The Neverending Inbox

9

January 2, 2014 by Kira Lyn Blue

Take it from me, one should not ignore one’s blog and author email account for months on end no matter how frustrated one is with the progress on one’s book and now matter how busy one is with non-writing endeavors.

I opened my email and there was practically a digital explosion as thousands of items jumped out all demanding my attention. Hours later, I’m down to only 1093 items left to sift through.

Whimper.

Now the vast majority of these are New Post notifications from blogs I follow. And no, I will not be doing a blanket purge on them. As I’m working my way through, I am quickly rediscovering why I followed those blogs in the first place: because they rock!

There are just so many wonderful posts. My “To Read” list is ever-expanding thanks to a multitude of book reviews and book release announcements. This is always a good thing because my book-habit requires constant influx of new material.

There’s also an amazing array of writing and self-publishing advice posts. Stuff that’s helpful right now and will be helpful when I’m ready to publish. Frankly, I’m going to need more bookmarks folders and a better system for organizing them all!

But most importantly, I’m rediscovering the community. There are so many bloggers I missed interacting with on a regular basis and having the support of knowing, “Hey! There are other people out there just like me!” Well, maybe not quite as insane as me, but you get my drift. I had forgotten how much it helps to see other writers struggling with the same writing issues that I’m battling and learning about their strategies for vanquishing every possible obstacle to getting it written, whatever “it” is. I had forgotten the joy of vicariously experiencing other author’s triumphs and breakthroughs. I had forgotten how much that helped me keep pushing through my own writing doldrums.

If you have emailed me anytime between August and now and I have not gotten back to you, I profusely apologize. That goes triple for those of you who have contacted me about being beta readers. Let me say that I really, really appreciate your interest in my writing. While I do not currently have anything ready for beta reading, I will bookmark you guys and you will be the first I contact when I do have something.

So, yeah, I made a HUGE MISTAKE! But like any plucky heroine worth her salt, I am determined to pick myself up, dust myself off, learn from the mistake and move forward.