As much as I hate to make this announcement, there is no getting around the truth: Elemental Blood will be delayed a month. The new release will be in April. 

The reasons for this are varied and numerous, ranging from health, to workshops, to a desperate desire to refill the well. The first two reasons are pretty clear cut. Health became an issue for me last year with my heart, so I have been striving to improve my longevity by exercising more and working a more healthy diet and lifestyle into what had become, in 2015, a very, VERY, sedentary life. IE: I had to buy a bigger chair last year in order to accomodate my ever increasing backside. 

Not fun. And not flattering. 

Second reason, there were workshops. One I took online for a week, the other I traveled to for a week and a half (that’s added in travel time). I always have grandiose ideas that I’ll get my word count in and finish a novel when I’m traveling. 

Uh….no. This has never happened. Past experience should educate me, knowing that while being a writer is a very awesome job, it is also a very lonely one. So when you throw a bunch of pro writers together in the same place, there is a lot of socializing, a lot of talking about writing, but very little writing ever getting done. At least for me. Because after being cooped up in our various rooms, offices and dungeons…living in these dwellings with people who just don’t get us, we feel like that rogue, separated from their family for all these months and finally reunited with their tribe. 

Yes…my peeps! 

And the third reason, and the most important for me, I had to refill the well. This has also been described as planting the garden. Ideas, scenes, characters, situations, novels, short stories…all of these things sprout from these wells, or gardens. Everyone has one of them. Some call them junk yards. Others, a pen of popcorn kittens. I have never wanted for ideas. But I also never looked at where they come from. 

Until my well ran dry. This is called…burnout. It’s very real and has nothing to do with writer’s block. Burnout happens when you stop refilling that well. For most writers, artists, refilling happens on a daily basis because we surround ourselves with the things that inspire us. I can only speak for writers, so if you’re an artist, your wells and gardens run differently, yet the principle is the same. 

In 2014, when I published the first in the Eldritch Files, December 31st, I started a goal for myself. Publish regularly, publish often, and entertain the reader. And I followed that plan as best as I could while raising a child and taking care of a house hold. That’s yard work, cooking, cleaning, laundry, housework, school activities… and somewhere in there, writing. But I did it. 

What I hadn’t realized was that in order to fit it all in, I’d removed the very essence of what fueled me. I stopped reading. I stopped watching TV. I stopped binge watching anything. I stopped watching anime. I stopped listening to podcasts. I stopped gaming (roleplaying). I even stopped our regular movie night and went down to a handful of movies in 2015 (Star Wars 9 times isn’t really refilling anything, other than Disney’s pocket). I just…stopped. All that extra time was taken up by writing. Writing. Writing. Always…writing. 

And it worked.

Until September happened and I started on a contract novel. And everything…stopped. A few days passed by where I stared at an empty page. Then I’d write maybe 500 words. Then nothing for a few days. I walked a lot, hoping that would jog something lose.

Nope. Nothing. 

I took naps. No. I drove around. No. Nothing. By the middle of October I had written 40K words. And they were terrible. And that’s not me judging it, that was letting a friend who plays the game read it. I continued on it… Weeks with not a word written, because the office had become a place I didn’t want to go. What did I do instead? I cleaned. I rearranged the closets in every room. I did dishes. I cleaned grout. I did yard work. I did things I thought meant I was productive in some way. This continued on for months, until some time in January when I finished the book.

Four months to finish a book. That was ridiculous for me. Seriously? 

I needed help. BAD. So I finally talked to someone, a friend who lives near me who is also a writer. We had coffee one morning and I just laid it all out. She was the one that finally said, after hearing my daily schedule, “Where is your fun?” 

“My wut?” 

“Your fun? I didn’t hear a word about those things you used to talk about. What books you were reading and fangirling over? What movies, or anime, or even what games are you role playing in? Did you stop?” 

I blinked. 

“Oh no. You did stop.” She looked at me with sympathy and I could tell she really meant it. She paid for the coffee and pastries and said. “I hearby give you permission to go home, pick a show on Netflix and binge it. Just grab a pizza if you get hungry. Walk to keep your health. But binge it. And then you have permission to play a game when you’re done. Play something you love. And when you’re done with that, play a new one. Tomorrow, binge again. No, better yet. I’ll pick you up and we’re going to the bookstore. And then you’re going to read.” 

I thought she’d lost her mind. 

I did what she suggested for a week. I played me some games, I watched anime, I watched movies, TV, and I read 11 books. When that week ended, I deleted what I’d written before and rewrote the contract book in 4 weeks, not 4 months and turned it in. Was it better? I don’t know. What I did know was that something shifted. Something I’d had and then didn’t and now had again. And it changed when I brought back in those things that give me joy. Those things that inspire my need to tell a story, my story. 

So here I am, a month off schedule (due to me finally sitting down and writing the contract book that was supposed to be done in October) but I am enjoying myself once again. I watch episodes of shows between writing sessions. I walk. I read 20 minutes a day, if not more. And I’m getting my word count in. At night I game, or I do something else that gives me joy (recently it’s composing music for one of the games). 

My well is full, my garden is tended. And I feel awesome. 

<3