That cold I mentioned in my last, distant, post laid me low; nearly two weeks lost and another week trying to pull it back together.

C’est la vie.

Now that Stealing The Marbles is out there on its own, I find myself in a quandary; caught between the promo and the deep blue story. I’m on GoodReads, AuthorsDen, Red Room and I just became a member of The International Thriller Writers organization. I am constantly on the look out for reviews or interviews or guest spots on other blogs, pitching the book to Indie bookstores and trying to get noticed by newspapers and print magazines. I spend an inordinate amount of time on Facebook, Twitter and Backspace trying to network and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4:00 PM finds me on #litchat. If I wasn’t out in the middle of nowhere, the nearest bookstore being 40 miles away, I could add book signings and book clubs to my list of things to do.

I’m also trying to finish my next novel, Meter Maids Eat Their Young.

And then there’s this annoying little thing called sleep, which I haven’t been getting much of lately, maybe because I spent so much time sleeping while that cold had me by the short hairs.

There ain’t enough hours in the day, it seems. You start wondering what can you cut back on? What can you let go of and still feel like you’re doing everything you can to create buzz for your published book while attempting to finish your next one? The answer is: nothing. The promo is important, mandatory even, especially if you’re with a small press. But then, so is the next book. Rock and a hard place, promo and the deep blue story.

Ah, the glorious life of a writer.