Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

time

Eating the Elephant One Bite at a Time

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Photo by Zoë Reeve on Unsplash

I never have enough time, and I am coming to terms with that. When I was much younger (yes, at 60 I still consider myself young), I would ask myself, “Five years from now, are you going to wish you had/hadn’t done this?”

The answer would guide my decision. It is that question which made me decide more than ten years ago to redraft three books I had stuffed in a digital closet and publish them.

But, did I mention I’m 60 now?

The question has far more permutations than it used to. Time is a commodity I am realizing is more limited than it once was. I can’t say I have 50 years ahead of me. OK, I might, but I’d probably be pushing that senility bubble a bit hard, and it would be pushing back.

Now, every second counts. But there is this elephant on my plate. Though I have reduced its size by cutting out the time suckers it used to include for padding, it’s still bigger than my plate, bigger than the table the plate sits on, and occasionally bigger than the room housing the table.

I still have to eat it one bite at a time.

That’s what I do.

Sometimes the elephant gets bigger instead of smaller, but I can only chew so fast and spoon in only so big a bite.

Still time is waving hands at me. It’s a limited commodity. I’m chewing as fast as I can.

I cut out Twitter, Goodreads and settled on Facebook and this website for my time. I started a newsletter.

Click the Signup! button on the menu bar to join it.

The rest is reserved for three major parts of the elephant.

  • Writing (that’s the head of the elephant)
  • Marketing (way down by the tail)
  • Teaching-related stuff (my day job — the body)
  • Extra: Health (somewhere down at the feet, maybe underfoot)

Until I retire, the majority of my effort goes to my day job, which, unfortunately, grabs a huge slice each day of my off time. Grading is a bear, quickly followed by planning, training, parent contacts and email.

Photo by Becca on Unsplash

It’s very hard to eat a bear when you are still working on an elephant. All that hair gets caught in the throat.

Don’t ask me about dessert. All I’ll say is my husband is a sweetheart; our daughter, sheer perfection; and my Labrador, loyal and true.

My point.

I have to have a point to this?

I’m eating one bite at a time. That’s what I tell myself, and it helps. My only issue is the cook keeps bringing in new elephants as soon as I finish one. But one bite at a time still works.

My Doubling Plan for the Year.

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Scheherazade’s rice doubling

So last year I reviewed my efforts to publish my first book on Smashwords (first book anywhere, to qualify that), and I viewed a simple download of a sample of my work and the 151 times my blog had been sampled as a positive step forward to being a writer. I talked about my plans to publish my second book in my series Students of Jump, and I wanted to double the number of times my blog had been viewed.  So how did I do and am I still looking forward positively when I still remain undiscovered by a reading public?

  • I unpublished In Times Passed this past September to revamp and reedit as I felt it was incomplete.  I intend to republish before this month is out, and it is now complete and just in need of some review editing.
  • No-Time Like the Present, the second in the series, is not published yet, but is on its last redraft and close to a full-blown edit and first reader run.   It suffered a delay when I pulled book 1 off the line for a revamp and reedit.  I can say book 2 is two to four months away from publication.
  • I did publish an anthology of short stories called Gardens in the Cracks & Other Stories last July.  I chose to hit my publish date for book 2 with this anthology as I hated missing a self-imposed publishing day.  I follow the philosophy that backing down from a promise is just a habit in the making. So this was my way of keeping my promise but not putting a book out before it was ready.  These shorts stories felt ready.
  • So I wanted to double my 151 blogger visits.  That would mean I had to have at least 302 hits for 2012.  I have had 1,726 hits.  Guess I hit that goal a few times.  Sure, I know that is not much when looked at in popular blog numbers, but here I am with a plan to double it again.  So I am off to break 3,456 by next year.
  • I started a Twitter account (@LDarbyGibbs) and had quite a run with it until school started and I had to put my valuable time elsewhere.  I met some great writers, learned to get my point across in 140 spaces or less and found Hootsuite a hoot better than a hollar.  I still visit Twitter every couple of weeks and wish I could do more.  Second semester has always been the easier part of the school year for me, so perhaps I’ll be on more in the coming year.
  • I slipped off Goodreads once September came, same excuse applies.  But I read five books in the last week and half while on Christmas break.  So I do have something to talk about.  I might get back on as the new semester gets settled.
  • Book 3 of the Students of Jump is drafted, titled (Time on my Hands), and waiting in the wings.
  • I am still publishing on Smashwords, which is really publishing everywhere else I want to be anyway.  I’ve sold a total of 18 books which is 18 more than I started with.  I can say I doubled my numbers since last year.  Okay, try not to snigger too loud.  Remember what happened when Scheherazade told the story of doubling the grains of rice just a few times.  I have a tried and true plan here.
  • New goals besides what is stated above:  keep writing, keep reading, keep loving my family and being worthy of their love, make more writer friends, and grow a little wiser in the effort.

So what is your plan for the year 2013 in the making?

Photos, memories, mothers and time – never enough

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Over the last few months, I have been noticing my step mother has been suffering from short-term memory loss.  She will, in fact, ask me the same questions several times over the course of a ten minute phone call.  She writes lists of things she has to get done and then forgets where the list is or even that she already wrote it.  She does not remember if she paid her taxes this year.  This loving woman has been my mother since I was a little girl, so my attachment to her is strong and deep. 

Just months ago we were talking about books, her customers, being a mother, and what activities she has planned.  These days she cries during most of my calls, she is frightened of driving at night, tells me repeatedly that she loves me and is fearful I will take offense at something she says or does and stop loving her.

I call her multiple times a week since we live several states apart, and I can seldom visit her. 

She asked me quite recently to create a photo album of my daughter since her birth to the present.  At first I thought of this as a task that would be quite time consuming especially since I have sent her pictures over the years, and she could build such an album herself.  But in the last few months, she has admitted to having problems remembering things.  I am beginning to think that what she was asking for was something to keep her from forgetting her granddaughter. 

So now I am busy building that life album for her.  I hope it is enough to help her hold onto a granddaughter she loves.  The journey ahead looks particularly uncertain, my time with her off kilter and short.