A Funny Thing Happened...

If you’re a contemporary of mine, your brain most likely filled in the rest of that (on the Way to the Forum). It was a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, and subsequently, a hit motion picture. It was so popular that the title of this blog became a catchphrase with multiple random ideas making up the last part. I was going to do that, but I couldn’t come up with something appropriate. My first thought was “on my Way to the Post Office” but who mails paper anymore?

What was I going to mail?

Income taxes.

I really hate bookkeeping and doing my taxes, and so procrastinate on updating Quicken until the tax year is done. That means I have stacks of bank statements and credit card statements and stuff that needs to be reconciled, and sometimes entered, then making sure each item is classified correctly so it spits out on the correct report to be transferred to the appropriate line item in Turbo Tax. As you can imagine, this takes a really long time.

After doing all this, the bottom line was that my writing “business” did not make a profit. I’m not very good at promoting my books. I’ve taken multiple courses and bought several books on how to market books on Facebook and Amazon in hopes of discovering the secret to making a (supplemental) income from my writing, but I almost always spend more money on ads than I get from sales.

The problem there is that after going through all the recommendations, at the end all those courses and books say, “Everyone is unique, and you’ll have to discover what works for you.” Which means you have to spend a lot of money testing different variations to see if you can find anything that works. I never have.

Weighing the amount of time I’d spent this past year beating my head against that wall versus my success at sales, I decided it just wasn’t worth it. I stopped and asked myself, “Why do I write?”

I thought about the time I published one of my books, writing, editing, and proofreading it, then formatting the content, and designing the cover. I don’t remember whether I was looking at the Kindle version on Amazon or holding the proof copy of the trade paperback, but the phrase that came to mind then was “I made this!” (In the voice of the little kid in the credit for Chris Carter’s Ten Thirteen Productions at the end of XFiles.)

My heart swelled, and I knew that feeling was why I became a writer. And apparently why Chris Carter did as well. It’s not the financial success or being on the bestseller list. It’s creating something I’m proud of that I can share with others who might enjoy it.

I also love to learn new things, which is why I’ve been drawn into so many courses and craft books. It’s why I learned Photoshop Elements and Canva (which I’m relearning) and Book Brush. I’ve dabbled a little with AI to see what it can do. I’m a sucker for books on characterization and plotting. (Most of them say the same thing in slightly different words.)

A week or so after efiling my taxes, I told myself that it was time to admit that what I wanted was not to be a financially successful indie author (if that was even possible), but to feel that joy again as I held a new book in my hands. I don’t want to keep measuring my progress against a publication deadline, but by how much I loved creating that book.

And so, as of 2026, I am not a professional author, but a hobbyist. Maybe even an enthusiast. I won’t be writing to make money, but because I enjoy the process. I won’t be evaluating what genres are most successful, but what genre I want to write most. I hope that will bring back the joy of writing. It will also allow time for other things I want to do like go to the Botanical Garden or the Tucson Music Festival or other places of interest.

So don’t expect a new book from me in a couple of months. I have no idea how long it will take me to write the next one. I’ll also be experimenting with different styles and techniques. Omniscient point of view is one of those. (Very much out of vogue, but Nora Roberts does it, and I think it works better for romances.) And I’m not going to hold myself to deadlines for blogs and newsletters either. If I want to say something (like what I’ve written in this blog entry), I’ll pull up that Scrivener project and write what’s on my heart. Or I may just be very, very quiet. (Said in Elmer Fudd voice.)