The Apples in My Orchard

I missed posting yesterday. I have been traveling and yesterday was a busy day. We’re in Buffalo New York, not for the eclipse but to visit my sister and my sister-in-law. We have just come from spending five days in Brockport, a little town outside of Rochester, New York where my Dad lives.

I visited a dear friend last night and spent four hours over a delicious dinner at an Asian Fusion Restaurant with her. We’ve known each other for most of our adult lives and I feel like she’s my sister (from another mother). I love her dearly and know the feeling is reciprocated.

She’s known all of the iterations of my personhood – as a NICU nurse, pediatric nurse practitioner, teacher, environmental educator, and now an indie author and publisher. I never feel judged. She never questions my decisions or suggests I should do anything besides what I’ve chosen. Truly, it’s the most special friendship I have and I hold it close to my heart, cherishing the time we can spend together.

So, I skipped posting a tip yesterday but therein lies my tip for today:

Tip #6: Remember to Take a Break!

Throughout the six months of working on this anthology project, I’ve tried to keep this tip in mind. There were some frustrating days – mostly borne from technology issues.

When I felt my shoulders start to creep up, muscle tension held in my left scapula start to flair, and frustration at not finding an immediate solution to a problem increase, I got up and left my desk.

It was a good lesson for me. After two master’s degrees in two different professions, I wish I had put this advice into practice years ago. But, the important thing is that I know now how important taking a break is.

And, almost every time, I returned to my work on the book refreshed and found a new and easy (usually) solution to the problem I was trying to tackle. You see, frustration, got in my way of working through the issue. Taking a break helped me to resolve it.

I am reminded of this importance today. As I got the proof copy of the book a day early (on Friday), I reviewed it (it looked great) and pushed the published button yesterday. Unfortunately, KDP thought there was an issue with my cover and rejected it.

After recovering from some anger, I buckled down and worked on correcting it. I now (after several hours of work) resubmitted the volume for publication. Hopefully, it flies this time. I love the cover and don’t want to alter it too much.

I’ll keep you posted here. Thanks for all the love and support during this project!