Sorry if this post is a bit disjointed. My dog is very sick with something called HGE. I can’t spell what it stands for but long story short, she might die, and I really don’t feel like losing another family member this year.
Frankly, I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know if I should ignore my dog’s illness and pretend to be happy and ramble on about nice things. Mother’s Day was last week, slightly overshadowed (in my mind, anyway) by my college graduation and the fact that I made Mom’s present on the Wednesday after the fact. (I made her some homemade apple butter, and by some miracle, everything worked perfectly despite the makeshift canner boiling over for ten straight minutes). And then, of course, a family friend is graduating from high school, and so we went to her graduation yesterday. That was fun.
You know, looking back at the good things that have happened over the past week are kind of helping me be less sad about Zuma.
It makes sense, really. I was listening to a clip of Jordan Peterson (he’s a Canadian psychologist and a brilliant man), and he was talking about disputes between married couples. He said that, sometimes, he’d tell his clients to keep track of every interaction they had with their spouse, and to list if it was positive or negative. If there were fewer than five positive interactions for every single negative interaction, the couple was more likely to get divorced. This, Peterson says, is because humans find it easier to remember the negative things and take the positives for granted.
At the same time…people have a right to feel sad sometimes. I’m not very good at processing emotions. Which, given that part of my job is translating emotions into words and having my characters express themselves, is a bit odd. Such is life, I suppose. I know that it’s healthy to feel sad sometimes, but I don’t know how to express that sadness when I do feel it. I guess I’ll figure it out eventually.
Anyway, this is going to be a short blog post (again). Sorry, guys. I’m working on Where Arrows Fall and I’m almost done with the second draft. With my writing process, the second draft is actually a complete rewrite of the first draft (new document and everything) so it’s definitely the longest step in the book-writing process. I’ve been researching photographers because I want to have an actual photoshoot for the book cover rather than use stock photography like I have for the first two books. I’ve also been daydreaming about a fantasy novel that I hope to start working on full-time after I release Where Arrows Fall. I actually started the fantasy book, but the beginning is a bit depressing and I think I’m including too many details, so I haven’t worked on it in a while. I like to hide from my problems.
Anyway…got any advice for staying positive in tough times? Let me know in the comments below! God bless you, dear readers, and don’t forget to review us on Amazon!