As y’all know, I freelance in addition to writing.

Having a viable career in this field means multiple income streams, so for me that involves freelance editing, design, and layout/formatting dispersed among my writing. I’ve done this for several years now after leaving publishing in 2013, and though writing is taking up the bulk of my time so I rarely take on new clients, I have a stable of regular writers and publishers I’ve worked with for years now.

One thing nearly all of them have in common this past year and a half is that the pandemic affected them in huge ways.

Much of last year wasn’t so bad. The pandemic was new. Most of my schedule was for projects clients had completed the bulk of back in 2019 so I was pretty on track. A few blips but not a lot of delays.

Then the pandemic wore on.

And a lot of people struggled to write.

By the time 2021 rolled around, my schedule–typically booked at least six months in advance–was in complete disarray because everyone else’s was as well. I’d go two months without scheduled projects landing and then get four at once. People weren’t just trying to write with the constant buzz of anxiety around a global pandemic–they were trying to write around funerals. COVID-19 touched nearly everyone I know in some way or another–even if they didn’t lose a loved one to it, “normal” deaths meant funerals were fraught with anxiety. People got sick. People didn’t entirely recover. People have had to delay routine healthcare for a year. People also had to deal with hearing daily how much their lives didn’t matter if they had other health issues or were already compromised in some way; they heard from their neighbours and family and friends that they should just “get over” any concerns about a virus still running rampant potentially disabling them. Households lost income.

None of these things are conductive to creativity.

The myth of the starving artist needs to die. As much as writing can be a refuge, creativity truly flourishes when writers are fed, sheltered, and safe. Writing requires the use of your brain and, surprise!, when your mind is burning fuel being terrified about the state of the world, you don’t have the mental resources for creativity. You’re living in constant fight or flight mode. A global pandemic meant a lot of people were–and continue to be–feeling incredibly unsafe.

Reading is a refuge as well, I realize.

Many of us sank into entertainment. Some folks struggled with their usual forms of escape and had to find new outlets. Some just reread/rewatched the same favourites for comfort. Some found new stories to dive into.

The Livi Talbot series was written as an ongoing story about a woman who has been through terrible things–and continues to go through terrible things–but finds a way to come out the other side. I want to take you through hell–literally in the next one–and bring you back into the light with me, to show it can be done. As a result, I know those books helped some folks during the pandemic and with the things they’re going through. And knowing Livi is a lifeline for some readers means a tremendous amount to me.

I bring this up to say I get it. I get how important stories are to people. It’s how I make my living! It’s how I survive! It’s how I design many of my stories!

However…

When creatives, en masse, are struggling through massive global changes, you do not get stories written any faster when you call them lazy. When you demand more. When you mock them for being behind on their deadlines. When you email them to “get back to work”.

I know writers who typically put out two to three books a year who have struggled to finish one thing this year, and when they’re coming out the other side, holding up a new book, feeling like they’ve just climbed Everest, they get snarky responses like “Ugh, finally–what took so long”.

Tell me, have you written a book?

During a global pandemic?

While multiple friends and family are sick and dying?

Afraid that every time you go to the grocery store you’re going to die?

Knowing that by not releasing a new book, you can’t afford groceries?

Shaming doesn’t work and we are painfully aware at all times that we’re disappointing readers.

Believe me, not releasing a book in over a year hurts. We can’t coast on existing monthly sales (at least, no one I know can). Our incomes rely on regularly releasing books–I promise, no one is intentionally jerking around readers. Ninety percent of my clients are struggling and I realize it’s a small sample size but all of them I’ve talked to have said everyone they know is struggling as well. You’d be hard-pressed to find another point in recent history where all writers, on a global scale, are missing deadlines and struggling to this degree. And as they have delays, their editors–both freelance and among larger publishers–are then struggling as well. Artists are struggling. It’s affecting the entire publishing ecosystem, whether you’re with the Big Four or self-publishing or anything in between.

A friend of mine has talked openly about the fact that a few years ago she posted an update apologizing for being behind schedule on a book but her father had just died and she was traveling for the funeral so she’d be a little while before she could dive back in–and immediately she received replies back that said, without exaggeration, “everyone’s got problems–that’s no excuse, get back to work.”

In April of this year I was literally bedridden for several days, in tremendous pain, possibly facing a life-threatening emergency if the bedrest didn’t help, struggling with a super high fever, and I posted–from bed! on my iPad!–the monthly excerpt on Patreon a couple of weeks behind schedule (still in April!) with apologies and an explanation…and immediately had complaints that I wasn’t active enough posting there so folks were withdrawing support. Which honestly did not surprise me because in 2014 when I spent six months in bed with a mystery illness before diagnosis, I expressed my apologies and said it would be time before Oblivion could be written and right away I go a dozen emails telling me they didn’t care about my health and I “owed” them that book.

So, like, two examples, but if either of them seem a little cruel to you?

Consider for a moment that most writers have been through–are going through!–the equivalent of that for a year and a half now. Whether they tell you the intimate details of their lives–which no one is actually entitled to know!–or not, there is no reason to be snarky, mean, or demanding.

Writers are not vending machines. With a few exceptions, we are not churning out books nonstop regardless of the collective trauma everyone is going through right now. And you know what? This post isn’t even about me. I had a pretty productive few months–and I’ve been tremendously proud of what I’ve accomplished–so while I get a bit of shit, it is nothing compared to what friends and clients of mine are getting from people.

Atop everything going on, it’s exhausting. And it does not make writing during all of this any easier.

If your favourite writer has been unusually quiet with the book updates or behind their usual schedule, consider there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. You do not need to email or DM them reminding them that they’re failing you by not putting out a new book. And when they do release something or make an announcement? Here are some things you can say:

• congratulations!
• looking forward to it!
• I’m so happy for you!
• preordered!
• I’m so excited I’m going to reread your other books in preparation!

It costs you nothing to choose a patient, decent response instead of a bitchy one.

Try to think of points in your life when you’ve been fighting to stay afloat, already aware that you’re disappointing everyone, worried about your income, dealing with major life trauma, and consider how the harshest words did not get you out of that spiral. Consider the kinds of things that helped.

In essence: be kind to people.

Creatives are struggling just as much as everyone else through this.

Months ago I said I’d get some more books listed on Etsy. I finally did this week, mostly because I’m saving up for some dental work for Shawn not to mention I want some senior wellness checks on my two cats who turned ten this year; September cleaned me out, because while I had Shawn’s wellness check planned and budgeted, I had to get a new laptop at the start of the month and then lost my nineteen-year-old cat at the end of the month.

Of course I looked at the boxes Shawn was sitting on and thought hey! I have a stack of unsold stock here!

It does cost money to keep a lot of listings at Etsy, which is why I wasn’t in a rush to do it. But the holidays are approaching and I was informed at the post office today that parcel delivery will be slooooow (and for some countries nonexistent), so now’s a good time for gifts buying!

I’ve got Elis, Livi, and The Silent Places up, plus two gift boxes are left for Blood Ties and The Silent Places. The gift boxes are just that: packaged in an attractive gift box (which is shipped wrapped in kraft paper) with the signed book and other often handmade goodies, so all you have to do is stick a gift tag on it and put it under the tree (or whatever your tradition is).

I have a few extra beaded bracelets I’ve made that I’ve been waiting to put together in a gift box, but I might list a couple separately to see if they sell. (I’ll poke at that this weekend.)

Etsy link is here: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AlchemyRed

I do refund shipping overcharges if I get to the post office and it’s cheaper than expected, and if you buy a couple of things, I’ll ship them together and that usually cuts down on shipping fees as well.

If you’re local and want a book, hit me up rather than use Etsy–I can take payment via e-transfer and make arrangements for pickup.

That’s about all that’s new here–I’m just super drained after the usual not-great birthday, especially losing Reuben when I did. I didn’t think he’d make it to the end of the year but he slid downhill that last week fast. Shawn’s been a little lost–he kept looking for Reuben in his usual spots, and I wish I could’ve taken him with me to the vet so he could’ve seen the euthanasia and hopefully understood on some level. He’s doing better now, though (when he’s not nagging me to clean the bathtub, disrespectful little fucker).

I need to do a quarterly book state of the union here, but I’m pretty exhausted with my shitty health and all the other stressors, so look for that hopefully next week. At least I’ll have news, which I did not anticipate having during the July one!

I feel like the Count by this point. But yes, two down! One to go.

I did not expect with that post late July when I said I hoped to have a second zero draft done by fall that a) I would immediately start a new unplanned book, finish it, and find it solid enough to schedule for publication, or b) I would, in fact, finish another zero draft on the literal first day of fall. But I did, last night.

I’m particularly surprised because I’ve had this book in progress for over three and a half years and I’d resigned myself to the fact that I’d never finish it.

I rewrote the first 20K about four times.

It’s taken me that long to really figure out what the book is and what story I wanted to write. I started off thinking it would be a fun, semi-cozy sort of mystery. But while I like to read those…I cannot write them. It’s not sustainable for me to do for a book let alone a whole series. I like writing darker. I like writing weirder. So I rewrote the book in different POVs, different tenses, and felt like I finally got the voice down. Then I had a crisis of faith and abandoned it for another couple of months, but I needed a break before I tackled more Dweller revisions, and I thought I’d start poking it again.

Then, after writing over 12K words (that is not a typo) yesterday, I finished the very rough zero draft at last.

Working on a mystery is a very different kind of experience, even though that’s what I wrote many, many years before I did anything fantasy related, and I needed to learn–and relearn–different skills. So this one is going to require heavy revision and I think next time I’ll just write really lean and worry about layering in other elements later. Even having the full picture in my head is not the same as having the full picture in draft format.

There’s a lot in it I’m really happy with and excited to eventually share, however. At this point, I expect it’ll launch spring 2023, giving me a bit of time to work on sequels as well as other WIPs. Amazon won’t let me set up a preorder more than a year in advance but I might get it up on other stores soon.

The last thing I want is to be juggling another series but a different genre lets me stretch different muscles and, as always, there remains a chance that maybe this’ll be the thing that takes off. (I mean, realistically, probably not; there’s a venn diagram between what sells and what I write and they do not overlap. But! We can hope.)

I absolute credit my recent productivity with Patreon.

My sincerest thanks to everyone who has joined in at the weekly write-ins on Saturday nights. I set those up while I was a little manic on steroids, not really thinking it through and unsure whether anyone would even join. Of course Dina was quick to support me so it wasn’t just me showing up alone, and a few others have consistently been writing as well. That commitment was a push to get raw words in, which in turn helped shut off the inner editor and a lot of the pressure I feel to just write and reconnect with writing. Unlike other creative endeavors I’ve done over the years (painting, drawing, guitar, piano), I’ve always loved every aspect of writing. Even when it’s hard. I love drafting, I love revising, I love picking at a book and reading it past the point when I should be hating it.

Writing for publication means one often stops enjoying it, however, because everything becomes about other people’s needs and wants instead of one’s own. Shutting out those other voices and just focusing again on me and the stories I want to tell has made a huge difference in productivity.

Now with two zero drafts down (and an accidental new haunted house novel), I’ve got two other books on the schedule I haven’t started yet (Hell Fire, Elis #3; A Wild Kind of Darkness, Waverly #2) and another WIP I’m 50% through to hopefully finish…maybe by winter? I’m keeping pressure-free right now and my expectations low, but still trying to steal as much time as I can whenever I feel well enough to work to get as much writing done as I can. It would be nice to stay on a roll here.

Fingers crossed.

For now? I better nap lol.