Last night, I spent a few hours at Michael Gallowglas’s party, hosted by Dr. Will Brandon. Melissa and Mike Baltar came with me to the party, and it was a good time! It was also my first opportunity to give Michael a copy of The Psychic on the Jury, which I’d been holding since Baycon.

I’m still giddy over an experience at Baycon, where an older woman that bought The Repossessed Ghost last year sought me out, excited and eager to see if I had anything else to offer. I have lots of wonderful, supportive friends that have said many nice things about my stories, and I feed on the praise the way the desert drinks the rain. It’s something else when the positive feedback comes from a complete stranger, that has no social obligation to be nice to me.

Speaking of feedback… I sometimes get asked how my sales are going, and I honestly don’t have an answer. My publisher will tell me any time I ask, and I get statements every few months with detailed information, but it’s not something I have easy, direct access to all the time. I know what the numbers looked like at Bacyon because I can track the inventory of those physical books. Amazon sales, though? I won’t know for a while.

Was there a bump in sales for The Repossessed Ghost or One for the Road after Baycon? Has The Psychic on the Jury been well received? Has it sold enough to justify its existence? I have no idea. All I have on that front is hope.

The Psychic on the Jury has no reviews yet. The Repossessed Ghost has 12 ratings after a year, and Psychic hasn’t even been out a month yet. One for the Road has 2 ratings, and it’s been out since February. None of these numbers are particularly exciting or uplifting, so my hope isn’t drawn from there.

Where does my hope come from, then? It’s the interactions like I mentioned at Baycon. It’s the small things. When I sit down to write, it’s the clickety-clack of my keyboard and the word count going up. It’s also the realization that this is a numbers game, a marathon not a sprint, and the fact that the difference between those that make it and those that don’t is a factor of luck more than skill.

Mostly, I choose to be hopeful and keep going. What else can a writer do?

In other news, we replaced the A/C unit in our house this last week. It was expensive. If you’re reading this and you haven’t picked up any of my books yet, it would be greatly appreciated if you did so. Will a $5 purchase of The Psychic on the Jury put a dent in the cost of a new A/C unit? Individually, no. But if you and 3600 of your closest friends all bought a copy of my book, it would cover half of my cost last week, and would honestly be a modern miracle.

As an addendum, and straying back into politics just a teensy bit, my last couple of posts talked about the assassination attempt on Trump (remember that?) and Joe Biden dropping out of the race. My thoughts and feelings at the time were valid, but I have a little bit more hope today than I had on July 21st. It looks like the Democrats have rallied around a single candidate, which is great. Also, in the first two days after Kamala announced her candidacy, she raised about $250,000,000.

One of the the things I mentioned in my last post was that I didn’t want to see a bloodbath between the potential Democratic nominees. It looks like that has been avoided. It’s still a difficult battle ahead, still harder in some ways than if Biden had stayed in. On the other hand, I haven’t seen the Democratic base this fired up since Obama’s first run.

There is good reason to maintain hope, on several different fronts. Stories will still happen, and readers will be found. The Republic as we know it doesn’t have to end. And throughout the strife and challenges that face us, Melissa and I will at least stay cool in our house even as the hot August nights approach.

Things are not easier, but there is good reason to find hope where you can, and hold onto the little things that make these times more bearable.