The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I'd like to apologize to my readers. I've been fairly quiet the past few days and have a hunch that may carry over for a few more, unfortunately. I'm honestly mentally exhausted after completing my four new books, and while I'm trying to spread word and market the material, I'm having a difficult time doing so. Hopefully I feel re-energized on that front before long here. Also, I've felt myself drifting apart from some people whom mean a great deal to me - one person in particular - and after a long talk, we decided to regress things this past weekend. Then the family and I had a bit of a scare last night, when the flight my mother was on was having its share of problems. Fortunately, she was able to make it safely back home. Then lastly, my 13-year-old dog nearly collapsed during a walk this morning and has an appointment for tomorrow. So, I'm not sure what the deal is, but given her age, I'm a bit worried. In any case, it's been a tough past few da...

I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like if/when I release a book just prior to a weekend, after feeling a sense of relief, proud, and excited, I'm bummed the start of that next workweek. I wonder if this is common at all when dealing with big projects. While the book(s) themselves caused quite a bit of stress and I may have some more white hairs because of them, for me at least, writing is/was the easy part. After celebrating the finished projects over the weekend, I now have to focus on marketing the work - which, for me at least, has never been easy. While I'm not as introverted as I once was, I do refer to myself as an extroverted introvert - I may be introverted at my core, but am typically comfortable in most social settings. However, this doesn't typically include talking about myself - my work, in particular. I've always felt a tad strange when doing that. It also might be due to feeling slightly vulnerable and fearing criticism. While us writers ...