New Year's Eve: A time to reflect.

I should have taken more time to do that. I do now.

I think about friends and family who have passed, particularly those whose demographics are similar to mine. A few when we were younger.

​That didn't pertain to me, or so I thought. It does now.

Unlived Lives stories sometimes include a mirror in which a person on the outside of the glass can see their doppelganger on the inside. Their unlived self.

I no longer need a mirror to do that.

I've reached an age where I see many of my lived and unlived lives, remembering those so important to me in the past who are no longer here.

You will see yours if you're old enough to look for them.

(An end-of-year post for my self-published author friends.)

.  .  . The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn had been out six weeks. I had coerced and threatened all my friends and family to buy it. Total sales by the end of 2024: 47.

Sales from January 1, 2025, to February 28, 2025: 3

Sales to date for Raymond, and the sequel, The Unlived Lives of Shelly Bennett: 1,572.

What changed?

Well, for starters, I was out of friends and family. If I wanted to sell more books, I would have to find more of each or learn how to sell to people I didn't know who didn't know me.

I completed the Click Testing for Authors course at the end of February 2025. I began advertising on Facebook the following week, and on Instagram in April. I thought I would also place ads on Amazon, possibly LinkedIn, and/or Goodreads.

​I don't want to bad-mouth anyone, but when it comes to selling books, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) works, the others .  .  . 🙄

Speculative question for (authors) today.

If the book in this image existed (it doesn't), would you read it?

Starting December 8 through January 1, The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn ebook is available for 50% off the regular price. But only on Smashwords.

An excellent opportunity for you, and as gifts for your friends and family to meet Raymond, Shelly, Asian, and all the other characters in Raymond's unlived lives.

Happy holidays!

My daughter-in-law was walking her dog this past weekend when she noticed an Asian man approaching. She said his walk and mine were so similar that she had to turn and stare at him after he had passed. That gave me an idea for a possible plot vehicle for a future Unlived Life story. 

A Caucasian character encounters his Asian doppelganger (or the reverse), the result of his parents having married someone else. Had one of my parents married an Asian person, my daughter-in-law (who happens to be one-quarter Japanese) might have encountered half-Asian me in an unlived life. 

Shelly's and Raymond's stories are essentially two-dimensional. The choices those characters made created their unlived lives. The idea that choices made by others before they are born is to the Unlived stories what three-dimensional chess is to the game of chess.

A whole new dimension.

Speculative question for today.

How different would you be had your parents married someone else?