Maybe April Isn't the Cruelest Month?

 

Apologies to those of you who thought you'd gotten rid of me, here I am again! But this will (I hope) be a short post. It's just that my last update came at a time when I was feeling a bit discouraged, and in retrospect it doesn't feel like a great way to wander off.

So I had a couple of great things happen last month. And I hope I'm not the only one? I'd love to hear if there's something in the air, some ethereal springtime sprinkling of hope and promise, or if April was just as shitty as any other month in 2026 for you all. Hoping it's the former.

So what were the two great things?

 

Thing 1: The launch of Niccolo Would Like a Word actually went really well!

The problem was, I have all the patience of a toddler at 5 am on Christmas morning. So I felt dejected when potential readers didn't instantly snap up copies, read them in a few days, and leave stellar ratings and reviews so that new readers could find the book.

But with a little bit of perspective, looking back now that it's been a bit over a month, I realized that initial sales have actually been quite robust! Some statistic I read on threads (she said with her usual scientific rigor) said that book sales of Niccolo Would Like a Word have already exceeded what the vast majority of indie authors ever get over the lifetime of their books.

Is that statistic correct? Who cares, it made me feel better! It is not a hugely impressive number, which is why I'm not sharing it, but the philosphy of this blog has always been: set a super low bar as your goal, then feel pleased with yourself when you clear it! 

So it seems that a lot of really wonderful people in my life went out and forked over their own hard-earned cash just to be nice to me. And some of these people even read the book and left kind reviews, or rated it with an encouraging amount of stars, or arm-twisted their friends to buy copies. So now my novel has at least the same infintesimal chance of recouping its costs as most other books written by newbies! 

I've also met a few of other indie authors along the way who have been great to commiserate with, including a very fun new friend, more seasoned than I, who is offering me a tremendous amount of help. Not something I expected at all. 

So I've gone from feeling mopey and impatient to feeling quite pleased, and ready to get back to writing the next one. THANK YOU SO MUCH to all who have purchased, rated, or encouraged me in any way. 

And also, thanks to anyone who still shows up here! You don't have to buy anything for me to appreciate you. I especially love hearing how you're all doing. Some of you even signed up for my mailing list at Jan-Graham.com! I will try to consolidate both blog and website lists so you don't have to get double of the emails I will be too lazy to send out.

Thing 2: I got insurance approval for the insanely expensive drug I need to replace my nonfunctioning parathyroid glands!

I don't really understand it. My Wellcare Part D drug plan costs about $7 a month, already gives me several free Rx's, and yet they approved me right away for a drug that can run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The only thing that's been slowing me down is my endocrinologist, one of the few who deals with my rare disease. She's all onboard, but has been pretty shitty so far at the paperwork aspect. However, she's a lovely person and we're finally getting there. I start my injections next week.

Now normally I'd prattle on for another thousand words or so about nothing in particular, but damn it, I'm going to resist the temptation and just ask anyone who's still hanging around here:

Was April cruel or kind to you this year? And how's May going?