After the Vacation

I’m back from my vacation. It was a nice break from the weekly routine although I sure did miss my family at home. Visiting with family in New Mexico and getting to see my niece in El Paso was great though. I also took the long way around to get home to stop and see my son and his wife who are moving into their new house. A beautiful house and wonderful grounds. That was a very short visit but I’m glad I got to see them.

Now that I’m back I’ve decided that I am going to change things up a bit for my blog. Before I had a schedule that included doing author interviews on Wednesdays and book reviews on Friday. I tried to feature one author each week. Between reading and preparing for the interview and all the promotion I was doing I didn’t have much time to do anything else. My real desire is to be more productive in my first hobby, quilting. So I’ve decided that I will continue to do book reviews as I finish books, but, I am not going to be doing as many interviews. When an author has a new release and I really love the book I will probably see if I can get an interview, but otherwise I plan on backing off a bit. There are just too many quilt ideas I have that take a lot of time to complete and that is where I want to spend the majority of my free time.

I still have my Facebook pages for promoting indie authors, that will not change, but, I will not be quite as active as I have been. Authors and PA’s are free to post to my Grandma Peachy page and I will continue to share books I like or authors I’ve enjoyed others of their books. I haven’t been able to keep up with Twitter so I probably won’t be doing much there either. Social media just takes up so much of my free time that I’ve decided to ease up and do other things that I truly enjoy. I may not read as many books but I will continue to do some beta reading and editing for favored authors in order to be more efficient in my support of indie authors.

I’ve really enjoyed the time I’ve spent being so active with the indie author community and do not intend to abandon my participation altogether. There is more to my life than reading and being on the computer keeping up with social media and I want to devote more of my time to those parts of my life. These are my ‘golden years’ and while I have life and energy there are things I want to accomplish to leave a legacy for my progeny. Quilts I want to make for all my children and grandchildren, friends and other extended family.

I would also like to begin making quilted things and participate  in craft fairs.  That has been an idea I’ve tossed around for a couple of years. Now that I have a frame and quilting machine I need to learn how to use it and become proficient. Who knows, after awhile I may even be able to earn a little extra quilting for others. That is yet to be an option. You have to be good at it  to professionally quilt and I’m not sure I’ll ever be that good.

The conclusion is this, as much as I love the indie author community and want to support indie authors, I want even more to accomplish things for myself. I wish the best for all the indie authors I’ve become acquainted with on social media over the past 14 or 15 months. Keep on writing, don’t be discouraged when sales don’t skyrocket, it takes time and many, many words and books to succeed financially in the literary market. Let your characters tell their stories so those who do find your books can enjoy the creativity of your mind.

Blessings to all!

Grandma Peachy