Shari & I are back from LibertyCon, and boy, are my arms tired!
Mostly from shaking hands and giving hugs, but still…
There’s a lot to unpack from this year. For the first time, I was primarily there for Raconteur Press, not myself. On top of that, I split time between LibertyCon and the Chattanooga Homeschool Expo, which was going on in the same space at the same time.
Why? Priorities. The Boy’s Adventure Books line from Rac Press is doing well, and it has the chance to do SO. MUCH. BETTER. Connecting with homeschool organizations this weekend was a hugs part of my focus. It went tremendously well, and I’m looking forward to following up with all the people I got to meet there in the weeks to come.
In fact, priorities was the theme of the whole con for me. I only had so much time this weekend, and an amazing plate of things I wanted to do. I didn’t get all of them done, but that’s life. (Someone did send me an email calling me a jerk, which is one of the nicest things that anyone has ever done for me. I definitely need to tell you that story later, because it still makes me grin. :)
On the drive home, as I was thinking about the con and talking over the weekend’s events with Shari, I realized that isn’t just a trite saying. It is life. I may ramble on about “top three priorities” and “the purpose of an organization is what it does” in another post. For now, know that a few years ago, I came back from LC with a new set of priorities; ones that led to me becoming a professional writer. I’m coming back this year with some adjustments, ones that I hope will help me become a more successful writer.
Top of the list: I deleted a bunch of social media apps off my phone this morning. I promised myself that I would do that I soon as I got home from the conference. Time wasters, all of them. Over the past year, I found myself “relaxing” at the end of the day by doom-scrolling memes and media. That’s time when I could be reading real books, either for entertainment or education. So those apps get the heave-ho and I get that time back to be human.
Don’t worry, I am still going to maintain a presence on a wide variety platforms. It’s just that many of them are going to become (effectively) write-only, with two exceptions. I’m moving my primary interactions over to Substack and X.
If you want to keep up with me, subscribe to my newsletter; and if you want to chat with me about Life, the Universe, and Everything—especially the silly things—then follow me on X.
There’s a few other things that I’ll talk about over the next few weeks. Those pesky “top three priorities”, like I said. I want to focus more on my overall goals: my writing, my health, and helping to build up others (or, when needed, kicking certain people in the teeth). Not necessarily always in that order, mind you…
That’s enough mental meanderings for a Monday morning, though. Have some late memes to start your week.
It was a pleasure meeting you at the con and thank you for the book.
Libertycon looks pretty cool. Can you give me a link to your newsletter? I loved to sign up for it.