Once again, time has escaped me. I haven’t been posting on here as regularly as I normally do. I’ll blame it on the season; things get busy in the run-up to Christmas with school and work full flow, before they grind to a complete halt and we have two weeks off.
Book marketing is a 24-7 job that never grinds to a halt. For me, writing ebbs and flows; I’m never too bothered if a few days pass and I haven’t written a thing, as I know other days will be productive. On the other hand, marketing is different. Books don’t sell themselves. I always try to post a promo video across my social media channels every few days or so, just to keep the sales chugging along. Here’s my latest one, promoting my ‘stocking stuffers’:
Someone commented on Tiktok that they were surprised at how many of my books could fit in that wee doggy stocking and I told them that I used my first sample chapters for the video. They’re very handy; lightweight and easy to carry around. If you’re an author, I’d definitely recommend printing a few samples of your own books to carry around. You never know when you might need them.
Writing and marketing aside, this week is packed with seasonal events. There’s the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia on Wednesday, which we like to celebrate in my family as a fun reason for a feast. My work Xmas party is coming up at the end of the school week, and a welcome way to kick off the start of the winter break. Yule follows on Sunday, so I’m looking forward to having a special seasonal Sunday roast to mark the solstice. After all those festive dates, I’ll be switching to hibernation mode until New Year with not much planned, other than reading, writing, family time and overeating.
For now, Io Saturnalia, and I’ll rustle up another blog update for you at some point.
Leilanie Stewart 
Enjoy the break! 🙂