A Lowly January

On May 1st, my blog will be eleven years old.

I have been steady.  I have posted between 14 to 30 posts every month.  Right now, I am at a low, with only 14 posts this month.  My traffic is also at a low.  I will be under 1500, most likely.  Unless this ramble catches on like wildfire.

I deserve an endurance award if nothing else.  Many people drop and add new hobbies all the time, but I have been turtle-like in my abject determination to turn this into a must-see blog destination.

In persistence, I have won.  In success, I have failed.

I have a lifetime ban on running ads, so this can never earn money.  Traffic, most months, peaks between 2,000 and 3,000.  And that's been true for years.

My last blog post was more than a week ago, the longest non-vacation I have ever had,  My new routine allows for less writing time in the morning.  I have been prioritizing diet and exercise, and my work hours are unpredictable.  It is hard to get in a writing rhythm.  I thought semi-retirement would help with this, but it hasn't.  I depend on a routine schedule, and I no longer have that.

I have not lost my fire for writing. And I wish I could concentrate more on my fiction than this blog.  But that hasn't been true, either.  I'm just not writing as much as I used to.

The Extra Credit Club is at a stage that requires edits and polishing.  I feel like it is a great book, but it will be a mature reader book, which means some of you won't be interested.  I will probably try to market it to a publisher or agent, which means that even if they do decide to publish it, it may be months before you see it, even if you are interested.

I have to work out this balance.  The accounting career is not going anywhere.  It will be there for at least the next three to five years, if not longer.  So I have to work out an accommodation.

I still hope to do my blog.  Like it or not, it has to become more and more a shill for my other writings.  Personal writings, like updates on my family and pets, politics, nostalgia, and entertainment stories, will continue to exist, but they may become rarer.

As an accountant, I'm always fascinated with the numbers I see on the blog.  How many people view how many people follow, stuff like that.  I have to stop being obsessed with that and let it be.

Again, those who find it amusing that I 'shill" my books are just going to have to put up with it.  Because I'm going to do my best to become a full-time shill machine.

That's just the way it's gotta be.