Well hello there.

I have called you here today to say that…as I rather expected, I fell off a cliff into lava when it came time to try pitching. Insert imaginary image of me burning alive in my own angst.

But!

While giving myself stress-related shingles AGAIN, I came to an epiphany. To wit: all I want to do is write. Everything else involved with book production, promotion, and The Industry, can tip off the lava cliff and melt down into slag, thanks. I may set (over-ambitious) goals for myself, but I’m terrible with deadlines, I resist any pressure, I can’t put myself out there with any kind of energy (see: total lack of social media presence or even regular blog posts)… And I don’t care about selling.

In brief, I’m a hobbyist and I should embrace it.

So! This has been the year of recalibration, in which I shifted gears completely from my previous Writing Goals and just did fun stuff — while at the same time preparing to self-pub the Tzimayat books and moving the War of Memory books from only-Amazon to a broader distribution network. If you never wanted to buy from Big Smirk, the books are now available from Smashwords directly or through their various partners.

(Not in print format yet, though. It was hell enough to go through and format all six books for Smashwords’ digital distribution, because it meant redoing all my italics!!!)

I will probably not hit any of my previously stated goals. I’ve been writing steadily, but it’s unpublishable stuff for myself, and that’s okay. Proper work can pick up once I’ve got that finished.

All right. Now back to trawling a self-pub cover image site to try to find good covers for the Tzimayats…