Dear Larry,

I didn’t think I’d ever write to you at all, to be honest, but things have come up lately that I have to get off my chest. I hope you don’t mind being my sounding board for a while.

Well, those pesky Elves are back. You know, the Elf on a Shelf (TM.) sort? Yeah, them! They’re back, and making mischief! First day in the house, and they’ve made a mess! They got out all sorts of cookie cutters and threw flour everywhere, even on themselves! The only thing they did right was they’re wearing masks; you know, for Covid? Yeah. At least, they’re taking this pandemic seriously! I’ll try to get a picture to show you what I’m talking about.

Anyway, they aren’t all that’s bothering me. The writing’s been going slow. Yeah, I’m on Chapter Nineteen, but it’s still the first draft, and it’s taken so long to get this far! I can’t imagine how long the rewrite’s going to last! The good side is I’m already thinking of ways to improve the story in the early chapters, and how to add more depth to the characters. So, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Granted, that light is a little pinpoint in the very far distance, but it’s there. I just hope I live long enough to finish the book and try to get it published. I fear I’ll die of old age long before then.

Speaking of publishing, that’s another worry. What if it’s not good enough? What if no publisher would touch it? Should I self-publish? That last part scares me more than the thought of rejection. I can’t afford to self-publish! I’ve spoken to a rep from a self-publishing website, and she tells me what they can do for me, and it sounds tempting. But I can’t help but feel like it’s a scam of some sort. They sent me material to look over, which I still haven’t done, and I have to wonder if a scammer would go to that kind of trouble or not, just for my money. The packages they offer top a thousand dollars a pop, but they offer editing and cover artists for the higher end ones. But I don’t want to have to promote and sell my own books, and I don’t want a garage full of copies that I don’t know what to do with.Maybe I should read the stuff she sent me. Or, maybe I should explore that Amazon publishing more. That’s another route I’ve just discovered. I wonder if that’s the route to take or not? They say an author has to expect to get rejected a lot before their first publication, and that book might not be the first one they’ve written. I’ve written only one book so far, and its taken five years to do it! I’m getting so tired of the constant uphill battle! I can’t stop writing, though! That’s an opiate that I can’t give up! It feels weird if I don’t at least try to get a few pages written in the morning! So, I can’t abandon the book and return to “real life”. But the thought of doing this again, for another five or more years, just to get a few books written in the hopes someone likes one of them, is pretty daunting! Do I even have that many stories in me? How do other authors do it?

I’m lucky if I have two or three hours in the morning to get anything written. And that assumes that the tablet’s power holds out. I have one tablet that actually works for writing the book, and that’s it. The others are crap at it. Oh, they have their uses, but writing with precision isn’t it. The one I’m using for this missive has a lousy keyboard that mistypes constantly, making me have to backtrack to take out extra letters, seperate words, and add the letters it misses. It’s too frustrating to do that and concentrate on story-telling, so I use it for this kind of thing, and for Minecraft (TM). And YouTube (TM). That’s about it. Anyway, if it isn’t the tablet or the keyboard running out of power, then its the kids needing help with schoolwork, or time to make lunch, or household chores, or laundry, or whatever other crises emerge during a typical day. And after the kids go to sleep, I’m lucky to have the chance and the energy to watch Colbert before dragging myself to bed! This sucks! It’s definitely not what I signed up for!

Anyway, I have to go, because I’ve burned up the little time to myself I had this morning, and I have to make lunch. So, good-bye for now. Hopefully, I won’t have to bother you again.