Things you may not know about me – Let’s do an update.
I haven’t done a personal update here in a while. So I thought I might do one including a few things you may not know about me. And maybe a few you do.
A few months back I started writing a couple of blog posts about grief. I’ve been through the wringer in that regard in 2023 which is why I’ve been largely silent on social media – scraping through by doing the absolute minimum – and why you haven’t seen any new releases from me. To be fair I wasn’t planning on releasing loads of books under my name anyway but I also wasn’t expecting to do nothing. Meanwhile my pen names have also ground to a halt. Needless to say I have not owned 2023 by anyone’s measure.
I’m still planning on posting the grief series. I hope it might help someone else going through it but for now let’s focus on the present.
My books in the No Brides Club series have just been re-released and are available on Amazon and free if you are in Kindle Unlimited. Lots of people have strong feelings about KU as it’s known.
I read in KU myself a lot. The reason being I read on average a book a day. Yes, you read that right. I often get in to bed after dinner and read for 3 or 4 hours most nights. I’m a fast reader and that gets me through a book. Books in Australia are even more expensive than, for example, the United States. A mass market paperback is around $20. I can’t afford to spend $140 a week on books. And obviously I start some and they’re not for me so that number would be higher in reality.
Not to mention paperbacks are heavy and the lowlight of the Kindle is less annoying for my husband who is often asleep beside me as I read past midnight.
Borrowing from the library is an option, of course, but I have accrued so many library fines over the years, it’s not for me. Having said that, I adore libraries and often visit libraries, right now I’m just not in a library reading phrase.
Another reason I use Kindle Unlimited is because I read a lot of authors whose books are not widely available in Australian bookshops. If you ARE in Australia and you do like paperbacks signed copies are available at my store.
That’s not to say that’s the only place I get books, it’s not. I buy books by authors I love and people I know all the time but I also read in KU. Oh and I absolutely have to get non-fiction books in hardback and paperback because I absorb information better that way.
I guess I just think of having Kindle Unlimited as being similar to having a Netflix subscription and also going to the movies from time to time.
This post got away from me. I wasn’t planning on talking about that but here’s two things we’ve already learned.
One – I’m going through grief
Two – I am a voracious reader
If you follow me on social media, you’ll see often post pictures of coffee. Australia has a pretty intense coffee culture and I for one am all the way on board. Here’s a fun The New York Times article that tells you a little about how our coffee culture evolved. Good coffee is everywhere, and it is one of my great pleasures to find a sunny spot and enjoy a coffee alone or with friends.
Let’s talk about the ocean
You’ll also notice that a lot of my pictures with coffee are by the ocean, harbour, on a beach or on a boat. Fun fact – I live by the beach. Even more interesting fact, over 80% of the Australian population (25million people and counting) live within 50km/31miles of the coast. So while I feel very lucky to live where I live it is pretty normal for Aussies to be at the beach or the water before or after work. When I first got married I often caught the iconic Manly Ferry home from work (and then got a bus home) it was a slower journey but so much more relaxing than the bus ride from the city.
Now I’m very lucky to work from home so I can work in a coffee shop by the beach, walk and dictate a story or sit and plot in a notebook on the sand. In my mind it doesn’t matter where you get things done as long as you do them! And as a redhead I need to do all this slathered in sunscreen and beneath an impressively large hat wherever possible.
So now we know:
One – I’m going through grief
Two – I am a voracious reader
Three – I love my coffee
Four – I live by the beach
Five – I miss blogging
I’ll do another update next week. Time to get have a coffee!
In my mind I’m like this sparkling unicorn. Full of magic and miracles and devoid of the impossible.
It seems like it is ages because I’ve done any blogging here in earnest and I suppose that’s because it is. Since I went back to work last year I seem to have less and less time to do all the fun extra parts of my writing life.
Yesterday I was responding to a blogger about an upcoming promotional opportunity and she wanted a summer themed book. My Upper Crust Series isn’t especially seasonal (except Book 6 which isn’t out yet) but lots of my stand alone novels are.
Where in the world are you?
I was talking to my mother today and I said I’d been at this blogging and self-publishing game for three years. I came on here to check and May 5th is the birthday of this blog. So three years exactly.
Is it really Monday again? Did I really not put up a single blog post in a week? I guess that’s two yeses.
It is now just on two years since I started this blog. That’s pretty amazing. The last two years have been a wild ride for me. There are lots of things I would have done differently if I had known back in 2012 what I know now. (As I don’t own a time machine that’s just bad luck isn’t it?)