Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Dan Patterson flies to a remote area of Kodiak Island to investigate the massacre of eight people at a small lodge, and he encounters the worst murder scene he has ever investigated. How did someone kill eight individuals in the middle of the wilderness and then disappear?
Patterson takes a hard look at those closest to the lodge owners. Did Brian or Deb Bartlett murder their parents and the six guests at the lodge? Was the killer the neighbor who lived a few miles away or someone else in this sparsely populated bay?
Each time Patterson picks up a lead, new evidence shifts the course of the investigation. Meanwhile, the killer strikes again, murdering one of Patterson’s main suspects, and Patterson knows he must stop the monster before more people die.
Grab your copy of Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge, now
Sea cucumbers are some of the strangest-looking organisms on the beach. They might have the shape of a cucumber, but that is where the resemblance ends. At first glance, a sea cucumber looks like a plant, but it is an animal. As I mentioned in my last post, they are echinoderms related to sea stars, sea urchins, and sand dollars.
There are more than 1,250 species of sea cucumbers, and they occupy nearly every marine habitat worldwide.They range in size from one to two inches (2.5 to 5 cm.) to 10 ft. (3 meters). Most species reach a maximum length of between four to twelve inches (10 to 30 cm). Most, but not all, sea cucumbers have a cylindrical shape with protruding tube feet covering their bodies. All sea cucumbers live in the ocean, but some live in the. shallows, while others inhabit the deep ocean floor. They are benthic animals, meaning that they are bottom dwellers at whatever depth they live.
Sea cucumbers feed on algae, tiny aquatic animals, or waste particles. They gather their food with the eight to thirty tube feet surrounding their mouth.
When threatened by a predator, some species of sea cucumbers can discharge sticky threads to ensnare their attacker. Other species violently contract their muscles and propel their toxic organs from their bodies toward their attackers. They can quickly regenerate the missing organs. Sea cucumbers can also expose skeletal hooklike structures, making it more difficult for a predator to eat them.
While sea cucumbers can reproduce asexually, sexual reproduction is more common. They are broadcast spawners and gather in groups to release their eggs and sperm into the water simultaneously. When the eggs and sperm happen to meet, fertilization occurs. Sea cucumbers have a life span of five to ten years.
A sizeable culinary market for sea cucumbers exists in Asia, where certain species are considered a delicacy. The giant red cucumber is harvested in Alaska. Red sea cucumbers are found in many nearshore areas from Baja California, north and west to the Gulf of Alaska. Alaska’s largest sea cucumber fishery occurs in Southeast Alaska, with smaller fisheries near Kodiak and Chignik. Scuba divers commercially harvest cucumbers and then deliver eviscerated but live animals to shore-based processors. The cucumbers are processed by separating the five longitudinal muscle bundles from the skin with a scraper or a knife. The processor then boils the skin and dries it into a product called trepang or beche de mer. The processor freezes the longitudinal muscles and markets the dried skin and frozen muscles locally in the U.S. and Asia.
In early October, we often see sea cucumber harvesters diving for animals near our lodge. I often think they have a tough job jumping into the frigid ocean, searching for a small sluggish animal on the ocean floor.
Watch short videos about books by Alaskan authors — including my soon-to-be-released Alaska wilderness novel Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge. Follow the link. All About Alaska Through Books – BINGE Networks
Happy Holidays. This post is long overdue, and I apologize. I try to do too many things, and some fall by the wayside. I began writing my blog post several years ago, long before I started a newsletter, a podcast, or any of the many other writing projects I tackle. My wildlife posts aren’t long, but they require time to research and write. I know people see them, but I don’t receive much feedback, so I often feel I’m writing in a vacuum. On the other hand, people do respond to my newsletters and podcast. I sell books through my newsletter and podcast, so I tend to concentrate my effort on those two projects. I do not intend to walk away from my blog, though. I want to post every other week, but I think once a month might be a more attainable goal. In any case, I am sorry I have been absent lately.
I hope that you are safe and healthy. It has been a rough two years, and I know we are all ready for things to return to normal (whatever normal is). I know many places in the U.S. had an unseasonably warm fall, but ours here on Kodiak Island was bitterly cold and stormy. It warmed up a few days ago, but we’ve had to deal with one storm after another.
Due to all the nasty weather, I’ve stayed indoors and spent as much time as possible writing. My fifth novel is in the hands of my publisher, and I am now concentrating on my next book. It will be a true-crime book containing several of the Alaska murder and mystery pieces I’ve written for my newsletter. I have decided to group the stories by regions of the state to take the reader on a tour of Alaska. This tour allows me to showcase differences in geography, average temperatures, cultures, and environments around the state. I can also stress distinctions between police-response times from one region to another. Authorities usually respond to a crime in a matter of minutes in Anchorage or Fairbanks, but in a small, remote village, troopers might not arrive for a day or two after the crime occurs.
Although I’ve already written the stories for my true-crime book, I still need to spend a great deal of time editing each story. Then, I will send the text to an editor. I hope to release this book sometime in 2022, but the process always takes longer than I think it should. For a break from the tediousness of editing, I hope to start writing my next novel while working on the true-crime book. I have a rough outline of the story in my head, but I haven’t put it together yet.
My podcast and newsletter audiences are growing at a steady pace. I started a Patreon group called The Last Frontier Club, and it is a way for people to support my podcast and newsletter. In return, I do one or two short podcasts every month that only my patrons can access. I appreciate my patrons and use their contributions to pay for my podcast and author websites, the charges for digging through newspaper archives online, advertising, and the many other memberships a writer and podcaster must join — such as Headliner, Vimeo, Canva, etc.
As you might guess, my New Year’s Resolution is to write more blog posts (and eat less). I promise to be back soon with my next wildlife post, and I will keep you updated with the progress of my latest novel as it moves through the publishing process.
I wish you a wonderful 2022, and I hope by this time next year, we all feel safe in public without wearing a mask.
What is “normal” these days? To me, “normal” feels like a train wreck occurring in front of me. I stand helpless, my eyes glued to the track while I watch the two engines barrel toward each other, brakes screaming. Chaos abounds in our government, our healthcare, our citizenry, and everywhere in our daily lives.
I attempted to watch the first U.S. presidential debate, but I had to turn off the television after only a few minutes. These are the people who are supposed to lead us out of the darkness. They are the ones who should formulate a comprehensive response to this pandemic to lessen its impact both physically and economically. Instead, they fought like children for ninety minutes, leaving me, and I’m sure many others, bewildered, confused, and frightened. Will our country survive this dark time in our history?
I am lucky to live in the wilderness, and I haven’t been to town since early March, so I’ve missed day-to-day issues of masks and social distancing. Instead, I’ve watched from afar, moving from fascinated to concerned to alarmed.
My selfish new normal might mean no vacation this winter, and I don’t mind. This summer, my husband, Mike, finished building my office/workshop, and I love it. It is a great place to write and research new ideas for posts and newsletters. Mike even enclosed a small, closet-like space and sound-proofed it to make me a podcast studio. This is the video of my she-shed, as we laughingly call it. https://vimeo.com/426004653.
Many of our guests canceled their reservations this summer, and most have rebooked for next year or the following year. Losing half of our season was tough, but I spent the extra time to work on my Kodiak wildlife book. I found an excellent editor, and we labored over every detail of formatting, sentence structure, and clarity. I knew editing this book would require a great deal of work, and it did, but I now have a clean manuscript. Next, I will work on photo placement, and then I will put the project on a thumb drive and mail it to my publisher. I hope to have the published book by early 2021. I am excited!
I’ve spent too much time watching the news this year, and of course, the pandemic and political climate have provided much fodder for future novel plots. Unfortunately, though, this new normal has distracted my creativity, and I’ve struggled to keep up with my writing schedule. In late November, once we close our lodge for the year, I hope to focus and increase my productivity.
I plan to write blog posts about a few more marine invertebrates, including sea cucumbers, urchins, clams, and mussels. Many of my posts originate from questions our guests ask me. When I can’t fully answer a question, I decide to research the organism and write about it. This summer, we caught several skates and way too many dogfish sharks. You will soon see a post about both skates and dogfish. I am especially curious about the dogfish and wonder what hole in the marine community they have rushed in to fill. Was this year an anomaly or the beginning of a worrisome trend? Unfortunately, the environment is also skewing toward a new normal.
A COVID vaccine might not return us to what we once considered normal, and I hope it doesn’t. I want to think we will emerge from this crisis wiser and kinder, but what I see now does not paint an optimistic portrait. If we do return to our old normal, I hope, at least, we will not take it for granted. If nothing else, we should learn that it only takes a tiny virus to destroy normal.
How will the COVID-19 pandemic end? Will it change the world? Will some countries emerge stronger, while others appear weak due to their inability to handle the virus? Will the pandemic force long-term impacts on economies and cultures?
Wars carve our history. They lead to the downfall of some civilizations and the rise of others. Pandemics have also changed history, and pandemics and wars often coincide. Disease can weaken a strong civilization, allowing its lesser foe to prevail in battle. Also, many times over the millennia, marauding warriors have returned home from war bringing with them a terrible disease. Sometimes, an infectious disease gains a foothold during battle, and soldiers confined together in close quarters provide the perfect breeding ground for the virus to spread.
Around 430 B.C., Athens and Sparta went to war, and soon after, a strange disease developed in Athens. According to the Greek historian Thucydides, people in good health suddenly became ill with red and inflamed eyes and a bloody throat and tongue. Experts do not know what caused this epidemic, but they have suggested everything from typhoid fever to Ebola. As the deadly infection spread, the war raged. As many as 100,000 people died from the disease, and Athens finally surrendered to Sparta.
In A.D. 165-180, Roman soldiers returned from a campaign, carrying home a pandemic, known as the Antonine Plague. The disease, which might have been smallpox, killed over 5 million people. The epidemic caused instability and war throughout the Roman Empire, leading to the beginning of its downfall.
The Plague of Justinian from A.D. 541-542 was the bubonic plague, and it ravaged Constantinople before spreading to Europe, Asia, North Africa, and Arabia. This plague marked the beginning of the decline of the Byzantine Empire.
The bubonic plague also caused the Black Death from 1346-1353. This devastating pandemic wiped out over half of Europe’s population, but it also changed the course of Europe’s history in a positive way. Large numbers of laborers died from the plague, and those who remained demanded higher wages. The surviving laborers had access to better food, and the loss of cheap labor led to technological innovation.
In the 16th century, European explores brought smallpox and other Eurasian diseases to the Americas, wiping out as many as 90% of the indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere and causing the collapse of the Inca and Aztec civilizations. After disease weakened the Incas and Aztecs, the Europeans easily conquered them.
While the previous examples stem from far back in our history, the 1918-1919 flu presents a more recent case. This pandemic began during WWI. Experts disagree about where the flu originated, but most agree the lethal virus spread quickly due to the cramped conditions of soldiers in barracks and the poor nutrition during the war. President Woodrow Wilson was so intent on boosting morale and keeping the country focused on patriotism and winning the war that he refused to talk about the deadly influenza virus spreading like wildfire among the troops. By the end of WWI, more soldiers died from the flu than on the battlefield. The 1918-1919 flu killed 675,000 Americans and between 50 and 100 million people worldwide.
In April 1919, just as the war ended, President Wilson caught the flu. When it was time to sign the peace treaty in Paris, an extremely ill and weakened Wilson caved to demands of the French for a punishing peace agreement with Germany. In return for conceding to the French on the tone and content of the treaty, the French agreed to Wilson’s wishes to form the League of Nations. Many historians believe the harsh treatment toward Germany at the end of WWI lead the country down the path to hyperinflation, chaos, nationalism, militarization, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and WWII.
A major world event such as a pandemic is bound to leave lasting impacts. We can already predict some changes in our lives. Online virtual meetings, education, and doctor’s visits have become more frequent and likely will remain so, even once the pandemic ends. Will a move away from working at the office toward working at home decentralize our cities? Will our hypervigilance over avoiding infection continue once we have a vaccine for COVID-19, or will we again display indifference in the presence of pathogens? Will our economy recover, or will we suffer a damaging and possibly fatal blow from this virus? How will other countries fare?
Perhaps the final chapter on the COVID-19 virus will not be written for decades when scholars can look back from a distance and see the effect the virus had on our lives, our cultures, and our countries. Other pandemics have caused the fall of empires. Will this one cause significant harm in the long run?
My series of posts on infectious diseases has, of course, been inspired by Covid-19, the coronavirus currently spreading to every corner of the world. What is a coronavirus, though, and what path will Covid-19 take? Will we tame it with a vaccine, will it mysteriously disappear, or is it here to stay for a while? We know Covid-19 is a novel virus, a pathogen never previously identified in humans. When Covid-19 began to spread around the world, no one was immune to it.
Coronaviruses represent a large family of viruses, including the common cold and other mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses. Over the past few years, three serious coronaviruses, causing severe illness and death, have emerged. In addition to Covid-19, these are Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). SARS appeared in 2002 and disappeared by 2004. MERS was transmitted by camels and first identified in humans in September 2012. MERS continues to cause localized outbreaks.
Covid-19 emerged from China in December 2019 and quickly spread throughout the world. Like the viruses that produce SARS and MERS, Covid-19 can cause serious illness and death, but its extreme virulence makes Covid-19 even more dangerous than its viral cousins. Covid-19 spreads easily between people who are in close contact when one person inhales small, infected droplets produced by the infected person. The droplets can be spread by talking, yelling, coughing, sneezing, or singing. Scientists still aren’t certain how long small aerosol droplets containing Covid-19 remain suspended in air or how far they can travel. Covid-19 can also spread when infected droplets fall onto a surface, and a person then touches the contaminated surface and subsequently spreads the infection to their eyes, nose, or mouth.
No vaccine for Covid-19 currently exists, but we all remain hopeful that scientists will soon develop one. Until then, we can only protect ourselves by following basic public health protocols. These might not seem like cutting-edge science, but they have been the best weapons used to fight infectious diseases through the centuries. By now, we all know them well: Wash your hands, maintain a physical distance from others, and wear a mask to cover your nose and mouth.
Infectious disease experts wait and watch this virus. We would like these experts to tell us what will happen next, but how can they possibly know? The Spanish flu virus mutated partway through its run and became much more deadly in the fall of 1918. Could this happen with Covid-19? Most experts believe it will again peak in the fall, but it shows no sign of slowing now as summer progresses and draws to a close.
We cannot yet write the story about Covid-19. How many people will get sick, and how many will die? How did it start spreading, and could national leaders have stopped it if they ignored politics and acted sooner? Most importantly, how can we better prepare for the next pandemic when it occurs? Will we take a moment and remember to turn around and study the past, or are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes with each pandemic we encounter?
I decided to write one more post about pandemics, and then I promise to move back to covering Kodiak wildlife and life in the wilderness. In my next post, I’ll discuss how plagues have changed history. While researching pandemics, I was fascinated to learn the many ways, both good and bad, that pandemics have shaped our history, and I began to wonder what lasting impacts Covid-19 will leave on the world.
While the flu is something we would rather avoid, most of us don’t fear the flu virus. But maybe we should. Influenza viruses are complex, containing strands of RNA twisted together. When the strands untwist to replicate, they break and sometimes recombine with fragments of other viruses, resulting in new viral forms. Virologists cannot predict these mutations. Flu viruses reside in a variety of host species, and the virus can pick up nasty tricks as it moves from animal to animal, recombining with other flu viruses before moving on to infect a host of another species. By the time the virus reaches man, it might be highly contagious, extremely lethal, and nothing humans have ever seen before. The novel virus could quickly race around the planet, leaving destruction in its wake.
For those infected with the influenza virus, symptoms range from mild to severe. The most common symptoms include high fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle and joint pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. The influenza virus occasionally causes severe illness, including primary viral pneumonia and secondary bacterial pneumonia.
Three types of influenza viruses affect humans. These are known as types A,B, and C. A fourth type (D) has not been known to affect humans, but virologists believe it could. Influenzavirus A is the most worrisome of the four types, because wild aquatic birds are the natural hosts for influenza A, and the virus sometimes jumps to other species, causing massive outbreaks of infection in domestic poultry and creating pandemics of influenza in humans. Recent human pandemics caused by the influenza A virus include the 1918/1919 flu, the 1957 Asian Flu, and the 2004 bird flu.
Most experts consider the 1918/1919 flu (Spanish flu) pandemic one of the most baffling and terrifying pandemics of all time. Approximately 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide die from the flu each year. The 1918/1919 (Spanish) flu, though, killed an estimated 20-50 million humans over the course of a year. Some estimates range as high as 100 million deaths. More terrifying yet, though, was who the virus killed. The very old, very young, or those with underlying health conditions usually succumb to the common flu, but the Spanish flu killed young, otherwise healthy adults.
Experts today still argue over why the Spanish flu killed the young and healthy, but many believe the virus triggered a cytokine storm, which is an overreaction of the body’s immune system. This storm proved particularly deadly for young adults with robust immune systems.
Historians and virologists also argue over where the Spanish flu originated, but everyone agrees it did not come from Spain. Since Spain remained a neutral nation during WWI, it did not censor its press, and reporters freely documented early accounts of the disease, causing many people to think the flu originated in Spain. Some experts believe the 1918 flu pandemic began in Haskell County, Kansas, and quickly spread from there to Fort Riley when an enlisted man went home to Haskell for a few days, became infected, and returned to the army base. In the overcrowded barracks on base, the flu quickly spread.
The Spanish flu suddenly burned out in the Spring of 1919. While this H1N1 influenza A virus has not returned since, epidemiologist fear it will reappear. This pandemic occurred over one-hundred years ago, so few people alive now have immunity to this strain, and it could again exact a nasty toll.
Flu experts study the world and watch carefully for the next possible flu epidemic. Infectious disease experts say it is not a matter of if but when the next flu pandemic will occur.
While Covid-19 is a novel virus, pandemics are nothing new in human history. In my last post, I wrote about the plague, and in this post, I’ll cover some of the other major pathogens that have not only inflicted disease upon humans but have caused pandemics affecting much of the globe.
Smallpox
Smallpox
For centuries, smallpox threatened Europe, Asia, and Arabia, killing three out of every ten people it infected. While smallpox menaced the old world for millennia, humans did not experience its full fury until European explorers introduced it to the New World. The indigenous inhabitants of Mexico and the United States had no immunity to smallpox, and tens of millions died. Anthropologists estimate smallpox decimated 90 to 95 percent of the indigenous population of the Americas.
The variola virus causes smallpox, and it is the only infectious disease humans have eradicated. Once they had a vaccine for smallpox, World Health Organization workers searched the most remote areas of the world, tracking down and vaccinating infected individuals and their contacts. The last natural case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977. Unlike most viruses, smallpox only infects humans. No other species play host to the virus. Once all humans were vaccinated against smallpox, the virus had no place to go. Most human viruses can also infect other animals or insects, making these viruses impossible to find and demolish.
Cholera
Vibrio cholerae
Cholera is an infection caused by strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which attack the small intestine, causing watery diarrhea, vomiting, and muscle cramps. Cholera has wreaked havoc over the centuries and is the scourge of developing countries. Cholera is often spread through dirty drinking water, and it still kills nearly 30,000 people a year worldwide.
In the 19th century, cholera ravaged England and killed tens of thousands of people. No one understood how the disease spread until a doctor named John Snow linked the illness to a Broad Street pump in London, where many of the citizens obtained their drinking water. While cholera is no longer a problem in stable nations, it still lurks in developing countries that lack adequate sewage treatment and access to clean water.
AIDS
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes AIDS. Experts believe the virus originated in chimpanzees and began infecting humans in West Africa in the 1920s. AIDS became a pandemic in the late 20th century, killing an estimated 35 million individuals. Sixty-four percent of the estimated forty million people worldwide infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. Medication can now control HIV, and most HIV-infected individuals with access to the medication can live an average lifespan.
In my next post, I’ll cover the flu, an illness we all know well and carelessly dismiss as a minor inconvenience. Influenza has caused terrible pandemics in our past, and the flu virus keeps epidemiologists awake at night. These experts will tell you, “It’s not a question of ‘if’ we will have another flu pandemic but of ‘when’ the next flu pandemic will occur.
Sometimes, life seems like a series of hurdles, and this
winter, a new, huge hurdle appeared out of nowhere, catching most of us by
surprise and forcing us to re-evaluate our priorities.
I hope you and your loved ones are well. We don’t know what
will happen in the coming days, and many of us are struggling to cope with the
present. As some of you know, my husband, Mike, and I own a small lodge in the
wilderness on Kodiak Island, Alaska, and a few days ago, the Governor, in
effect, closed Alaska to visitors for at least the next month. I know he made
the right decision. I am sure the coronavirus will eventually spread to all
areas of the state, but we need to do everything we can to slow its rate of
infection. Folks who don’t need to travel should stay home. Even though Mike and
I feared the Governor might halt travel to Alaska, his mandate still hit hard,
and we find ourselves trying to decide what to do to survive economically.
This is not the first time a national or world event has impacted
us. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and the 9-11 terrorist attack both nearly
decimated tourism in Alaska. Economic downturns always hurt the travel
industry, and during one of the many budget squabbles in the U.S. Congress, the
Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge closed, and we had to cancel goat hunts already
in progress. The COVID-19 threat differs from previous disasters, though. During
earlier crises, I focused my anger on one person or a group of people. Whether
it was a drunk captain, deranged terrorists, or spoiled politicians, I could always
picture the cause of our near-economic destruction.
Unfortunately, a pandemic is no one’s fault. We can’t blame
anyone for the coronavirus. Our government could and should have acted faster,
but even with the best response, a very infectious, novel virus is hard to
stop. We have no idea when this virus will run its course, but until then, we remain
at its mercy.
I find the economics of our situation disheartening and
depressing, and I know the government won’t miraculously bail us out of our
financial woes. Even in the past, when the government caused our economic problems,
we never received assistance to help us rebound. I certainly don’t expect help
this time, but I know we will be okay. We will jump over this hurdle. As long
as our family, friends, and we stay healthy, all else becomes insignificant.
I thank the health care workers and first responders who are
fighting on the front lines of this pandemic. They take incredible chances
every day.
Stay well, and we will get over this hurdle, and hopefully, something good will come from the pain. As you can see from the photo, I have a beautiful place to self-isolate.
Join the Battle of the Books contest, and you could win a $500 Amazon Gift Card! I am very excited to have my novel, Karluk Bones, included in this contest.
It’s time once again to review last year and make
resolutions for the new year. I hope you all had a great 2019, and I wish you
an even better 2020!
I had a good 2019, and I’m pleased with what I accomplished.
I went off track a bit and did not fulfill all my resolutions from last year,
but I wandered down some new, exciting paths. I finished my fourth novel,
Karluk Bones, and my publisher released it on September 1st. I did
not finish my wildlife book, but I am now busy editing it and hope to publish
it in 2020. Meanwhile, I’ve started writing my next novel and am beginning to
assemble my true-crime book. None of these things happen as quickly as I would
like, but I’ve learned I dream up new ideas much faster than I complete the old
ones.
I enjoy plotting and writing books, but selling books
remains a puzzle I might never solve. I’ve worked hard over the last year
promoting my books, but when nothing seemed to work, I decided to think
“outside the box.” I needed to search for new places to find my ideal readers.
Paid Advertising: My publisher uses paid advertising
to promote my books, but I rarely pay for advertisements. I’ve found I never
make as much money from advertising as I spend on the ad, but perhaps this is
because I don’t know what I’m doing.
My Blog: I
started my blog when I built my website, and while I still love writing posts,
I have learned this is not the best way to find people who want to read my
books. A respectable number of people read my blog each week, but I think most
are either friends or folks who stop by to learn about the specific topic of my
post. I plan to keep writing blog posts as long as I have something to say. I
learn a great deal from researching and writing my wildlife posts, but my blog
posts are not yet useful promotional tools for my books.
My Monthly Murder and Mystery Newsletter: Many of the
people who open and read my monthly newsletter buy and read my books, so my
goal is always to find more individuals who want to sign up for my newsletter.
Medium: If you haven’t checked out Medium (https://medium.com) yet, you should. It’s a platform for writers, where you can find articles on every topic imaginable. I post some of my true crime articles and my wildlife content there. At the bottom of each true crime article, I include a sign-up form for my newsletter, and dozens of Medium readers have signed up for my mystery newsletter. When I found Medium and began posting my true crime articles, I felt I’d made progress. People who liked my writing and my subject matter opted to sign up for my newsletter.
Podcast: I took a stride forward with Medium, but I
knew I needed to do more to find readers. I decided perhaps I should look for
readers who also enjoy other types of entertainment. I didn’t know what to
expect when I started my podcast, but for a low-budget production, it has done
well, and I’ve found new readers.
My writing resolutions for 2020 are to finish and publish my
wildlife book and to finish my next novel. I also hope to keep blogging,
podcasting, and posting my newsletter on schedule. I’ll work with my publisher
to try to think of new ways to reach readers, and I’ll keep doing the things
that seem to work.
I’ve learned selling books is hard. It’s like a big puzzle
where all the moving parts must fit together somehow. I think if I find the
correct alignment, I’ll turn my fledgling writing hobby into a book business. I
believe most authors are dreamers. Success is right around the corner, and next
year it will happen. Maybe 2020 will be the year for me!
What are your resolutions for 2020, and have you made resolutions for the next decade? I hope 2020 is the year for you to make your dreams come true. I wish you health, wealth, and happiness!
