Time to Refocus

This is the state I've been in for a while now. I'm literally 1/2 way through two completely unrelated novel manuscripts, I still find myself looking at job ads that come across my virtual desk and think "I could probably get that job," and I keep thinking that I should start working in earnest on the non-fiction project(s) I've been putting off. Time to set up some concrete goals and get back to work.

I work well independently. I mean, heck, as a person who got a PhD in Literature that is kind of a given, right? If you're not driven and disciplined, you probably won't finish that PhD, after all. And then after that I made a path for myself in online/remote teaching and educational administrative work. And, while I was working remotely, I wrote and put out three novels in a series. 

I worked full-time and we made it through medical school and residency. The house didn't fall apart, and all the living beings inside came out relatively unscathed.

I put out a book last fall that I'm pretty proud of (you can find a copy in the Little Library, by the way. I saw it hanging out in there just this morning).

So, it's obvious to me that I have the ability to do the things I want to do. But I keep getting side-tracked:

• NanoWriMo was pretty typical for me in 2018. I got some good stuff down and that's one of the 1/2 done manuscripts in my brain and on my hard drive right now.
• I had a "I can't tell you what it was" project that started around November and just ended that ate up a lot of time. Someday I can tell you what it is. But not now.
• I've had some bouts of writing-related melancholy. When Elegant Freefall came out, I was really excited and it did well for a few months in Kindle Unlimited. I had my other books in there, as well, and they will be there until Saturday 4/20. The melancholy has been spurred by a variety of things, including: Page reads in KU dropping to incredibly low levels, the fact that being in KU means that my book has to be read 2.5 times all the way through to earn the same royalty as one eBook sale, the #CopyPasteCris scandal, eBookBike and other pirate "libraries," and the scandals involving writers selling rights to their books to other writers who then put a new cover, title, and their name on the books and put them up in KU. Just this morning, I saw that there's a ghostwriter service advertising that they will write and publish a book for you (20K words only) in any genre for a fee so you can make "passive income" off of KU. 
• My way of addressing the melancholy? To go wide, once again. Look, I love Amazon's convenience, especially since we live in a semi-ghost town where I have to order a lot of stuff that I just can't get here, not even at Wal-Mart. Heck, when I was in Yellville in November, I spotted a jar of grape leaves at Harps and bought them to take home--I can't get them here. But I had to decide if I wanted to continue to be part of the sh*tshow that is KU, even as a writer. I'd already decided to stop using the service and just spend $10 a month buying books so the author gets the full royalty, whether I flip through the whole book 2.5 times or not. But, given the ways in which Kindle Unlimited has (1) created a world where ghostwriters are paid next to nothing to churn stuff out while someone else gets the money and (2) has opened the door for piracy and imposters, I just can't be in the pool anymore.
• I've seen a lot of people ask "Why do ghostwriters write novels for other people for a pittance?" Well, let me tell you--It's a lot like the answer to "Why do people with PhDs in literature take shit jobs that pay less than minimum wage?" Because the money may be small in amount, but it is there when they say it is. With Kindle Unlimited, royalty checks run a good six weeks behind. So, that royalty check I got in December? That was for October's page reads. If my rent is due, I can't tell the landlord to give me 12 weeks to (1) write a novel and (2) to wait for the first royalty check to come in from Kindle Unlimited. 

So, my plan is to finish the two manuscripts on my desk before starting Book 4 (tentatively titled Whitby), any series books related to the Garnier family, or any of the non-fiction projects (book length) I've been putting off.