And it's already a bestseller!

You can get your copy from Evernight, Amazon US, and Amazon UK, as well as wherever else your favourite ebooks are sold!

That's a crazy line-up of talent, I can tell you. I can't wait to dig into my copy!

Now, at some point I'll stop by properly and explain what happened to Anti-Nano and why I haven't been checking in, but I don't think I have the energy for it today, so I'm just going to wish you all a happy Saturday and suggest you curl up with a good book and enjoy yourselves! ;)

Right. Let's just get it out of the way. I did end up watching all the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films all weekend, I did not do anything else at all apart from eat and sleep, and I do regret nothing.

I've been dealing with recurring tension headaches for about eight days now, and by Friday last week, despite my best intentions, I was just feeling too low and wrung out to think. I just felt like I was about to burst into tears constantly. So I gave myself the weekend off. I slept in, ate homemade cheesecake (thank you, Nero <3) and watched films, and it was blissful. And today I woke up without a headache for the first time in days, so that's a win!

So with that out of the way, let's check the stats:

Word count: 46026
Have you written every day?: See above. I haven't written since Thursday last week.
Best line written: N/A
Tea status: The dregs of my precious Spiced Pumpkin Pie chai from Bluebird Tea Co.
Soundtrack: 

Plans for the week: Write, goshdarnit! Starting today. Hopefully on Wednesday I'll be back with a snippet! Happy Monday, everyone!

Basically this. Someone wiser than me once said something to the effect of "butt + chair = writing." After weeks of just feeling vaguely anxious about writing, and thus avoiding it, I figured I may as well try the formula. I put my butt in the chair, opened Slater's Claim, and have so far added about 1700 words to it over the past couple of days. That doesn't feel like much, but it's 1700 more words than zero, which is what I was producing, so it's a win.

So, some stats!

Word count: 46026
Have you written every day?: So far, since 1st November, yes. I haven't written yet today, but plan to this evening while Nero records a podcast episode.
Best line written: Alessi chuckled, the sound like knives in Slater's back. “I've never been a civilised man. But I'm willing to be persuaded.”
Tea status: I've been living off Rosie Lea Tea's caramelised pumpkin brew this week.
Soundtrack:
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Weekend plans: Nero bought the full Lord of the Rings/Hobbit blu ray extended edition mega set this week, which is about thirty discs' worth of Tolkien geekery. I am not planning to watch the whole thing this weekend, but we're definitely going to start. That being the case, I need to make the most of my early mornings. I usually get up a couple of hours before Nero to do physio, have breakfast and read. This weekend it'll be physio, breakfast, and write. I hope...We'll see on Monday, I guess! Happy Friday, folks!

Oh man. November already, and Slater's Claim still isn't finished. Ugh.

I'll confess, I've been going through a minor crisis of confidence for the past few months. This hits me periodically as a writer. I start to doubt my talent and skills, start to worry about the choices I'm making, the books I'm writing, whether I'm really any good, and whether I would be happier if I stopped writing for publication and just wrote for myself.

Usually this is really about something completely different from writing. Writing is just an easy thing to project my anxiety onto. Much easier than facing up to whatever the real problem is. This time though, it kinda was about the writing mostly, with a side order of grief, illness, and probably a touch of seasonal affective disorder (which is ongoing). Thanks, brain! The bottom line is, I've been avoiding writing for the most part since the end of August, and that's why Slater's Claim is still unfinished, despite my confident (and obviously fake) claims that it'd be done in September. And then in October. Again, ugh.
​

So what's a girl to do? Books don't write themselves, and no matter how much I'm occasionally tempted to jack it all in and stop writing for publication, I don't actually want to. I love sharing stories. For me, the whole point of writing a story is to share it. So I've got to get back to it. And, well, here's November.

I don't do NaNoWriMo. But traditionally in November, for the past several years, I've entered into the spirit of Nano with Anti-Nano, my own month-long challenge where I set a writing goal and keep myself accountable with bi-weekly check-ins on the blog. My goal this month is simple: Just Fucking Write. I'm not setting a daily word count. The important thing is to re-establish the daily writing habit. Once that's back in place, everything else will follow. Obviously I'll be working on Slater's Claim, so hopefully maybe this month I really can finish it!

I've got plenty of other stuff to work toward in November too. The LAWLESS anthology is out later this month and I cannot wait for you to read Vandal's story. I loved writing it so much, and I really want to write more stories about Psycho City MC. I've also just had an acceptance for a vampire menage story called SOUL REUNION (you can read the blurb here). I don't have a release date yet, but I'm excited for this one too! It was originally part of a vampire-themed anthology, but I've extended it and polished it up, and I'm pretty damn proud of it!

Away from writing, I have a couple of other goals I want to work on this month. First is daily yoga/physio. I was getting some good results for my knackered shoulder in the summer with a few sessions a week, but in October I pretty much stopped altogether. I want to get back into the habit, so I'm aiming for short, daily sessions before bed.

Second is giving up Starbucks /o\ I don't know why I'm doing this to myself. I actually don't have a massive Starbucks habit. I get maybe two or three drinks a week from them. But I'm me, so I always get horrifically calorific drinks laden with cream /o\ My diet could always stand to be improved, and cutting out those Starbucks trips is a good, attainable first step in changing some other bad habits. I will regret this next time I walk past Starbucks, but I'm determined to stick with it. Think of me as you sip your zombie frappucino, or whatever they're currently serving.

So! That seems like plenty to be going on with. Check back on Friday to see how I'm coping without green tea lattes. Happy November!