I am still feeling the financial effects of COVID-19. 

While I continue to have new authors contact me to help them with a book project they have in mind—two contacted me just in the past week—the majority of my business clients with Beetle Press remain unable to use my PR and communications services for one reason or another.

Many of my clients had to close a year ago; some reopened quickly but with severe restrictions that didn’t allow them to offer events, for instance. Without events, my clients don’t need me to help them with promotion via a press release sent to the media or a blog they’d post on their websites. 

Those who are open for business don’t know what to plan or what to promote because the pandemic continues to see them tap dancing around ever-changing protocols and processes.

In addition, many of my clients were also hurt financially, and they don’t have the funds now for communications.

Now and again, the effects of the pandemic drop me back into the year 2010, when my late husband, Ed, died four days after I lost my full-time job. 

When I get my credit card bill, and the balance is daunting—bam, I’m back in the wounded, grieving place.

When I want to do something I once wouldn’t think twice about, such as planning a trip, and I can’t—bam, I’m back there.

Yet, the past 10 years of my life were a willful evolution that took me from grieving to great. I worked hard to survive and transform my life. I learned how to make more money. I got physically stronger. I learned about patience, the perspectives of others, and I learned a whole lot about perseverance. 

I use these superpowers now as I cope with COVID. 

When I have a little session where I knock myself down, I rouse myself. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. Get up. Do your thing. Knock on doors. It’ll all be good.”

I also tell myself this: “Really? You are fine. You have first-world problems. Get over yourself. Make something happen.”

So, I’m over here getting over myself and trying to make things happen. 

I’m reaching out to lots of people. I’m checking in with clients to see how they are and if they need my help.

I’ve partnered with another writer in the area, and we are working on new creative projects. We’re sharing passages with one another and trading feedback. My project is my first work of fiction, and I’m pleased with how it’s going.

I’ve also had the time to work on transforming my Poem Pods into a children’s coloring book. I will have a draft soon, and I’m looking for 20 children between the ages of 6-10 to get a free copy of the book with a four-pack of crayons in exchange for feedback from the parents on how to make the book better. Interested? Please email me!

I’m also trying to figure out how to promote my new book, “Willful Evolution,” during a pandemic when I can’t be out there reading from it live.

“Willful Evolution” tells the story of the past decade, and it shows the ways in which I grew and got stronger over the past 10 years. I wrote the book in hopes it might help others take a fresh look at their own lives to consider if they need inspiration for their own evolution. Because that’s what my book can do. It can inspire you, and it will also make you laugh.

If you have the COVID-19-oh-my-god-how-do-I-get-passed-this-shit blues, my book could help you now. 

The short advice is: Be patient and know that change will come. Be open to all the ways you might be able to bring that about.

The post Using My Relatively New Superpowers to Fight Against COVID-19 appeared first on Beetle Press.