It's the August meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh, and as usual I have plenty that I'm feeling insecure about.
I finished my novella that is a prequel to Polar Night and I plan to release it myself on Kindle in September or October. The novella is called The Turnagain Arm and it takes place in 1917 during the building of the Alaskan railroad. If you read Polar Night you can guess which character is around and making trouble in this story. I already have a cover from the wonderful Michael Di Gesu and can't wait to share it.
So what am I insecure about? I've never formatted a book myself before and really have no clue how to do it. I also don't know anything about self-publishing on Kindle and I worry that I will make a total mess of it. But I am just hoping that since so many of the great writers I am fortunate to know here in the blogosphere have been able to master self-publishing that I will be able to do the same. Or that at least I will be able to do it without making a fool of myself.
While I always enjoy being part of the IWSG, the main purpose for this post is to share a personal matter that has been the focus of my life for the past month or so. My mom has been diagnosed with lymphoma and it's safe to say I haven't been able to focus on writing or blogging or much of anything at all since receiving that news.
I'm going to be taking a leave of absence from work in order to help with her care and will probably be taking a leave from the blogging world as well. I haven't been posting much this summer anyway but I have tried to keep up with my blog reading as I enjoy touching base with everyone. I doubt I'll be able to do much of that either now so I'll most likely just be on hiatus from the blogosphere.
I hope August is a good month for all of you and, for those in the northern hemisphere, I hope you enjoy the last month of summer. :)
