- Yeah, it is a pain in the back. :P 😂 But, I have a magician for a pain management doctor and she's got me doped up good. 😆 But, seriously, I've done the core strengthening routine, acupuncture, nerve oblation, steroid shots, etc. Nothing works 100% so I live in pain but it's much better then the alternative. :) If you need help, just ask. We're a pretty friendly bunch and someone will answer your questions eventually. Just be patient because we're not all online all the time. :D So, what do you like to do on here? I hunt achievements, others are intoHAs. :D - Have you ever tried a writing group? Sometimes a bit of constructive criticism can help you smooth out bumps and help you get over the hump that separates not earning money to earning money. I'm willing to be a beta reader for you if you need/want one. :) Little secret, if a book is online, I can read it. It doesn't have to be in audoio format, just in some kind of text format, even a pdf. The screen reader reads it for me. Granted, it doesn't have the different voices, but I don't need those. :D

I read that you mentioned back pains and stuff and I can definitely empathize as I have back issues as well plus osteoarthritis in my left hip. What is interesting is that I feel the pains mostly in the ligament and muscles which seems to also affect my left knee as well. I try to get up and move around during the day which helps a bit but also have some of this stuff called 'Arthro Oil' which has peanut oil, pine oil and other stuff so once in awhile I massage it into my knee really well then put a heating pad on it.

Either the Arthro Oil or i put castor oil on a length of flannel, put it on my knee then cover with a piece of plastic bag or such and put the heating pad on it and it seems to help too.

I need to make a list to remind me to take my calcium, Magnesium and Vitamin D too as that might help too.

I think I was in a few writing groups. Currently in one focused on KDP. I tend to lurk.

Right now the big thing is marketing. Even when I run a free promotion on one of the books and people get free copies, they don't tend to leave reviews. So I don't know what is working and failing. The only book in the series (A Date with the Devil, fourth book) has a four star rating but no nothing written about it.

Before Elon took over Twitter, that site was really good for self-promotion.

I don't tend to use beta readers. But if I change, I'll keep you in mind :)

Yes, thank your hubby - that I understand. Nope haven't fallen. But hip is loaded with arthritis and joint is degenerative, so I get the pain in the hip. It's the leg Idk. Feels like two separate probs now. Just a continuous awful sharp ache/pain. Feels like someone hit me with a 1"x6" board. Dr did give me a few Tylenol3 to get by. They only kinda help, but anything rt now is more than I had. Got my referral and tried to call for apt at Ortho, but stupid phone is being a pita and was glitching earlier, and now will call but no ringing. Not one thing it's another. Going to freaking bed now, and hope to sleep. Maybe tomorrow things will work with no more glitching. Growl Warm fuzzies to you. Ttyl <3

Oh goodness, I am sorry they aren't supportive of you. Is there maybe a coworker or lead you can reach out to, to get help on doing that? I have to answer phones and could help you with various situations, I don't know how good that would help you after the fact though. :/

Oh goodness! After all the surgeries my husband has has on his back due to all his issues, I know what that can do. Parts of his back are fused together. blech!

Yes true story

We shall see...I'm sure it will come sooner than later and then I will have no choice.

- Back in the day, I used to write stories for my pets and make little avatars for them using some dress-up site. Now, the ADHD don't got time for no writing stories for pets. So instead I'm just mindlessly doing quests and sticking Akaar in the Training Center every hour.

- My grandmother had to have a neck bone completely replaced because of her degenerating disc disease. I'm actually really lucky that, so far, it's only the one that's like, "You know what? I'm done. Just gonna deflate now." When I went to the neurologist for the herniated disc he said, "So, if you can live with the symptoms, I recommend living with the symptoms." And I was like, "A'ight."

- It's nice to see you in here! :) I've never heard of the castor oil remedy you mention but hen I avoid castor oil for other reasons. XD You should set an alarm on your phone for a specific "vitamin and supplement taking" time. I do it that way because I have a lot of medicine and would end up back in the hospital if I missed a dose. :D

- I suck at marketing but I do know that you need to hawk your stuff all the time to get it out there because word of mouth is the best advertisement. Have you tried BlueSky as a replacement for twitter? There is a large book related community over there. Also, FB, Instagram, and Threads are good marketing tools. It's a pain to deal with them but they are a must for people to see your work. :D

- I'm glad hubby's explanation worked. I'm sorry you're feeling so poorly. I hope the T3 works and you get some good sleep and your hip and leg stop hurting. Do you think it could be a blood clot? (DVT?) gentlehugglesnugs ❤

- I hear you there. I'm not looking forward to the day everything switches because stuff tends to break on Subeta and I'd hate to see the new site break right off the starting post, ya know? :D

I don't have a Smart Phone/Android/etc but I can make a little list to remind me to take my vitamins. As for the castor oil thing, it is just one of many remedies and I mentioned it because I use it or used to use it on my back too. I need to now just make an effort to remind myself to get up off my chair every hour and walk around my apartment a bit just to keep my knee and hip from getting too stiff. 😊 Also why do I keep writing the word 'the' as 'teh' all the time? So weird...

Honestly yeah there are a few of those. Although I love how Kim completely owns the racist lorry driver. :D

No but I'd love to get into some! I saw that book at the store and thought it looked interesting. Any others you'd recommend?

It takes FOREVER for me to join a new site. I have been meaning to join BlueSky so maybe within the year?

I used to market on FB (even had a page for my blog and other projects) but then my account got shut down. FB wouldn't explain why, just that it was much too dangerous to tell me. So in a group or two I sometimes promote myself, but mostly I use FB to chat with friends and post screenshots from games.

Instagram I won't join and what the heck is Threads? I've heard that talked about.

Currently the sites I use to promote myself are Twitter and tumblr. On my YouTube and Twitch channels I have links to places like where you can view all of Kafka's Men and my Patreon. When I do dramatic readings, I have a list of links in the video's description that includes a link to Kafka's Men.

On Twitter sometimes people will make tweets where people reply with self-promotions.

On the majority of blog posts, I'll link to one of the Kafka's Men books at the bottom.

Marketing is way more work than actually writing XD

Kim is just amazing. He will defend you even if you are the weirdest person that he swears somehow functions without a brain cell. Whenever he compliments you it just feels SO DAMN GOOD!

i love haunted mansion! My go to ride! ANd i like big thunder mountain also, when you are at the door at haunted mansion you see see big thunder mountain, so cool.

Oh he did lol! It's great Barbie is getting more special needs characters! Still waithing for them to make old folks, that would be neat!

hi!

:) ❤

i am glad i am not the only one who is scared on getting on a rollarcoaster. Like you i love to know how things work, etc.. Will let you know if i did one... or not..

Still hanging in here! Hi all!

i am doing much better, you almost can say good.

School is now out for vacation, so relaxing, recharging, woking with psychologist and taking my time.

Good for you!

Never thought of blood clot! Hope it isn't, but do hope they find out what it is, what I can do for it, and get rid of it! It has hurt constantly for nearly two weeks and I'm ready for it to go away. Waiting for Ortho office to call me back now. Hope I can get in tomorrow.

omg, I have a lot of replies to make. Please forgive me if I miss one. XD

- So you do pretty much what I do here. 😂 Have you tried out the new quests yet? :D

- Blue sky is much better then x. The nastiness isn't there and people actually interact. Threads is FB's version of x. So, skip FB and open up just an instagram account that is only for advertising your writing. Your responses are very much like my younger son's responses when it comes to advertising. I clearly remember my professor drilling it into my skull that if you want to be known, you have got to get out there and promote yourself, be your own best advocate. That means having accounts everywhere that you use only to shamelessly plug yourself. My youngest son hasn't take my advice yet, either. 😆 He only advertises his livestream on Bluesky and he only ever posts just one post about it. facepalm 😂

- oh, don't get me started! 😆 I can recommend a lot of books but won't until I know what you like better because some of what I read isn't for the faint of heart. Case in point,Steven Erikson's series, "Malazan Book of the Fallen" is hard core fantasy and contains some scenes that are not for the easily offended or squeamish. I love it but it's not for everyone. As for Sarah J. Moss, she has a trilogy of series that starts with her first book, "Throne of Glass." It's also very good as is all of her series. Have you ever read any Jennifer Armentrout or Rebecca Yarros? Also two very good romantasy writers. :D

- What is Thunder Mountain? I don't think I went on that ride. I wish I had gotten a Haunted Mansion t-shirt when I was there. I'll have to look online and see if they have any available. :) I agree. I was very happy with the doll as I, too, hope they continue the series. Seeing an older Barbie and Ken would be nice, too. :D

- It honestly sounds like a pissed-off ligament/tendon. He'll probably either prescribe steroids or give you a shot like I got then tell you to rest it. You could always check WebMD and see what they say... :P (everything there always ends up being "cancer." Even if it's a paper cut, it's cancer. facepalm :P )

I think I answered everyone...

Edit: - Sorry, my dear, I completely forgot to answer you. I'm so used to talking to you in my comments that you fell out of my head. XD I avoid castor oil because it makes me poo like a mastadon. I'm unsure of what it would do if I put it on an aching muscle. XD You have a computer! It has a clock function, I'm sure. See if it lets you set an alarm. It might. I've never tried to do it on a computer before but other friends set alarms on their computers for stuff like dancing at Masq so I'm guessing it's readily available. :) BTW, I love your siggy. 😆 XD

I am sorry, I should have been more specific; I was not implying taking it internally at all rather applying it on the skin itself as the skin absorbs the nutrients of an oil like castor or pure and non-hydrogenated peanut oil or something and it gets transferred so to speak.

As for my computer, I have a desk top kind and not a lap top and since it is in another room I doubt I would hear it go off anyways :)

You know, I was thinking of changing my siggy but it holds a lot of wisdom right there!

I advertise all my livestreams on twitter and a few on tumblr too. You can't just depend on one platform.

Bluesky sounds good. But with Threads being connected to FB...I don't find it appealing.

The problem with Instagram for me is that it seems like a platform with a focus on the visual. I don't think I do enough in that regard so that site doesn't seem like a good fit.

In the current social media climate, you do a lot better when people feel like you're a friend (aka parasocial relationships). So just posting and promoting yourself isn't enough. There needs to be some form of connecting with people. With tumblr, besides posting my own stuff, I reblog others to increase the likelihood of my own visibility.

When other people start talking about and recommending you that is a great help. Think about how you suggest your favorite books, movies, and shows to others.

*FACEPALM Even after editing my last post, I still forgot a reply. I'm so sorry, that I missed replying to your post. I'm happy that you're doing well and hope that you continue to get better. Better to be safe than sorry, I say when it comes to issues like burn out. :D

- omg, I have no idea what it would do if I put it on my skin. Do you have any idea if it would do the same thing? I like to use tiger balm on my aches. My pain doc also gave me a medicated gel to use on my hands when they get really bad it works really well with no side effects from what I can tell. I wish I remembered what it waw called. It starts with a V. I'll look at it tonight when I go back to my room and try to remember it to tell you tomorrow. :) Knowing your preferences for the old fashioned then what about a simple alarm clock dedicated to solely the purpose of reminding you totake your supplements? Set the alarm and don't use it for anything else. put a sticky or other kind ofnote on the clock if you can't remember what it's for, to remind you . :) Oh, no, Do not change your siggy. It is perfect! :lauging: 😆 😆

- Before I lost my sight I was browsing thought my oldest daughter's instagram. She is a journalist with an east coast newspaper and loves to read, like I do. Her feed was full of authors who took screenshots of interesting parts of their books and posted them for people to read, kind of like a synopsis or summary of the book. It was like little teasers. And, even though the site is visually based, the screenies of the book summaries worked. It got a lot of people reading the stuff even though it wasn't a "picture."" All I'm saying is don't rule anything out until you're 100% sure it won't work for you. Like Threads. I wouldn't recommend it because not a lot of people use it and you have to be an instagram user to even get an invite to join. Bluesky is much better. No pre-existing membership elsewhere is required, the user base is intelligent, and I find it easy to use after bungling around it for a day or two. So, you should have no problem learning how to use it. It's actually easier then learning how to use Subeta's new kumos forum, if you can believe it. XD Here's another idea, have you thought of buying imprints here? I see a lot of etsy ads at the top of the forum. So why not put a link to your amazon books up there? It doesn't have to include a picture, just a snippet of one of the books to tease the series with the link to find them on amazon. Sorry if this feels like I'm brow beating you. I like your stories and just want you to succeed. :D ❤

- Hello!

- I have not. I saw the news post about the snowball even thing and just started spamming those two quest givers instead of trying out the new Kumos stuff. I read something about it the Wizard quests being different in the new format? But I never tried it out. Because I clicked another link that shot me over to the old site and kinda. Haven't moved since then.

Yes, back surgeries IMO are never worth it unless it's detrimental to your life. He has been through so much and it's never helped except when it kept him from being paralyzed. That was 1 of 9 surgeries.

Oh yeah, I've been through one too many of those. haha

Castor oil shouldn't bother your skin but like most oils and ointments it will leave a residue that you just wash off with soap and water. Same thing like when I put muscle rub on my knee..the skin absorbs some but still need to wash it off so I don't smell like a pharmacy :)