A writing slump, "the ring", and a new infatuation (which I hope is temporary).

It's been a funny month for me. I've found it ridiculously hard to get going this month in most areas of my life, as if my mind and body have just gone, "Nope. I ain't getting back to work, not yet - I need a longer break."

On the writing front, well, it's certainly happening, but at a pace about 66% slower than I'd like. I write 500 words and then I stop. It's like my brain chooses to shut down after just half an hour or so of writing. It's not fun; it's not productive, but there seems to be not a lot I can do about it at the moment. I've spent many hours analysing it and trying to come up with a solution - maybe it's burnout, maybe it's distraction, maybe it's writer's block - and I've come up with nothing, because it doesn't feel exactly like any of those things. There's a chance that it's partly grief, but I don't really want to talk about that. And grief is such an elusive bugger it doesn't a hundred percent feel like grief either.

I have hit the 10% mark with Disgraced. Like I said, I should have hit 30% by now, but it's just not happening. The story is there, but writing anything feels like trudging through mud. However, I usually post an excerpt for readers every 10% or so, so here is the first one...

Ooooo ... exciting, huh? Yes, I did - I got very excited about this excerpt :) Despite what I've just said above, I am still confident about getting the book out to you by the end of April. I'm just going with it and trusting that somewhere in here, I know what I'm doing and it'll all work out.

Other non-writing things

I will not harp on, again, about how I've just got engaged to my ten-year partner, but I did promise you all a look at the ring. Well, I've taken over ninety pictures of the ring and I'm not one little bit ashamed of that :D

I've included one mosaic picture for you to see, and two pictures where I managed to catch the diamond's "glow"...

Glow #1 (unfiltered)

Glow #2 (unfiltered)

All taken under natural light, then put into a mosaic, then filter added to soften the edges of overall image.

In other non-writing news, I have been replenishing my make-up. This sounds very boring, and I was expecting it to be very boring, but I haven't really even LOOKED at make-up for twenty years (all my old make-up that I threw out was twenty years old - I barely ever wear the stuff, which is why it lasts so long), and my gosh! Make-up has changed a lot since I last shopped for it! The variety now seems even greater than it was then, and I found myself lost in this massive sea of beautiful craziness. A lot of high-end brands have upped their game, too, in the last twenty years, taking out a lot of nasties from their ingredients, and the selection of natural make-up (from smaller, unknown cosmetic companies) has also grown. It remains really hard to find natural / (mostly) organic make-up that actually looks good and stays on, but there are some successes if you bother to take the time to look and try them. I have also become rather infatuated with make-up palettes (from any brand, high-end or drugstore; I'm not being fussy in this instance) - they're so PRETTY. When did that happen? Make-up used to be so boring to look at - not any more!

Anyway... yes, bye-bye twenty-year make-up; hello new pretty world of bad-for-my-pocket fun.

Back to writing... 

Look out for the blurb and cover reveal for Summer's End on 13th February, hosted by Hot Tree Promotions. While there's an outside chance I might not get this book written this year (it's last on my list of three), I do want the cover and blurb out there - it's very motivating for the writing to have it out there.

So, this is my plan: chill out, relax, don't worry. Everything will work out eventually, because it always does.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend, everyone :)

Dianna xx