This week I celebrate a month of Falling For Forever being out in the world and 'Published Author' is still something that sounds foreign to me. 

If you follow me on Instagram you know that the weeks leading up to release day were a tad bit chaotic and appropriately followed by a vacation from hell. I'm certain my cortisol levels haven't returned to its baseline. So I wasn't really surprised when five days post release I started feeling really low; I was certain that the chaos and issues were the reason I didn't feel great about post-release life. Don't get me wrong, I loved, and still love, seeing my books in the wild, in reviews and on the feeds. It's the highlight of author life. Yet, something in my gut felt...unsatisfied, unresolved, and something akin to disappointment. Checking my reports and the ol' comparison game did not help. Shocker.

I had a second draft (for Book 2) that I was scheduled to work on, but couldn't get into. I had marketing of Falling to do, that only made me feel worse. I had no idea what was happening but, taking some good advice, I pre-scheduled my content for a few days and took a step back. 

It wasn't until a fellow writer in my author group spoke about post-release blues that I recognized what was going on. So, I closed my drafting software and binged tv. I went for walks instead of plotting. I read the works of others instead of trying to resolve my own. Until the spark came back. Kinda.

Book 2 is still laborious to me, and marketing is still pulling teeth. But I've been working on something new, short, and challenging. Something that pushes my limits and is nothing like what I've written before. And hopefully, just maybe, through this, I'll be fully ignited again. 

xox Sia