Thank you for purchasing over 30 of my books in 2019!
I’ll be honest with you. 2019 was a really hard year. Health was up and down. Finances were up and down, more down than up, and very little was done in the way of writing, at all. Even attempts to crowdfund retraining into a new career have been met with zeros. Banks and government-run retraining programs will not fund this because it is out of country. Funds I briefly earned that could have paid for most of that training went to replacing a porch that was torn out in August. A similar amount of money was due me by the end of September and still has not arrived. The “boss” at the time is refusing to pay up. Needless to say, I haven’t worked for him since early October.
The Christmas season was quiet, but between the hamper from the local foodbank and a hamper from our church, Christmas dinner was such a big affair even with small quantities being cooked, that I had to put the leaf into the table just for the food serving dishes. We have enough meat to last us well into January if not beyond!
Now I sit here between Christmas and New Years, and the typical bout of depression has hit. This doesn’t mean I’m ungrateful for the blessings God has given us over the past year, far from it. This state of mind and body is normal for me around this time of year, and in times past has been a mental/emotional manifestation that life to that point had been rather busy and now I need to stop and rest. December was a busy month for sure. The choir I sing with had several performances and I was assisting my daughter with tables at various craft fairs for her AshTree Wildcrafting business. Those efforts helped pay several major bills in both November and December, but they did make those months busy.
Amazon sent me a notification just before Christmas that I finally decided to check into, and then I got curious about how book sales went over the past year. It turns out that 37 books sold over the course of 2019. Thank you to all who chose to buy what I have written.
- 12 copies of the “30 Days of Advent Colouring Journal” sold.
- 19 copies of “Becoming the Bride of Christ: A Personal Journey – Leader’s Guide” sold. This one baffles me as it really needs the other books in the series to make much sense.
- 2 copies of “One Year Prayer Journal” sold. This one can be used stand-alone, or as a companion journal to “A Year in Prayer With Jesus”.
- 1 book each sold of Themed Writing Prompts New Year and Spring. That was nice to see.
- My son’s Gronox War novella also sold a copy over this past year.
(click the Amazon link in the previous paragraph to access these and other books that are available under Songdove Books)
Amazon pays it’s authors 60 days after sales are made, and October’s sales helped cover just over half of December’s overdraft fee. Yaaaa. That gave me a relieving smile. I don’t deliberately write for “what the market will buy”. So when someone buys my books, that means a lot to me. What would be really nice, is if the purchasers of these books left helpful reviews for those wondering if they should or shouldn’t buy what I write. Particularly if you were really pleased with the books, leaving such a review would be a belated Christmas gift for me! I have several writing projects sitting in the wings once I can get my financial picture in better order. You can help by leaving a review, purchasing more of my books, funding my retraining effort, or using the donation box in the right column of this website. I need to change up the layout at some point here, but that takes up a fair chunk of my day trying to do so, so I haven’t attacked that in over a year and it shows.
Life isn’t easy right now, and it is my prayer that 2020 will ease up on the health and financial fronts so that I can get back to writing and doing what I love. Thanks again to all who bought my books in 2019. May God bless you mightily in the coming year.
BONUS: The 21 most popular blog posts visited over the past year!
(not necessarily posted over the past year) from most visited to least visited.
- “Genesis 17: God Will You Bless My Efforts on Your Behalf?”
- “1 Samuel 12: 24 Consider what God has done for you”
- “Exodus 20: The 10 Commandments – Where is Your Focus?”
- “Exodus 32: He’s Taking Too Long!!!”
- “Every High Thing Must Come Down So Lift Up the Mighty Shield of Faith Because I’m Not Givin’ Up!”
- “How quickly we forget God’s Advance Notices and Warnings.”
- “Exodus 19:5 Now therefore if ye will obey my voice and keep my covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me”
- “Leviticus 25 and the Subject of Redemption (kinsman redeemer)”
- “Exodus 31: of God-given Talents Skills and Abilities”
- “Numbers 12: Murmuring and Railing Against God’s Anointed!”
- “Isaiah 45:3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness
- “NHP Diploma Fundraiser and Where Medicine Has Come and Gone”
- “Genesis 50: “”What you intended for evil God intended for good to save the lives of many people””
- “Day 27 in The Waiting Room by T.C. Spellen – For thy Maker is thine husband”
- “Goal-setting. Revisiting an old Friend”
- “Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”
- “His Name Shall Be Above Every Name!”
- “Numbers 18: . . . I am thy part and thine inheritance. . .”
- “Leviticus 9: Sacrifices for Aaron and the People of Israel.”
- “Final Review of The Glycemic Load Diet: Meat!”
- “Taking Back Ground! Body Soul and Spirit!”