Ron Vitale's Blog

In 2025, I didn’t have a lot of time to work on my writing career, but I did try a few experiments that I thought would be helpful to share with others. With a major health event with a close family member and the passing away of another, I chose to focus on family and my full-time job in 2025.

Still, I did finish writing a book that will launch in January 2026, and I did keep up with my Substack newsletters.

2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2018 | 2011-2017 wrap up extravaganza | 2...

I almost didn’t do a 2024 wrap up because of how poorly I did this year. But I changed my mind as I thought it would give me an opportunity to set my 2025 goals and also help others.

If you’re new to my year-end wrap ups, I invite you to go through all my past ones. It’s a lot of reading, but you’ll see all my ups and downs over the last 13 years.

2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2018 | 2011-2017 wrap up extravaganza | 2016

Before I begin, here’s a little bit about me: I’m not a full-time...

I think 2023 can be best summed up as the year I decided to quit. Back in 2021, I read Becca Syme’s “Dear Writer, You Need to Quit” and I didn’t put much weight into her book when I first read it, but that all changed in 2023.

After more than twelve years of trying to earn a living as a self-published author, I knew that I needed to change. I had lost more money than I had earned and felt burned out.

Something had to go.

In this year’s wrap up, I’ll share not only what I spent and earned, but the d...

I had a hard year. I broke my hand in a bad biking accident back in the summer and it took me months to bounce back. On the positive side, I did write one fiction novel and started a non-fiction podcast (more on that in a bit).

And I learned how fickle cryptocurrency is and how amazing AI has become (note the present tense—there’s no “will become” anymore. Tools like ChatGPT are game changers).

If you’re new to my wrap-ups, I’ll breakdown what I spent on indie publishing and how much I’ve earned a...

I first heard about Alexandra Fasulo on the Traveling with Kristin podcast. In her interview, Fasulo talked about how she earned $378K per year as a Fiverr freelancer. I enjoyed the pod...

Cinderella sat down at the table and leaned back in the rickety wooden chair.

The middle-aged hostess placed a wooden cup on the table and asked, “Would you like some water?”

“Yes, please.” Cinderella wrapped her hands around the cup and held it tightly.

“You want me to put in an order for some food for you?” The hostess leaned in closer and lowered her voice. “You look tired and hungry.”

“I look that bad?” Cinderella pulled her hair to the side and tried to ignore the gray hair she saw.

“No, I didn’...

I sat there in the dark and listened to the sound of my own breathing. How did I get here? 

I dared not turn my head toward him. I only wanted the moment to last forever. The two of us sat on a stone bench, with the beauty of the garden all around us.

My hand rested on the bench and I closed my eyes.

The intoxicating scent of night blooming jasmine filled my senses. 

All I needed to do was to reach out to him, put my hand on his, and that would signal my desire. But I waited. 

My fears rose up a...

So, is Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series worth watching?

An astounding yes!

The visuals, music, and acting alone pull you into the story. But, like Tolkien, The Rings of Power takes its time to develop the story, set the stage, and draw the characters across an expansive Middle-earth. If you’re looking to compare The Rings of Power to Game of Throne or the new House of Dragons series, I would caution against such a comparison.

The writers behind each of those source materia...

Elle put the glowing glass shoes down and lurched forward to give her faerie godmother a big hug. “You came to help me!”

“Of course, I came.” She pulled Elle into a warm embrace and kissed her on the top of her head. “I wasn’t going to abandon you when you needed me the most.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Elle held onto her faerie godmother for dear life. “What am I going to do?”

“I need more info from you than that.” Her faerie godmother released Elle and sat down on the closed toilet lid. S...

She plopped herself down on her chair and tossed her phone across the room and it landed on the down comforter on her bed. Then she kicked off her shoes and let her hair out of the bun and covered her face. She took a breath, slowly counting to four, then held the air in for another four seconds, and then exhaled from her mouth for eight seconds.

The breathing wouldn’t make what happened go away, but she needed a way to calm down. Something had to help and better breathing than doing something st...