Happy New Years and Resolutions!

Photo By Myriam Zilles

I don't know if I got any work done on my new book this year or not. I do know I wrote at least one poem this year that is not going in the book. I think I might make working on Seasons of Sensation my New Year's Resolution, as much as I dislike New Year's Resolutions. I think our society is way too obsessed with goal setting. A little bit is okay, but it's gone too far. Everything in moderation!

Photo by Matt Hoffman

Setting this goal though, helps me work on other goals too, like prioritizing my mental health and accomplishing things I can be proud of. What better way to do that then poetry? I also just got diagnosed with a nervous system disorder (functional neurological disorder or FND) and mindfulness is supposed to help. I think mindfulness and poetry relate big time! In fact, in my classes, I would sometimes have everyone do a mindful exercise and then write a poem. Writing a book might be a little more structured, but every poem I write doesn't have to go into a book.

Photo Thanks To Content Pixie

I could also work on getting individual poems published and getting a little money through that. I read somewhere that someone made it their goal to send out different poems to three different publishers every month. I could do this too. I get emails through AuthorsPublish which sends out lists of whose accepting manuscripts/pieces (paid and unpaid). I have a tracker on my computer to list what I sent out and to where. I'm all set up for it!

Photo By Greg Rakozy

Things are always circling in the back of my mind too. Should I pull out the romance novel I started writing and work on that again? (I don't want to get pegged as a romance author though). I do need to sort through what speculative poems I have and start on that poetry book, but maybe after Seasons of Sensation. Should I look for an agent? Perhaps after Seasons of Sensation. And I simply need to pull out the short stories I already have written and start compiling them into a book. Lastly, I should totally start being more consistent with this blog! It does get lots of traffic! 

Thanks For Reading,

Happy New Year's To You All!

Photo Thanks To BoliviaInteligente

Happy Birthday Natasha: Kindle .99 cent sale

 

My 46th birthday is coming up in a few days. In honor of that, I have decided to put the Kindle Book Un-Clenched Emotion on sale for ninety-nine cents ($0.99). The promotion runs from today, Tuesday December 9th 2025 to Tuesday December 16th. Go to:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZNVH4Y to buy the book. Or you can read it on Kindle Unlimited for free. The 99 cents is discounted from the usual 2.99 it costs for this book. That's about 33% off!

photo by: Robert Anderson 

Now, double Happy Birthday, especially to those who like print books, my paperback is still 30% off. Instead of the normal 9.99, it's $7. Amazon decided to put on the discount without consulting me, so I don't know how long this will last! (I'm happy about the discount, I just wish I'd been notified!). The paperback of Un-Clenched Emotion would make a great gift 🎁 for Christmas 🎄 or for someone's birthday 🎂 lol. If not as a gift, it would be great for yourself, perhaps to put on your coffee table. If you want the paperback go to: https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327 

Thanks for checking out my blog and Happy Reading!

Paperback 30% Off!

 

Wow! I've been keeping track of my Amazon book pages, and it's a good thing I did. They decided to list paperwork my book for sale for 30% off. Discount, awesome! It's normally $9.99, but Amazon has decided to only charge you $7. I have no idea how long this is going to last. There is plenty of time to get Un-Clenched Emotion for Christmas present, ships is 2 days! A great idea for a gift. 

Go to https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327

PS. I am putting my Kindle book on sale for .99 for one week starting December 9th, 2025. A great self-care gift for you. The sale is in honor of my birthday coming up, and I chose to do this one!

Nothing Wrong With 3 Star Reviews

I've come across people who have become offended at 3 star reviews (out of 5), sometimes even 4 star reviews! The offense at 4 stars isn't that common, so I'll just focus on the 3. It came to my attention that people (not just authors) get offended when they get 3 star reviews sometimes when I reviewed Noom on Trust Pilot. They asked me to. I gave them 3 stars because it wasn't really working for me, but there were some pretty cool things, and I thought (still think) that the program could be beneficial to other people. They got offended and tried to get my review taken down by claiming I wasn't a real person! I proved I was real, the review is still up there, and Noom wrote that they were sorry I had a bad experience underneath it. Really??? It wasn't a bad experience, 3 stars out of 5 is not bad, it means it's okay but not the best! Ironically, now that I have the free version of Noom, I would give that 5 stars. Still haven't lost much weight, but there are a lot of cool features, and they give you give gift cards if you earn seeds. But this has not much to do with books.

The other day in my romance book club, I asked what star average a book had, and we found out it was 3 point something stars. Everyone in the club said that's pretty good. I told them the Noom story, and they agreed that 3 stars wasn't such a terrible thing. It means it's okay. I've had authors ask me to give them a higher rating in my reviews, and I really don't like that. If I review someone's work, I will be honest about it. If an author asks me to review their work, I will tell them I am going to be honest, and I will not post the review if I feel I can't give them at least 3 stars. 2 stars is a bad rating. I'd really rather not have a negative impact on someone's hard work, even if I would have graded it an F. I will just have no impact on their work at all. I did refuse to review a book that I felt I could only give 1 star to, and the coordinator of the review program said that was okay. I want to act with integrity and not lie.

When it comes to my book, Un-Clenched Emotion, and the reviews I get, I will take whatever comes my way. Some of my first reviews were 3 stars, and I was happy about it! And I was right to be happy about it. It's pretty cool that my book is so highly rated now, and that is so much cooler because I never asked anyone for a better rating or complained. The last review I got was only 3 stars, and I'm still glad about it. The person said my poetry just wasn't their thing, and I respect that. Everyone's got different tastes. And they still gave it 3 stars! I don't have any one or two star ratings yet, (knock on wood,) but if I get them I will accept that. I hear it's part of being a published author. I would rather people be honest about my work than lie about it. It's so much more wonderful when I see those wonderful, unasked for, 5 star reviews that way!