This past year has been a year of anxiety driven waiting. First, I counted the days until my retirement. Then COVID 19 hit and we all waited for things to return to normal, for lockdowns to lift, etc. (we’re still waiting). But the biggest waiting has occurred around politics. Extremely important political elections to be exact. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for everything to settle and return to some level of normalcy.

Waiting for November 3rd was one of the most nail biting events of last year and the cruel hand of fate caused us to wait some more. The election wasn’t called for Biden/Harris until four days later on November 7th. Then we had to wait some more because neither Senate race in Georgia had a definitive winner, causing the most important run off race of the decade. Fortunately, it appears as though we will prevail and the Democrats won both seats. Sadly, our joy was taken away by the events at the capitol. Each time one of those political events neared completion, I would religiously watch CNN 24/7, looking for hints on the outcome. I watched all the pundits analyze every single detail. The polls proved they are no longer worthy of following. In fact, everything was upended this election season, including US democracy. Because of a totally unhinged sitting President, and the willingness of a large number of politicians eager to lick his boots at a chance to woo his base and take over as the next racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynist, xenophobic asswipe leader of the free world, we are still waiting for that peaceful transfer of power (whew, I know that was a run on sentence). I fear it will never come. And…that waiting is causing more gray hairs than I’ve earned in my entire life. I am waiting for the craziness to stop, and for those who enabled our unhinged president to finally realize how they contributed to the violence and chaos on our capitol. Enough is enough. When will the waiting end? Honestly, I simply cannot take the stress. I don’t like feeling this way all the time, and yet, I can’t help myself from watching the news all day long while waiting for the ultimate outcome to occur. We are all still in fear, waiting for the President to toss the next bomb. I would not be surprised by anything he chooses to do and the biggest waiting date of all is on the horizon. I can’t wait for January 20th at 12:01. Until then, none of us can take a collective sigh of relief. The riots on the capital taught us that lesson.

Now for a little levity…because we all need that! This past week, I had to leave my living room to go work out so I didn’t have to endure another anxiety driven football game. I know this sounds trivial compared to the stress over US politics, but my beloved Seahawks have to make nearly every damn game a nail biter. This Saturday I hope my book launch will distract me from yet another Seahawks nail biter. My wife is worried that I’ll still be live when the game starts.

The other kind of waiting that causes my blood pressure to rise is anything related to my next book release. I get anxious about how well the book will do on the first crucial day it is live. Then I wait patiently for the reviews to come in to see if this one will be a dud or at least break even. After about three months, the cards are on the table and the fate of the book is sealed, but there is always the next book to worry about and then the waiting returns.

The waiting is finally over for Inspiration Takes a Vacation: An Epic Love Story, and the book is live. Now I wait for the reviews to come in and to see if I can manage to make it into that all important top 100, and even more importantly stay there for at least a month. I’ve found that even my duds can get into the top 100 in that first week, but staying there is sometimes difficult. I’m also waiting for the Saturday Twin Book Launch event to see if I will totally blow it, or somehow survive with a modicum of dignity. What I worry about most is the technology. I’m not quite sure I can pull off connecting Ali into the Facebook Live and that is definitely something that keeps me up at night. In the meantime, if y’all want to check out my new book, or any of my books, of course you know I would love that. It won’t necessarily help with the waiting, but when my book does reasonably well, it does help with the anxiety. You know the drill, check out the links below!

Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon Australia Amazon Canada Amazon Germany