Hi friends! Just wanted to drop in with a quick post about the future of my blog and website. Don’t worry–I’ll still be posting about all things books and writing, I’m just planning to add a few new topics and make some changes to the look and feel of things around here.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you might know I’ve recently had the opportunity to go full-time with my writing. As I’m continuing to grow my business, I’m exploring every area I can to keep things moving and growing.

As part of that, I’ve been doing a lot of brushing up on marketing. One of the things that comes up, again and again, is the reminder that I’m a whole person.

Shocking, I know!

There’s this fabulous concept that, in business, you want to sell yourself. You, as a whole person, with your interests and personality intact. It’s more important for people to be invested in you as a real human than in your brand. The chances that your readers will have things in common with your brand are far fewer than the odds they’ll have something in common with you.

And that commonality is what the author/reader relationship is all about when it comes to being an indie author. Having your readers invested in you makes them more likely to support you by buying your books, leaving reviews, and sharing about your books with others. But even more than that, it’s wonderful to be on the same level as your readers, sharing your interests and connecting as people. I’m really striving to build more of those connections.

But here’s a secret: I’m not naturally super good at selling myself.

I’m the first person to shy away from talking about myself with people I don’t know. My husband practically throws me at people and yells, “My wife is a great person and writes fascinating novels about wolves!” He’s naturally good at talking me up.

My other friends and family do this too. Whenever they introduce me to someone new, I always get, “Oh, I’ve heard so much about you (usually also followed by: and your books).”

The fact is, this blog comes very unnaturally to me. That’s why it’s so easy to focus on books and writing. A) it’s what I do and B) it’s in the title of the site. To me, it just makes sense that I’d talk about books and writing…and nothing else. But every marketing resource I’ve encountered has encouraged me to try writing about non-book things here.

What other things am I interested in? How bad is it that I’m still trying to answer that question. I mean, sure, obvious things come to mind. Cats. Hooded sweatshirts. Coffee. Netflix. I mean, do y’all really want to hear all about Netflix? ‘Cause I can do that.

I’m totally lost when it comes to walking the line between blogging–as an author–about life and becoming a lifestyle blogger. But I’m always up for a challenge, so I’m going to give it a try.

All that to say: I know when you come here, you expect to read about books and writing because that’s been my MO since Day One. I will absolutely still be talking about books and writing. But I’m going to try to pepper in some of my other interests, too. I might fail miserably.  Doesn’t matter. I’m still gonna try.

So, if you come by next week and are confused about why I’m chattering about things–other than books and writing–that matter to me, now you know why.

And I really hope you like to read that stuff, too.

Cheers!