The Holiday Season Approaches *heavy sigh*

For the past ten years, the holiday season has depressed me because I have never been able to afford gifts for my loved ones since hanging my shingle as a copywriter. I’ve made enough to get by, but never enough to get ahead.

 

With book sales post-retirement, I’m pretty much in the same boat. I get Social Security and a small pension–just enough to get by, but never enough to get ahead.  So I keep scrambling for additional opportunities: to sell a book, write for a new or existing occasional client, etc.

 

As a result, I have a busy week ahead of me next week! That’s the good news!

 

Tuesday at 5 PM I’ll be LIVE on the Artist First Radio Network talking about my book and my decades-long friendship with Carolyn and DeForest Kelley. It will be recorded and forever after available at AFRN and from the home page of this website (unless the home page gets so crowded that we have to make a separate page for past interviews…) so it should bring in some “passive income” in drips and drabs for years to come (I hope, I hope….) Kinda like residuals for actors. No one can retire on them, but they’re nice to have.

 

Wednesday I will join Wayne Emery of TrekMate to discuss the Star Trek episode THE EMPATH on his special show “Who Gives a TOS?” That might bring a few more TOS fans my way to take a look at my book offerings.

 

Saturday from 8 AM to 4 PM (including set up and tear down time) I’ll be at ABC Day at Spanaway Lake High School with a book table and an attractive “bio banner”, hoping people will stop by, listen to me read a book excerpt every half hour or so, and decide to buy a book (or books) for themselves or as gifts for loved ones….

 

 

Then I’ll have a week-long break until Sunday, October 9th (unless I find ways to fill in the days with additional events, interviews or copy/content-writing assignments) when I’ll be interviewed by Michael May about De’s cowboy career (to be aired at a later date, I think).

 

Michael and I will also talk a little bit about the book because I sent him a PDF of it. He read three chapters and loved it so much that he went ahead and bought a copy, even though he received a free PDF of it. How cool is that?!!

 

I love it when people support my book writing career. It makes life a little easier, for sure.

 

I hope more people who enjoyed reading the book will think about buying copies for their loved ones during the coming holiday season. This is Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, so I know a lot of Baby Boomers and Millennials and others would love it…

 

That thousand dollars for vehicle repairs last month really hurt. It left me in the lurch. And next Tuesday  we’re getting twenty bales of  alfalfa delivered (it’s cheaper than buying them bale by bale at Wilco or Tractor Supply Company) to carry the goats through the winter months. I’m responsible for half of that $400 bill.

 

I need to find homes for two of my goat kids, Romeo and Juliet. I just don’t have enough acreage to support six goats. I’m not sure I have enough to support four goats, but I think I do.I wrote a craigslist ad today. I’m asking $300 for both of them to be sure they go to a good home where blackberry bush eaters are needed instead of into people’s stomachs.

 

Tonight I sold a Star Trek script that De signed; this sale will help me out a lot. I can stop stressing about how close the end of the month is (when one of my Medicare payments comes due). A good friend bought the script. I know she’ll cherish it, so I’m happy she’s the one who got it. (I won’t divulge her name unless she gives me permission to do so. She lives in another state a couple of time zones away.)

 

De always told me to sell stuff if I ever needed to. I didn’t think I’d ever need to, but… sometimes it’s just plain necessary! He’s still helping me, all these years later.  And I’m helping expand and extend his legacy. Great partnerships  never die!!!

 

I do hate being this close to broke always, though. (Don’t all of us who are in the same boat?) It really stinks. It isn’t like we sit on our thumbs all day long:

 

I have a full time job looking for book table opportunities, reading/speaking venues and writing gigs. I get very few of the writing gigs I apply for because newbies, wannabes and charlatans are always willing to write for a lot less, and the vast majority of small business owners go with them instead of pros like me because they’re cheaper, even though they’re nowhere as good at converting browsers into buyers… and then the business owners get burned and gun shy and won’t hire writers anymore. It’s just pathetic. Had they hired a good writer the first time around, they would be delighted and excited to hire again, but they didn’t/don’t…and the sad cycle perpetuates itself to their detriment.

 

People who write (well!) and do other creative things (well!) for a living are at a distinct disadvantage. But there’s nothing else that keeps us feeling alive and vital so we keep doing what we do best, because doing anything else is painful, like dying every day while we’re still breathing…