Zelly Jordan's Blog, page 2

The Weight of Nothing.

Hello and welcome to 2024!

And welcome to February. Any one else feel as if they blinked and January disappeared?

I actually had planned to write this blog earlier in the month but I’ve struggled to get all my words out in the way that I want until now.

For those of you that know me, even a little, you’re probably aware I normally don’t have a problem expressing my feelings but writing this particular blog feels much more personal and revealing. You see, the issue is and always has been that yes I can usually express my feelings but I also gloss over and disguise a lot of them. Many many of them. I’m sure lots of you can relate. I’m a natural carer and confidante and tend to put others feelings before my own, a trick I learnt as a very young child surviving in a chaotic family. It’s also because I genuinely care for others. All my life, people have come to me for advice, to unburden their problems, knowing I will not only listen but that I’m a great secret-keeper. (Another trick/coping tool learnt as a youngster). However, that generally means my own emotions often get suppressed. And they were. It was armour for me in many ways. If that sounds like I had a tough childhood then yes, I did but that’s a story for another blog. (If you ever wanna hear about it, that is).

I wanted this first blog of the year to be a reflective one as I’ve been doing exactly that lately – reflecting on the past couple of years and how much things have changed ever since the craziness that was the pandemic began and how we have travelled along since then. It quite literally shook up the world and as a society, we certainly didn’t bounce back easily from it. As we shouldn’t – the loss of life was horrendous, the side effects confronting and challenging. For myself, it was exactly that and more. I found myself reacting in ways I would never have anticipated – one of which was “Writers Block” so severe that it debilitated my “voice” and self confidence, eventually manifesting in my mind and body. As someone with chronic long term health issues, I didn’t actually recognise what was happening to me until long after my recovery from it. There were just so many issues happening simultaneously that I only had the clarity of mind to focus on one thing at a time. It took hindsight to look back and see that along with the pandemic, there were other events contributing to where I was emotionally, creatively, spiritually and mentally. And the recognition of it all began when a question floated through my mind quietly one day……

What do you do when the weight of nothing outweighs the weight of expectation?

Kind of a “heavy” thought, right?

I don’t mean simply the expectation of others about you but your expectations for yourself?? When “nothing” weighs down on you so heavily and insistently that you feel as though your knees will buckle? When there’s no motivation or inspiration inside and you feel hollowed out? When you’re afraid something in your soul has broken because you used to cry or laugh so easily at TV ads and movies but now you feel nothing? Now you just feel “meh” – disconnected and foggy and somehow missing. It was a truly frightening way to be and I kept it hidden from everyone. Family and friends – no one knew.

No one.

I’ve always said I’m Oscar-worthy.

For the longest time, I blamed it all on a variety of things – the failure of my books to be translated properly (more on that in a moment), being ripped off financially by a book promoter, ongoing health issues that drained all of my energy, the physical pain that is a daily struggle, family issues, etc etc. I dreaded and resented the business side of being an author, the constant promotion that took up so much time and energy, draining any and all joy and fun that writing gave me. I disliked it so intensely that I slowly stopped doing it and I was angry. So very angry – pissed that my hopes for how I’d wanted my writing career to progress had been thwarted; stifled by contract problems and my own inability to break through the brain-mud. I blamed all of these for my emotional turmoil, not realising that yes, it was all those but there was much more to it.

I felt guilty too – I’d let so many people down, people that were waiting for my third book and here I was, struggling to put any words on paper, let alone a chapter or two. The guilt was like a noose around my neck and I felt every inch of its tightening pressure. Sleep was but a memory, my physical body came up with weird ways to be ill and I was praying to all of the Angels and God and the Universe to help me. If you’re thinking this sounds like depression, you’re right. I’ve been clinically depressed for several years now, long before I began any kind of writing. (And that there is a massive admission for me to make to the world. Very few people knew. ) However, this mental place I was now in was new and far different to my normal way of being. Whenever I tried to write, I literally hated what I wrote because it didn’t sound like me, my voice or my way of writing. It felt like a stranger’s and so I just………stopped. It became too much. I quit trying to write and quit trying to nitpick all my issues and let it go.

As my beloved baby-niece’s favourite character, Elsa says…..let it go.

I can’t really pinpoint the specific moment I made the change or even the decision – I just kinda did it. I succumbed to the idea that my author voice was gone and I would leave it to the universe to lead me where it wanted me to go. I went into a sort of mourning, quietly and alone, for “what could have been”. Intellectually I knew the contractual problems were just one part of my sadness. Somewhere deep inside I knew there was more to it. Reading back on some of my previous blog posts now, the excitement and joy I felt at that stage leaps through the page. I was so thrilled whenever I had something new to report, such as my quest for foreign language translations. Oh boy, just the idea of that was mind blowing to me. Little did I know that it would become an exercise in disastrous futility.

I mistakenly and naively thought it would be a simple process. The translation company I had found (they shall remain nameless in this post), made it seem that way. But it was far from simple. I began working with French, Italian, German, Spanish and Portuguese translators and soon found that every submission from them was ridiculously off. Translating is obviously never going to be “word for word exact” but these were coming back to me with a completely different feel to my characters and to their thoughts and words; changing them so drastically as to be unrecognisable which greatly disturbed and offended me. Some translations were laughable and I mean a real LOL. It happened countless times and every time I requested a correction, despite my guidance they still didn’t “get it”. They didn’t understand how I wrote or how my characters should sound. Emails flew back and forth for months and months on end, progressively getting more complicated and frustrating until eventually I had to refuse to work with them anymore as what they’d done was completely unacceptable. Basically I threw my hands in the air in defeat and shoved it all into a dark corner in my life – resigned to the fact that I’d wasted a good couple of years on this project. And worst of all – that I was stuck in a contract with them for the time being. You can imagine my devastation.

However, one language that was salvaged was Portuguese and that’s because I have a beautiful author friend who translated it all for me correctly and retained the feel of my characters and story. She was the only person I trusted with my words. One day, after the contract issues are sorted out with the Company, I am hoping to release this translated version and honour my friend with an acknowledgement of her hard work on my stories. The only way that I was able to honour her in the meantime was to edit her novel when she asked as English is not her first language and mine is. Please do check out her work. (Link: https://a.co/d/9QF3O2Y)

She deserves so much respect and reward for her generosity and effort. She has and always will have my utmost gratitude.

So, that was just one of the situations that dragged me into this awful drudge that masqueraded as my mind during this period. No writing therefore also meant no blogging……I mean, what was I going to blog about? I had no book news to tell, nothing was happening. I was lost and so tired.

Have you ever felt that way in life? It’s ugly and feels like quicksand, like your feet just can’t stay sturdy underneath you. I felt betrayed by my own self. Why was this happening? Yes, loads of things had gone wrong and become stagnant in my writing “career” but where did my old self go? The one that would persevere no matter what, that would get back up if knocked down, even if it was painfully slow? Where did she go?

I couldn’t find her at that point.

Letting go of anything has never been easy for me as I tend to be stubborn and persistent but I did it eventually. My sanity insisted on it.

Then a funny thing happened.

The more I let go, the more answers and solutions came to me. And they came in odd ways – through intense dramatic dreams; through studied focus on other interests and hobbies that suddenly leapt back to life within me. Through relevant information just randomly landing in front of my eyes, as if divinely placed. Through following my instincts. Through analysis. And most profoundly of all – through recognising that all I needed to do was trust the Universe, the Angels and my own intuition – if I followed those, then all will be well.

When I started paying attention to my intuition, it told me I needed to step back and look at the bigger picture of my situation. That I was using the analytical side of myself too much and I needed to go with the flow, to look internally. Even my tarot cards were yelling at me to see things from a new perspective. (The Hanged Man card kept popping up every single time I did a reading).

Thankfully, once I took that advice, several things happened that brought me the clarity I was searching for. My psychiatrist (yes, I have one, sadly) confirmed that my symptoms sounded very much like a side effect to the medication I was on – that it tends to muffle one’s emotions and bring on a kind of fog, as if one is wrapped in a cotton ball. Yikes!! So, coping mechanisms were instigated and it’s making a difference. Still a work in progress but time will heal.

Secondly, through much research and study, I had it confirmed that I was an Empath – something I’ve always “kind of” known about myself but never fully understood. Certainly I didn’t understand how it affected me personally – how the energies around me have a big impact in how I’m feeling. And I didn’t know how to protect myself from that energy. (Learning now and so it’s another work in progress)

Turns out the massive shift in energy that Earth is currently going through is impacting a great many of us humans, including the empaths of the world. And the older I get, the more sensitive I’ve become to it. (I recently discovered there’s a numerological reason for this change in me and it made so much sense when I found out – an enormous relief.)

I’ve always been interested in things of the “other” world such as psychics, tarot, crystals, numerology, dream interpretation, etc, etc and over the years, my own abilities have grown as I’ve studied and allowed my natural intuition to grow. Learning how to unblock it hasn’t been a simple task because I grew up in a family that didn’t really encourage me and my odd ways. I was and still am the Black Sheep of the family…..the one that’s different from the rest…..anyone relate to that? I’m also the middle daughter. And so, I didn’t really consider my interests and instincts to be anything more than a hobby. But I’ve come to realise it’s more than that. It’s who I am and the more I let her out, the better I feel. The more I let her breathe, the freer I feel. Such a pity that I had suppressed her for so long but I now know that’s just how it was meant to go.

Thirdly, from nowhere came this crazy urge to do crafting again. I used to do ceramics class about 30 years ago and the occasional bit of painting here and there but all of a sudden, I found myself doing crafts of all kinds, spurred on by the need to fix a broken vase which then became a need to fix this and create that and oh, let’s paint these rocks and what can I make from a blank piece of wood that was lying uselessly in the garage? It was so odd and came on out of the blue but I was all in and having fun again. I began making all sorts of random things, some far better and prettier than others and it was this that made me realise my creative side was NEEDING to express itself. That I was needing the enjoyment and fun of making something, making anything! I’d been stuck in a Word-Depletion Slump and Negative Energy Sludge for so long that my soul was crying. I needed to find my joy again, to find what makes me happy and it chose to burst out of me in a crafty way (pun intended).

Because that’s who I am. I’m not just a writer who had lost her voice. I was a blogger who wanted to blog about more than my books and characters. I wanted to blog about stuff that happened to me, subjects that interested me. I was a crafter, a painter, a tarot card reader, a numerologist, an empath. A reader, a cat lover, a counsellor, a mother and friend. I was all of those things and much more.

When I began writing my first book, I was told by the publishing company to start a blog and to stick to blogging about books because that’s all that readers would want to know about. I was told to not express controversial opinions of world matters or politics or humanity. To stick to “just book stuff” and leave my personal likes and dislikes out of the public eye. But now I know that advice was wrong. I think people who read my books would want to know more about me and my other interests and opinions, right? Stephen King expresses his opinion all over Twitter and he doesn’t stress about it so why should I? Lol.

Mind you, that’s another thing that contributed to my emotional troubles – the negative impact of excessive social media as a whole. I was paying far too much attention to all the bad stuff going on in the world and it was literally tearing my empathic self to shreds daily. The injustice and cruelty of world events and leaders. The utter BS of certain people in the media spotlight that would rile me up so badly, my stomach would churn. This daily feed of such awful-ness, the sheer unfairness of it all became a poison to my existence and it took a long time to wake up to this fact. Now I limit my exposure to it and I’m far healthier for it. Fair warning though – in future I may express opinions you don’t like but that’s okay….we can’t all be the same.

So, what was the purpose of disclosing all of this to you?

It was to explain where I’d disappeared to and why. It was to reveal myself as the frail human that I am. And it was to showcase that even when you reach the point of letting go, when you reach a spiritual and emotional rock bottom, as I did, that you can still work your way out of that hard place. Whether it’s through gritting your teeth and forcing your way back or whether it’s doing an Elsa and letting it go, leaving it to the Universe and the Angels to lead you where you should go or whether it’s some other way – just go with it. Because there is a path out of the quagmire. There are reasons why you feel the way you do and eventually, with some time, understanding and trust, all will be revealed to you and you can move on. It’s also to encourage you to honour all sides of your self, to let them out and be free.

So here I am, 2024 has begun and I’m ready for the change in me to continue its seismic shaking. I’m ready to say that yes, I will be continuing my Unbreakable Series but I’m also doing more than that and if any of you are interested in discovering the other sides of me , do let me know…..maybe I can incorporate some of that here. I’m not entirely sure how so I’m open to ideas and suggestions.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking I’m way overdue to run another Giveaway……what you think, guys?

Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Much love,

Zelly

PS. For those wondering about the painted rocks and wooden board ….. here’s a couple of the crafty things I’ve been making……

My wishes for you…..

Every year we say the year has just flown by and every year it’s true. Yet somehow, it speeds up more as you get older – a very unfair state of affairs in my opinion. Here we are, the end of 2023 approaching like a freight train and so, my message this year to you all is this…..

With all my

(Yes, my blogging hiatus may just be over…….)

Merry Christmas !!

Zelly309

I Didn’t Mean To………..

…….skip a whole damn year! Honestly, I didn’t. I simply looked up and boom, there it was!

Hello all.

How are you? I hope you’ve been well and happy and maybe even missing me a little. I know I’ve missed interacting with you.

I won’t bore you with all the details of what went on this year, at least not in one post. There’s much that happened that definitely needs discussing amongst us but for now, here’s some basics…..

I started off this year by getting covid. In fact my whole family got it simultaneously and most of us weren’t even in contact with each other beforehand! I would have been safe from it had my son not brought it home from a football game and shared it with me. It’s just he and I in our house and with both of us so sick and miserable, the whole house fell apart. ‘Twas a mess in every way. He bounced back in a reasonable time frame (the benefit of youth, probably) but me……It took months to regain my strength and balance. Nasty business, that virus.

And now, I’ve finished off the year with a new medical diagnosis that I have to deal with; one that’s causing some confusion as to how to treat it while simultaneously explaining the past twelve months symptoms. The good thing is that I finally have an explanation as to why I was feeling the way I did. I wasn’t going crazy – there was a reason I was not “quite right”. Of course, in many ways, knowing is better than not knowing and in that respect, I’m glad to know…….I think.

In between these two momentous happenings were a bunch of great and not so great events, making for a challenging year that I’ll be happy to see the end of. You know that saying, the one about the best laid plans? Yeah, all my plans for this year went flying out the window last January. Can anyone relate?

Anyway, I’ll talk about these things in future posts. What finally broke my Ginormous Blogging Draught was this picture…….

It sums up everything so so perfectly and makes me giggle a bit. Only………guys, please DO follow the suggestions. . Please.

There’ll be changes in my future and in my website, so do watch out for them next year.

Meanwhile, it’s Christmas and I have loads of wishes for you all……

As always, lots of love and Season’s Greetings.

Zelly

My 2021 wish

Hey all,

It’s Christmas Eve Day, mid afternoon and here I sit with a coffee, swollen eyes and a snuffly nose. Why? Because I attended a funeral today. Yep, on Christmas Eve. Awful timing, yes but a very poignant reminder of the fragility of life.

You see, this passing was of a lovely man who lived his life full of joy and love, who brightened his surroundings wherever he went. The kindest of men, generous to a fault and always, always smiling. Struck by a cruel disease and taken in the space of three months from his diagnosis.

A month ago, I attended the funeral of a beautiful little Warrior Princess, a sweet 10 year old girl who bravely battled cancer for half her short life. And some of my most dearest friends have had to deal with critical health issues and sudden deaths as well.

To say that I’ve been sad lately is putting it mildly.

Awful things happened earlier in the year for my family too which I’ve touched on in previous blogs.

All in all, 2021 was ………. (&$#@*’%) not kind.

I saw this little meme online and it perfectly summed up how I’ve been feeling……

Now, I didn’t bring up these things to make everyone sad……it was to justify the alcohol I’m going to consume tonight…(just one glass of something to end a yucky day – I don’t drink and so one glass is enough to make me very tipsy [image error]). But I’m going to raise that glass high in honour of a lovely man gone too soon and in appreciation of all the things that I’m grateful for.

That’s the real reason I brought up these sad details…..to recognise and verbalise just how damn lucky and grateful I am to have the life I have. I’m not perfectly healthy, in fact I have many health problems. I’m not wealthy but I’m not on the streets living it hard. I’m not a party goer anymore but I have so many beautiful friends and family around me, physically and digitally that I am never truly alone, that I can reach out to, anytime I need. I’m not young anymore but I’m not old either – I’ve lived a life, had the chance to live a good life honourably and I’ve been blessed.

To watch helplessly as others so much younger than me have had to fight for their very existence is difficult. Life can be so cruel sometimes but it can also inspire us to appreciate what we have and to do better.

2021 arrived with so much expectation after a rotten 2020 but it let us down in many ways and the world is still fighting to regain its balance.

Let us all do all that we can to be kind to each other, to our communities and to our planet. Yes, we are tired but we can gather our strength and raise our hearts in hope for a brighter, healthier, kinder 2022.

So my message to you all, friends, followers and readers, is this……..

Thank you for being with me this year, thank you for your ongoing support and belief – you will never know how much it’s meant to me.

Merry Christmas, Season’s Blessings and much love,

Zelly

Did You Win ??

Hey everybody,

How are you all? I hope you’re happy and healthy wherever you are.

It’s been a busy few days here – lots of family birthdays In September/October, lots of other more sad life events but we Melbourne folk are out of lockdown finally (again) and it feels good especially now that the weather is turning into Spring.

Naturally my hairdresser was booked in ASAP. (Covid is very cruel to our grooming needs, isn’t it?) Next to be booked is the gardener. I know, I know, that sounds fancy, doesn’t it? – me having a gardener. But believe me it’s the better option as I have a Black Thumb…. I usually kill off plants and such with my complete lack of greenery knowledge and overzealous watering so the yard is in much safer hands with a professional. Plus my knees can’t stand the pain.

Once both me and the garden are trimmed, defluffed and spruced up, I’ll feel more like myself instead of the hibernating grouchy bear I’m looking like these days….….it ain’t pretty. Lol.

Meanwhile, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that my latest Giveaway has ended and joy of joys, there were so many new entrants!Thankyou so very much! I’m immensely grateful. Today, I’ve finally had the chance to do the draw. Yay!

So here we go…… (cranks up the Random Number Generator)**

The First Prize Winner of your choice of book in the Unbreakable Series is………….drumroll

Louise Vlatko of West Tamworth, NSW, Australia woohooo!

Second Prize Winner of a Zelly Jordan Tote Bag, designed by me is………..

Burma Turner of Jenkins, Kentucky, USA. yay

And finally, the Third Prize winner of $5 USD Amazon Giftcard is……….

Eduardo Reyes of Westminster, CA, USA horrahhhhh!!!

Congratulations to all of you gorgeous people on your wins! I truly hope you’ll enjoy them and may I say a big thank you to everyone on my email list for their ongoing support and for entering my Competitions….I truly appreciate it and love the fun and thrill of giving things away. Thank you so much.

Now, can the winners please get in touch with me so we can organise your prizes?

And that’s it for this one…..

See you soon!

Much love, as always,

Zelly

Giveaway Comp.

Have you entered my latest giveaway? Hurry and grab your chance before it closes!

https://zellyjordan.com/2021/10/01/hi...

Surprise! I’m taking over!

Hey all,

I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be part of a FB Author Page Takeover Event for the very first time!

Be sure to join in the fun and games…there’ll be giveaways, prizes, quizzes and more. Click the below link for Event details and book it in!

For my Aussie people, the time listed is in USA time….so I’m on at 11.00am SUNDAY 10.10.21. (Melbourne/Sydney time.) But join us at the start (10am and get to know all of us romantic authors.

Share the news and invite your friends! Let’s make this a success for everyone involved.

See you there.

Zelly Jordan

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1006797003083680

Hip Hip Hooray, Let’s Give It Away!

Hey Everyone,

By the time you read this, it’s either my birthday or it’s the day after. And as I mentioned in my last post, Lockdown #6 here means I can’t go anywhere to celebrate so I’m gonna party by giving stuff away. Why not, right?

How old am I turning?

Not telling but suffice to say that I could have held my second 21st birthday bash but not my third……

So, I’ve had a little think of what I’d like to do and this is how it’s gonna be…….

Easy Peasy rules, so get entering for your chance to win one of these great prizes.

For now, I’m gonna get one last piece of birthday cake…… I can’t let it sit much longer in the fridge now can I? Poor thing might start to dry out in a few days…

Talk soon, my dear readers.

As always, much love,

Zelly

It’s Been How Long ???

Hello all,

I hope you have been well, happy, healthy and sane?

I had a bit of a shock when I saw how long it’s been since I last blogged. Honestly, I had no idea! I hope you didn’t think I had disappeared altogether – I hadn’t but I was going through some real life stuff, some of which I discuss on Kyle Canon’s podcast (link below).

Like all of us in this mad, mad world, I have battles and challenges to face, responsibilities, things to do, health and family stuff to contend with and not enough time (and brainpower sometimes) in which to do it all.

I bet there’s dozens of you nodding your head in avid agreement right now.

Anyhow……the lovely Kyle Canon, Author and Podcaster Extraordinaire, was kind enough to invite me back to his show for a chat and I must say, it was great to catch up and to meet his charming wife this time. It felt good to be able to discuss some of what life has been like lately and how it’s impacted mine and others creativity. This impact was one of the things distracting me from blogging and time simply got away from me.

You see, my home town is currently going through Lockdown #6 and this one has been particularly difficult to deal with. Last year’s multiple lockdowns and even the earlier ones of 2021 were easier in comparison. This time around, it all seemed so much more intense. People in general were moodier, more argumentative and combative than previous times. The longer the lockdown has continued, the greater the frustration. Hence societal tension has been at a level I’ve never seen or felt before.

I tend to be empathic to vibes and atmosphere and seeing my beautiful Melbournian people become so disheartened and frustrated has been very disconcerting. I absolutely do understand how people can feel this way – it’s difficult living a Ground Hog existence in lockdown – but I can NOT understand people’s need to categorise everything into an us/them mentality – a left/right, anti/pro stance where no commonsense logic or compassion is shown or given.

Such lack of empathy and harsh disregard for others’ viewpoint became like an ever-tightening noose around my neck and I found myself slowly sinking in the collective negativity. It was and is literally everywhere – in conversations with strangers and loved ones alike, on the news, on the radio and splashed all over social media. You can’t avoid it. The commentary online has been particularly vicious worldwide; completely devoid of any sort of basic decency or manners. The UGLY in people has seeped everywhere as ideologies butt heads and refuse to listen to one another. It’s as if we’ve lost any sense of unity, of communal good and betterment for all. Worst of all, our willingness to understand each other. And this, of course, is just one issue the world is dealing with right now, let alone the more tragic aspects of the pandemic.

It’s all simply…….too much.

Know what I mean? So many are suffering and the weight of it seemed to smother me in to some weird headspace for the longest time. And it built gradually, over months, quietly and sneakily until I finally realised what was happening.

If this sounds looney, believe me, for a while there, I thought I was losing the plot. (An author’s pun, lol). And I would never have predicted that I would react in this way but I figure it’s the accumulation of several years of world-insanity that finally got to me. I mean, all this negativity and destruction of our “normals” over the last several years – it has to get to you after a while, doesn’t it? We’re only human after all and although it affects each of us differently, I don’t think many of us can escape its wretched little claws for long.

Thankfully, I realised what was happening and started working on it (with loads and loads of meditation and mantras) and this weird creative funk I was in is dying off. Hallelujah

However, it means that I have a helluva lot of revision and edits to do as everything I wrote during this time just isn’t up to my standards, such as they are. Frankly, I was quite dismayed at what I’d been writing….so completely not me and none of it ringing true to my tone and style of writing. My characters became something they weren’t supposed to be, doing things that they shouldn’t be and in my honest opinion, a big portion of it was drivel.

It’s actually very annoying how much time was wasted on these works yet……. what can one do? Chalk it all up as experience, right? A strange reaction to the current strangeness of the world. So, I poured myself a stiff drink (a couple of times) had a big ole whinge, pulled on my Big Girl Pants and told myself to suck it up and get on with it.

Therefore, my dear dear readers, because you guys have been so patient and I’m feeling more like my old self – let’s do a Giveaway! Its been awhile since my last one and I like giving stuff away.

I’ve yet to put all the details together and come up with the rules etc but I’ll announce it all in my next blog post. We’ll call it My Birthday Giveaway because that’s coming up in three/four days and since I can’t go anywhere to celebrate, may as well celebrate by giving stuff away, right?

Remember though that to be in my Giveaways, you have to be signed up for email notifications (so I have a way of contacting you if you win.)

What – besides books or Amazon vouchers – would you like to see as prizes? Drop me some ideas in the comments section, please. Maybe something from my Redbubble store…(see my merchandise store tab on my home page or go here…. http://www.redbubble.com/people/zelly309 )

Speaking of which, Redbubble have made caps available! Check out a couple of my designs on them – they look great, don’t you think? And even though I generally don’t wear hats because I look odd in them (too much hair/big fat head/something) I’ve already bought my cap and I’ve even worn it around the house, training myself to get used to “hat hair”. So far, it’s not going well – it’s not a good look for me, sadly. Lol.

Okay….enough for now….I’ll be back in a couple of days with some competition details. Meanwhile, make sure you’re entered and please do listen to the podcast. You might enjoy it.

Much love

Zelly309

It’s here! It’s here!

Hey all,

I’m so excited! Really really excited!

I did it! I’ve opened up the Zelly Jordan merchandise store!!

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I’ve been working hard on getting my very own store set up, stocked up and ready for business. The last couple of weeks have been a real learning curve as there has been many tasks involved that I had absolutely no idea how to do, being as digitally challenged as I am. But thank the Lord, I had my extraordinary, talented and generous friend Kelly helping me along the way and because of her, not only was I able to set up some of my own self-designed artwork but she created and conceptualised others with me. The wonderful thing about Kelly is that she “gets” me….she gets my vibe and instinctively knows what I want and how to put it together on a digital platform. She’s actually done this many times over the years of our friendship. In fact, it’s kind of uncanny how well she knows my mind when it comes to creating visual things for my stories. She’s magical that way.

Truly, I could never thank her enough for all her assistance. She was the Master, the Sensei and I was the grateful and eager-eyed student. I also was fortunate to have the help of my beautiful son who did many of the trickier digital tasks I just couldn’t wrap my head around, let alone my keyboard. So with the help of my amazing assistants, I’m now ready to declare the Zelly Jordan Shop…….OPEN!

Hoorah!

Http://www.Redbubble.com/people/zelly309

Redbubble.com is an international company that was born right here in my home town of Melbourne and operates worldwide. They provide a variety of items available for artists to put their original works onto and make available to customers from all corners of the globe. Click above and it will take you directly to my store.

Go ahead…..explore!

For those of you not familiar with RedBubble, take a look around their site and when you click onto my shop you’ll see that (so far) I have seven designs. However, each of those designs has anywhere between 20-50 different products with that one design! So….multiply that by 7 and there’s lots and lots of items to see! There’s even more that I plan to design and put up for sale very soon but I figure there was enough there at the moment to declare myself stocked and ready to go.

Note – if there’s ever a specific design that you’d like to own on a specific item that I haven’t made available, don’t hesitate to ask me about it. Requests and suggestions are ALWAYS welcome! Of course, as I add more designs, I’ll make announcements so don’t forget to sign yourself to my email notification list so you can be kept up to date.

Having my own merchandise was never something I ever considered or dreamt about, I must admit. But ever since I began writing fanfics and novels, it’s something that many people asked me about. And as you know, a couple of months ago I started to look into it but got sidetracked with some health dramas. But, it’s done! Yippee!

I’m so proud and thrilled to show off this new creative endeavour and would like to thank my co-conspirators Kelly and Rick from the depths of my heart. You guys rock!

I hope you like them as much as I do.

Happy Shopping!

As always, much love,

Zelly