Wednesday, 6 January 2016

Reflections



Hello everyone! I’m so sorry that it’s been a while since I posted on my blog. 
My apologies, but there was a family bereavement the tail end of last year and everything got a bit more manic than usual.

Looking back, 2015 was a bit a bit of a ‘year of death’.
I knew it was always going to be a ‘year of change’ but I really wasn’t prepared to say goodbye to so many loved ones. I think I went to more funerals last year than I had my entire life previously. 
But I keep reminding myself it’s all for the greater good. There’s always a reason for these things. And they’re at peace now. Om mani padme hum.

It’s the start of a brand new year now; hurrah!
So, I’ve let go of any negativity which had accumulated and am charging onwards with positivity and excitement.

In October of 2015 I launched book 5, ‘Broken & DamagedLove’. 
This is the book which covers child sex abuse, and the main character’s journey through surviving to thriving. I’m due to give a small donation to HAVOCA later this month when the book royalties come in. That feels good (although I wish I was giving more). 
And the launch itself went well. 
But most importantly, I’ve received some wonderful feedback from readers, particularly survivors. It seems this precious book is already making the positive impact I so hoped it would.

So, what’s in store this year? 
Hopefully my books will start to grow in popularity now. 
And I’m hoping to make time to start my vampire novel, which I’m very excited about.
But I may not be online so much this year. At Christmas I actually pressed the pause button for the first time in all of 2015. I hadn’t realised just quite how exhausted I was until I stopped!

I appreciate I’m not alone in this. Fellow authors reading this will relate well, I’m sure. I have a full time day job (might have mentioned that before, but one can never stress it enough). And so I fit my writing in around that. But I’m also a part time step mum, and holistic therapist. Trying to promote my existing work became all-encompassing last year. It takes a great deal of time and effort as an indie author, trying to tell lots of people of your existence as well as creating my next 'masterpiece'. I think coffee was my saviour!

I ended up going on social media every night after work (and more at weekends), trying to interact and advertise. Writing this blog itself gets included in that; my brain vomit doesn’t write itself!
Often, I’d look up just in time to notice it was time for bed, and I’d barely said hello to my long suffering, ever so supportive, loving husband. This isn’t fair on him, and I’m taking advantage of his good nature. So something has to give!
So please forgive me if you don’t see weekly blogs, or I’m not on Facebook/Twitter every day. I still love you all, but I’m only one person. And I need to prioritise what’s important. Having nearly lost him in a car accident, I know more than ever that my husband is that most important ‘thing’ in my life.

And who knows; this may only be temporary.
My ‘spidey sense’ tells me there will be a big change in my life soon and I’ll be able to chat to you more again soon. And hopefully I’ll have a lot more time to do the writing thing; that is after all what my objective is. 
In  my heart I’m an author. Authors write books! Well OK, I’m also striving to help people with my farmhouse retreat too, but you know what I mean. I’m an author and lovely person. There, is that better? I want to do both.

2016 is being declared as ‘the year of fulfilment’, so let’s all hope for good things.

Please send me good wishes (and £1millon if you have it to spare) ;-P

Love and light to you all,
TL