I was waiting for the two versions (eBook and print-on-demand) to link up on Amazon before making the announcement that my newest novel is live and available on Amazon. But it has been six days since I published it and five days since it went live and they are still listed separately. Amazon says it can take up to five days, but I lost my patience. Bad me.

So just this morning, I sent out my announcement in emails. As time goes by I might come up with a few more people to let know about my latest novel. But I’m pretty sure that I’ve sent it to all my closest friends. I don’t have much of a marketing strategy. Sigh. Or money for advertising. Big sigh.

I’m not lighting the world on fire with sales. My first novel, “Millie’s Adventures in Time,” has sold a few copies. I don’t expect this latest to do much better.

I didn’t write them to make money. It would be nice if they did. But that isn’t a financial necessity. Thankfully.  Yet.

I write because I love to write. I enjoy creating characters and scenarios and seeing how it all plays out. I enjoy building lives and relationships.

So here’s the rundown. I’ve got about half the sequel to “Millie” written. I have a mystery novel that I started at about the same time as “Millie” and shelved because I was having too much fun writing “Millie.” I’ll get back to the mystery sooner or later. I like the main character too much to just let it go.

I have another novel that began as short stories and morphed into what will eventually become a whole story. This one is more of what they call “Women’s Fiction.”  And I have a very short children’s novel that I wrote years and years ago based on an aquarium that my husband and I kept for a while and the funny fishes that inhabited it. If I can get my husband to get really serious about doing some watercolor illustrations for it, I might actually publish it someday. He’s done a lot of watercolors. Some even have won awards at our county fair. He’s sold a few too. Pretty cool.

And rounding the whole thing out is my memoir tentatively titled “It’s Okay Mom, I’ve been Around the Block.” You don’t have to be famous to write a memoir. Although I suppose it helps if your intent is to sell the thing. Mostly I’m writing the memoir for me. And maybe for my sister a little bit too. I might publish it one day. Could be fun to hold it in my hands.

I have some ideas for other books, but they are not very clear in my head yet. So that’s all I’m going to say about them.

I’m very excited to have published another novel. It’s scary in a way, too. But mostly, I’m just happy to have done it. A lot of living seems to be like that. Very big sigh.