Hey everyone,

I’ll get to the blogging stuff in a minute, but first I wanted to tell you of a HUGE promotion which I’m running, starting tomorrow on Superbowl Sunday.

Far from Ordinary will be FREE for 48 hours.

Pick it up here

Oh, and tell your friends! Pick it up for free and leave a review.

I wanted to circle back around to leaving reviews because they’re so important to an indie author.

Amazon’s got some pretty crappy rules in place for leaving reviews currently, such as that you need to have spent a minimum of $50 in the past six months, so it’s been really tough for me to get reviews.

Reviews dictate how visible your book is to other people on Amazon. If I hit 20-25, I’ll start appearing in the “you may like” and “Also bought” recommendations. If I can get to 50, then Amazon starts highlighting it in targeted emails.

Both of those, as you can imagine, are very important to me as they get Far from Ordinary exposure on a much larger level.

So please, take a moment and leave a review. 

You can read about Amazon’s rules for leaving reviews here if you’re interested.

Cool beans? Cool beans.

Finding the Balance

I’m not going to lie, it can be difficult sometimes to balance my working life with my writing life. There’s only so many “mental calories” to go around after all and it truly takes a determined effort (and a few glasses of wine) to push through some days.

I’ve used the excuse in the past of “I’m too tired” more often than I should.

“I’m too tired, I’ll do it tomorrow.”

The litany of excuses piles up quickly if you let it.

And that’s just the thing – I’ve chosen the writer’s life for myself. To worship the Blank Page and all that comes with it.

So what is the most important thing to you? For me, it’s continuing to write – to feel that feeling again of holding your literary baby in your arms for the first time.

And sometimes that means that I’ve got to sacrifice a little sleep to get it done.

And maybe pour myself a second whiskey, too 😉

I am about 3 months away from completing my second novel. I’m in the “editing” phase – a process that takes just as long, if not longer than the actual writing phase.

*Side note* I’m REALLY happy with how it’s going. The characters, the plot etc. are resonating with me on a deep level. I think you guys are really going to like it.

I don’t mind the grind – I find writing to be therapeutic in fact. I just wish I had more energy to do it.

Winter Sports

I’ve been so good this year at going outside and enjoying the Manitoba winter. It’s been cold. But us Canadian Prairie folk are hardy. It’s funny – we almost take pride in bragging about how cold it is outside, and what we did.

Last weekend it was about minus forty with the windchill. No biggie. T-shirt weather! I participated in a Sno-Pitch tournament. It’s exactly how it sounds. It’s Softball slo-pitch in the wintertime.

They use a bright orange ball so that it doesn’t get lost in the snow. Give it a chance if you get the opportunity – you won’t regret it. Anyway, I put my famous White Sorels on and went to work.

It’s a common theme for me over the past year and a bit. I’m trying to push myself out of my comfort zone and into that magical place where things happen. You don’t get a great story by sitting home and watching Netflix on a Friday evening, after all.

It’s funny – when I take a moment to think back on last year, I remember how crazy it all was. That seems like half a lifetime ago now.

This weekend I’m participating in Jam Can. It’s like curling, except with beer. Wait, you can drink beer while curling. It’s like curling, except with MORE beer, maybe?

Oh, and it’s outside. Not to worry, it’s a balmy minus 20 today.

Either way, it has me nursing a hangover this morning and looking forward to going back to it again tonight.

SO

What did we learn this week?

1. Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy
2. Free promotions are a great way to sell more copies and get more reviews. I hope.
3. It’s frakking hard to run in ski-pants and winter boots
4. Apparently, if you drink a lot of the substance known as “alcohol” your body will hate you for it. Apparently.
5. Being out of your comfort zone is a great place to be.

Later days,

– M. James Murray