I make no secret I struggle with mental health. Like the tides to the ocean, it ebbs and flows. Sometimes it crashes against the beach aggressively, dramatically or beautifully. Despite my swimming skills learnt since diagnosed at 14, I still struggling managing the waves. Lately, it’s affected my motivation and inspiration with my writing and the silence that can come from social media being the point of contact with my writing can be deafening.
Being an independent author, not only do I need to write the books, edit the books, re-edit the books, edit the books some more, format the books, re-format the books, format the books some more, but I also need to market the books. This is not my strong suit. I do it well when I do it, but I don’t do it often enough and this whole social media “algorithm” thing I have to compete with or conquer, I am not wired that way. Tik Tok brings me joy so I do love to create marketing videos.
Hard work! Add mental health to all of that and current tides of the world around us (Covid, War, Phobics, Rights, etc.), I need a boost and that’s where I’ve been grateful for helping start up a local writing group at Penrith City Library. Though I’m facilitating it atm, I’m looking forward to going in and writing with others and talking about this current round of struggling with writing I have going on.
On top of these hurdles though, I’m proud of the things I am doing. I’m proud of the volunteer work I do for Western Sydney Rainbow Connections. I’m proud of the work I’ve done for Penrith City Library. I hope to do more. I’m also proud that I’ll be on a Writing Panel at Art Gallery of NSW this month! Yes, that’s right, I’m going to be on display in a museum! Come check me out: Here.
Otherwise, if you need an inclusive editing team yourself (details on my Commission’s Site), inspired by my works or just want to donate, you can do so here.