The End of NaNoWriMo

I know I already posted earlier today, but this is important.

Today emails went out to the NaNoWriMo community: The organization is shutting down due to lack of funding.  I will repost the full email below, omitting the embedded video since I don't want to give her any more views.

The email and the video lean into the idea that NaNoWriMo failed to come back from its crises the last couple years because the community sabotaged Kilby.  I argue otherwise.

Starting in early 2024, she emailed all of the Municipal Liaisons (volunteer regional coordinators, basically in-person event organizers and local points-of-contact for the organization) informing us of massive changes to the volunteer ML program.  We would have to go through extensive identification and background checks, and sign an oppressive contract that had clearly NOT been written by a lawyer.  After much debate, she put us on the back burner, and told us she would be in touch soon with more details.  (Spoiler alert: We never heard back.)

This is important because when NaNoWriMo functioned the way it should, the MLs actually drove both local participation and donations.  We encouraged writers, kept participants engaged, and promoted Double Up Donation Weekend and similar events.  So cutting us loose meant cutting loose organized local participation and a ton of donations.

Next, she made a statement about AI that many writers, especially those with disabilities and in lower socioeconomic classes, found offensive.  The entire community was up in arms, published authors bailed from the advisory board, and many longtime participants swore off NaNoWriMo, many even deleting their accounts entirely.

If you're keeping track, this means that by the end of summer, she'd not only cut loose all the volunteers who did much of the legwork to get donations, but also ostracized the community at large that provided the donations.

As November approached, we former MLs noticed a complete lack of communication from NaNoWriMo.  All of the usual prep emails, designed to drive anticipation and get people to commit to doing the challenge, were missing.  It also became obvious that there was little or no staff at HQ.  Whether that was from people leaving when management changed, or new management forcing people to leave, we don't know, but the end result was that HQ didn't have enough staff to do all the things that usually resulted in a flow of donations.

In other words, staff ran the fundraisers.  No staff, no fundraisers.

And without the staff, the big donation weekend that typically pulled in a huge amount of fundraising — the donation event that we MLs had all promoted at our events and in our emails in previous years — was never even scheduled.

Toward the end of the month, Kilby seemed to suddenly realize the organization wasn't getting funding, and several panic-button funding emails went out, but it was too little, too late.  By that late in the month, many writers have lost momentum and dropped out — especially without local events and MLs helping them to stay focused and keep going.

And then early this year, the news broke that NaNoWriMo had actually failed to renew their registration to accept charitable contributions.  As a result, they were listed as delinquent by the state of California and technically couldn't accept donations.

When you eliminate the volunteers and staff that get the donations, drive away the community that provides the donations, fail to solicit the donations, and don't even maintain your ability to legally accept the donations... uh, yeah, what did she think was going to happen to the organization's funding?!

So take Kilby's video blaming the community for killing NaNoWriMo with a grain of salt.  I think that's indicative more of Kilby's know-it-all attitude and her refusal to acknowledge her mistakes, both of which were frequently on display in our (MLs') dealings with her.

With all that in mind, feel free to read the original email, below.  If I can get a transcript of the video, I'll publish that too, as I don't want to give her video — which was posted to her personal account — millions of views and enable her to use that to monetize her YouTube channel over the dead carcass of the organization she destroyed.

To Our NaNoWriMo Community: 

We come to you today with sad news. After six years of struggling to sustain itself financially, NaNoWriMo (the nonprofit) will begin the process of shutting down. 

Explaining how we got here is both simple and complex. The funding woes that have threatened so many nonprofits in recent years are an unextraordinary trend. Many beloved organizations announced their closure last year. Many more are fighting for their lives.  Media coverage of financial crisis within the sector—especially among arts nonprofits—has been widespread.

Yet, there are ways in which NaNoWriMo is extraordinary—and reasons why we had hoped we could buck that trend. The sheer size of our community, its global reach and its longevity, held at impressive levels, even during a tumultuous year. There is no shortage of writers who want to participate in NaNoWriMo. Yet, building a community and being able to sustain it are two different matters. 2024 was a revelatory year.

In order to fully understand how we reached this decision, and why we view it as the only alternative, we encourage you to watch this video about the State of NaNoWriMo. The video also contains some important acknowledgments and information about the logistics of our next steps. Most importantly, the video shares real data and information that the organization has not discussed previously. The plot is thicker than you might think. 

We recognize that the closure of NaNoWriMo represents a huge loss to the writing community, and that grief over this outcome will be exacerbated by the challenges of the past sixteen months. This is not the ending that anybody wanted or planned. And—believe us—if we could hit the delete button and rewrite this last chapter, we would. But we do have hope for the epilogue. 

What’s next for NaNoWriMo, the indebted nonprofit, is much different from what's next for actual Wrimos. We hold no belief that people will stop writing 50,000 words in November (and April, and July) or stop seeking support for the journey they’re on. Many alternatives to NaNoWriMo popped up this year, and people did find each other. In so many ways, it’s easier than it was when NaNoWriMo began in 1999 to find your writing tribe online. 

Our greatest hope at this moment is that you do two things: support arts nonprofits you love (they really, truly need you) and keep writing words. Your stories matter. 

Thank you for all you have done for the organization, and especially for each other, over all these years.

Sincerely,

The NaNoWriMo Team

 A Few Additional Notes

• We anticipate that some people might want to log on and capture information that is meaningful to them, like their lifetime word count or stats from previous seasons or challenges. We also anticipate that some folks on the Young Writers Program website may not have backed up work that they wrote directly into our system, and may wish to do so at this time. If there is something you feel you need to retrieve, you are welcome to try. However, our site tends to crash a lot when overrun with too much traffic (chronic technology underinvestment is mentioned in the video). We apologize for any inconvenience if the site gets crashy.
• If you are a recurring donor, thank you for your ongoing support of the organization (truly). We have cancelled all recurring donations on our end in order to ensure that you will not be charged as we transition into our next phase. 
• If you want anything from the NaNoWriMo store, please don't delay. We will shut that down soon as well. 
• Finally, we have observed that, at times of change, many members of our community are in want of spaces to process these new developments, and that, historically, we have hosted many all-community online spaces. Unfortunately, we have very limited resources to reply individually to comments or to moderate our social spaces at this time. We will do our best but make no guarantees. 

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 13: Busy Week

Last week started out pretty productive, but ended in several busy days, so I didn't end up getting as much done on my goals throughout the week as I'd wanted.  But I did do things, as you'll see shortly.

Writing

Last week I worked on my novel exactly one day, Tuesday.  I did also get a post up on my author Instagram.

It's not an effort toward my goals, but I did do a lot of writing last week.  On Thursday, I started my politics newsletter on Substack, What to Know Today.  Thursday's and Friday's posts were lengthy and took a lot of writing and research, and I've posted every day since.  I do need to keep working on my novel, of course, but it's not like I wasn't doing anything last week.

Decluttering and Organization

This category is more or less on hold until after the doll show, but I did get some work done in the garden over the weekend, which I'm counting because decluttering my patio and cleaning up my garden is definitely one of my projects for this year.  Right now it's a mess, but I'd like my patio and garden to eventually be a place where I can get doll pictures.

Dolls

I got so busy that I didn't work on any dolls last week either.  This week I really need to buckle down as the doll show, which seemed so far away for the longest time, is now rapidly approaching.

Taxes

My goal is to work on this a little every day until it's all done.  I did work a little each day for several days on organizing income and expense emails, but at the end of the week I got really busy and didn't get any more done on it.  I need to get back to work on that this week, along with working on getting dolls ready for the show.

Lessons Learned

Last week got off to a really good start; it was when I babysat a lot Thursday and Friday that I lost the thread.  The weekend ended up really busy too, with a whole lot of errands to run on Saturday that we'd been putting off all week, and a long time spent at the barn on Sunday.

I'm hoping this week will be more productive, but I'm also considering focusing only on those two things this week: prepping for the doll show, and taxes.  It may mean not writing much over the next couple weeks, and being okay with that.  Except for the new newsletter, of course — that I intend to keep up.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 12: Sick Days

Last week was rough.  I started out relatively productive, but toward midweek I started to go downhill as I caught my husband's cold, which I mentioned in last week's post.  I bounced back a bit over the weekend as I started to feel better, but still didn't recover enough to do all the things I had wanted to do.

I also am adding a new category to my weekly rundown: taxes.  Since we're into tax season and Tax Day is only two days after the doll show, I'll need to prep for both the doll show and taxes on pretty much a daily basis from now until then.  I used to be so organized with my income and expenses throughout the year, maintaining a spreadsheet and filing receipts all year, and now I just have a crate of receipts and a bunch of unorganized email receipts.

But without further ado, here's the rundown:

Writing

Last Monday was the last time I worked on my novel.  Obviously being sick I get a pass for that, but I need to get back into the habit this week.  On Monday I had a 7-day streak of working on it every day.  Right now I have a 7-day streak of not working on it every day.  I don't want the current streak to continue.

I did get a social media post up last Monday, but that was the only one.

Decluttering and Organization

This didn't happen — too sick.  I will probably have to shelve some of these projects until after the doll show so that I can focus on getting ready for that (and on doing taxes).

Dolls

This also didn't happen, but with the doll show coming up, I anticipate I'll be making up for all year's worth of neglect within the next three weeks.

Taxes (New Category)

Over the weekend, I started going through emails for income and expense records.  Right now I'm not sorting through what everything is, just chucking it all into a designated folder for the year, and I'll start going through it when I start building out my income and expense spreadsheets.  I'm going to be using a new system this year, so it'll take a little work to get it all set up, but I think it'll work better for me when it's all finished.

Lessons Learned

I am grateful to the article I spotted that reminded me Tax Day was fast approaching.  I've gotten so bad at procrastinating and I want to create better habits — get back to tracking income and expenses throughout the year, if possible, so that there's less work at the end of the year.  Rebuilding my entire year in April is labor intensive and incredibly stressful.

I suspect I won't be as good about writing almost every day over the next three weeks.  I'm still going to try, but I'm also going to give myself grace if I don't always meet that goal.  Now through April 12th, however, my goal will be to work on doll rehab or show prep every single day, and to work on tax prep at least a little every day from now until Tax Day (or until it's done).

I am definitely going to need some recovery time once the show and taxes are all done!

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 11: Sike!

I might be dating myself with that post title, but I totally feel like my life tricked me right now.  I was feeling motivated early last week and totally thought I'd have a productive week, but a bunch of last-minute babysitting, a day trip on Friday (okay, I knew about that one, but still) and an unexpected illness conspired to make my week less productive than I had hoped.

Writing

In this area I actually was pretty productive.  I worked on my novel six out of seven days last week, missing only Monday.  Some of it was research, watching YouTube videos of mares foaling for the novel I'm working on, but I still counted it even though it wasn't words on the page.  I ended up getting over a thousand words written late last night.  And if I can keep up working on it, I can keep my current streak alive.

Decluttering and Organization

I didn't have a chance to do anything in this department last week, since we took it easy over the weekend and napped a lot.  My husband caught a cold from work, and I'm trying my best to stay healthy and not catch it, too.

Dolls

I didn't get anything done in this department either, for the same reason.

Lessons Learned

I'm still not in the clear yet as I could still catch my husband's cold, but I'm hoping to stay healthy.  Either way it'll mean not a lot gets done for a few days, because I'm going to try to take things easy in the hopes of keeping up my immune system.  I do hope to get a few things done (and maintain my writing streak!) but between that and several other things that have already come up, I don't expect any groundbreaking productivity this week.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 10: Progress

Progress has been slow, but I can still see signs of it.  I had a more productive week last week, and have been feeling more motivated overall.  This is an improvement over the previous week, when I was only just starting to feel like I was coming back from my slump.

Writing

I worked on my novel four days in a row last week, Monday through Thursday.  I had hoped to keep up the streak a little longer, but we had a busy weekend and I wasn't able to get any writing time in.  A future goal will be to make sure I get writing time on weekends, but it didn't happen this time.

I posted to my author Instagram four times as well.  A lot of it has been political stuff, but hey, it's posting, right?

Decluttering and Organization

It's minor, but I'm going to count it as a win: Last week I did all the laundry and put it away the same day (some of you know how hard this can be), and I started cleaning up the garden for spring.  I'd like to be able to enjoy my patio this year, but it's been very neglected the last several years so it's going to take some work to get it back to where it looks nice and feels like somewhere I can sit and hang out again.

This week I'm hoping to get more done in the garden, and hopefully get caught up on some projects inside as well.

Dolls

No progress here last week, but I anticipate that changing this week.  I have a lot to do still to get ready for the doll show, which is in just one month now!

Lessons Learned

Coming back from burnout or overwhelm is possible, but it's an excruciating, uphill battle and progress takes time.  Still, I feel like I did much better last week, and hopefully will see even more improvement in the next couple of weeks, as the doll show deadline looms.

On that note, though, I fully expect the mad rush to get ready for the show to kick me back into a burnout state.  I might purposely schedule a week or two of recovery time with few responsibilities and see if that helps.  In the past, when I've tried to skip recovery time after a big event like this show, what normally happens is that it just prolongs the burnout over weeks or even months.

I'll deal with that when it comes.  What matters right now is holding it together for the next month so that I can be ready for that show!

Amazon Boycott March 7-14

If you survived the economic blackout on February 28th, here's a new, slightly longer, but more targeted one to sink your teeth into: For the next eight days, March 7-14, we're boycotting Amazon and all of their various companies.

That means not only no Amazon, Kindle, Prime Video, Amazon Music, or Alexa, but also no Twitch, Whole Foods, Ring, Zappos, or IMDb either, as Amazon also owns all of those companies.  Here's a graphic list of everything Amazon owns.  (Scroll down — it's the long graphic, not the thumnail.)

I meant to post a warning in advance again so people had time to get what they needed before it started, but a week isn't too long and it's only Amazon & Co. this time.  If you need something try to either wait until after the 14th or find it somewhere else.

I think this boycott will be more difficult for people, because even though there is only one company (or group of companies) we're boycotting, it's also a longer period.  It was easy enough to put off purchasing for 24 hours, but waiting eight days is a little more difficult.

At least, since it's only Amazon and their companies, it should be easy enough to find most things somewhere else if you really can't wait!

With this in mind, I'm going to share my philosophy about boycotting.  I am 99% behind boycotts, but that 1% says that if it's going to dramatically impact your quality of life, it's okay to make a small exception, as long as you're otherwise committed to the boycott.

I also think there's a bigger picture to look at as well.  For example, I'm planning to cancel my Kindle Unlimited as soon as I finish the books I already have borrowed.  If I don't read them during this week, I'll have to renew on the 23rd.  It seems counterintuitive to boycott Amazon for a week and then send them more money, so I'm going to work on reading just those books during the next week.  It's a minor violation of the boycott, but the end result — canceling my Kindle Unlimited subscription — makes it worth it.

The important thing is to send a message to Amazon that we're not here for their new policies and their partnership with the current administration.  Are you with me?

TikTok and the Importance of Diversification

I got distracted by all the current events, but I meant to post about TikTok back when it went down and back up again.  It all felt to like a publicity stunt designed to upset as many users as possible, but what it also reminded me of is something I've heard a lot of marketing experts and self-published authors talk about: the importance of never being dependent on somebody else's platform for your audience.

If you weren't aware of the TikTok controversy, in 2024 the United States Congress banned TikTok unless the company divested from its Chinese interests before the deadline, which was in January.  The concern is that China could use the app to surveil Americans, since Chinese companies by law must comply with any data requests from their government.

When the app went down on a Saturday night in January, just a couple of days before the inauguration, I saw posts from many of my friends (who apparently didn't think it would actually happen).  Of course a social media post from our then-president elect resulted in the restoration of TikTok the very next day.

The app was down for less than 24 hours, but the panic was widespread.  I saw lots of complaints on other social media sites about what the loss of the platform was going to do to small business owners, and I couldn't help wondering: If they were so worried about their businesses, why didn't they take advantage of the advance warning (the ban was made law last April, nine months before the deadline) and start preparing for the change months ago?

Social media provides a great tool for marketing your book or business, but it is just that — a tool — and should never be your entire business model.  Good use of social media accounts should encourage followers, but also drive those followers to a platform you control.  You need a website and ideally a newsletter with an email list, so that if your favorite social media sites were to ever go down, change their rules, or lock you out for some reason, you wouldn't lose everything you've worked so hard for.  Ideally you should have social media accounts on multiple platforms — it's unlikely they'll all go down at once — as well as your own branded website.

(Note that Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, so all of those could feasibly go down or lock you out at once.  So be sure that you diversify between different companies as well as different platforms.)

TikTok users: Right now you have a second chance.  Yes, TikTok has been spared for now, but it's just that — for now.  There's a new deadline coming up on April 5th.  So far I haven't heard of any business deals that would satisfy the requirements to avoid the ban, and there's no telling whether they'll get another reprieve.  So set up other social media accounts, get set up as an influencer on other platforms, or set up a blog and a mailing list — whatever suits your business model.  While you still have TikTok available to you, start building your presence on other platforms.  Most importantly, start looking for ways to make your audience actually yours instead of just TikTok's, such as through the use of a website and mailing list.

Seriously.  Start working on it now, if you haven't already.  You only have a month left before a potential repeat of the same scenario could play out.  Don't get caught out a second time!

Slava Ukraini!

I, like many Americans, was horrified on Friday by how President Zelenskyy of Ukraine was treated when he came to negotiate a condition to continued aid that never should have been a part of our offer in the first place.  For the first time in my life, I was deeply, deeply ashamed for my country.  And so I would like to say:

To President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine: 

I know I speak for many Americans when I say that our president does not speak for us.  It will forever be a mark of shame for the US how you were treated in the Oval Office.  Your fight is noble and righteous and we should be supporting you, not cornering you in a room full of onlookers like a group of scared followers watching a bully pick on a kid alone, and then sending you away with accusations that you need to be more grateful (even though you have thanked us repeatedly).

I have, however, been glad to see so many countries rising up and voicing their support in your time of need.  I hope that in the end, we will have helped to give you the support you require in one way or another — if not by supporting you ourselves, then by causing everyone else to recommit to helping you.

As for the United States, perhaps it is time for us to learn that we are not the entire world, that we can refuse to do the right thing and still the right thing will be done, because we are only one country among dozens.  Certainly we are no longer a world leader, and it feels right now for other countries to step up and carry the torch that we once helped to light.

And perhaps, now, the torch is yours: Ukraine has been an unrelenting light in the face of darkness, a symbol of freedom and resistance in the face of oppression.

May the rest of the world prove itself as fierce in its support for you, as you have proven yourself to be in your fight for independence.

Slava Ukraini!

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 9: Rising Hope

Last week was a little better than the week before, which gives me hope.  I'm feeling a little more motivated today and I think it's going to help with this week.

Last week's goals progress were as follows:

Writing

Last week was pretty good on the writing front.  I wrote three days in a row, and while I missed Friday and the weekend, I'm okay with that because of how much was going on those days.  I've also been very active on my blog and on my author Instagram, partially because I decided to start channeling my politics focus where it was relevant, but I'm pleased with the results.

Decluttering and Organization

One of the things that kept me from writing over the weekend also helped motivate me to work on a small decluttering and organization project: My mom spent the night Saturday night to celebrate her birthday, which was Friday.  That meant that I had to clean up the downstairs bathroom for her use.  I haven't been using that bathroom much since Izzy died, since we had set it up for her care, so this was actually a big accomplishment for me.

I also got some minor things done last night, just by keeping moving once I was already in motion.  It sounds silly, but I had something that I absolutely had to do, and once I was in that mode, I just pushed myself to get several other things done, and it worked!

Dolls

No progress here, unfortunately, but I have hope for this week!

Lessons Learned

I'm not sure why I feel different about last week or this coming week, but I think it has a little to do with goals, inspiration, and good ol' dopamine kicks from getting stuff done.  It felt good to accomplish some things over the weekend, and that was part of it.  But also, I found an external factor (my mom's visit) to motivate me and made use of that.

This week I have a new project I want to start working on, and I'm hoping that will help me maintain motivation throughout what promises to be a busy week.

Economic Blackout TOMORROW February 28

 

In case you haven't heard, there is an economic blackout tomorrow, February 28th.  The blackout is ideally for everything, so no purchases, but especially no chain purchases: no Amazon, no Target, no Walmart, no McDonalds, no credit card payments.

If you have to buy something, try to make it local and cash only.  Our grievances are with the corporate behemoths who are kowtowing to the corrupt administration and setting examples for the rest of our capitalistic society.

So if you have something to buy, try to buy it tonight!  Tomorrow, try to get through the entire day without making a purchase, if possible, but if you can't do it, buy local and pay with cash.

Let's vote with our wallets and show them we won't support immoral businesses or immoral government policies!

Amazon Alternatives

***Remember, if you're switching to a different ebook provider, today is your last day to download your Kindle library to your computer!***

My last few weeks have been filled with things like finding new sources for all of the things I used to buy at Amazon and Target, and finding alternatives for things like productivity tools that Google used to provide for me.  Seeing as how Amazon is making a significant change that hampers users' ability to switch away from Kindle without repercussions, I wanted to get this post out there ASAP.

If you're as dependent on Amazon as I was, they're a tough one to replace.  Half my life came from Amazon: what I read, what I watch, what I listen to, where I get business supplies, and how I get dozens of products I use delivered to my door.  With Amazon, I could think of something I needed at the last minute, and it would be here within a day or two most of the time.  It was convenient and also somewhat of a crutch.

That's a difficult dependence to break, but I'm pleased to say we have only ordered from Amazon a couple times in the last month, and those were all planned orders while we search for alternative sources for a few more things.

My criteria, as I've been looking for replacements for Amazon, has been to prioritize first companies that are supporting DEI, and secondly, companies that haven't rolled back their DEI but also haven't made any statements either way about where they stand.

Here is a list of ideas of where to get the things you used to buy from Amazon.  Starred companies have made public statements standing up for DEI and supporting them should be our highest priority.

• Groceries: Costco*, Kroger
• Electronics: Costco*, Apple*
• Pharmacy: Costco*
• Pet supplies: Costco*, Petco

Okay, seriously, at this point I should just say outright that if you are serious about boycotting companies that no longer support DEI, you NEED a Costco membership.  Not only are they awesome for standing up to the pressure to roll back their DEI, but they are a fantastic source for a lot of things that you probably used to get from Amazon, Target, or Walmart.  And don't think you have to be a big family to shop there, either.  My single mom shops there just for herself, and so do my husband and I for our two-person home.

But back to my list:

• eBooks: Kobo, Apple*, OverDrive
• Music streaming: Spotify, Apple*
• TV/movies streaming: Netflix*
• Office supplies: Office Depot
• Beauty products: Ulta*, Sephora*, Sally Beauty*, e.l.f.*
• Clothing: Old Navy, TJ Maxx, Costco*
• Discount shopping: Dollar Tree
• Craft supplies: Michaels

Special shoutout to Ben & Jerry's.  Most of us probably aren't buying ice cream from Amazon, but support this amazing company anyway for their fiery diatribe on how important DEI is.

It's not a comprehensive list, but it should be enough to start breaking your Amazon dependence in favor of companies that are holding the line on DEI!

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 8: Difficult Times

I feel like a lot has gone on since my post last week.  It wasn't necessarily stuff that I recorded in Toggl, but I feel like I've been very busy.  Part of it might be that I babysat both days over the weekend.

I'm hoping for a little more progress next week, but for now, a quick rundown on my goals:

Writing

I worked on my novel two days last week instead of the three that I was hoping for.  I blogged and posted to my author Instagram twice, plus I worked a lot on another blog and social media post that I'll get up this week.

Decluttering and Organization

No progress.

Dolls

No progress.

Lessons Learned

Despite the lack of progress toward specific goals last week, it felt like a very full week.  I'm working toward a new writing goal that might be more in keeping with my current focus right now, which is politics.  I will still maintain my other goals, as I have schedules I want to or need to keep, but implementing my new goal might make me feel a little more like I'm accomplishing something.  More on that soon.

Download Your Kindle eBooks Before February 26th

A few days ago, news broke that Amazon was going to remove a feature that allows us to download Kindle ebooks to the computer.  The feature was intended for sideloading ebooks for older Kindles that didn't have the ability to download wirelessly, but of course allows users to back up their ebooks to prevent Amazon from sneakily removing books from your library, which they have done before.

Being able to download your Kindle library to your computer is also useful if you are, say, switching to Kobo to protest Amazon's rollback of their DEI policies and their founder being all buddy-buddy with the billionaire administration.

Supposedly you'll still be able to pull ebooks off your Kindle directly, but newer Kindles use a different format that makes it more difficult to strip the DRM so that you can read the books from any e-reader.  Which may, in fact, be why they are discontinuing this feature.  Is it possible the boycott is hurting them enough that they are trying to stop people from taking their ebook libraries and jumping ship?

Regardless of the reason, if you want to liberate your Kindle library for reading on any device, you'll need to do it before Wednesday.  Visit this article for detailed instructions on how to download your Kindle books to your computer.

BEWARE! Todoist Pro Scam UPDATED

I mentioned in my weekly goals post on Monday that I had found a new system for managing my tasks and calendar.  I also canceled my Todoist Pro subscription on Monday after making sure all my tasks were switched over, so imagine my surprise when I was charged for another month tonight.

Making it difficult or impossible to cancel a subscription is a lowdown, dirty scam.  No honest company operates this way.

Avoid Todoist at all costs.  There are much better task management apps out there anyway.

I'm working on a more detailed review of my new system, which I will post soon.  But in the meantime, consider yourself warned about Todoist.

UPDATE: Todoist responded quickly, I'll give them credit for that.  I've already been refunded for the charge, and they "canceled" my subscription (again?).  But I shouldn't have had to go through this.  And what if I hadn't noticed?  If I didn't have a tight budget, or if I paid via credit card, I might not have.  How many months would they have gotten more money from me before I realized?

Years ago, there was a scammy freelance writing job board that charged a subscription fee.  They had a low cost trial subscription for you to decide whether you wanted to commit to the full-cost subscription.  It wasn't very good and most people tried to cancel once they found that out... except typically they weren't able to.  The company made it very hard to contact them, and even when you did, it was very difficult to get them to follow through with canceling your subscription.  Some people would even have to change their bank account information in order to get the charges to stop.  The scammers made tons of money just off of people who were trying to cancel their subscriptions.

About a decade ago, I had a similar experience trying to cancel MoviePass.  It started out as a valid service that I used for several years, but toward the end of their run, they were having issues with their contracts and stopped having any good movies.  When I canceled their service, they kept charging me.  I wasn't able to get them to stop by contacting them directly, so ultimately I had to call my bank to block future payments and refund what I'd been charged.  But again, how much money did they make just by making it difficult to cancel?

I kinda hate this world we're in now where absolutely everything charges a subscription, but I hate even more that it's making it easy for companies to make money off of us by being negligent and not canceling subscriptions when they're supposed to.

Keep an eye on your finances after canceling a subscription, friends.  Make sure this doesn't happen to you, and act quickly if it does.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 7: Overcoming Difficulties

It's been a rough few weeks, but I finally feel like I'm starting to make progress.  I'm still feeling like I'm struggling with the political climate, but I'm clawing my way out of the hyper-fixation hole I had dug for myself.  I still need to figure out how to do balance attentiveness to the situation without letting it consume me, but I'm getting there.

Amusingly, I realized I was such a mess last week that I numbered the week wrong, calling it week 5 instead of week 6.  That has been corrected in the post now, although the URL is sadly stuck as a second week 5.

One thing I worked on a lot last week that won't count toward one of my goals, even though it contributes, is switching over my task and calendar system to a new app.  I wanted to move away from Google products after they ousted their DEI programs and jettisoned holidays such as Black History Month, Women's History Month, and Pride from their calendar.  I'll write more about that soon as I think others will find the new apps I've found very helpful as well.

Writing

I worked on my novel three days instead of one, wrote a couple of blog posts, and posted to my author IG a couple of times.  I still want to get to the point where I'm working on my writing nearly every day again, but this is still an improvement and I'm pleased.

I didn't count it as working on my novel, but I also worked on that writing, revising, and publication schedule I set up recently, refining it and getting it switched over to my new task tracking system.

Decluttering and Organization

I didn't get anything done in this category, unfortunately.

Dolls

Nothing accomplished here either.

Lessons Learned

I didn't improve across the board, but I'm pleased with the progress I did make.  I feel like even small progress should be celebrated here, and hopefully I will do better in this coming week.  I'm also looking forward to exploring some of these new, non-Google tools, which I will blog about soon!

Celebrating Small Successes

Yesterday I reported that I had started feeling a little better toward the end of last week, like my focus was returning.  I'm happy to report that yesterday actually was a fairly successful day.  Not only did I get done the blog post and author social media post I'd hoped for, but I also tuned in to a couple of webinars throughout the day (one career-related, on the book launch process, and the other politics-related, on bystander intervention).  And at the end of the day, I actually succeeded in writing for about an hour and a half, pumping out nearly 2,000 words — well over anything I've managed to write in about the last month.

The productivity yesterday did cost me a little, and I felt the effects of what I call a "productivity hangover" today — basically, feeling sluggish and unmotivated the day after a lot of productivity.  It happens almost every time for me.  Sometimes I can push past it and sometimes I can't.

This blog post is me trying to push past it today.  I have a few other things on my list for the day too, some of which are more important to me than others.  Yes, working on my novel again (can I get two days in a row and start a new streak?) is one of them.  Hopefully we'll also be able to make it to our weekly Tuesday evening write-in, as that will help with my plans to work on my novel again today.

Balancing my own life and goals against staying informed about political events is going to be tough to achieve in the coming weeks, months, and years, but I guess I'll be getting some good practice at it.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 6: Rock Bottom

Last week was dismal, even worse than the previous week.  By the time I finally worked on my novel yesterday, I had gone a whopping nine days in a row without writing.  But I'm not going to talk about that, or even do my usual breakdown.  Instead I'm just going to list what I did do:

• I worked on my novel one day, yesterday
• I wrote a couple of blog posts
• I posted not just once, but twice to my author IG
• I set up my new iPad, which I got for writing, as I am planning a staggered transition to Apple

Toward the end of the week I started feeling slightly more able to focus.  I'm not entirely ready to go back to normal, but perhaps I can at least start to focus on other things than watching for and consuming all the latest headlines.

Lessons Learned

I think the biggest takeaway last week is that I finally — I hope — hit rock bottom, and got the least possible amount done.  I think it's important that we don't overlook how utterly traumatic the last few weeks have been.  Watching this hostile takeover of our democracy and the erosion of our rights as citizens is having an impact.  I'm going to give myself some grace, acknowledge that there's no way I ever could have focused on anything else over the last few weeks, take a deep breath, and move on.

This week will be better.

Support Apple for Supporting DEI

In addition to boycotting companies like Amazon that are rolling back DEI, I'm supporting the ones who maintain their DEI policies.  One such company is Apple.  Apple was one of the early companies to stand by their DEI policies, and they're still standing strong.

I was already considering buying an Apple machine so that I could use Vellum to format my ebooks, but Apple's DEI stance helped fast track my decision, and I bought an iPad over the weekend with the goal of using it as a mobile writing machine.  My Surface Go has been a good mobile computer for writing, but it can also be pretty slow.  I think the iPad (running Scrivener's mobile app) will be a good alternative.

Eventually the goal will be to buy a MacBook Air as well so that I can run Vellum on it.  For now, though, I'll be fine with my regular computer — also a Surface, just a larger and faster one.  It's not that old yet, plus the staggered transition will give me time to get together the money for the larger purchase of a new computer.

I've always been an iPhone user, so it makes sense to make the switch to other Apple products as well.  I may also eventually switch to Apple's smart speakers, too, since I'll be transitioning away from Amazon as well.

That's another area the iPad will come in handy.  As I boycott Amazon products more, I need another place to read magazines and periodicals, as I'll lose those when I give up Amazon Unlimited.  The iPad will actually answer a lot of needs for me.  I'm looking forward to this new transition; and who doesn't love new gadgets?!

Boycott Amazon for Ditching DEI

This plan (and post) has been in the works for a few weeks, ever since I first heard that Amazon was rolling back its DEI programs, but I'm just finally putting together a post on the issue.

In case you hadn't heard, Amazon rolled back their DEI policies a couple weeks ago to kiss the current administration's ass.  They must be feeling the consequences of that decision since it's causing even more customers to pull back from using Amazon (they had enough of a fallout after The Washington Post refused to support Harris and again after Bezos started appearing all buddy-buddy with the current administration), as they are now claiming that they're still supporting DEI, just not officially.

In my opinion, that's total bullshit.  They're trying to play both sides and keep everyone happy.  But if you're not holding the line, what do you really stand for?  It's a coward's move, plain and simple.

My plan to withdraw my dependence on Amazon started a couple of weeks ago, after the initial announcements, and is now in full swing.  We are finding alterative sources for all of our major Amazon purchases.  Some are easy (switching to Chewy for pet food, for example, or buying tech from Costco or Microcenter instead of Amazon) and others will take some additional creativity.

One major issue for me is my reading habits.  I have two Kindles and I read a lot.  Much of it is through the libraries, which I don't think gives Amazon any money.  I do purchase ebooks sometimes, though, so I needed a way to convert my ebook buying habits to another source.

Enter Kobo.  I purchased a Kobo reader, the Libra Colour.  I will continue using my Kindle readers in ways that don't send any money Amazon's way, but for anything that costs money, Kobo is my new go-to.

As it turns out, there are advantages of having a Kobo reader:

• OverDrive syncs with my e-reader directly, which means I no longer have to jump back and forth between two different devices to check out ebooks and send them to my device.
• Kobo readers also sync directly with Pocket, which means I can save news articles to my e-readers by using the plug-in already on my browser.
• Kobo readers also sync with both Dropbox and Google Drive, providing a couple of different ways to side load ebooks wirelessly.  Project Gutenberg even has little buttons to save ebooks directly to these cloud services, making it super easy to get free ebooks on my Kobo reader.
• Kobo has its own reading subscription, Kobo Plus, and it appears the selection is much better than Kindle Unlimited.
• The Libra Colour allows me to annotate directly on the page of ebooks, which will be great for revising my novels.  (But if that doesn't work for me because of the small screen, I can continue to use the Kindle Scribe for that without sending Amazon any more money — although I'm also considering eventually getting the Kobo Elipsa 2E for its larger screen.)

There are also a few things that I will miss about the Kindle:

• No more automatic updating of Goodreads
• No more saving of highlights in Goodreads
• The option of annotating epubs in text boxes on the Scribe (why can't the Kobo offer both?)
• No more sharing ebooks with my husband

While I will miss these things, there are some workarounds.  For instance, I've signed up with both Storygraph and Fable as alternatives to Goodreads.  But more importantly, none of these things are worth sending money to a company that kowtows to the current administration by eliminating open support for DEI.

As an author, my decision may be a little different.  I will still likely make my books available on Kindle, but rather than starting out publishing exclusively with Kindle, as I'd planned, I'm going to look into publishing "wide" from the very beginning.  It's also worth noting that Kobo has its own authors program, and I will likely check that out as well.

One final switch worth mentioning is that I will be pulling back from the Amazon Affiliates program.  For now I'll leave existing ads up on my blog, but eventually those will come down as well.  I hope to find other affiliate programs to use instead.

There is, of course, always the hope that Amazon will realize they have impacted their bottom line more than they've saved face with the current administration.  The article about "supporting DEI without saying DEI" does read like they are walking back their initial decision, perhaps under pressure from disgruntled customers.  But unless they announce a full return to DEI and put the inclusion language back in their policies and on their website, I won't be returning to them as a customer.

There are admittedly some drawbacks making a major switch like this.  Our dependence on Amazon was pretty extreme, spanning everything from everyday purchases to reading to music to viewing.  Fortunately, the vast majority of the money we spend (or spent) with Amazon are based on convenience rather than necessity.  Here are a few of the things I have or will be switching to other sources:

• Ebooks and reading subscriptions
• Music streaming
• TV streaming
• Grocery and necessity purchases
• Pet food
• Business purchases

If nothing else, this may save me some money on impulse buys, or at least funnel my impulse buys toward small businesses on Etsy and eBay.  In other words, while the transition away from Amazon may be challenging, I suspect in the long run I will be glad for the opportunity to discover — and support — other options.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 5: Strugglebus

Last week was another dismal one.  I'm still very distracted by current events, although to be fair, there has been a lot happening.  I think last week might have been even worse than the week before, which was bad enough.

Without further discussion, I'm going to jump straight to last week's accomplishments (or lack thereof):

Writing

I only managed to work on my novel two days last week.  I did get a social media post up on my author Instagram account.

Decluttering and Organization

Nope.

Dolls

Nada.

Lessons Learned

I fear we're in a brave new world where I'm going to have to learn to balance my awareness of current events with the things I have to get done.  I'm going to start trying to build back a little bit this week, rehabbing my brain if you will, with a soft goal of writing 4 days and getting either a decluttering/organization project or a doll project done.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 4: Distractions

Last week was something of a disaster, which I suspected it would be when I wrote my week 3 post.  Current events had me pretty distracted most of the week, and then I was swept up into finding alternatives for Amazon.  I'll write more about that later.

What I did accomplish last week isn't pretty, but I'll give the rundown anyway:

Writing

I managed to work on my novel four days out of seven, which isn't as much as I'd wanted but it's something.  I also posted to my author Instagram.

Decluttering and Organization

I... thought about it?

Dolls

I thought about this too!

Lessons Learned

Honestly, I'm not going to give myself a hard time for being distracted by current events or for giving into my impulsivity and spending several days researching ways to live up to my moral compass.  I am, however, considering shifting my schedule to reflect my priorities and writing first every day, before the day gets away from me.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 3: Mid-January Slump

Last week wasn't great, and I'm wondering if it has to do with the mid-January slump, the point at which people struggle with their New Year's resolutions.  It's too bad, because I was actually hoping to improve upon the previous week, but instead I fared a little worse.

Of course, it could just be that I was much busier than usual last week, between appointments during the week and the weather over the weekend -- it was very cold all weekend, causing us a lot of extra work at the barn.

Unfortunately, I anticipate that this week won't be much better, distracted as I am by current events at the moment.

Here's how last week fared:

Writing

I wish I could say again that writing was the one area in which I did well, but it's not true of last week.  I did put in a lot of time through Thursday, but Friday through this Monday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which I was kinda counting as part of the weekend and therefore part of last week) I didn't write at all.  So my daily habit was an epic fail last week, despite the big writing days early in the week.

I did post to my author Instagram last week, but I didn't get the second post up like I'd wanted to.

Decluttering and Organization

I had good intentions, but never quite got around to cleaning or decluttering or organizing anything.

Dolls

Instead of working on doll projects, I added to them, doing several pickups.  I worked a little on video content but didn't get anything finished or posted.

Lessons Learned

I suppose if there is a lesson to be learned here, it's that I need to make sure I don't let other things encroach on my time to pursue my goals for the year -- or at least find a better balance between my goals and the other things that need to be done.  For example, one of the things that sucked my time was how much time I spent at the barn each day when it was close to and below zero over the weekend.  Those kinds of temperatures make everything take longer, because we have to feed my horses mashes (to get ahead of refusals to drink) and take the time to break the ice out of the water tanks and buckets.  This week has some other demands on it as well, but hopefully nothing quite as bad.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 2: Two Out of Three

Last week was the first full week of 2025, and therefore the first chance to really test my goals for the year.  The first partial week was still during a semi-vacation mindset, plus the energy of having just made my goals, so I did expect my energy to diminish a little this past week.

Without further ado, here is the rundown from last week:

Writing

Well, I said I wanted to aim for writing six days a week, and that is exactly what I did last week.  One of those days was only a couple hundred words, but that still counts, right?  I also got one post up on my author Instagram account last week.  I had a second prepped and ready to go, but never posted it, so I think I'm going to try to get two up this week.

Decluttering and Organization

This was my big fail last week.  I did not work on any of my planned projects at all.

Dolls

I was fairly productive last week, and started working on two different doll projects.  One is going to be a long term project as there are several things about it that won't be resolved quickly.  The other was expected to be a fast project (an eye swap), but ended up being much harder than expected, so I'm somewhat stalled on it.  I blistered my thumb trying to get the new eyes in, so now I have to wait for my thumb to heal before I can try again.  I've also been recording with the intention of producing some more content, but as the projects aren't finished yet, neither is the content.

Lessons Learned

I was expecting my momentum to slow a little this week, so that wasn't really a "lesson learned."  Two things stood out about this week, however.  First of all, other than the writing goals, most of this was accomplished over the weekend, so I'm really going to need to be more proactive this week about getting started on doll and organization projects before the end of the week.  Second, I need to stop being so hard on myself in my perceptions of how successful I am.  I thought I'd totally failed to meet my writing goals until I checked the stats and realized that I did, in fact, work on my novel six out of seven days.

This week I'm hoping to make more progress on doll and organization projects while still maintaining my writing goals.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 1: Hit the Ground Running

In my New Year's resolutions post I talked about my plans for 2025.  Now that I know I can maintain a weekly posting habit, I decided to set goals for the year and track progress every week.  To review, my goals for the year are:

Each week, I'm going to review what I accomplished toward each goal the previous week, and what I intend to do in coming week.  I'm hoping this accountability will help to keep me on track and moving toward my ultimate goals, which are to publish in 2025, declutter and finish my organization projects, and build out my doll business in 2025.

Last week was a partial week, but I still feel like I accomplished a ton.  I'm sure I'm partially full of New Year, new resolutions energy, but I'm hoping to maintain the motivation and momentum as long as possible — and I'm hoping these weekly posts will help.

Here's the rundown from last week:

Writing

I didn't write every day last week.  In fact, I missed three days in a row, which is more than I have missed in a while.  I did, however, get a post up on my author Instagram, which I need to start posting to regularly.

As for the gaps in writing progress, I'm going to chalk it up to difficulties establishing a routine, and see how this week goes.  In general, my goal is to write six days a week, which will put me comfortably above the 80% success rate I had in December.

Decluttering and Organization

I did well with this last week.  Rather than just getting the minimum of one project done, I accomplished two: On Wednesday I went through, repacked, and put away some childhood and family things that have been sitting out for far too long, and last night I mounted some shelves and started organizing them.  I'm counting these as "projects" even though they're smaller pieces of a larger project, which is to finish organizing my bedroom and both of our closets.  Each small piece gets us closer to the finish.

The next projects are to put up another set of shelves, put up curtains in the bedroom, and work on cleaning and organizing the bedroom itself — I have far too many piles in there that need to be gone through and put away.  We'll see how much of that I can get done this week, but the goal of course is to get at least one of those things done.

Dolls

I actually did get a spur-of-the-moment project done, and replaced eyes on a doll that has been waiting for repair for quite some time.  I also started a repair and removed eyes from another doll so I could measure them and order the right size replacement.  As for the content goal, I got a post up on Instagram about the completed eye swap, and filmed the eye removal to make a video once that swap is completed.

Lessons Learned

If there's anything I've learned in the past partial week, it's that I need to stop putting so much pressure on myself for completing certain things first.  Yes, there are things that are bigger priorities than others.  But if I try to make myself do those things when I'm not feeling it, the end result is that I procrastinate and do nothing.  So instead, I am going to try an approach of doing things as I am interested and motivated to do them, and use that momentum to tackle the higher priority things once I'm already in motion.

2025 New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!  With today being the first day of 2025, it seemed appropriate to write a resolutions post today.  My 2024 year in review post went up late last night.

I haven't written a real, structured New Year's resolutions post in a long time.  For a while I decided I didn't like doing them and stressing myself out about what I wanted to accomplish during the year, then making myself feel bad when I didn't do it.  But for the last few years, I've started setting loose goals for the year.  For example, last year I had a rough goal to finish Ruby Ransome and Pandora's Box — which of course didn't happen, since I started working on Amnesia instead (though I don't think that was a fail, since I finished both Amnesia and the sequel).

This year I think I'm ready to make some real resolutions and track progress throughout the year.  So today I'll set some resolutions, things I want to accomplish throughout the year.  The weekly challenge part will be similar to my weekly goals post in 2024, except that every week I'll be posting progress on my goals for the year.  My goals are all things that will need to be worked on regularly, so ideally each week will see some progress.

1) Work toward publishing in 2025

I want to get something revised, completed, and published in 2025.  Amnesia and the yet-to-be-named sequel are both drafted, but need extensive revisions, so that will be a major project if I want to get them published later this year.  I've planned out a writing, revising, and publishing schedule, and while I may not be able to follow it exactly, the point is that I need to be moving my writing career forward.

• Write almost every day in 2025
  
  This is more of a sub-goal, but it needs to be a part of my goals for 2025 if I want to be ready to publish: I want to keep writing almost every day.  It doesn't have to be every single day, as things happen that make that difficult, but at least nearly every day. 
  
  Thanks to my TrackBear goals, I know that I wrote 80 percent of days in December.  I'm hoping for at least that in 2025.
  
  
• Post to social media once a week
  
  I actually have an author Instagram account that is virtually unused.  I want to start posting to that and building a presence in 2025, which will help when I start publishing.  Eventually I'll need to post more frequently, but for now we'll start with a goal of once a week.

2) Declutter and finish my household organization projects

My house has been non-presentable for several years.  It got bad when Panama was sick in 2022 and I have been treading water ever since, never fully reducing the amount of clutter.  We've gotten a few projects done here and there, but there is still a lot to do.  I want to stay more focused on finishing these outstanding projects in 2025, and do some decluttering and deep cleaning as well.  Ultimately I want to feel like I can use my spaces more comfortably — I'm tired of always having crap in the way of what I want to do.

• Do one project every week
  
  Like with my writing goals, I think I need a regularly actionable sub-goal if I'm going to make this happen.  Working on it daily is a little tougher, so I'm going to make a goal of completing a project every week.  For larger projects, I'll split them into more easily achievable sub-projects.

3) Build out my doll business in 2025

During the events of the year, I've ended up neglecting my doll business, but I want to get back to working on it.  I have a doll show in April and possibly another show in August, and I have a lot of planning, organization, and rehab that will need to happen before then.  To meet that deadline, I will need to be working on doll-related things at least every week until mid-April.

• Do at least one project every week
  
  Once again, I need an actionable way to ensure I'm making progress throughout the year.  Some weeks I anticipate completing more than one project, especially as I'm getting ready for the doll show in April.  But even after that, I want to be sure I'm making progress every week.  That might be rehabbing a doll, or it might be completing a new video.
  
  
• Post video content and blog posts at least once a month
  
  My doll Instagram account is more healthy than my writer one, but I have been slacking about getting videos and other content posted.  In 2025 I'd like to contribute to my blog and my YouTube channel at least once a month to start, more often if I can manage it.

I think these are my main three areas of focus for the coming year, so I'll report on them each Monday when I write my weekly challenge post.  With any luck, the weekly challenge will help me stay on track and accomplish everything I am hoping to in 2025.

Happy New Year! 2024 in Review

Ever since writing last week's weekly goals post, I've been thinking about what I want to do in 2025.  I think as a bit of a twist on the weekly goals posts, this year I want to make actual New Year's resolutions for the first time in years.  And instead of writing weekly goals posts with new short-term goals each week, I'll do a 52-week challenge, tracking my progress on my goals each week.

It's not that the weekly goals posts weren't helpful in 2024.  They actually were, for several reasons.  First and most importantly, I stuck with the habit the entire year, which was kinda like a trial of sorts, and gave me confidence that I could do something a little more challenging in 2025.  Also, it gave me a chance to see what I did well — and what I didn't.

I'm easily distractible and chase interests like rabbits, so the result is that I take on too much and don't focus enough on the things I want most.  (Izzy's care being an obvious exception; nothing is more important to me than my animals, and I will gladly drop everything else to take care of them.)  I'm proud of all the things I do — the time I volunteer, my writing, the people I help on Facebook — but I also need to learn to both prioritize and focus.

I'll post again soon with my goals for 2025, but for now I'm off to celebrate New Years the grown-up way: cuddled up on the couch with a glass of spiked eggnog, a book, and possibly an episode of a favorite TV show (in this case, Dexter).