These are all signals to my imagination and its bottomless bag of ideas that I’ve almost finished, and the excitement blows open carefully closed doors. Cracks appear in my focus on the task at hand. If the doors are not slammed shut and wedged closed there is no hope of stopping the shattering.

At this vulnerable as a newly born kitten time, it only takes one comment on a podcast, one conversation on a vlog, one piece of advice on a blog or online course, one line read in a book and …

‘Publish wide if you are an Indie.’ I have already one book published wide, but there are two more waiting. The manuscripts need tweaking and the covers need changing, and then there’s the end of book page to update. I look into publishing wide for paperbacks too, a dragon-scale of a thought breaks off and spirals away with possibilities.

‘Marketing is just sharing what you enjoy with like-minded people.’ A wider crack appears, almost loud enough to hear. My book sold when I marketed it, now it’s not selling. I need to find another way, that doesn’t cost money. I do some research. I’ll make a book trailer. Yes, I know they are usually for before a release, but as I don’t have a following yet I can do it now. It’s fun to learn something new. I watch as many middle grade book trailers as I can find. I read and listen to find out how to do it, the choices are endless. There are lots of free graphics and music clips. I make a story board and find pictures and music to match. I open my old friend power point, I’ve not used it for years and there are more options now. I’m unaware of larger dragon scale thoughts being enticed away.

‘Middle grade books are harder to market as few middle graders read ebooks.’ So, for an Indie author who doesn’t live anywhere near children who read the language the stories are written in, it’s a problem. Problems can be solved, especially with such an active brain. I’ll find new ways to reach my readers for Colours of Rain.

But wait. I’m going to have the same problem if I write more middle-grade and I’ve already started rewriting a three-book series. Walls and doors come crashing down and an earthquake of different ideas shakes my focus apart. Maybe I should rewrite one of my other first drafts, but which to choose? The characters, freed from their rooms, wander the corridors of my imagination.

‘Pick me, here’s a great idea to make the first draft better.’ They vie for my attention, but I don’t have enough to go around. Where has it gone?

When I lie down to sleep, go out on a cycle ride, or work in the garden, story contenders pop up and it becomes a game of splat the rat. But they are good ideas, so I write some down. This only opens the way for more, the cracks widen and larger dragon scales break off to spin around me.

‘Audio books are the way to go.’ I can’t afford to pay someone. I’ll have to make a sound room and do it myself. I can learn. I’ll look up microphones to start with and then… Did you know how long it takes to record a perfect hour? Wow, how can I find the time for that? I know where I can set up a room though, I just need to move all the stuff that’s in there somewhere else, or I could fix hooks in my writing hut and hang blankets. Will they keep out the sound of the church bells or cow bells? Or the dog that barks almost all day long? A piece of focus the size of a continent drifts away, dedicating itself to solving this problem.

‘Don’t wait for the right time for a great story, just write it.’ But I have so many, how do I choose? Maybe I can start the second memoir, although the first is not finished, or the story about, oh wait, there’s the five book series and series are supposed to be good for finding more readers, and its YA not middle grade…maybe, perhaps…