. I haven’t stop going full tilt since then. Back then it was easier, because all I had to do was write a book and hope for the best. Now, I think I know things. I think I know which levers to pull or buttons to press to make the books move on Amazon. And, that is a terrible thing.

Once your books are out there and start moving there is every urge to keep moving levers and pushing buttons. And writing time suffers. I have no shortage of ideas and the longer it takes me to get to them, the more frustrated I get.

Lately I’ve been lax on my blog posts here and at Dumb White Husband. Like I talked about last week, these were robbing me of my focus, so I’ve let them go. I needed to regroup.

I find it important to regroup from time to time. I put my plans down in ink and feel better about things. This isn’t a race and though I have a lot planned for this year it’s critical to my sanity that I understand that things are going to get in the way and things may be delayed.

It’s important to take a day off. But too many in a row quickly leads to a habit. I can’t take a true vacation. Not yet. But, I can regroup – stand back, look at everything, take a deep breath and dig back in again.