So, between videos about Ukraine and Russia, funny pets and Karens put in their place, I stumbled upong a Zoomer explaining TikTok algorithms and how the social media works… I guess I won’t get anywhere with my account (especially since they keep silencing my videos if I put the soundtrack from my phone), but I’ll keep posting until I have fun.

Yes, he offers a free guide, but he wants my phone# besides my email… er, no, thanks, hon, I hate the phone and I definitely don’t want you to call me or message me or whatever you need my phone for. I’m not even American! 😦 Besides, I don’t have the energy to do what he says I should do at this time.

Last week was mostly editing, so not much writing done (a little over 5K), but I still feel sort of burned out, or at least my creativity is sleeping. I mean, I’m still writing, so everything is okay, right? Not! I have mentioned I’m unhappy with whatever I wrote in the past two years, and maybe my esteemed colleague Ron Collins is right when he says:

I was not “blocked” after all. I could still throw down words. But it was like I was a potter at the wheel. I could drop clay down, but that clay wasn’t forming. Life was so intense, you know. So undecided. On the one hand I felt “safe” in that so few of us needed to brave the pandemic (and “safe” in that I am fortunate enough to be in a position where I and my family can survive with my trickle of writing income), but that just served to make me feel guilty for being overwhelmed (when I knew so many had things worse). Looking back, I can see that while everything was stagnant, nothing was stable. If I looked forward a few months, I could not make any certain statements about what life was going to be like.

I might have kept writing and publishing, but wasn’t really happy with the results. So I might be even slower from now on, especially in publishing. I might keep those stories on file until I’m sure I can make them better, or keep writing them, or whatever it is I can do with them.

Yes, of course, I’m still writing, but you probably won’t see many results after I publish the Otherside books and a couple of other collections I have already written, and only need to be sent to Mighty Editor. I don’t know what my next project will be because I’m improvising.

Maybe I’ll go back to drawing for a while, or watch more movies or anything else that might boost my creativity (a suggestion I got from the post above, hence I suggest you read it all, so I’m re-linking to it).

I got some Kickstarter rewards, and since they’re not on Bookbub, I’m giving the Goodreads link. It’s comic books of fables and fairy tales from all over the world, with different artists and writers involved. The first I read is Tamamo the Fox Maiden and Other Asian Stories (mostly from China, Japan and India, but also a few more). There’s even a short version of Mulan, and a kitsune – and lots of tigers in the Indian stories! 😉

Then there’s The Girl Who Married a Skull: and Other African Stories – some drawings I didn’t like at all, and one of the stories was very similar to one of the Indian ones, but it was nice. There’s three more, but I’ll review them next week.

And then there’s another 20 or so ebooks of fiction (and one non-fiction) I still have to read, but I need to put them on the new kindle and I haven’t done that yet. I started on a big paperback of short stories, so it will probably take me some time to get to them. And I also have half-a-dozen or so in PDF that I want to print out (but maybe, eventually, I’ll just put the mobi file on my TBR list) and a few bundles as well… hopefully this is the year my TBR pile goes down! 😉

If you’re a sci-fi fan, you might want to check this IASFA bundle (no, I’m not in it, but I know some of those names!)!

Talented authors. Remarkable stories. One incredible science fiction collection. IASFA brings you a massive science fiction book bundle!

Bestselling and debut authors have created worlds where invasions are apocalyptic and space empires are in peril. The universe is beyond our understanding…and sometimes, what we don’t know can kill us.

Aliens, warships, royalty, intrigue, and battle, sometimes fought only within one’s mind, other times with railguns, plasma beams, and blasters. Never a dull a moment as you choose from fifteen full-length books. When we discover we’re not alone in the universe, will you be prepared?

IASFA’s Science Fiction Book Bundle, available now. https://20bookpacks.com/IASFA-SF2022

And that’s all for today! Have a great week! 🙂