Welcome to the Anxious Author's Blog

 Well, Souls, here we go again. 

I'm not too good at this regular blogging thing, but I came up with a theme and really want to give it a shot. Honestly, I'm getting tired of seeing my old blogs pop up on Goodreads and Amazon. Figured it was time for something new. So, welcome to The Anxious Author's Blog. 

This is a place where I can explore with you what it is like to be an author with anxiety and to share the books I review, as well as the books I publish. It's my hope that this blog will reach someone who needs to hear what I have to say. I think too many of us suffer in silence. I know I did, for way too long, and now I have a hard time watching my sister go through the same thing. It's hard to hold my tongue sometimes when she has anxiety attacks and still refuses to speak to a doctor, but it's something I'm working on. 

Many people describe anxiety as a monster but to me, it's more like an unwelcome house guest. My anxiety is part of me. She is me and for the longest time, I thought I was her. She's like an evil twin that I was born with or a broken record that I can't take off the player. Sometimes she gets the best of me. Other times I win. 

I used to use writing to quiet my anxiety and I used my creativity as an excuse not to get on meds. I was worried that taking medication would make me less creative. It's made me more focused though. When I'm writing an intense scene, I no longer have to walk away from the computer because my heart feels like it's going to explode and kill me. I can type without stopping, without panic attacks. It's been amazing. 

Like I said, though, it took me a long time to get to the point where I was okay with taking medication. So, I understand why people don't want it. Why you might not want it. Your reasons are valid. I'm not here to debate the pros and cons of Paxil, however, I'm here to tell you what it's like to be part of the author world while having anxiety. I'm here to express my ideas, my opinions, and share literature with you all. If that's something you think you might be interested in, go ahead and subscribe. I promise you'll feel like family here. 


This is me:


I am a 29-year-old fantasy author who is hypoglycemic, has anxiety, and whose right leg likes to play dead occasionally. I am creative. I love cacti, crystals, windchimes, and yoga. My favorite video games are Dragon Age and Sims. I have an Emotional Support Animal who is a black cat named Spook Noir Kitka. Spook because he's a black cat, Noir because of Cat Noir, and Kitka because of Catwoman. 

Spook is a feisty thing. He likes his mouse and bird toys. He is a picky eater and does not like chicken. He prefers salmon. He wants to go outside 24/7 but hates it once he's out there. He gets spooked easily by leaves and things. He's been my lifesaver. I love him. 

I've published 7, almost 8, books and most of them are fantasy. I specialize in Young Adult Fantasy but have recently branched out to Children's Fantasy. 

I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you on here and sharing my experiences with you. 

Welcome to the blog, souls. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AI - Is it Art or Plagiarism?

Image
      Artificial intelligence has been a big topic in the art world lately. Some people have won awards for AI-generated content, others use it as nothing more than a filter on their Tik Tok pages, and still, others use it to write entire books. The question is, when does this fun little device become plagiarism? Where is the line that indicates what belongs to the robot and what belongs to the human?      You may say, robots and AI don't have rites. No, I suppose they don't because they are not living breathing creatures. However, that brings up a discussion on what gives a creature rites? Is it breathing? Or is it having the ability to think? We are still a while away from needing to have this discussion, though we get closer every day as inventors try to create realistic-looking AIs (aka, androids). Avoiding the Star Wars conundrum of whether droids should have rites, there are things we need to be considering as artists.      Here's the d...
Read more

The Start of Something New: First Steps to Freelancing

Image
       On July 29, 2022, a 114-year-old newspaper ceased publishing. I worked on this paper for the last year and a half of its life and it was one of the greatest experiences of my existence. It taught me a lot of things. I learned a bunch of programs like InDesign and Adobe Photoshop. It taught me formatting and AP style of writing (which I had the basics of before I started but rarely used). To steal a description from John Green, the paper's end came upon us like sleep, slowly at first and then all at once. Those of us that worked there knew the paper was in trouble. There were times we'd compare it to a sinking ship and ourselves as sailors using buckets to scoop water out of the vessel. I loved that paper, though. With every fiber of my being.       The Gothenburg Times was the first place to give me a writing job full-time. I never met the owners, but I worked closing with its publisher, who mentored me and taught me a lot about publishing...
Read more

The Alphabet Ancestry (Part I)

Image
      I don't know how into video games you are, but there are four games I play with a dedication so strong that I've literally lost nights of sleep over them. One of these games is Sims. I played Sims 3 long ago, but I'm currently playing Sims 4, and if you're a Sim's player then you know that EA just keeps adding more expansions to this game.      I've played the game so much that I've beaten many of the challenges, yet there was one I have failed to complete several times. The Alphabet Family Challenge. The rules for this challenge are as follows:      1) You must play through 26 generations of the same household.     That's it. That's all the guidelines Sims gives players. Seems simple enough, right? WRONG! Sims is a time-consuming game. Getting to 26 generations takes a long time...and I may have neglected to consider what 'same household' might have meant until I was already a decent way into the challenge.    ...
Read more