Mental Mountain Climbing

Learning new things is good. That’s my new chant as I go through the process of publishing my first indie release, AN INVITATION TO SCANDAL. It’s always good to challenge your brain with new information. You never want to stop learning. Well, okay, maybe some days you want to stop learning. In fact, some days you just want to dive back under the covers and forget you know anything. The biggest decision you’ll want to make on those days is do I want my latte to be skinny or full fat. FWIW – go skinny, your arteries will thank you later.

Where was I? Right, learning new things. I’ve discovered I need a challenge. And once I’ve finished one challenge, I need another one waiting in the wings. A Capricorn without a mountain to climb is an ugly thing indeed. We get restless and cranky. We become prone to wandering and start butting things with our heads. But once someone throws down a challenge, or we come upon one all on our own, we stop head-butting things and do a little dance of joy. (By the way, if you’re picturing the scene from Ace Ventura, Pet Detective where Jim Carey is sporting the pink tutu, you’re not far off the mark on what my happy dance looks like. Don’t judge me.)

It was just such a challenge that led me to go the self-publishing route a little earlier than originally planned. Many (many) years ago, I set out to get published. After the requisite amount of rejections, I signed a contract with Carina Press and my first e-book, THE OUTLAW BRIDE, was released in April 2011. Then I decided to up the ante and get a publishing contract for a print book. More requisite rejections then mission accomplished! I signed a contract with Harlequin for two western historical romances (watch for them August 2014). But the indie world was somewhere I had never ventured. I wanted to, but the learning curve seemed oh so steep. And by steep, I mean jump off a cliff fall into the deep, dark abyss kind of steep. Good thing Caps like mountain climbing…

But I had done the e-book, the print books were in the works and it was either take on the challenge of learning the ins and outs of indie publishing or… train for a half marathon. I had to flip a coin on which one would be less painful.

Indie publishing won. Just don’t tell my training partner. She’s a real taskmaster. Typical Taurus. 🙂

Do you think I can could convince her mental mountain climbing is a workout?