Work Overload and Apologies
I’ve been going through a rough time these last few weeks. It’s been a struggle to get my nonfiction reading for personal growth done, let alone the massive queue of unanswered emails and committed reviews. For those of you who’ve been waiting a while to hear from me, know it isn’t personal. I’m just going through a period of overwhelm due to massive work commitments, an exciting new opportunity (that I don’t know if I can announce yet due to submissions still being open) and some setbacks that pushed back the release of my next book, Prisoner of the Hollow.
I thought I’d take some time to address what’s been going on. As I mentioned in my post on Resilience, I have a chronic back injury I’ve been dealing with for most of my adult life, and I managed to piss it off a week and a half ago by falling on my bridge. It’s been touchy ever since, and my hyper-vigilance in ensuring I don’t do that again has left me mentally exhausted when dealing with other things.
Like my work. And having the reduced productivity from mental overwhelm stacked on top of my already frustrated state isn’t helping. So when we found out my husband has been officially diagnosed with depression and he continued to refuse to acknowledge the condition despite it, I just about lost it. I know all these things seem small and manageable, and maybe if you haven’t dealt with chronic pain or a mental condition like ADHD that needs to be managed carefully and daily, it probably looks that way. But my husband and I will hit our 5 year wedding anniversary in October, and seeing him spiral downward while I’m trying to keep my head above water hurts.
A lot.
The only reason I’ve gotten anything done is because of the heavy investment in my daily routine I keep harping on in my ADHD and Writing series. Because it keeps me doing something rather than nothing, and right now it needs to be enough. But it means I’m a bit behind, and I’m sorry.
I’m planning on trying to get my review of Mission: Clockwork up by Saturday, and afterward, in order: Odin V. Oxthorn’s Sleepless Flame, Mirren Hogan’s Dragonhaze, and L.C. Ireland’s Horrid.
Regarding the massive stack of unanswered emails, I’m planning on going through them this coming weekend and trying to get back to the next 25 people on the list. I try to keep my queue as close to “in submission order” as possible, with a few exceptions: if you have a horror novel (as opposed to paranormal thriller), you’ll likely get bumped up as I have few horror submissions in my current queue. Likewise with Weird Westerns and literary pieces.
Again, my deepest apologies for the delay. I’m doing my best to rectify things, it’s just been hard recently. I’m picking myself back up as of today, and I’ve made the commitment to myself and you all to push through and get the work done.
Because it’s important. And because breaking commitments sucks.
