The Shop Launch and Writing Joy

So I moved my design site over here. It’s using Genesis and a portfolio child theme, with an integrated shop, and I adore it.

Whether or not the shop actually works remains to be seen. But for the month of February, you can save 10% on all down payments (currently booking March clients) and pre-made cover by entering the code lauch10 at checkout, and if you do, let me know how it goes for you. I might experiment with other coupons and try something for the pre-made romance covers around February 14 (if I remember). Speaking of, there are a couple of new pre-mades here.

If the kinks seem to be worked out, I’ll probably integrate a shop at my main site as well and start selling eBooks directly here. Not that I get a lot of traffic but another sales option is always a good thing.

Work is going well–nearly all caught up after my week spent in bed (let’s not do that again, okay, brain?), and there’s enough to keep me quite busy this month. I’ve been repeating the mantra, “One thing at a time” all week and step by step, the to-do list is getting shorter. Speaking of, if you’ve sent me an email about something and I’ve not replied in a few weeks, poke me because it might’ve been lost in the pile here.

Yesterday was…not a good day.

It started when I punched myself in the face waking up. Yes, this is an Actual Thing That Can Happen, at least when you’re me and you’re fumbling for your alarm as it blares Kenyan EDM at you.  Then the dog was sick (still is, but I think she’s getting over it), and the cats were fighting constantly which resulted in me having to break up a fight every half hour.

Then I’ve a friend going through serious health stuff at the moment, and though I’ve found myself surprisingly calm and rational about it, apparently my brain is just starting this cool new thing called DELAYED REACTION TO STRESSORS. So yesterday, brain was all, Oh, you think all is well? Let me tell you something:

And then I turned into a ball of worry.

Obsessive, downward-spiraling thoughts are kind of a thing with me, so I nipped that in the bud by saying fuck it to everything and eating Doritos and cleaning and taking the dog out every hour, because my focus on anything else was just totally fucked.

Then this rather remarkable thing happened.

I wrote words. Just…there was the book, third in a series I have in progress, and it was talking, and I wasn’t scared it wasn’t going to come out right or hit a wall or anything.

Joy. It was JOY. I haven’t felt this comfortable and joyful and pressure-free since I wrote Exhumed late 2011. I shouldn’t say anything, in case it up and disappears on me again. My natural inclination is to Analyze Everything, and I’m trying not to do that here.

But despite four hours of sleep last night, I feel refreshed today. My mind feels settled. I feel like myself again. The book was on my mind when I woke up and it’s been there all day. And I whipped through a handful of email today and a flyer design because I can’t wait to go back and play in the book after dinner.

I am certain of very, very few things in the universe, except that this feeling of sinking into a world and seeing the people and discovering their lives feels like I’m home.

(Also, there will be KISSING in this book, and by god, I am excited even to write that part.)

(This is their kissing song. Aren’t you jealous of the eventual KISSING I get to write?)

And this is their other song (it’s a Castle/Beckett video, shut up):

(“With broken words I’ve tried to say/Honey don’t you be afraid//If we got nothing we got us“…oh, West. *sigh*)

Later, I get to write PEOPLE DYING and A BATTLE WITH A YETI. OMG I am ecstatic.

I hope it keeps up. Even if it doesn’t, I know it will eventually. That part of me isn’t broken after all.