A Rant, a Rave, and a Reveal
The long lazy-cat days of summer are here, and today will be another triple-digit day in the LC Valley. 🥵 Ugh!
And along with the heat came wildfires. The air is so full of smoke and particulates that it is unhealthy to be outside. High heat and smoky air mean no river walk this week. So instead, I’ll pop in a Zumba DVD. I used to teach Zumba Gold at my Pilates studio years ago. Since I have about 30 Zumba instructor DVDs to choose from, I’ll pop one in and dance as if nobody is watching—because nobody is!
During this time of being stuck inside, I have thrown myself into embracing social media marketing. Yes, you heard that right. Embracing.
Embracing and marketing are two words I rarely use together. There was a reason I had spent twenty-five years as a freelance bookkeeper. There literally is no sales or marketing required, and I basically work alone. That practice keeps an introvert in her comfort zone.
And we all know what happens when we refuse to step out of our comfort zones: NOTHING!
So, after some refocusing, instead of hating marketing, I am attempting to retrain my brain to see marketing not as a necessary evil, but as an extension of what I am already doing at face-to-face events. Just to a different audience.
A Rant 
I have recently learned that Amazon receives between 4000 and 11,000 new self-published books EVERY DAY! And in that massive number of downloads, at least 20%, or around 2000, are AI-generated. Though Amazon states they have a limit on AI-generated books, but that limit allows three titles per publisher, PER DAY! Really Amazon?
That limit is a joke and an insult to authentic human writers who have spent a lifetime writing and honing their skills.
How is a human author supposed to compete with that? How do my books get discovered when so much slop is being cheaply piled on top? I have spent over twenty-five years writing my story, while attending seminars and writing workshops; over ten years having the books edited and prepped for publishing, all at a financial burden on this self-published author. And don’t even get me started on how painful marketing has been for a seventy-year-old introvert.
But I strongly believe that it is our humanity that gives our work value. A computer does not know how it ‘feels’ to cry in the closet hugging a teddy bear because it is so frustrated and uncertain of its next move. That is a completely human experience.
I don’t care who you are. AI cannot compete with twenty-five years of self-torture.
Alright, moving on to something fun and enlightening!
A Rave
As I already mentioned, I have officially entered my seventh decade of life, and that happened on June 20th, which also fell on the summer solstice this year.
When my husband asked me what I wanted to do on this milestone birthday, which was the following weekend, I jokingly said, “I want to attend the Wild Idaho Yoga Festival.”
For reference, this was a three-day event nestled in the middle of the Idaho wilderness in the Clearwater National Forest at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains on the Lochsa River.
Surprisingly, he said, “If that is what you want to do, then you should do that. Happy birthday!”
So I did. By myself, I drove our truck, towing our little travel trailer into the wild backwoods of the Idaho forest. Thankfully, before I left, hubby gave me a quick lesson on how to back up our Raindrop trailer into a camping spot. Apparently, he is an excellent teacher, because I rocked it at the campground!
Now, to clarify, I am not really a yoga girl. I taught mat Pilates for close to ten years, and yoga always felt too slow for me. But I love the mindfulness of yoga, the slowing-down part, and most of all, the spiritual enlightenment that can be achieved in the right environment.
And this three-day event was definitely the right environment! I loved everything about it. The people, the classes, the vegetarian meals we enjoyed every day, prepared by a culinary-chef, were all wonderful. In a group of around thirty of us, mostly women, we arrived as strangers but left as sisters.
The best class for me was the ecstatic dance along the banks of the Lochsa River under the solstice sun. I experienced so many amazing blessings that weekend, and I also made some new friends. If you ever have the opportunity, I definitely recommend the Wild Idaho Yoga Festival. It will reset your way of thinking. It did for me, and I rode that spiritual high for a good long week. Namaste.
A Reveal
A self-published author also needs to be creative outside of writing a kick-ass story. So making book trailers has been a fun way to work on marketing and express that extended creativity.
With the release of book five on the horizon—expected fall/winter 2027—I wanted my latest video to offer a glimpse into my journey as an author. I think it turned out pretty damn good. You can watch my latest video, titled ‘Book Five Release’ on my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@pattirae9480.
A Request (Okay, I slipped this one in. 😊)
Algorithms and Amazon are agonizing! We have all heard it before. Social media exposure and growth, especially for a self-published author, are based on algorithms; views on posts; likes; comments; but most of all—reviews!
Forgive me for asking, but if you have read one of the books in the MARK OF THE FAERIE series, and you have not yet left a review, please take a few minutes to do so. Just a one-sentence review on Amazon or Goodreads, or a simple post on FB or Instagram, means more than you realize.
And now, I have made it easier for readers to find me on all of my social media platforms. I recently created a LinkTree QR account which lists all of my platforms on one screen. Just click and go!
Scan my LinkTree QR code and take a tour!
If you have already written a review on any of the books in MARK OF THE FAERIE, THANK YOU!! Your words of support feel like a warm hug from a close friend!
Books I have read this year, or am currently reading:
When I am not fine-tuning book five’s manuscript; working on my next marketing idea; bookkeeping; making resin art; exercising; or any of the other things in life that keep me busy, I love to escape into a good book.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt Fourth Wing by Rebecca YarrosScottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon Legacy by Danielle Steel
Where I will be next:
Hubby and I have done less traveling and stayed closer to home this summer. But fall marks the return of holiday fairs and festivals!
I will have a booth at the Spokane Renaissance Faire the first weekend in October – Oct. 3rd and 4th.
The following Saturday, October 11th, from 10 am to 3 pm, I will be a book vendor at the first-ever Rae’s Reads Bookmobile Fall Book Market at the Teal Lane Event Center in Lewiston, Idaho.
(FYI: I have no connection to Rae’s Reads Bookmobile. That is serendipitously owned by another Rae here in the valley!)
I am writing this newsletter on August 9th, National Book Lovers Day. In celebrating the love of books, I leave you with a passage from the book, ‘THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY’ by Elix Harrow. This pretty much expresses how I feel about a well-written book:
It isn’t about reading the words; it’s about reading the smell. It smelled like adventure itself had been harvested in the wild, distilled to a fine wine, and splashed across the page.
Yeah, it’s like that.
