It's 9AM

What Are You Thinking About?

Mar 15, 2024

Nice little flash flood action last night turned the front of our house into a lake. Water got as high as three feet into the garage. And if you ever think less of yourself, just remember, we have 4 drains in the street at the bottom of this rise to collect runoff. So you are at least as smart as a lot of engineers and city planners!

We drove in silence for almost an hour.

Even the radio was turned low, a not so common occurrence when she’s riding shotgun.

I was lost in thought.

Wondering about things and stuff and wishing and praying and planning.

My stuff was about the trip to MS this weekend and the trip to LA next weekend.

It was about money coming in from Draft2Digital and when I get paid again and planning a budget for both trips.

It was thinking about the April trips and the May trips and the big trips in July and wondering.

Will it be enough?

Sure, the cost of everything is going up, but that’s par for the course.

The cost of everything has kept going up since I can remember, AND it’s an election year, so the powers that be raise gas prices to make people unhappy so they will vote.

When people vote, they feel like they have “control” over their lives, and it keeps them from another French Revolution.

And we’re not just paying more, we’re spending more on other things, like gear and fees and uniforms and accessories.

For me, it’s a simple solution of just paying less or doing less somewhere else to offset the increase in cost.

Like reading a book instead of paying for a movie.

We all do it.

Make choices based on what we do, and pay for the consequences of our choices.

Sometimes on purpose, sometimes on accident.

But part of my drive time thinking was what if…

I have what’s called a MVN.

Minimally Viable Number.

It’s a budget of what I need to bring in each month to pay for everything.

I have sources of revenue that range across a bunch of sites and places.

They are little sources that all add up to a bigger number.

No where what I need yet, but growing each month.

Again.

Even the new Amazon account, growing faster and more each day and each time I add a new book to the list.

It would be nice if there was one book that took off, or one series that just paid for everything, but that hasn’t happened.

Yet.

So it’s $20 here and $2 there and the occasional $10 from a boxset.

With hope.

Because a couple of the spots have thresholds, which means they pay out at $100.

Better for their bookkeeping and nice to get a little larger chunk of change, but reaching that three figure milestone two bucks at a time is tougher.

Or requires more patience.

Or more advertising, which means more MVN, an increase in what’s going out.

There are probably smarter ways to make money than being a small business owner/author.

But I’ve been a lot of things in my life, and not many have brought me the satisfaction of telling a story.

Or getting paid for telling a story.

It is almost, but not quite, as good as getting laid.

Which is the point of both I suppose.

Telling stories builds a legacy.

So does the mattress mambo, sometimes.

People and things that will outlast you.

Which is priceless.

Speaking of those two things, go grab your copy of MR. LONELY today.