4:24pm

So, I want to start today’s post with a topic that is near and dear to my heart: keeping your head during a crisis (whether perceived or actual).

My grandfather recited the poem If by Rudyard Kipling to me when I was… still in grade school (or elementary school or other names, depending on your location) I think. I don’t know if it’s the poem’s message or simply the fact that Grandpa recited it to me, but it has stuck in my head ever since. When I think of the word ‘poem,’ it is one that almost always comes to mind. I won’t re-post the whole thing here, but one line (or maybe stanza?) is pertinent to this topic:

If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs

This is a partial quote, obviously. The last portion of the second line “and blaming it on you” doesn’t really apply here, as you’ll see if you keep reading.

I cannot tell you the number of posts I have seen in the two author communities I follow that are basically verbal diarrhea because the author is melting down over a mistake they made. It is–frankly–a bit tiring, and once I realize what the post is about, I tend to tune it out and go on with my day. Yes… sorry (not sorry), folks; I do not care.

Why?

We all make mistakes. We all screw the pooch. It is how we handle and respond to those times that can show aspects of who we really are.

Today is an excellent example.

I sent my first newsletter of 2024 today, and I tested setting up an email template and using it, instead of typing everything from scratch or using the good, ole copy/paste. Then, because I used a template and front-loaded most of the content (at least the stuff that doesn’t really change), I figured I could just go ahead and send that bad boy. No reason to schedule it and look over the email later, right?

Yeah… about that.

I use a password manager that is… uhm, aggressive… when it comes to supplying email addresses. It will fill a text field with my email address whether that text field is actually an email field or not. Which is why my first newsletter email of 2024 went out with an email address as the subject line.

Whoops!

So, I have two choices at this point… (a) I can melt down, freak out, and wail about how I’ve just ruined my career, or (2) laugh, learn from it, and move on.

Based on the preceding paragraphs, hopefully, you will be able to guess which option I chose. If you guessed ‘a,’ you’d be wrong.

One email is not going to make or break my career, and unless you go on a profanity-laced, racist or bigoted rant in yours, one email won’t make or break yours, either… unless that’s your market and they actively want that kind of content.

This is on top of a mistake I made early on in my career in which my very first novel, Awakening, spent an unknown amount of time published without Chapter 10, and Chapter 10 happens to be kinda important.

For me at least, laughing about my mistakes and owning them is better than getting all wound up over something I can’t change.

No writing today. I had too many errands and other items claiming my mind, and now, I just want to curl up with a good story and go to sleep.

Speaking of good stories, the Bob and Nikki series by Jerry Boyd has a new addition. Number 42, A Reptile Dysfunction, came out very recently. I discovered it last night and bought it immediately. When I needed a laugh right after Mom died, I immediately thought of this series and started it from Book 1, Bob’s Saucer Repair. If you can get past the minor issue that he doesn’t use chapters, it’s a great story.