May madness

In a few short weeks I fly to Berlin for my erotica writing workshop at feminist sex toy store Other Nature. I'm excited to teach there and meet Berlin readers and see my books in two languages (I do have a few copies of some of my German translations, but have never seen them in a store before).



When looking at flight options, I had to decide if I was finally going to make this trip, or let all my fears about money overwhelm me. Clearly, I chose the trip, and I'm still not sure if it was the "smart" thing to do given that I am paying off debt and have an unpredictable income. But I made the decision partly because I knew having an impending international trip would force me to finish projects that I've lingered over.

This week, unless I get so frustrated I give up, my self-published anthology Candy Lovers will be published. I'll post the buy link the second it's ready, I promise; this book has been more time-consuming and expensive than I could ever have imagined, which is probably a good thing or I wouldn't have tried to put it out myself. I've almost got my Word document finalized with all the authors' edits; then I will need to convert it to be read by Kindle and whatever other steps (probably many of them) need to happen so you can click and buy it on Amazon.

I've been quiet here because I'm trying to get that ready, finish writing deadlines, revise Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 4, out November 19 (ebook, which will be reflected at retailers soon), book BWE4 readings, work with private clients, take swimming lessons and a bunch of other tasks. I've got a lot of travel coming up this year; several months, I'll be away every or almost every weekend. So I'm just reminding myself that I love what I do, I'm very lucky to get to do it and make a real living at it, and that my job now is to learn how to do things differently.

I've also booked my first big advertising campaign that will launch in January ("big" in my world). I'm excited about that; there's a sweepstakes involved. It's all thrilling, but just as easily overwhelming, so I try to balance those two out. Then when I'm back from Berlin I plan to finally tackle the other big project, my online writing classes. So stay tuned. I'm honored and humbled that I've already had so much interest, but that also makes me want to make these classes as amazing as they can be.