Asian Village – Tbilisi, Georgia – 9pm

I’m not overly superstitious, but I do get spooked slightly by Friday the 13th. I always think something freaky could happen, so I try to avoid doing anything with a higher-than-average risk level, just in case. I legitimately don’t book flights for Friday the 13th, and you’d never catch me paragliding on a day of such ascribed unluckiness. I know, cue the rolled eyes.

Today was a slow day. I *should* have been writing and working on my horror novellas for this month, but my brain has been feeling cluttered and all-over-the-place. It’s been difficult for me to concentrate on any one of the copious tasks on my list. There’s a lot happening on the family front, and sometimes I have a hard time delineating boundaries between my personal and professional levels, especially when it comes to my attempts at self-publishing. The secret weapon is focus. I need that in spades.

5pm: DJ Self-Practice Session at CES

I booked myself in for a two-hour session at the DJ studio today. I need to download more music to play around with, especially since I want to work with atmospheric voiceovers and orchestral music. I should probably also watch DJ tutorial videos on YouTube before going to the studio, so that I can learn some more techniques to try out during my sessions. By the end of the 2-hour block, I had experimented with mixing with the master tempo off, which is hilarious at times. Master tempo keeps the music at the same pitch even when you increase or decrease the bpm. If you switch off master tempo, the pitch gets super low when you slow a song down, and then high when you speed it up. It made for a super fun session. I also played with some loops again.

8pm: Dinner and a Book

After my DJ session, I headed over to Asian Village and read a novella called The Rescue by Julie Weaver.

This novella was only seven chapters and follows a fun little story of an intel specialist (literally) running to the rescue of a field agent after discovering that his target is not a benign art thief but a trained assassin. I’d read The Hit earlier this week and thought I’d check out Weaver’s other books. From a self-publishing, indie press standpoint, I really like the idea of writing novellas and putting them out every week or two, rather than penning longer novels and publishing just one or two a year. This little ebook only took me maybe 50 minutes to read, so it’s also nice from a reading standpoint, especially for people who want a quick pick-me-up whenever they have a lull in a busy day.

My Self-Publishing Business Structure

That was something I thought more about today: my self-publishing business structure. I’ve been working on two horror novellas, and I am planning on getting another two storylines in the works. The aim is to have four horror novellas ready for a Halloween release! I’m loving the spooky vibes of October.

I then plan on writing a five-part novella series for November’s Nanowrimo. I’ll change the genre and probably write romance/fantasy/adventure. I’m thinking of releasing that series as a whole on my birthday (December 3).

To wrap up the year and the Christmas holiday season, I’d like to get three holiday-themed novellas out. Ideally, by the end of the year, I would have nine books out in my library. They probably won’t be perfect, and it’ll be a learning journey, but I want to have some novellas out under my name to get my self-publishing business underway. I don’t want to be sitting on my ideas forever. I’d rather they be out there, existing somewhere in the world, even if they’re not *perfect*. Nothing ever is.

So, to sum up:

October: Four horror novellas with a Halloween release date

November: Five fantasy/adventure/romance novellas with a birthday release date

December: Three holiday-themed novellas published throughout the last remaining days of 2023

Looking ahead, I already know I’m going to be quite busy with family stuff at the end of December and all throughout January and February until after Chinese New Year. That means I’m going to have to be writing ahead of schedule and probably releasing books every two weeks instead of every week if I want prioritize consistency. For now, after the Christmas break, I’m aiming to get back to writing full-time at the end of February.

That’s the main thing with self-publishing (or any business really): consistency is the name of the game. Especially when I get a Patreon page rolled out, it will be more important than ever to be able to stick to a consistent posting schedule and remain committed with the deadlines I announce.

I can do it. Here’s to the process.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Alaska