UGGGHHHH

Oh, hello there.

It's been over a year since I've posted something here. *sigh* And it's been a while since I've written anything of substance. *double sigh* I feel like I'm sort of just marinating and waiting for some "Ah Ha" moment and, ok, maybe just being lazy and unmotivated. To be honest, I'm not sure exactly what's been going on with me. My perimenopausal hormones were a real treat this summer and I was sad and obsessive and cried at the drop of a hat. Thankfully that has passed ... for now. So I'm feeling a lot better (in spite of the hot flashes that still occur pretty regularly), but I'm still not particularly motivated so I thought I'd just FORCE myself to write for a bit and see what happens. Cheaper than therapy.

I'm kind of blaming social media and Netflix for sucking my writing well dry. Too much time watching Parks & Rec, too much time spent checking Instagram, too much time feeling bad for not using it properly to connect with readers and promote my work.  I miss the days when all I could do when I had time by myself was read or write. Now there are so many distractions! Any advice for how to disconnect from social media without losing any platform momentum? Cuz I'm at a loss.

As far as my fiction writing is going, I guess I have written .... Just not very consistently. Here's what I've been working on:

• A YA contemporary (tentatively called In Real Life) about a tech savvy girl and a tech averse teen boy who get stranded together and have to learn to connect face to face.
• A sort of "choose your own adventure" college-age YA (tentatively called "Anatomy of Casual"), about how even the small choices we make can affect our lives.
• A sequel to ZENN DIAGRAM, because some people have been asking about one. (I haven't actually started writing anything yet, but I've been thinking about if I can make it work).
• Some song lyrics/poetry.

So I haven't been doing nothing. I just haven't really been doing anything very productive. I think I've been more focused on my kids, feeling the clock ticking down as they get ready to fly. That might have something to do with my mood as well. I'll write more about that in a future post, but obviously I'm in a weird stage of life right now. Friends, if you have any tips/thoughts/suggestions/words of support, feel free to comment below!

Also, have you read THE SWAILING (the YA dystopian I posted on Wattpad last spring)? It's the novel I wrote write before Zenn Diagram and you might enjoy it ... check it out here. If you like it, share it with your friends! And bonus: it's FREE! And in other news, Zenn Diagram is only SEVEN reviews away from 500 on Goodreads, so if  you're a Goodreads person and have read my book, I'd love it if you'd drop me a review!

Ok. That's it for now. Kind of a downer of a post, but we're not all happy sunshine all the time, right? I promise I'll be back, sooner than later. Hang in there, friends!