Tidbits

*I’m sometimes now writing over at Family Health Method  if you are just dying for more Shalini Writing and can’t get enough of me. Yeah, I know, I’m pretty irresistable. (self-eye-roll)

*If you’re crafty and/or like babies, Tricia needs help providing baby blankets for an NICU. Apparently you don’t even have to be that crafty. I’m going to see if I can cajole the boys into doing this. It seems like a great project kids could do, and bonus: helping teeny tiny babies will probably get you into Heaven. (Heaven is super popular nightclub, FYI, so just show up with your blanket as proof.)

*I’m doing a Goodreads giveaway for print copies of the book.

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Lost and Found
by Chris Van Hakes

Giveaway ends November 20, 2013.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

*I’m on a new SSRI. It’s working, except that I can’t drink on it. I mean, I can, but every time I’ve had my half glass of wine while prepping dinner, I end up falling into a dead sleep at 8pm. I am going to miss booze, but it’ll be worth it (I think). I don’t know why I’m telling you this, except to keep up the transparency of: this shit continues to be hard, but you can have a functional life around anxiety and depression, even if it’s unfair that I can’t have my half-glass of wine every night in order to not have a panic attack when I’m late to school pick up.

*I guess this post has been circulating around the Internet for a while, but I thought this post from Rob Delaney on depression and getting help was very insightful (though I’m not sure I’d rather have four broken limbs than go through depression). One thing I will add is when people would comment on my weight loss and ask how I did it, I was never honest enough to say, “Suffer from an awful depressive episode and only eat every other day!” but that is the truth. (I haven’t had that bad of one since college, but I had them. Oh,, I did.)

*I’ve already told everyone on Facebook and Twitter and Goodreads this already, but I think This Is How by Augusten Burroughs is the best thing I’ve read since The Art of Fielding. Love love love love loved it.

*Speaking of Goodreads, we should totally be friends there.

*Finally, I am having a serious, major, awful case of writer’s block on Romance Novel Two: Electric Boogaloo. I mean, I can write, but everything I write is just…it’s the worst. It’s just a first draft (I usually write at least three drafts), but I don’t know how to not just light my laptop on fire and yell, “I QUIT!” (to no one, because I sit at home and write in bed snuggled under the covers). If you’ve got a way to get over insecurity and fear in writing/working/whatever, let me know? I could use it.