https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3hd4tcmddwa2kmwcxvqnr/Amber-Willingham_1.mp4?rlkey=829mmqhuhlvzfk9c2dx6168o7&st=89pt1bzl&dl=0

Hey everyone! I hope you had an incredible holiday full of peace and love and blessings beyond counting.

Just prior to the holidays I had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with David Silver of Silver Artistry and Laura Edmondson of Third Rate Productions on this promotional video. These two are the real deal—I had an absolute blast during the interview! They made me feel like I was just chatting with friends, which, in a way, I was. Yet, they somehow turned our friendly conversation into something professional. Thanks David & Laura for making me look like I know what I’m doing! Click the link and enjoy!

I absolutely adore this Christmas tree! I stumbled upon it online and can’t wait to recreate it as soon as I get home. I have a feeling this might turn out like those yoga pose comparisons where the expert yogi looks magnificent, toned, and graceful, while the amateur ends up looking like a deranged cat attempting ballet.

Nevertheless, Christmas is the perfect time to unleash the creativity we all have hidden inside us and try our hand at something we wouldn’t normally do throughout the year. Like baking cookies and decorating them with icing and sprinkles—would you do that in August? Never! Or crafting Christmas ornaments to hang on the tree. I’ve always dreamed of having one of those Christmas trees with perfectly matching ornaments that look like they belong in a Macy’s display. But every December, my “creative” side kicks in, and my kids and I end up making our own decorations. Sometimes, I buy ornaments throughout the year from places we visit or ones that represent something my kids did that year, like a sport, an instrument, or now, college.

Whatever the endeavor, letting that creativity loose has always been good for my soul. I never really thought of myself as “creative,” and honestly, I still don’t. But Christmas somehow allows me to dream the impossible dream and let my moment of inspiration shine. It’s displayed on my dining room table for all to see for a month until it gets cleaned up and packed away in a bin to be stored in the attic until next year when I’ll use my pent-up creativity to make it look even better.

I hope you have the best most creative Christmas ever! Enjoy the holidays and allow yourself to create whatever is on your heart this season.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with my friend Laura Edmundson of Third Rate Productions and answering some questions that readers have asked about Bliss Creek. The question-and-answer session was such an eye opener and a blessing. Many of these questions made me contemplate the book and my career in ways that I hadn’t considered before, so THANK YOU. I learned that some takeaways from Bliss Creek were not something I even considered while writing the book.

I find it so interesting that what we get out of a book is often times a by-product of our life experiences and background, ultimately resulting in different views of the same book. We don’t all have the same perspective, and perspective can change the takeaway. I feel this way when doing podcasts as well. I am asked existential questions that make me go beyond the story, beyond the words that are on the paper and ask myself why. To say I am often surprised at my own answers would be an understatement.

I hope you enjoy the Q & A as well as the Podcast on True Life with George Monty which was posted earlier this week. Finally, thank you. Thank you for reading, thank you for keeping me grounded, thank you for making me think, thank you for taking me out of my comfort zone.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Mahalo

Quick recap, I wrote a book, decided to self-publish it, had 24 followers on Instagram, was told I needed to up my social media game, which brings us here.

“Just post” they said. This is how you create a following, this is how you get your book noticed, just post. They said to post about me, the author, not just the book. They said, “People want to know you as a person, not just about your book”, so “just post”.

The first big issue I have with this is who the heck is “they” and how do “they” know all this stuff? How do “they” know people want to know me. I might be the antithesis of what people want to know. In fact, I know some people for whom this is true. “They” are probably wrong about this but on the off chance that “they” are right, I will do as “they” say and post.

The next hurdle – what the heck do I post? There are only so many pictures I can take of my book and my coffee cup and maintain any sort of interest from anyone much less the social media world. So, in this regard (and only in this regard so far in this experiment) “they” might be right about posting about me.

Once I decided to follow “their” advice and post about me I became keenly aware of the level of excitement in my life. (enter groan here) I am a middle aged (although I am not far from the youngest member of the “Golden Bachelorette” harem) suburban-empty-nester-dog/cat-mom. I mean come on! Talk about the antidote to insomnia! Maybe that will be my following – insomniacs. Maybe I will become medical journal famous for the cure to insomnia. I will follow up with this later . . .

Ok, so I have decided to “Just Post” about just me. (eye roll) So far, I have come up with a few cutesy photos, a couple of videos of me talking to the camera (groan), many many many photos of my pets (after all my house has become a small pets-mart) and I began to post them. Exciting news (drum roll) I now have 41 followers. Saying it out loud makes it seem very anti-climactic. It seems like this much effort should produce more results.

Now here is the aha moment. Apparently, you can’t “just post” any old time you choose. There is an algorithm (which is a word I never thought I would use in a sentence) to posting. There are charts and graphs and pies to look at to determine when your target audience (huh?) is going to be more inclined to see your post. In other words, posting is a science, and I am now back in school.

So, I am off to study these pie charts and graphs and figure out who my “target” audience is and what time they tune in to insta/tik/FB. I will keep you “posted”!