When anxiety strikes back…
It’s been a busy time in author world since we last chatted. ((Oh yeah, because going to Malta was really a ‘research trip’ A likely story!)) It was! All trips abroad are potential locations for books and sometimes an author needs a break away to recharge the creative juices. ((Also, I cannot believe you awarded yourself ‘Employee of the Month’)) I’m self-employed. Who else is going to give me an award and I deserved it for the things I’ve had to overcome this last month. ((If I hadn’t broken my tiny violin last month I would be playing it for you now)) The Malta trip didn’t quite go to plan with outside stresses infiltrating it and I temporarily lost my phone but hey ho. The sunshine was lovely and Malta is a beautiful Island.
As many of you will know if you follow my Instagram or Facebook socials, I’ve really been struggling with anxiety due to my peri-menopause. I’m six years into this emotional and physical hormonal shit storm of a journey and just when I thought it was getting better, my brain decided it didn’t want to work. I lost the ability to do basic tasks and writing was just impossible. Anyway, I seem to be coming out of this, so hopefully normal life can resume and I can crack on with writing my psychological thriller as I was doing so well.
As a consequence of the last few weeks. The full steam ahead on the marketing for my murder mystery book, One Step Ahead, was stalled but my publisher has been amazingly supportive and I cannot tell you the difference it makes when someone just says, ‘don’t worry about it, just feel better’. Also, my sales for my canal book have slowed due to the fact i’ve been unable to do any promotions but there are still a few sales trickling in which is nice and it seems popular on Kindle Unlimited.
Just before my meltdown, I’d organised a book launch on Friday 20th June at the Harbour Gallery in Jersey which is equally terrifying and exciting and we’ve started contacting a few people about promotions and reviews for One Step Ahead, so hopefully all this will start coming together. I’m hoping this week I have enough brain power to start the social media plans.
We are due to leave Warwick in two weeks to begin our cruising plans for the year so it’s full steam ahead to get the rest of the boat jobs finished. I’m planning to share some vlogs of the journey and the boat jobs we’ve done but it will be as and when I feel like it. I’m simply unable to put any pressure on myself this year as I don’t know how I will feel from hour to hour, never mind day to day. I’m finding new ways of dealing with my anxiety so we will see how it goes.
I hope all is going well for everyone and you’re enjoying these lighter nights and hopefully warmer weather incoming. Spring has well and truly sprung.
On a positive note ((Positive? YOU? Come on now how much Baileys have you drunk??)) after 6 weeks I finally managed to get back into my Outlook emails – Microsoft if you’re reading this you really need to work on better communication! As a result, I’m aiming to move everything over to Google and cancel my subscription to Microsoft. Slowly does it though. I’ve also had a 1,000,000% improvement on my wi-fi connection changing from O2 to Lyca (part of EE) so hopefully those signal woes are over.
Thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far and thank you for all the support. It does make a big difference when I’m sobbing on the bed for no reason, well there is a reason as my body has decided to delete all my hormones i’ve relied on for the last 49 years! ((Pulling up your big pants didn’t work then Peachy?)) It doesn’t help that my body has decided to reject alcohol as a means to numb the pain. I’m pleased to say coffee is still on the menu, anxiety be damned! ((You without coffee does not bare thinking about!)) Pass me a mocktail…
Speak to you next time and hopefully I will have lots of book plans to share as well as pics and videos of our narrowboat adventures x
YouTube Channel – Watch our narrowboat adventures here
Bombay Circle Press – My Indian publisher based in Mumbai
Powertheauthor – Keep the words flowing here…
Amazonlink – Fantasy, travelogues, thrillers, romance and more…
Lost the Plot – Story of our canal adventures
