I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t blog enough

It’s been almost a month since I updated my blog, which is way too long to go between posts. In large part this is because I don’t like talking about myself and much of my personal life — my book review blog is very active, see, because I don’t make it personal. The problem is that to be an author one must be visible, and it is often the wont of the writer to be a solitary, invisible creature. Nobody mentions that explicitly before you publish: being an author and being a writer are not the same thing.

I admit that I’m amazed by authors who have time to be so active on social media and still produce fiction at a fast rate, because I know I can’t. To get anything done I have to turn off my wifi; forget sending out tweets between paragraphs or posting a Facebook update every time I revise a chapter.

So what does eat up my time? Many things. Work, of course. Pinterest. I lurk Facebook but rarely post. Twitter, where I either lurk or chat, depending on the day and if I have anything worth saying. Mostly I just quote my fiancé’s ridiculous comments in tweet form.  He’s a goldmine for non-sequiters.

Despite all these online distractions, when I do turn off my wifi I manage to get some things done. This past year I finished the first draft of a novel and put it into “resting state” in a drawer so that I can come back to it later with fresh eyes… and probably tear it all down to rebuild. I’m a third of the way through writing another novel, after three false starts, that hopefully will not crash and burn in a fourth false start. It’s about selkies/selchies/roanes/[insert word preference here]. If you have any recommendations for good Irish folk music, hit me up.

So that’s my writing news. In author-related news, Wake is going on tour next month. I’ll post links to the tour stops as they come up, and there will be a chance to win a copy of the book. It’s been almost exactly a year since Wake was published, and I’m close to breaking even on the money I invested in launching it. If I had to go back I’d do it differently — spend more money on different things, less on others, focus on pre-pub buzz instead of post-pub, etc. Live and learn, I guess.

A lot has changed in the past year, really. At this time in August 2011 I was at a vineyard in Picton, having lunch with my family and watching my mother struggle to eat. This year, at my grandmother’s 75th birthday party, my mother baked a beautiful cake but couldn’t enjoy any of it because she is still unable to take any nourishment by mouth. I’ve been encouraged to value what I have, to forget about sweating the small stuff, and to seize the day.

I’m hoping to blog more often as we move into Fall. I’ll try to be more interesting, I promise.