Lately - Creative Troubles

   It's been a while since I've written any kind of personal update, but in truth it's because I'm a creature of habit and I rarely do anything worth talking about.

   I've been working a lot on my book lately, but I just went through a stint of writer's block which was immensely annoying. It's such a helpless feeling. I spend a lot of my time writing, and to suddenly be unable to is...well, as I said, a helpless feeling. There's nothing I can do to bust through it, I just need to let it pass. If it's mild, I often find that stepping away from the laptop and picking up pen and paper instead can help, because the tactile sensation of holding a pen and paying such attention to how neatly I'm writing can actually help to clear my head. But when it's this bad, all I can do it put up with it. Fortunately I was ill towards the end of the block, so I couldn't have worked then anyway, which meant I was only really dealing with the block for about three days, but then it was something else that was stopping me from working. And I love writing so much, it's my lifeblood, I swear, so to have the time but be completely incapable of doing it for reasons out of my control seriously drives me up the wall! I had so little to do otherwise, and it annoyed me so much, I made a redbubble product page about it.

   Anyway. Fortunately my previous book, The Archguardians Of Laceria, is selling well in its first month, for which I'm extremely pleased, and I hope it continues to improve, but I have yet to receive any feedback on it which has left me somewhat uncertain. According to statistic reports, thousands of pages have been read, which is a great feeling - people are actually reading it - but whether or not they're enjoying it, I can't tell. And that's difficult, it makes me anxious. I've managed to get a sample put together, too, so if you're a smidge interested, you can read a little from the beginning of Archguardians right here on the blog.

   My jewellery has also suddenly taken a turn in a wonderful direction. The summer is the worst time of year for my sales, truly, June through to August see sales plummet which is why I try to make sure I have a new collection out in time for the summer, but after a little feature on Bored Panda at the end of last week, I'm suddenly all over similar sites, especially in Japan. And I love Japan, so that's pretty amazing! Despite it being the quietest time of the year (thereby giving me more time to write), my shop statistics are rocketing - that doesn't necessarily mean sales, but it's actually just wonderful to have my work appreciated. That's something I forget as sales roll in, but these features do remind me of it.

   I also recently started my summer sale, which is code-based (FIRE16) until July 31st. I was a bit late to the game, been a little distracted, but better late than never, right?

Watching: Star Trek: The Next Generation, again

Reading: The Tamuli, by David Eddings

Listening: Assassin's Creed Syndicate soundtrack

Playing: The Witcher 3, new game +

Eating: Trek protein flapjack, summer berry

Drinking: Green tea chai