Personal update: April 2020


If you've been following my updates of The Worst Behaved Werewolf, you've probably noticed that there have been a lot of gaps between my 'daily' updates. The virus I got (not Covid-19) stuck around for ages, and it's taking me longer than usual to bounce back. I've also been diagnosed with anxiety, and am learning how to manage that.

The good news is that my workplace has been really supportive and forgiving of my time off, and I've been working with my doctor (through phone appointments) to figure out a way to manage my return to work so that I don't fall into the same patterns of working myself to a place where I get run down and more prone to bugs that knock me out. The bad news is that I don't know when I'll return to work or what that will look like, and that uncertainty--along with the global uncertainty and worry--is slowing things down. Still, I was able to edit chapter eleven of The Worst Behaved Werewolf today, which is more than I've been able to do for over a week, so I feel that things are moving in the right direction. 

Needless to say, there has not been a lot of writing happening. However, last week, I finished the first draft of The Collector, book 9 in the Read by Candlelight series. This feels like a massive milestone, because--for a myriad of reasons--writing has been really hard this year. I've done a tiny amount of plotting for book ten in this series, but am also toying with some other ideas for different projects. So far, nothing is really grabbing me--maybe a sign that I need to spend some more time resting/caring for myself? We'll see.

This experience has taught me that I am not very good at listening to or recognising the needs of my body. I'm aiming to get better at that, in particular, realising sooner when I need to relax. I may have made the virus worse by attempting to work through it--I only saw signs of improvement after literally doing nothing for two whole days. I suspect that some of you reading this are liable to fall into the same trap. My advice: be kind to yourself and to your body. Do not put too much on yourself. Take things day by day and simply do what you can--that's enough. 

Take care of yourself, 

Love,

Gillian.