Books Published This Year: 2021

 You know that expression, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again?” As much as I believe this to be good advice, I didn’t really take it to heart when it came to being an author. I set out on my journey as an author with the hope of obtaining some measure of success, and I defined success according to this guideline: Books actually selling.

 

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The books did not sell. At all. No matter how hard I worked to promote them or what I did to get word about my books OUT THERE, none of them sold. They just languished on the Internet. Certain poetry books DID sell, and it was a big day for me when I learned that The GHOST Group book was selling too, but my novels were not selling. People took interest in them, but they didn't BUY them.

 

So, I got to a point where I just gave up. I deleted my author Twitter account, no longer referred to myself as a “writer” or “author” and just pursued other things. The fact that I had such a hard time writing again while recovering from my illness only reinforced my belief that I just wasn’t meant to be a successful author.

 

Eventually, I came to realize that, success or no, I was going to write even if my books didn’t sell. If someone wanted to publish a book I wrote, then I’d go all in and get back to promoting the book all over again. I was going to resume my efforts to succeed as an author and I didn’t care if people thought I was wasting my time or that I was perceived to be crazy because I was doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a better result.

 

Well, I’m not going to do the same thing this time. This time is different. Yes, I’m still with a small press and an independent publisher, but I’m also going to spread my wings and pursue other avenues in publishing. As well as other avenues in writing – once I learn them!

 

Even so, I managed to get a couple of titles out this year. There will be more books as well as ebooks next year, but for now here are two.

 

It’s been a loooooong time since I have done this kind of blog post. I’m so thrilled to be able to do this post again! Here’s to looking forward to seeing more of these posts, hopefully on an annual basis.

 

 

Remembering Sunny

 

There was a year I spent writing a short story every week. One of those stories was called “Losing Sunny.” I didn’t have any luck finding a home for it, and then I got around to noticing that my independent publisher published stories of that length. After some thought, I decided to just go for it and see if they were interested in this kind of story.

 

Read more about this story here.

 

 

The Dream Forest

 

This is my latest children’s book. I actually got the idea for this story a long time ago, but it took a while for the story to come together. I truly feel that if I spent more time thinking about it, rather than focusing on a ton of other stories I was writing at the time, I would have figured this story out sooner. But, hey, everything happens for a reason, right? Maybe this was the year this particular story was supposed to come out. At least, I would like to think so!

 

Read more about this story here.

 

I may only have two books out this year, but I am taking on a self-publishing challenge next year, which will mean many more than just two books published next year. Or, rather, ebooks. I also have a book slated for publication next year, and hopefully the next installment for The GHOST Group series will be out, too.

 

To say the least, 2022 is looking to be a very busy year for me as a writer.

 

And, yes, I am calling myself a writer again. Not only this, but I’m also an author. No lack of sales will ever change that and no life events can ever take those titles away from me. I am and always will be a writer. I am and always will be an author.

 

Oh, and on that note: I created a new author account on Twitter here.

 

I have been working on more books this year which I hope to see go into print soon – the new edition of the haunted houses book, End Game, a book about what has helped me in my journey as a recovering alcoholic, as well as more poetry books – and I look forward to writing many more.

 

I am so happy to be writing again, and just as happy to see my books getting published again. The best part is that, after I started writing books again and sending stuff out there to get published, something pretty awesome happened: Books started selling. Yay! I took this as a sign to just keep doing what I’m doing. Keep writing books and stories and poems and keep sending all of them out to get published. I’d like to think that it’s also a sign that my writing is better now that I am sober. I’d like to think so. Well, I sure hope so. Time will tell, I suppose.

 

So, there you have it. Two books published in 2021. Here’s to many more getting published in 2022!