Why I Was On Hiatus

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you will have noticed I’ve been pretty absent for the last few months and I wish that hadn’t been the case. Especially because I have almost 400 followers (wow) and I want to put out quality content.

The problem is that I’ve been so stressed the last few months with new clients for my freelance writing, working on my own novel and doing art commissions that I haven’t had the time. And when I do have the time, I just want to watch TV and switch off for a while. Not the most glamorous, but it is what it is. I’m going to do a more in-depth post in the near future where I discuss my freelance career and how it’s working out for me so far (spoiler: it’s touch and go but slowly getting there)

Another reason why I haven’t been blogging is that I’ve been in a reading slump. A really bad one.

I don’t know what it is, but hardly any books have caught my attention. I even DNFd two books that I thought I would like, and one of them really disappointed me. I might do a post on those instead of full reviews to explain why because I’m not the only person that had issues with it. I can count on one hand the number of books I’ve loved in the last few months and those were Vicious by V. E. Schwab and A Court of Mist and Fury (as well as the third but it wasn’t as good in my opinion). Although, I started A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir yesterday and I am hooked! It also helps that it was only £0.99 on the kindle, so I couldn’t resist. It’s been ages since I felt like this and I’m so happy. Hence why I feel it’s time to get back into my blogging.

It’s has also made me think about what I want on my blog in terms of content. I know most of you follow me for my reviews and posts on books, but I want to incorporate other aspects of my life too. I want to talk about my own writing, tips and tricks for other people that want to be a freelancer and also show off my artwork. In the new year I want to create more art so I can one day set up a shop and sell prints, as well as taking on commissions.

In fact, I’ll put some of my drawings up so you can all see and if you’re interested at all in a commission you can drop me a comment on this post! I don’t have any Christmas slots but will be opening up for commissions in the new year.

The last few months haven’t been easy, but I’m going to make an effort to keep up with the blog and share my life with you all! It feels good to be back again.

Let’s Catch Up…

So, if you’ve been following my blog for a while now you may have noticed that for the majority of July I was pretty absent. The last blog post I sent out was the 11th, and while I wished I had the motivation to blog…I just didn’t. I’m writing this post to explain a couple of the reasons why I disappeared and how I’m going to try my best to make this blog what it used to be. If not better.

July was a really tough month for me and a lot happened in such a short space of time that I lost a lot of motivation, not just with my blog, but also with my writing (which you all know is something I love). In the first half of the month I was ill twice, which really zapped it out of me, and towards the second half I had some personal issues to deal with, as well as being made redundant. That last one was the hardest to deal with as it happened suddenly and I didn’t have a lot of time to adjust.

Luckily, I had an amazing manager who helped me make my CV and cover letter the best it could be and I managed to get 3 interviews before my notice period was even over. I also have another one to go to this week and I’m waiting to hear back from two on whether I am being offered the job. It’s been so stressful because I’m not living at home anymore and there are a lot of bills to pay, so ideally I need someone to offer me a job this week. Somehow I’m managing to hold it together, but while all this has happened I let all my hobbies slide to the side.

I only read two books throughout the whole month, which is very unlike me and I am behind on reviewing 5 books (which probably won’t get reviewed now but I might do mini ones instead). The books I read (and that I absolutely loved) were:

However, I managed to work on my drawings as well, as I am hoping to open up a website and take commissions soon. So, if any of you are interested in that be sure to drop me a message! Here are the two pieces I worked on, one of which is completed and I gave to my mum for her 50th birthday (she cried):

In terms of my writing, it started off really well in the month and my WIP currently stands at 50,000 words. It is the story of my heart and is so special to me in so many ways. I adore the characters that I have created and I genuinely feel proud of the story, which is something I have never felt before. Then everything went bad and I stalled once I’d reached the major conflict in the novel. However, I started re-reading my work that I’ve written so far to make notes for each chapter (because I have a brain like a sieve) and it’s given me so many ideas to progress the story.

One amazing thing that came out of July is that I found myself an incredible critique partner (CP) called Noelle, and honestly, she is amazing (it just sucks that she lives in Florida). Working through my first five chapters with her has made them 100 times better and she pushes me to work harder because she knows I can do better sometimes. It’s also been incredible to get another persons viewpoint on my story and to hear that it’s amazing and has so much potential is the best thing ever. My confidence as a writer has grown and I truly believe that I could one day publish this book.

I suppose another great thing that happened recently was that I met Tomi Adeyemi, author of Children of Blood and Bone! I won’t talk about that too much as I want to write a blog post on the experience but it was amazing! I’ll just show off one picture of the book that she signed for me and the motivational words she wrote.

There we have it! Everything that has happened over the last month or so. I just wanted to get all this off my chest and explain to you why I was gone, especially when I didn’t post that I was taking a hiatus. Also, seeing the fact that I have over 350 followers is giving me the motivation to bring you quality content. No, it may not always be book tags and book reviews, there might be the odd post thrown in about my art, my writing and how life is going in general, but that’s what I want this blog to be about.

A great way to also keep up with me is on Twitter (over here) because I am very active there and it’s the perfect place to keep up with my writing and see weekly snippets.

I can’t wait to dive back in the blogging world and catch up with all that I’ve missed!