Getting back into the swing of working a day job again and still working on my art and writing is still something that I am struggling to learn to balance. Let's face it, working with the public can suck the soul right out of you at times, which certainly makes it hard to come home and get the creative juices flowing. Seriously, I sometimes wonder why some people are so darn cranky all the time? Hello, my husband and I had a hard 2016 and so far 2017 has not been any better, yet I don't go around taking it out on people who work in customer service. But I digress...
Sadly this month has not been as productive as I would like on the writing front. But I am through two rounds of edits on Love and Wisdom, Gods Behaving Badly Book 5, which will be out on February 28! I am also working on Book 6 and the sequel to Quest for Redemption at the same time. I am slowly starting to feel some of my passion coming back into my writing and art. My day job is to pay some bills, but writing and art are for my soul and that is what I need to remember when the day job gets me down and all I want to do when I get home is crawl in bed and binge watch Bob's Burgers or something that maybe I should start writing and let my soul sing a little. Hopefully that will help keep me motivated and make next month a much better month of writing!
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Book Five of my Gods Behaving Badly Series, Love and Wisdom, is off with my editor and will be out in mid-late February (release date coming soon, so stayed tuned) and I am thrilled to be getting back to this series. So I thought that I would share the brand new cover with you! Meet Athena and Janine!
This past week has been a rather tough one, but despite a lot of things going on I am sticking to my goal of getting back to art and jewelry. I finished a pair of earrings for a client and a painting for my dear hubby. Not a lot of output, but its a start! At least I am back to making art!
I have been going through a lot lately, much of which that I am not going to talk about at this moment, but trust me it has been a trying time of late. I have been filled with anxiety, which has led to a almost crippling depression. I still have to go to the day job and smile and be nice to people, even when cranky and rude people are yelling at me when I can't change anything and when they know I am not the manager. Last week one man came to yell at me no less than 5 times even after talking to the actual manager. Apparently it made him feel better to yell at someone over and over again, but it took everything inside of me not to crack right then and there. He was yelling about a movie. I am dealing with life and death in my personal life and I had to smile at a jerk like that. Yeah, that day at work made everything worse. Now I have spiraled into a feeling a despair. Writing and editing need to be done, but my mind doesn't want to focus. I don't want to get out of bed and pretend to be normal and happy. I just want to cry and never see anyone again. That is the reality behind depression. But I am good at pretending and no one really knows how I feel most of the time.
Why am I writing this? I don't know. Maybe I need a release. Maybe I want to help show others feeling the same way that they are not alone. I don't know, but this is a theme that I think that I will be writing about more this year. Let's see if it helps. As I feel right now I don't think that it can make me feel any worse. Book 5 of my Gods Behaving Badly series, Love and Wisdom, is off to the editor for a hopeful release next month, so I am continuing to catch you up on the series should you have missed any of story! Stealing Hearts, Gods Behaving Badly Book Three sees the return of Sophia, the former goddess of love herself, and her hot NYPD Detective Bruce Stoker. They are in a new city and new characters are expanding the world of the gods, but not to worry, the steaminess between Sophia and Bruce is still there! Stealing Hearts is only .99 cents and free on Kindle Unlimited.
Link: http://a.co/7QYYuwu In the effort to find balance for everything in my life, I am now turning to getting my art groove back on. I am slowly getting the hang of working the day job, handling the house, writing work, and getting back to exercise. Now for art. I always feel better when I am working on art on a consistent basis, so why is it always so hard to find time for the process of art? I don't know but I am working on it.
I also have another problem when I do find time to do art. I never know what I should sketch or paint. Okay I sometimes know, but other times I am stuck and so I do something else while waiting for inspiration and there goes my art time. You can help me here if you like. If you would like to see me sketch or paint something, just let me know and I will post the final results. And remember that I do commission work as well. Next week I hope to be posting some of my latest works! Stayed tuned! I am super thrilled to announce that my short Summer Interrupted took fifth place in the All Other Short Stories category on the P&E Readers Poll! Woot! Thanks guys. Writing is a lonely business and to know that there are readers out there who appreciate my writing means so much to me! Thank you to all those who voted for me. I also want to give a shout out to my friend and fellow author, Torie James, who took first place in the same category! You go girl!!
So I had major surgery three months ago that have left me with cut abdominal muscles and instructions not to exercise, other than walking, for three months. Well guess what? My three months is over today and I can now truly work on getting back in shape! I have already started some thanks to my brother giving me his old fitbit. I am working hard to make sure I hit the 10,000 steps a day mark as often as I can. The fact that I walk a lot a work helps me here quite a bit. As it is starting to stay lighter outside once more I think that I will take walking a bit farther and start walking home from work more often. I think it is a nice way to fit in some cardio walking. But what I am most excited about is being able to do yoga again! I have missed yoga and I think that it is a gentle way to start building my abdominal muscles back up! Plus it is such a major stress reliever for me. I have been missing my yoga time dearly these past three months.
Now that I can exercise again, it's also time to take my diet a bit more seriously once more. Both my husband and I have been lax of late on our diet, but I need to get serious about my health and diet is a huge part of that! More cooking at home, more attention to healthy meals, more exercise. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me! Excited to start the journey once more to a healthy lifestyle! This year I am committed to reading more and doing more book reviews. I know some indie authors might get mad when I review non-indie books, but hey I read both so why not review both right? I just finished reading The Fireman from Joe Hill. It's a post-apocalyptic tale of a disease that threatens to destroy all of mankind. For those of you who don't know, Joe Hill is Stephen King's son and I see this book as his intentional homage to his father's The Stand. While it is not quite as good as the The Stand, The Fireman is a good and intense read. Get a look at both the good and bad of human nature in this book. It is a long read and a little slow in a couple of places, but still a great read with touches of the author's humor in it. I give it 4.5/5 stars. I really like Joe Hill as an author and look forward to more from him soon. Not that Joe Hill needs my help promoting, but if you are interested in The Fireman, you can buy it on Amazon or at almost any bookstore! One of the perks of working a day job again is being able to go to the movies a lot more often. I forgot how much I love going to the movies and how inspiring a different art form can be on my own creative endeavors. In the past couple of week my husband and I have finally been able to catch up on some big movies, like Rogue One and Fantastic Beasts (yes, we were very late seeing both). We also just went to watch A Monster Calls. All three movies inspired me with their story telling and interweaving of characterization. Fantastic beasts inspired my wonder of things around me, something that can really come across in writing. A Monster Calls inspired me not only to think of story telling outside of the box, but how stories impact our lives. On a side note it was visually so pleasing that it also inspired me to get back to my art, but that is another post coming up this week.
So back to writing inspiration, it's great to allow other forms of art and creativity to inspire you. Movies are just another medium of story telling and I think can help you add more visual cues to your writing. Books inspire other books. Non-fiction books can inspire fiction. Poetry and painting can inspire feelings that make their way into novels. All art is inspirational and I am glad that I am getting back to be inspired! What inspires you in your own creative endeavors or just in life in general? |
AuthorAuthor, artist, jewelry maker and all around creative person. I write in many genres and have a lot of fun doing so. Please take a look around and enjoy! Archives
January 2022
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