Random events, the universe, or…?
Sometimes things happen.
Substack reminded me that two years ago, I published a post titled “The power of random events.” I described how a random phrase written in a boarded-up shop gave me the initial push to move forward when I was feeling down.
Last week, I was full of negativity. The Substack message made me go back to that post, the phrase “I can be the next big thing”, did it again.
I felt I was being bullied out of a community I love. The person doing the bullying complained about something I did, but she conveniently left out a lot, and I did not present my case properly. So, I am out. The irony is that she had left the community before she made the complaint. I have no intention of asking to be admitted back. I did not make my case at the right time; I should have. Now it is too late. I had to make other plans to promote my coaching and formatting services. I was determined to do something different because the definition of madness is doing the same thing, hoping for different results. However, I was approaching things from a negative point of view, which never helped.
Random events (the message by Substack) led me to something I wrote when I had genuinely reached the depths of negativity. Will it help me? I cannot know for certain. However, “the universe” also randomly created a situation where I was paired with two potentially useful contacts at a ‘mingle’ following a Zoom session earlier today. Will the power of random events lead me to paying clients?
Over the past five years, I have learned a lot about writing, publishing, and other related topics. However, it becomes difficult to implement what I learnt about promoting if I have a negative attitude. The Substack message was not the only thing that gave me a push. After receiving a problematic (but constructive) piece of feedback from one beta reader, I received very positive feedback from another.
I have decided to keep my Substack free. However, if you decide to support my work, you can ‘buy me a coffee’ a one-off tip by clicking on this link, or you could buy one of my books (the Amazon link is in the caption of the image at the end of this post) or keep reading my posts, it is entirely up to you.Sticking to ‘blaming the universe,’ I also remembered one of my mother's and grandmother's favourite sentences. “It is not important how often you get down; what is important is how fast you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and prepare to start all over again.”
I reviewed the book, pushed forward the publication date I had in mind by two weeks (for the moment), moving it from the end of June to mid-July. I then got on with the next draft of “Venetian Gold,” and we’ll see what happens. As far as my coaching and book formatting services are concerned, I’ll get there. This time, I have organised things in a way that builds on my appalling experience with the client from hell, and, hopefully, will help me avoid it in the future.
Whatever it will be, I am humming a tune from an old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical.
What I read last week
“Playing for Pizza” by John Grisham. An unusual book, not the John Grisham story I am used to. I was not enthusiastic about it, but I couldn’t put it down either. I still don’t understand why. I am not an American Football fan, perhaps it was the Italian city where the story takes place, Parma, or perhaps it was something else. I could not put it down.
“The Obstacle is the way” a non-fiction book by Ryan Holiday. A stoic version of the art of “turning trials into triumphs”, very interesting. I’ll let you know if I manage to follow a lot of what he wrote about in the book.
I also started “Room on the Sea” by André Aciman, the author of ‘Call me buy your name’ after listening to a podcast where Jonah Platt interviewed him.
Self-publishing
The book “Strictly Self Publishing” is moving forward more slowly than I expected, maybe because it is not my main focus. Meanwhile, if you are interested in checking if self-publishing is for you, you can download this from here
I have decided to keep my Substack free. However, if you decide to support my work, you can ‘buy me a coffee’ a one-off tip by clicking on this link, or you could buy one of my books (the link is in the caption of the last image below) or keep reading my posts, it is entirely up to you.
N.B. I was not aware that Booklinker required registration. I thought it was a universal link for my books. Please accept my apologies. I hope to find another universal linker that does not require registration.
