Writing, Thankfully

 It's a rough time to find things to be thankful for. Oh, they're there: family, health ... okay, family. But our society today is geared toward stressing the bad, and taking the good for granted. It's human nature to complain; most of us do it. Right now, someone is complaining because I just used a semicolon. But I have a wife who gets me, grand-kids, a case of Mountain Dew in the kitchen, and I'm pretty sure there's chocolate around here, somewhere.

And my writing, which at various times in my life is the only thing that kept me sane. The following is an update to a blog I wrote way back in 2015. I wanted to let you know that in case anyone remembered it ... although it seems unlikely, after eight years of what the last eight years have been like.

On this Thanksgiving (this is Thanksgiving weekend, by the way, but all you turkeys already know that), I’d like to say how thankful I am for my dislike of self-promotion.

I’ve spent a lot of time writing press releases, blogging, signing books, and basically bragging about how I’m such a good writer that you should spend your time and money on me. It’s not in my nature. But then, neither is working, and I have to do that, too.

My first book came out in 2011. Now I have eleven published, with my name in three others, and a handful of published short stories.

 When I first queried a publisher for a book length project I was eighteen—that was five years after my first "finished" novel. Please don't do the math on this, but it took me over thirty years to get a novel published.

But I did get published, and that’s something to be thankful for (among many other things). I may be struggling to make more sales, but I’m published—and a lot of writers don't make it that far. To show how thankful I am … I’m going to work hard to get more published. An unpublished book or short story should never rest on a writer’s desk (or hard drive) for long.

And I'm going to keep up my efforts to spread the word about our books (let's face it, half of them would never have been published without Emily. More than half.) For me, that's way more work than the actual writing.

But I'm thankful to be doing it.

 

 

• Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
• Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"
• Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter
• Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/
• Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter
• Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter
• Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

Remember to be thankful ... and also to read something fun.