Holy cow; I haven’t made a blog post in a really long time. As with last periods of blog-less-ness, this time is no different. Living here in the Oil and Gas capital of Canada, we’re slowly succumbing to the failing price of oil. This means job losses, increases in the cost of living, and lots and lots of stress.

That’s basically how it works

I work in the corporate office of an environmental company, supporting our production accounting and energy marketing teams. It’s a big job on a normal day, but add to that a reduction by half of my workforce, increase workload from other teams who are also understaffed, and you have a recipe for a full-on creative disaster. My day starts at 5:30 am, ends at around 7:00 pm, and I’m in bed by 10:00 pm to start it all again the next day. That leaves three hours in the day to squeeze in the all-important family time and attempt to do any writing.

I am still writing, thankfully. I try to do it daily, although much of my writing doesn’t make it outside of my computer. The Rose Cross Academy Book 2 is gearing up for launch and surviving the onslaught of one last beta reader before final editing happens. Whether or not I’ll be able to have my book professionally edited all comes down to whether or not the company I work for can make it’s next debt payment or not. There’s a fifty-fifty chance that by Halloween, I’ll be unemployed. It’s just a reality all us in Oil & Gas have to face.

Surviving adversity is becoming a mainstay around here. After my own recent diagnosis of anxiety disorder, family members succumbing to cancer, and a mystery ailment affecting me, every day is becoming a delicate balance between doing what I love and want to do (which is writing) and trying to stay afloat in this terrible world. But enough about that and the horrible run-on sentences, let’s get to the interesting stuff!

Find Time to Enjoy Life

I discovered several online communities for writers in which I’m actively participating. Facebook groups, Wattpad communities . . . I’m feeling like I belong again, after so many months of being a hermit trying to keep her job. I’ve come to the conclusion that whatever happens will happen whether or not I work myself to the bone or not. So therefore, I cannot single handedly prevent the economy from spiraling down the great Liberal toilet. So I need to enjoy myself lest I fall further into mental illness.

It’s fun to participate in conversations about writing with other writers. I’ve tried meet-ups where no one socializes, I’ve tried writers groups full of older, stuffy men and women who frown upon paranormal fiction. Neither were for me. It’s ironic for my introverted nature, that all my best writing buddies are now solely online.

Risers and Dreamers on Wattpad

In order to drum up interest in Grimms & Garms, Book #2 in the Rose Cross Academy series (which has received zero marketing or publicity due to time constraints), I’m putting up Book #1, Risers & Dreamers, on Wattpad for free and announcing the chapters to my Instagram followers and slowly moving into Twitter as well.

…and with a brand new cover!

NaNoWriMo 2016 Prep

It’s almost October; time for NaNoPlanMo. This year, I’m fleshing out my new series, The Gamemasters, as my project for this November. The Gamemasters follows three teens out of 120 other players chosen as beta testers for a virtual reality video game that ends up trapping them and picking them off one by one. If you watch enough anime, you’ve certainly heard of Sword Art Online, which was a major inspiration for this novel. This will be in the sci-fi genre of young adult with a second book. I’m not sure if I’ll write a third book or not; we’ll see how NaNo goes this year.

Well, that felt good to get out. I haven’t blogged in a while. Let’s see where the universe takes us over the remainder of the year. Hopefully things will start to look up, hopefully the economy will begin to recover, and hopefully I’ll still have a job. If not, well, then I’ll just have to make a new plan.

Until next time!

-Rissa