On Selling Books, Staying Warm, and Staying Hopeful

Hello Everyone,

I hope that all y'all doing well!

Here in Indiana, it has turned brutally cold and a snowstorm is coming in. I am not a fan of the cold and snow, so in some ways January and February can feel like long months for me.I do find that exercising and keeping busy with projects helps though.

My novel, The Zumba Class was released for sale in paperback format a little bit before Christmas and it has sold some copies. I think between the eBook and paperback formats, I have sold 16 copies, which isn't bad. I have two 5-star global ratings on Amazon as well, so that is nice. I was checking the reports today and I even sold an eBook in Italy apparently. I am not sure who I know in Italy, but whoever you are and if you are reading this, thank you!

I am still hoping that I can manage to sell some more copies and get the word out about my novel. However, at the same time I feel like I am a bit burnt out and exhausted from trying to get the word out on Facebook, BlueSky, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. because it is basically the same audience over and over again and unless I get new followers or people that find me, it isn't going to probably increase sales a lot. I keep thinking or telling myself that I just need that one person who has influence or star power to find my novel, read it, and talk about it. (Unfortunately, I don't really have those connections.) I also have had some people ask me for free signed copies of the paperback, which is what it is, but I am not about to do that. I am trying to just sell enough at this point to break even on what I paid for the cover design, which came out awesome by the way!

I am also starting to feel a bit anxious about 2025 and the Trump administration coming in about two weeks from now. I am particulary worried about immigrants, people who are not white, people who identify as LGBTQ+ and transgendered, people who are seen as educated and as a result are labeled as liberals; so very large chunks of the population. As I have written before on here, I am a follower of Jesus and my faith is very important to me, but it is very concerning to me that some Christians are celebrating Trump's victory and the things that they hope are coming because they don't seem to be one out of the love Jesus brought when he was on this earth. Not to mention, that he seems to be surrounding himself with very wealthy people who have power or influence simply because they have money and they must know what is best for the country. Jesus was a regular critic of the rich and those in power and in contrast loved the poor and those pushed to the outskirts of society. I am praying and trying to be positive that Trump and his administration will do good for the country, but I am not going to blindly sit back and accept that everything is fine when it really isn't.

However, I am also at peace knowing that God has my back and will protect me and my family. I have recently started a deep dive into a study of the prophet Elisha in the book of 2 Kings in the Bible. We have even started to have a small family Bible study on it. I have found myself realizing how much everything in the Bible is connected and you cannot just read a story by itself without understanding the whole context of how it fits into the big story and it has become like a treasure hunt for me. I have found myself easily spending three to four hours on a paragraph in one chapter and making connections to other parts of the Bible, going back to find out the background information, doing some research on my own about what others say, and trying to find out what the original Hebrew says and how our English translations do not always do justice to the original meaning or message that is key to understanding the whole passage. A lot of this has changed how I think about God, my faith and it has been very illuminating and rewarding for me as it has deepened my understanding and faith. A lot of this has happened in about the last year through discovering Tim Mackie and The Bible Project , which I have written about before. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about the Bible from a fresh perspective or in a way that you never even considered.