All A Matter Of Time.

I was writing this entry on 30th December 2025, the eve of New Year's Eve. I'll be out on the town for NYE, so right now - relatively speaking - is quiet time to catch up and reflect on a thing or two. Such as the issue of time, a commodity I find myself lacking in. Or, at the very least, never seeming to have enough.

Which might indicate that I'm doing something wrong. Or, at the very least, could be doing something better.

What comes to mind right now is the Hedonic Treadmill, or hedonic diagram - simply put, the more you achieve, the more you want; that you're never really satisfied. I do have certain milestones that I want to reach that I've not gotten to yet, e.g., that my work reaches a much bigger audience. I'm on the way, but I'm not there yet.

In terms of time, there are still 24 hours in a day, as there are for us all. I'd like to think that I'd gotten better at managing my time, despite the fact that I do more with it. In addition to a rigorous exercise regime which includes running and lifting weights (and I never skip leg day), there's property maintenance, along with some degree of a social life and a personal life. And as I've said before, it's cool that the writing has opened up so many opportunities thus far; anthology invites, mentoring, blurb requests, podcast appearances, etc. But the more successful I get, the less time I have.

Which then means the more time I need to make.

In the business of writing, the writing itself is still the bottom line and that's something I never lose sight of. I'm aware that some writers may get write's block from time to time; a condition I thankfully don't get. I still get ideas faster than I can write them, so I'm forever racing to keep up with the muse. As such, I keep the wheels of the machine turning. This year has seen attend a record number of seven conventions, four publications released this year, with all of them in the autumn - one of which made it onto this year's HWA Bram Stoker Award® Reading List. That's a first.

That being said, there's still some ground I need to cover. I had an anthology invite from this year's StokerCon in the summer where, as of yesterday, I've only just finished the first draft of a story for that. Given how manic things have been of late, I may knock out an additional story, but we'll see what time and the schedule allow, since that's not the only invite I have.

With the mentoring I do, I have nothing in my schedule, which will free up some time. As an HWA mentor, I currently have 3 mentees under the scheme and make sure to reach out to them all regularly to see how they are and offer support, if needed. Even outside of the HWA mentoring, my reputation as a good beta reader precedes me; thankfully, things are relatively quiet on that front as well.

The issue of time, or lack thereof, to write is one thing. But that's not all I have on my agenda. There are other things I want to look at, such as self-publishing, given how much of a body of work I've built so far and continue to build. Yes, I'm still capable of writing quality work and selling it to publishers. That said, publishing is a business and, as such, no publisher will publish your work for free. Yes, they'll pay you, the author, but there's also cost that goes into editing, production, promotion, etc. Given that, thus far, I've not self-published anything yet, time to learn would be good - especially with benefits such as more creative freedom, potentially greater exposure, etc. That's just one aspect where I want to evolve. There are others.

All of this brings to mind Cage The Elephant's, "No Rest For The Wicked." Because there isn't.

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