If the first week of the new year is supposed to herald the rest of your year, this one has been pretty good. We went to the zoo, lazed around the house, and cooked fancy meals for each other. Asher got his first haircut and looks instantly dapper and boyish instead of babyish. I started a fancy Bullet Journal that I’m very proud of. Brian and I have been watching Tidying Up on Netflix, and now I have an overwhelming desire to touch all of my things to find out if they bring me joy. The only thing missing is that I haven’t done much writing. Gotta add that in. Starting now, our first full week of normal since the new year.
Blue Gentian isn’t doing as well as it was previously, and I’m sure that’s because I changed the back cover blurb in an effort to improve it. Well, no improvement. I’ll be putting it back to the old one this week, and I’ll also consider changing the cover for a few months to see what we see. A lot of people liked one of the other cover options, so I’m thinking about trying it.
My dad has been bugging me to rewrite the first three chapters of Blue Gentian, since the overwhelming feedback was that the book starts slow, but is great after chapter 3. I am loathe to do this. I’ve been over those chapters dozens of times over the span of five years, and it’s already published and out there. The advice I’ve heard from other authors, too, is to let imperfections go. If you’re forever looking backward, your new work will suffer. I feel like I’m pragmatic about this book: a sweet little tale with profluence that nonetheless is not ever going to sweep the market with accolades. Fine. Next.
And Next is going decently, so there’s that to be thankful for too.
Casey E. Hamilton 