So… I sort of vanished from the face of the earth (read: blog) there for a bit. Oops? I didn’t mean to, but I was hit fairly hard with a bit of a depression and it took me a bit of time to dig myself out of that hole. Some things I still managed to do (a fair bit of writing), but other things sort of fell by the wayside. This blog being one of them. I’d like to keep writing here though, it’s my own private corner of the web. I have an author site, but I try to keep that semi-professional, so this is where I can just be me and whine as much as I like. Or be as weird as I like. You know… all the fun things in life.

So, what’s happened so far this year, since the last time I wrote was… apparently in January. Let’s just make a list…

PitMad/Querying

The full request I had ended up being a rejection, which I was kind of expecting. I’m still pretty happy having had a full request at all, so I still count it as a win. I’ve sent out a handful of other queries, one of which was a full request from an online publisher. It came back as a rejection, but with a revise and resubmit if I make certain changes/improvements. I’m still debating whether I want to try resubmitting after making some of those changes. I’ve not done PitMad again since. I think after these rejections, there are a few things I need to revise in the book before I feel like it’s worthy of another round (or even self-publishing).

Writing

I’m behind on my yearly goal of hitting 240k words for 2021, but I’m not doing terribly, and should at least easily beat my 2020 number. I’m currently at 94k for the year. I have too many ideas currently and I’m struggling to prioritise. There are stories I want to expand and revise, others that need edits, and new stories that demand to be written. I need a lot more free hours in the day…

I entered Wattpad’s Open Novella Contest and made it to the Longlist with an entry titled Cupid Falling. For being my first ever contemporary, written in first person, I think that result is pretty decent. I started another two novellas for the contest, but with time constraints I had to abandon them. I’m currently trying to finish one, while I will eventually go back to the other, which will likely turn into a novel.

I want to start the rewrite of my Fantasy Romance: Bowstrings & Velvet, but I also need to write the next book in the Spellbound series. And the third book in the Howerty series (my current WIP), and finish the novella. As if that’s not enough, I’m being pestered with ideas for a paranormal romance that won’t leave me alone.

Other

We sadly lost my grandmother in February, and it was devastating. She was such a large part of my life, and lockdowns and the pandemic making it impossible for me to go home to see her to say goodbye, or even attend the funeral was hard. It definitely didn’t help my depression. She was the one I used to talk to when I felt down, so losing her felt extra difficult at the time. (Though I can’t imagine it would ever be easy.) She was my extra mum. My rock. I still can’t even write about it without tearing up.

Yesterday, I finally booked a flight back home for July. I’m both excited and terrified. The pandemic is still going on, even if the numbers are “decent-ish” at the moment. But there’s the new “Delta Variant” to worry about, as numbers are rising again. I can only hope it will still be “relatively safe” to fly in July and that we’re not plunged into another lockdown and all flights cancelled. I haven’t seen my family back home since November 2019 now, and that’s a long time. The last time they saw the Tiny Tyrant she was just over 1,5 years old, and now she’s over 3. That’s a huge difference at that age.

I feel like more must have happened since January, but nothing comes to mind. Oh, the Tiny Tyrant has started preschool a few hours as week. She hated it at first, but is finally starting to enjoy it. It gives me a little bit of free time to try to get some stuff done. (Like writing blog posts!)