It’s been a while since I posted an update about the life and sales of my first – and so far, only – travel memoir, Plunge. That post appeared in June 2023; you can read it here.

The idea was to share a bit more news three years in, but I have been extremely busy with our traveling lifestyle and other blog posts, so this one is a few months late. I published Plunge on November 28th, 2020 (on my 45th birthday and in the midst of the Covid pandemic), which is now three years and three months ago.

As you can imagine, not much exciting is happening this far into the shelf life of my (or any) book. Sales are close to non-existent, reviews have pretty much come to a halt, and I am not putting any effort in promotion and marketing anymore. Not because I’m not motivated, but because I have limited time to work and that time is better spent making “real” money.

In July of 2023, the wonderfully supportive and encouraging author Sally Cronin published an excerpt of Plunge on her website Smorgasbord, which gained some traction. I answered the comments and sold a few books as a result.

The biggest and most powerful event in 2023 also took place in July of that year. A CNN article about us, written by Francesca Street for the Chance Encounters series, became very popular and successful. Some of you might have read it – or stumbled upon it – before. You can read that “love story” here. As it was big news at the time, I mentioned the article and reactions previously on my blog here.

Upon my request, Francesca included a link to our blog and – more importantly – my memoir, which jumped off the charts as a result.

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