Zelly Jordan's Blog, page 3

Eventually I laughed…….

Hey all,

Hope you’ve been well. If it seems like it’s been awhile since I blogged, then you’re right…..it’s been ages! I do apologise for that and hope you missed me just a smidgeon.

It’s been an eventful couple of months I must say. After my last post, I got sick. Very sick. Unfortunately I came down with a chest infection, the likes of which I hadn’t suffered from for many many years. My doctor was quite concerned but once we eliminated Covid, (despite having many of the symptoms), the diagnosis was a bad chest infection and low grade fever. Through various tests we discovered that I was also critically low in iron and vitamin D. In fact the doctor said he’d never seen a patient with a zero in vitamin D in their blood test result.

A zero!!

Now, admittedly I do spend a lot of time indoors and live like a hibernating bear most of the time, but zero?! No good, said the doctor with a sad and emphatic shake of his head. No wonder I was so sick and completely exhausted. All I wanted to do was sleep but the elephant sitting on my chest squashing my lungs wouldn’t let me. Then, to make matters worse, while this was happening, I had sharp, throbbing pain begin shooting through my left hand, continuing relentlessly for several days and not simply restricting my movements but preventing any at all.

Now what? ‍

One CT scan and one X-ray later and we have the diagnosis that the arthritis I have in both knees and shoulders has now spread to my left hand.

Yay me

For a writer, this was bitter news and I didn’t take to it well. In fact, in complete honesty, I was pretty pissed off.

So, long short short, I was out of action for several weeks. With the many new meds the doc put me on to deal with these issues, it took a little while to get well enough to the point where I didn’t feel like a truck had gleefully reversed six times over my supine arthritic body. And tooted his horn as he did so. But, it took a even longer to get out of my own head which was full of “woe is me” and “I only have one arthritis-free limb left”…. Have I told you before that I can be my own worst enemy? Seriously, I was ridiculously deep in my overblown melancholy – can any of you relate? It was only as I started to get some energy back and the pain meds kicked in (hoorah ) that I seemed to regain my mental balance. Definitely the lack of iron and vitamin D affected my mood in ways I never knew it could. I think I once read something somewhere about vitamin D being a mood enhancer? Or was that chocolate?

So now….new and extra medicines (with new side effects) new physiotherapy exercises and doctor’s orders to see the sun and give up the vampire life. You will now often see me sitting outside in my backyard for ten minutes at my little table setting, face up to the weak autumn sun and meditating.…and looking weird, no doubt. Luckily, my neighbours don’t ever peek over the fence. (I think)

And the thing that made me the grumpiest over the whole situation…..my new roller study desk/iPad holder. (Think hospital food tray trolley but cooler because it’s black). I tell you, I hated that thing at first. A bold and annoying reminder that I am no longer allowed to hold my iPad in my hands EVER if I want to prevent further damage. Not so easy to break a years-old habit and I slip up constantly but I’m getting there. Its only redeeming feature is that it makes a great coffee cup holder.

The upshot of this little saga…….I fell behind schedule in all life and writerly tasks and am now trying to catch up.

One of the things I’d only just begun working on and thinking of Pre-Sickie days was merchandising. Yep, merchandise. As in cool stuff to own. Those of you who follow me on Facebook may remember I sent out a survey asking what kinds of items you’d like to see and I had some great suggestions, many of which I should be able to achieve. Funnily enough, the moment I got back to this task, it turns out one of my most favourite people in the world had just opened her own merchandising shop! Haha…..great minds, as they say. She’s now generously holding my hand through the process and I couldn’t be more grateful as digital stuff is not a strength of mine. I’ve said it in the past but it bears repeating and often – I am surrounded by the kindest, most supportive friends and blessed everyday with their presence in my life. May you all be as fortunate that way too. .

So…..my WIP……….

A:) Merchandise that you will hopefully love (coming very soon!)

B:) My first fanfic in quite a long time!

Teaser: it’s a sequel to a previous one

C:) As yet untitled Book 3 of the Unbreakable Series

D:) Organising a new Giveaway

Make sure you’re signed up for email notifications so you don’t miss any of the announcements. I can’t wait to show you

So for now,

Much love,

Zelly

PS…..and yes, I did eventually laugh at my circumstances because Lord knows, I have it far far FAR better than many others. I just had to kick my own butt.

Who Won My Giveaway, You Ask??

Hey all,

Hope you have had a wonderful February. Can you believe that Monday is March? March??!!

Holy moly, how did that happen so fast, right???

Honestly, the older I get, the faster time flies…

So, yes, the Giveaway ended yesterday and has been drawn, my lovely followers! That Random Number Generator app (such a clever thing) has done its work and spat out the numbers of all four winners and I have the extreme pleasure of announcing them all.

If you have a flat surface nearby then help me beat a drumroll out………

In First Place and winning a personally signed copy of Unveiled is……….

Melissa Dunat!!!! Woohooooo! Congratulations and well done!!

And in equal Second Place, the three winners of an awesome $5 USD Amazon Gift card each are………..

Shannon Lambeth

Danyea Hankins

Sheraden Robertson !!!!

Woot woot, ladies!!! Congratulations!

I’m so grateful to all of you on my email list for your following and support. It means the world to me and I’m so thankful to be able to give some nice prizes away. My next one shouldn’t be too far away….so do keep an eye out for it.

Can all four winners contact me ASAP so I can arrange delivery of your gifts, please?

Oh and if you haven’t checked around my website lately, please feel free to do so….there’s some new pics to see and a new fundraising endeavour that you’ll see on the various pages.

Okay, that’s it for this Friday night. A short sweet blog post. Enjoy your weekend, beautiful people.

As always, much love,

Zelly.

Extensions of the NonHairy Kind.

Hey all,

Hope life is treating you well?

I’ve decided to extend my giveaway till the 25th February!! Yes, indeed. Why?

Why not, hey?

Actually, for two reasons. One…….the 21st as a date has no meaning for me whereas the 25th is my Dad’s Heavenly Birthday (May he RIP) and I really like the symbolism of using dates that have meaning for me. It’s also more fortuitous in terms of numerology.

And the second reason is that I’ve recently learnt how to do something on Goodreads so to give people on that site a chance to join in, I need to give them a bit of time…….so that’s what I’ll do.

Therefore, you need to get your entries in by the 25th February to be in the running for one of FOUR giveaways…..

One x personally autographed copy of Unveiled, Book 2 of The Unbreakable Series.

Three Amazon Gift Cards valued at $5 USD each.

HOW TO ENTER…..

Just be on my email list. If you’re not on it, then all you gotta do is click the red FOLLOW me button on my Welcome front page and fill out the pop up form for email notifs. You’ll receive the first chapter of Fractured as a thank you gift from me.

Open to worldwide readers.

Good luck and talk to you soon!

Much love, as always

Zelly

Reminders & Guesses

Hey all,

Hope you’ve been well?

Just a quick reminder that if you haven’t yet entered my book/Amazon Giveaway Competition, then you gotta hurry up as it ends on the 21st February. Someone will win a personally autographed copy of Unveiled and three, yes three people will win Amazon Giftcards to use on whatever their heart desires.

To make sure that you’re in the running, all you gotta do is be on my email list! That’s it! So if you’re not on it, then subscribe today so you don’t miss out.

That’s the reminder part of this post. As for the guesses……I have a guessing challenge for you…..

You’ll notice that there’s some new things on my site, on the initial Welcome page and on my Pics of Inspiration tab…….

Your job is to see if you can guess what the new, unlabelled pics are about in relation to the Unbreakable Series….. let’s see who can guess these correctly. (Rubs hands in anticipation) I’ve made some ridiculously easy and others not so much……..

Meanwhile, please do share/retweet and like my site and don’t forget to add my books to your Goodreads To Read List, if you’re on there.

Oh and in case anyone has missed the news….I’ve reloaded my fanfics from 2016 onto fanfiction.net……my Valentines Day gift to you all. Just look for zelly309 and there they will be.

Looking forward to your guesses……..

As always, much love

Zelly

Time to Giveaway stuff !

Hey all,

It’s time for some Giveaway Love. Because love is always good, right? And Giveaways are just plain fun.

I have four prizes to award to some lucky ducks. One major prize and three minor prizes.

Why four? Because that’s an Angel number. And because I always see duplicate 4 numbers everywhere….as in 44, 444 and 4444. I see them all over the place, along with some others.

3 is also a very fortuitous number for me (birthday is on the 30th and that converts to a 3 in numerology). Three plus One is obviously Four. One is the number of new beginnings, action, positivity and confidence and number 3 resonates with creative self-expression, social interaction, and optimism.

Therefore, with all the good luck surrounding these numbers, why not bestow that luck to all of you lovely people? So here’s the set up……

One (Major) prize……….one personally signed copy of Unveiled.

Three (Minor) prizes……..$5 USD Amazon Gift Cards.

Open worldwide – which is why I decided on US dollars – it’s easier for most people in terms of conversion. And strangely, it’s also less confusing for this Aussie gal. (converting from AUD to USD and then to the winners money value is just too much for my brain.)

Starts…….31st January 2021

Ends…….. 21st February 2021

Rules of Entry……. sign up for email notifications on my website. Click the RED Follow button if you’re not an existing follower. You MUST be on my mail list to be entered into the Giveaway as it’s the only way of contacting the winners. Get onto zellyjordan.com for the follow button.

So….. off we go! Good luck to everyone. And don’t forget to share this everywhere.

Talk soon.

Much love,

Zelly

Reboots & Kickstarts

2021…..you had one job. Just one! And that was to be better than 2020.

However, so far, you’ve been a miserable failure.

What with the disastrous and dangerous situation over in the USA, the overseas tennis players flooding Melbourne for the Australian Open with their COVID virus risks and whining about quarantine (just be grateful we let you in!) and a personal tragedy that happened to friends of mine that shook the whole state and devastated us all, this year is only 20 days old and already I wanna rewind as fast as possible. Nothing like a shocking, tragic event to knock the stuffing out of a person, let me tell you. I had planned to blog in the first week of January but those things plus another horrible health situation that’s cropped up for a family member and my stress levels went through the roof !

I was deeply rattled, I must admit.

Still, awful things aside…..I nevertheless have hope that 2021 can redeem itself. After all, there’s eleven months and 11 days left in the year so it has plenty of time to get better, right? I refuse to tempt fate and say “what else can go wrong”.

Not even gonna think it.

On the bright side, all those events made me remember that there are a tonne of things I want to achieve this year and if I want them to happen, not only do I need to stay focused and positive but I need to take the bull by the horns and make them happen. Because goddamn it, life has surely shown us over the past 12 months exactly how fragile it can be so live strong, live free and get on with it, right?

Right!

This year, I have several releases planned as well as fun competitions and giveaways. I’m also going to be setting up a couple of new things on my website, so do keep an eye out for it.

Covid has forced many of us to do things differently to how we’ve always done them before and I’m no different. It’s also made many open up to new ways, new ideas and adjusted our viewpoints on any number of things. However, it’s also screwed us over in lots of ways. Who hasn’t seen any of these cake toppers over the last twelve months?

Weddings, milestone birthdays and other major events, all rescheduled and shuffled around like a pack of Uno cards. Grrrrrr. One unexpected aspect of covid for me personally was how it messed up my creativity so badly that I almost didn’t recognise my own words. Truly! When I look at what I worked on throughout last year, I am amazed and not in a good way. So, I foresee many, many revisions and edits in my immediate future.

Sigh.

Ahhhhhh well. C’est la vie.

Those who have known me for awhile will know how particular and pedantic I am about getting my words and my stories exactly right. So much so that I stress out over abbreviations and texting acronyms. (Yes, I do. Don’t laugh.) You’ll never see a tweet of mine without basic punctuation. It actually hurts my writer’s soul when I have to shorten and cut through grammar rules just to make things fit. Oh, the literary offence of it all. But, hopefully the wait will be worth it; hopefully you’ll love what I release.

Meanwhile, I think, to kick off this New Year ……..(let’s just pretend that the new year starts now, on 20th January 2021, okay? And if you think, there’s any symbolism in that date, well, you’re right. I didn’t plan on that date, it’s just how it worked out but I think it’s absolutely perfect now). …….to kick it off, I’ll start with a Giveaway, I reckon. Just gotta fine tune some details and I’ll announce it all on the next blog post so don’t forget to watch out for that one.

I’d really like to hear your thoughts and ideas on some of the things you’d like to see from me this year. Don’t be shy. I’ll look at every suggestion, I promise. For example – what kind of prizes would you like? What about more author interviews? Or what about character interviews? Get your thinking caps on, my friends and drop me a line or two.

For now as always,

Much love,

Zelly

Ho Hum to Ho Ho.

Hey all,

Merry Christmas Eve from Australia

The Little Reminders…..

Hey all,

Hope you are well, healthy and safe?

We here in Melbourne are looking forward to an almost normal Christmas thanks to over a months worth of Double Doughnut Days – that’s what we are calling days with no new cases and no deaths from COVID. It’s so freaking wonderful seeing that ZERO each morning. God willing, this is what you’ll have in your part of the world, soon.

Have you ever noticed how life has a way of shoving little reminders of important stuff into your face gently….gently….until it gets tired of your lack of attention and then smacks it into your face with a hard wallop ? Sometimes it’s about small simple things and other times it’s about major life defining things. I’ve been getting lots of little reminders lately…….here’s a few examples…….

A beautiful hand-drawn picture of a huge angel’s wing that was framed and placed on a wall directly in my line of vision in my bedroom……..fell down one day – frame breaking beyond repair.

What Goes Around…..

Hey all,

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Hope today finds you well and happy.

You remember how a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of appearing on my very first podcast? I blogged about it here…….

https://zellyjordan.com/2020/09/09/how-do-you-cast-a-pod/?share=press-this&nb=1 Be sure to check out all his interviews, actually….you just never know what you’ll learn or who you’ll discover.

Well, I’ve now had the pleasure of interviewing the superlicious Kyle and as expected, it was fun and revealing, (pun intended).

Of course, my interviews are of the written kind because technology does not allow me to podcast, chromecast or shoecast in any capacity. I can’t even cast a fishing line….or is that a net?

Back to Back, Yellow and Black

Hey all,

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Hope you are all well and safe?

I wish you could all be as well and happy as I am today but that’s highly unlikely.

Why am I so happy today? Because my favourite team in all the world, the Richmond Tigers, won the Aussie Rules Premiership Cup last night……their third win in the last FOUR years! That’s right…they won the Grand Final in 2017, 2019 and now 2020! Back to back wins for my boys in yellow and black. They’ve won in previous years too but this is a record. The year we missed out, 2018, we were still in the semifinal.

How awesome is that?! They are LEGENDS, I tell ya. Legends!!

For those wondering what the heck I’m talking about here’s a pic and a highlight reel of the game. It’s called AFL football and it’s soooo thrilling. Woohoooo!