So today I'm feeling a bit sad at the loss of the life I had. This new life is still so new that I am still adjusting, still trying to find my feet on the shifting sands (literally too!) and uncertainty of my daily life. Yes, I'm at peace with my past, and I'm free of it. I'm a different person to the one who left that house and I can't regret this time of growth. But still I'm sad, and I feel regret for all that has happened in my life. I've made so many mistakes and taken so many wrong turns. It's never too late to find the right path in life and I hope that this time I'll make it without going wrong at the next crossroads I come to.
I've learned a lot about writing and publishing and since I've been here I've written six books and published four. I have had reasonable sales on my first book, and some wonderful reviews from readers. I'm waiting for word from agents on the most recent book, Letters to Myself, and I'm waiting in high anxiety. I'm writing the prequel for Zora's Dawn and once it's done I'll edit and self publish both and I'm quite excited about that too.
I've made a life here, it's a very different life but it's serene and conducive to creativity. I'm drawing and I have so many different artistic projects just waiting for me to do - sadly I need to have some money in order to do them and right now I'm saving every cent I can, so oil paints will have to wait. My financial situation is so uncertain that it's causing a lot of stress. I'm hoping however that it won't be much longer before I experience an upswing financially. In the meantime I'm working on building this writing career every moment I can. This means I'm not drawing and I miss that, but I have to keep my goal in mind and work towards it.
One thing I did recently was to make an author web page. I used Wix, and I don't know if that was a good idea or not. However the process was relatively easy and I'm happy with how the site looks. I think it's important for future sales to have my own website. In time I'll get my own domain name but for now of course I can't afford it. It takes around a month for search engines to find new websites so if you go looking for me you'll have to follow the link I'll post below. Do go take a look and see what you think of it. And if you spot any errors do please tell me! You can leave a message here, or you can send a message from the website.
Here is the link: Sheryl Lee Author
Well that's it for today, I need to get back to writing and waiting. For this book (Letters) I've taken a lot more time on researching agents. I decided to try to target ones specifically looking for the type of book I've written. That's what I do each time of course, but this time I've done a lot of research on individual agents, searching for interviews with them where they say what they're looking for rather than just the blurb on their agency page. Time will tell if this approach is more successful. With Zora's Dawn, it's still to early to tell whether I'll get a response from agents. Of course a lot just ignore you completely but most do eventually send at least a form rejection - it can take so long to get a response that you can forget you even queried an agency.
I apologise to you all for being down today, I'm sure I'll be feeling a lot better soon. Thank you to all of you who come here and check my blog every day. I'm humbled to see that I'm being read in so many different countries across the world. It makes my day, it really does, to come here and see how many people seem to like reading what I write.
This is the plan:
This is what I'm trying to remember:
And today, this is what I'm doing - no choice but to move forward, life doesn't have a reverse gear:
So this new life is a work in progress:
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