#WIPWednesday #YearInReview

Season's Greetings, Happy Hanukkah, and Merry Christmas!

For this final #WIPWednesday of the year, my 2019 retrospective #YearInReview.


Books

As you can tell by the title of this blog, there was a time when I thought I'd never write a book. The reasons varied through the years, but the bottom line remained the same.

Nearly two years ago, I thought, "Well, maybe I will," but I proceeded to jump from project to project, never able to see one through to completion.

So, it was with a great sense of progress and accomplishment that my collection of poetry and prose, tumbling: poetic thoughts from an anxious mind, was published by Lasting Impact Press in late-November. Its launch was more successful than I could have hoped, with both the e-book and paperback reaching #1 in New Releases for a short time in a single category each on Amazon. And it is continuing to receive good reviews.

Earlier this year, I had a poem published in Sea Glass Hearts, a poetry anthology by Stormy Island Publishing.

I also had a short story accepted into At Death's Door, an anthology which is due to be published in the near future by Pixie Forest Publishing.

I have not abandoned any of my previous WIPs, and, in fact, hope to resume work on one of them early in the new year.


Essays, Articles & Short Stories

Last year, 2018, was an incredible year for me as an essayist. Going into this year, I could only hope to not loose too much of that momentum.

I am grateful to say, I did not.

I became a contributor to 8 more publications, making my contributor badge collection now more extensive than I ever imagined it would be.

This year, I was featured on InspireMore, Medium (including SNAPSHOTS, P.S. I Love You, Hopes and Dreams for Our Future, and Invisible Illness), The Good Men Project, TODAY Parents, Filter Free Parents, The Mighty, Yahoo! Lifestyle, Love What Matters, Her View From Home, Twiniversity, Sammiches & Psych Meds, Scary Mommy, Thought Catalog, Reality Moms, and For Every Mom.

My essay, My Husband and I Never Say "I Love You, Too," became my highest earning piece of writing ever, surpassing my first piece in income (though not in views).

I don't have access to pageview data for each of the sites that published my work (though that would be the best metric to measure each piece's success), but I use a combination of the stats I do have to estimate how each of my pieces performs.

My first essay continues to be my top performing piece, but spots 2 and 3 were taken over by new essays this year!

My Top 3 Essays To Date:
(estimated based on page stats and/or social media reactions)

121,551 - 5 Reasons I’m Going To Continue Being A SAHM Even After My Kids Are In School: originally published on Scary Mommy; syndicated on That's Inappropriate (now Filter Free Parents), & Her View From Home

9,649 - When Anxiety Makes You Feel Like You Are in Danger Every Day of Your Life: originally published on Invisible Illness; syndicated on Thought Catalog, The Mighty, Yahoo! Lifestyle, & InspireMore

7,192 - My Husband and I Never Say “I Love You, Too”: originally published on P.S. I Love You; syndicated on InspireMore, TODAY Parents, The Good Men Project, & Filter Free Parents


Online Presence & Mailing List

Early this year, I decided to start a quarterly newsletter. I'm happy to report that I managed to get each of the newsletters delivered right on time and I was able to grow my mailing list, slowly but consistently, throughout the year. Success all around!

The other biggest addition this year is that I now have an Amazon Author Page (and Goodreads & BookBub author pages, too)!

I was incredibly happy and relieved when my Facebook page name change was finally granted in January after nearly 10 months stuck in limbo!

When it comes to social media, going into 2019, my goal was to organically grow my Facebook page to 500 followers by my birthday in February. Thanks to some fantastic support, I met that goal and, as likes have continued to trickle in since then, have now exceeded it with my Facebook page currently sitting at more than 630 follows.

I continue to have social media profiles on all the major platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Though, I do not try to maintain an active presence on all of them. I have continued with my original goal to post on Facebook once a day, the rest only when I have new work to share or time I am able to spend supporting others with my interactions.


Looking to 2020
The past two years have far exceeded my expectations for my writing career. I fear I won't be able to keep up this pace. So, my only goal in 2020 is to finish another WIP – to not give up on it all out of anxiety, fear, and overwhelm, to keep going at my own pace.

#WIPWednesday

This week I continued working to promote the book. Slow and steady.

As I've been promoting, I've realized how my being so open about my mental health has caused some people to distance themselves. It hurts. But (thanks to therapy) I realize it is not my responsibility to make everyone else comfortable. That is actually a major reoccurring issue we've been working on all year.

I believe in the importance of normalizing the conversation around mental health and I will continue to work for that. I need to be true to myself, my story, and my goals. If some people need space from the topics I discuss – from me – I have to accept that. I can't let myself dwell on the few who grew more distant while ignoring the others who moved in closer. The ones who've reached out to say they can relate, that they appreciate my openness, need to carry at least as much weight as those who've remained silent, if not more.

So, that rumination lead to a new meme.

I also made some new header images for my Facebook page and a silly meme for Friday the 13th, which, to be honest, is more than I expected to get done as we head towards the holidays.

#WIPWednesday

Well, as of tomorrow, tumbling: poetic thoughts from an anxious mind is no longer a "New Release" – at least according to Amazon's algorithms. Which means it looses the little bit of visibility boost that came with that tag. But, the book is continuing to do well and slowly gain traction.

It received another favorable review on Goodreads and was added to someone's "Want To Read" list.

An acquaintance told me she requested the book at her local library – and they ordered it! Then, someone else checked it out before she could!

And the book is now also available online at Barnes & Noble and Walmart.

Having not written any new essays for a while, I decided to syndicate a piece from last year on Medium.

I'll likely not have anything new, or even send out any more syndication queries, until after the holidays.

So, it was an extra pleasant surprise when I was contacted by the editorial assistant of For Every Mom about syndicating my "You Don't Have To Do It All" holiday piece! So, I've gladly added another contributor badge to my collection.

#WIPWednesday

If you've followed along with me from the beginnings of this blog and my journey into a writing career – well, first,THANK YOU – but, also, you probably know by now that I have multiple anxiety disorders and you probably also noticed that often manifests in me struggling to finish and follow through with ideas which I start with enthusiasm. Every WIP still waiting to be finished stands as evidence to this.

So, please permit me to be proud of my progress as I not only finished and published a book two weeks ago (the first project to move off the WIP list) but I also just completed the full year of quarterly newsletters!

Sending a quarterly newsletter was an idea I hatched early this year – and is most certainly the sort of idea I could easily find myself struggling to maintain. But I am happy to report the 4th quarter newsletter was delivered this morning, and in it, I announced winner of a signed copy of my book.

Also this week, I syndicated my piece about how It Is Absolutely OK to NOT Want Anything for Christmas on Medium. And I was pleasantly surprised by NBC's TODAY Show featuring my holiday piece from last year again this year!