Before COVID happened, I struggled with my second novel. I didn't know where I wanted it to go at all or had any direction with it. I had a ton of leadership books that were just collecting dust. I was struggling at marketing and creating interest for my first novel, Deking the Puck.
As the world found out about COVID, I also had my world rocked by a melanoma diagnosis and they didn't know if it spread through my body. I had to get the lymph nodes biopsied to see if it spread. We found out the hard way, my lymphatic system is active so instead of testing one or two nodes, they had to test 5 of them in three different areas of my body. So I was extremely stressed out by the cancer diagnosis since there was so much I couldn't control like the outcome and, quite frankly, the surgery hurt a lot. My surgery was basically a month before they issued a Stay at Home Order.
In all honesty, I was looking forward to the Stay at Home Order. I needed it for the recovery and the ability to stretch out cause going into everything I was super sore going to work each day. I wouldn't recommend getting the both sides of your groin cut open when you have 12 stitches in the back. I knew we were going to have a quarantine. In my mind, it was more of for how long and when it would happen.
So the first week off, I didn't have any official work commitments. I'm a workaholic and a learner by nature. So I needed a plan. I decided I wanted to write, improve my graphic design skills and social media marketing so I could sell my books. I was doing some roundtables from NIRSA (a professional organization for leaders in collegiate recreation) just to see the landscape around me. Since I was struggling with my plot line, I wanted to write 500 words a day. Pretty basic ideas to work on each day.
