Jeremy C Kester

It’s June. The weather is oscillating between really pleasant to unbearably hot (above 80). Mostly, there has been little rain, making it simultaneously nice in that there is little humidity, but terrible as I watch my lawn turn brown and my flowers scream out for water. Such is the life of an adult, concerned about the health of plants we mean to make our property look nice. But more unstable than the weather has been my ability to keep this site updated. And that (as always), has got to change.

Honestly, I wrote a lengthy essay on what was going on with my creativity and how my ADHD, high openness, and lack of confidence has driven my productivity to near zero. It will likely not be going up on the site, but the exercise was cathartic in many ways. Consistency is a struggle that many of us encounter; I am no different there, as this site is example of.

Consistency is of utmost importance when in a creative endeavor, such as I am trying to make. Ignoring the algorithms and how they respond to it, people like to know that X book, Y show, or Z blog post they enjoy will arrive on time each week to help them through their day. Sure, streaming and on-demand style formatting has thrown a wrench into that gearbox, but overall, consistency remains important.

For here, that means that I publish on a regular schedule, however I determine that schedule to be. Daily might be best, but repeatable and regular is still good.

Hell, even in the creative pursuit itself, consistency is huge. It is amazing how showing up the same time each day for some number of minutes or hours helps to grease the creative wheel.

That is my goal: to instill routines and habits that facilitate my creative goals — including getting this site to better represent my writing. And what does that mean? Well, that I need to sit my ass down and write… consistently.

And with consistency being the theme, I’ll be making another push (in a long line of attempted pushes) to get to some regularity in both posting on this site and publishing stories. This is the first of those attempts, and as such, it seems fitting to include a general update. So here that goes:

Going Wide

All of my books that are for sale are on Amazon, but I’ve been non-exclusive to Amazon for quite some time — even though my books aren’t found elsewhere. Hmmm…

That being said, I now have 3 out of the 5 works I sell available in wide-release, being on Kobo, iBooks, and more. The last 2 will be coming out in the next 2 weeks: The Colonist (a short story) going onto the other platforms June 17th, and The Dangerous Life of Agnes Pyle going on all platforms June 24th.

New Stuff

I’ve had like ZERO new stuff since 2016 with The Dangerous Life of Agnes Pyle and 2018 with The Colonist. This year I re-released Remember the Yorktown as a full novel vs 3 novellas, but that is hardly “new”. Besides short stories posted here on the site, I have little to really show for the volumes of effort made between 2016 and now… and there’s certainly reason for that. Still, it needs to change.

That being said, I will be releasing the collection of poetry I promised a year ago on July 1st I plan to set up Varied Degrees of Darkness: Selected Poems for publication on all platforms. I am only wrapping up the cover, which will be simple.

Then on August 5th, I’ll be releasing an ebook on all platforms for my short story The Farmer, a piece of speculative fiction that at one time was available on this site. I’ve edited and revised it for release.

Beyond that, I am working on a novelette (see post here) and am trying to get The Plagued Life of Agnes Pyle wrapped up. At this time, I cannot promise a release date for either. The goal is to get them both released in 2023, so we’ll see.

And Beyond

Everything else is going to be a bit loose for awhile. I am not promising a regular schedule of posts on this site, although I will be trying to maintain one close to a Monday through Friday posting rate. Then there is this idea of Substack, Patreon, and other avenues of publication available. Could I release regular stories on one or more of these platforms? Wishful thinking at this moment. Still, the idea is available and might fit with my poetry. Who knows? Options abound.

For now, it’ll be the releases mentioned above while I try yet again to push the bolder up the hill. One of these days I am certain that something will click and I’ll not let that stone slip.