Small Updates and Big News
Whew, it has been a hectic and stressful couple of weeks!
As much as I love my job (and I really do), I have been absolutely exhausted the last couple of weeks. Teaching on its own is extremely hard, but especially with all of this heat taking away my energy. I’m working on finding new/more effective ways to center myself and cope with the stress because the amount of stress I carry in my body every day is simply not sustainable. Not even for the next four weeks, which is all that’s left between now and the end of the school year.
I know that I will make it. I know that I will find more strength, patience, and dedication to my job and the kids I work with. I know I can. It’s just a matter of giving myself permission to acknowledge my limitations and ask for help when I need it. Because now my mental health is starting to suffer pretty badly and I’m just not sure how I’m going to last without adjusting my expectations for myself.
On the bright side, I am completely done with the semester now. I got As on both of my final papers and in both classes. My professor for my cyberpunk lit class is also the Dean of the program and he said my final paper was “tremendous.” I have been carrying that with me ever since. As many issues as their are in academia/higher education, it really does help to hear that I am where I belong. I’m doing what I’m meant to do, which is write.
I also completed and passed my comprehensive exam, which means that I can register for my master’s thesis course for fall. I’m absolutely pumped to work on this thesis paper! I know that I’m going to write about Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, both novels by Jane Austen. And I know I want to do a compare/contrast between Mr. Darcy and Captain Wentworth, but I’m just not sure what the thesis statement is going to be yet. So I will be rereading both novels this summer in preparation for the paper.
Now for the big news:
My debut novel, A Kiss of Glass, is about to be up on Amazon for pre-orders!
Yep, that means I did it — I completed the final edits of my novel! It’s not perfect and I’m sure I could have taken another couple of months to work on it more, but I think that would always have been true. So even though I’m absolutely petrified, I’m choosing to publish it as it is now. I have to get it uploaded to some other storefronts and distributors, which I plan to do over the next couple of weeks. But as of today/tomorrow, the ebook and paperback will be available for pre-orders on Amazon!
I can’t even begin to talk about how exciting this is for me. It’s new territory. I’ll be ordering proof copies and ARCs to send out to my ARC readers, and then it’s gonna be promotion, promotion, promotion. I’m setting up my book launch and my different readings/book signings. I’m going to be setting up my own book tour over the summer. It’s just gonna be a wild, amazing, exciting time!
So keep a look out for big updates!
