Once again, I’m doing a couple of AtoZ challenges.
(and I’ve not always completed them, but this year, I’m actually excited for it!
This year, I’ll be doing the AtoZ of my books on Booksbykai, while over here, I’ll be doing the AtoZ of me, and trying to find a few new things to surprise people with that they may not already know about me, or didn’t realise that’s what I meant. Of course, there will be information about Ludosport and music, and mental health, and writing, and other stuff, but I hope there will be some stuff that people don’t know about, and maybe…enjoy and get to know me more.
I’ll be writing a lot of it in my office, and I already know that I’ll be doing at least a couple of live videos to go with them. I’m excited for this. And I’ll be doing Camp Nanowrimo too, though the 2023 announce for *that* is coming later this week!
If you’d like a roundup of both, or are joining in, I’d love to hear from you. Roundups of both will be on my newest site, where I’m trying to pull everything down into a little series of boxes and easy to see what I’m up to. The Kai-DIgest (or Kaigest) will be available from April 1st, but if you’d like to sign up before then, we have a nice little Substack segment on my main newsletter.
If you’re doing the AtoZ this year, comment below, let me know. I’ll be sharing a list of all my visitors before and after the AtoZ this year, and I’m looking forward to making lots of new friends and finding lots of amazing blogs to add to my new reader system!
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
I’ve spent the last few months trying to work out what I’m going to do with myself. I’m not sure if I mentioned it, but the plan at the beginning of the year was to release 52 books this year. And when I said it, I was sincere, and I still am. But, had I known then what I know now….
I might have set the bar a little bit lower.
I wanted though to touch base. It’s been a busy first couple of months, and I’ve got several pieces of news. Firstly, the books are on track. I’ve got several draft books that I’ll be working on the proof copies of each. I’ve currently got three proof books to work through, all of which so I can release them as paperbacks. I’ve also finished Run Girl, Run, as a book, so will be establishing the site really soon and doing occasional updates there too. That site really is going to be designed around how I’m rebuilding my health ad life to manage my mental health, with the help of my hobbies and some other stuff. I want to talk about everything that goes into prepping for that book too.
Beyond that, I’m looking forward to everything that I’m working on and writing – mostly because I’ve got my new writing space! I shared a video on my Facebook, which I’ve attached here, but I’ll be setting more and more up – we’re talking about getting some bonsai trees for the desk for me too, so that’s going to be wonderful.
My new office!
Books coming up
So, I’m excited to announce the next set of books that I’ve got coming out. These aren’t all of them, and the backlist books aren’t a specific date.
Backlist
Memento Mori – proofing
Glass block – print proofing
10 hour Marketing Plan – proofing
12×12 – free book, social media support tutorials.
The Vivarium – a free story set in Darkness PD
Existence Oblivion
Releases
A House at War has been postponed
Starfall’s Edge – by the end of the month
The Endless lake (Starfall’s Edge book 2) March 13th
Of all the books though, I’ve already got Cry Havoc up and out. If it’s not linked, please check out BooksbyKai, there will be news on there, or the newsletter.
Alongside all of this, I’m studying, I’m improving my my mindset and more. But with the new space I have, I think I can do it all. I know I can. I’ll still be hosting and working on formatting and more still, but I’m slowly shifting to doing more stuff.
And then there’s the new stuff.
I’ve been asked to really focus on some stuff that I wanted to do, or I’ve been challenged to do. So I’ll be writing about that next, on Thursday, on BooksbyKai. BooksbyKai is also where AuthorInterrupted now lives, so if you’ve been looking for those old posts recently, it’s there.
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
I don’t often post about food on here, nor specific health stuff. I don’t want to be giving advice without making sure all the edges and ramifications are covered. So, disclaimer, what I’m talking about is what I’ve decided to try for me until I can talk to my GP and firm it all up.
I’d also like to ask that if you do comment, you don’t go after me for doing stuff this way, nor give me advice that sells me something. I’m not interested. If you’ve got genuine advice, and it would be something that I need to ask about, I’m happy to follow up, but, please don’t go full on with me, I’ve had a week of it already, and I’m not really keen on either approving a comment which could endanger others, nor take advice motivated simply by shilling, so please don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind well meaning advice, but if you say anything about certain things, I won’t approve your comment.
Dietary changes ahead…
So, after the iron conversation on Monday, I started looking into everything I could do. I’d sorta already landed on bone broth a few times in my research and brushed up against it again, but I had the week to plan it, as we do groceries on Friday. A conversation with my butcher later, and I got some lamb bones, and got the rest of the stuff I needed on Friday, so that was fine. (Yes, I’m aware that you can buy bone broth, I’m just not sure I want to, given the cost of living right now). Nutritional yeast and other stuff have also been grabbed, and that’s where I am right now. Waiting for more blood tests, I’ve now started adventures cooking my own bone broth. Which I’ll share once I’ve perfected it, but I cooked it yesterday, it’s all brilliant in the fridge for the stuff I needed for today (and either tonight or tomorrow, cause honestly, it’s SO tasty. I’m a bit surprised off the back of the first attempt to be honest. I’m not a vegetarian, but… I dunno, I wasn’t sure about dealing with bones. Nor the processes. (yesterday was a bit of a fun time. Blanche, roast, then pressure cook the bones, and though I’ve got 6lbs of bones, I’ve only used 2lb so far, so there was some to freeze after roasting, then cool, skim…there’s a lot about the process I think I need to perfect, but honestly? Around all of it, I could stick the stuff in to roast while making dough for bread, pressure cook it, keep the bread going and just spend a day in the kitchen making. And my Instant Pot made it so much easier.
Recipe coming later, but I figured I should talk about it a little bit more, and in depth in a place off my social media, because I think there’s going to be a lot about being anemic and treatments and how the NHS are saving my butt again coming up. And how it’s not going to slow me down.
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
It’s been a weird week at Casa Wilson-Viola. It started on Monday morning, waking up with THE worst cold, and wanting to get so much done, and then….getting a call about my blood tests from the Friday before. Turns out I’m incredibly anemic again, so I was right about that. And while that wasn’t a surprise, what came next kinda did.
I don’t know enough about anemia to actually talk about it properly, I just know what I know. And what I think might be going on, but I’m still waiting for some outstanding blood tests. That was why what came next was a bit…’what?’. So. I’m not just one type of anemic, I’m two. It could be that I’m actually only one, but I’ve got one version that’s different from the last time, that causes the second one, or if I’m actually two. So. Monday was the ‘omg, your iron count is really low’ anemia conversation. The last time I had it, I was two points lower than I am now, and went for infusions in January 2022. So, tests were arranged for once I shifted my cold, and that was that. Tuesday though, I got a text asking me to pick up some supplements from my pharmacy. I didn’t really get to talk to the doctor this time, but when I read ‘B12 and folate deficiency’, I started researching. Mostly because I wanted to work out what was ‘different’ this time, and whether it also explained the reason I asked (turns out, it doesn’t). I’ll talk about that a bit later, cause this week has been a bit of a pivot for me, without actually changing the general plans I had. You can be one type of anemic without the other, but this time I’m both. I’m unsure where that leaves me, and won’t know till I talk to my doctor about the tests and what my next steps are. For now, though, I wanted to share the after…
This week has been a perspective change…
I was talking to a friend about the things I was changing to get ‘better’, which added time to my day that I’d been clearing down for writing, but she raised something that led me to the idea that I wanted to share.
I’d been talking about how it kinda made sense that my motivation wasn’t there, why I was foggy and tired all the time, and I said that before, I’d have laid down and postponed stuff. Given in for now. But, the last week was basically ‘ok, so what do I do?’. Part of it is deciding that happiness is something I work for. Another part is that giving in…it’s not something I want to keep doing, and honestly? I can stay in bed and write. So, that’s where happiness is and isn’t something we earn comes from with me. Happiness is something you can work towards, by achieving goals, and it’s the type I’m cussed on right now I guess, but you can also stumble into it too.
Especially if your balance is anything like mine right now.
This week is a big one for me – I’ve got books to announce, projects to signpost and more, so don’t be surprised if there’s more posts than usual appearing, and if you’ve got questions about the dietary stuff, hold them? I’m writing that up next 😉
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
Things have dramatically changed for me here in the last four weeks. As a bit of a recap, I thought I’d share why. In June, I decided that I didn’t want to keep going the way I was, and, as people kept asking, I was going to launch a coaching project. And while there had been a lot of interest in private, in public, people were just…less engaged I guess. And that’s ok – with everything going on in the world, it might not just be the right time for it, but it left me feeling less than stellar, if I am honest.
Tempus and I have been talking for a while now and one of the things I had observed is it’s hard for me to care full time for myself, my daughter and the house and run my business, let alone write, which I’d barely had any time for. Tempus, who is my beloved other half came down with Covid a couple of weeks ago, and as he recovered, one of the things he said to me was that I could consider just stopping for a bit… he’d support my writing.
I run businesses, but I do it to write…
Ultimately, while I run a hosting, coding and formatting service, and planned to teach coaching classes, but I do it all – all of it – in aid of my family, and books. I’ve always thought of myself as an author, though I am really quite good at other stuff, apparently. And I’m very lucky – I get to do a lot of fun stuff. But…
The honest truth of all of this is as my daughter has grown older, although she manages college, there are other things, like me, that she finds very stressful, and unfortunately, as an adult, she is encountering them more and more. I’ve often got to support her, which is absolutely ok, but it has meant that I’ve got less time to do other stuff, and, as I have mental health issues too, something had to give. And it did. Luckily, the ‘give’ was a choice, rather than what I know other people often face, so now, I just…change direction. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and over the coming weeks, I’ll be explaining why.
At the end of the day, I’m lucky
While this isn’t how some people experience this kind of push, I am effectively now a part time looking after the house, and part time writing. Which is both exciting and scary. And I thought I’d be talking to you guys about it as we go, because, quite honestly, I think some of the advice will be useful – I hope – to other people. The next few weeks and months are going to be incredibly exciting for me – and I hope, for you guys following along. It does mean I get less time to play with code and other stuff, but honestly? I’ll happily trade that off, for now, to get to support my daughter, look after our house, and best of all, write. That adventure starts fully on October 1st, though I’ve been doing prep all month for it, around CV19, and other illnesses. ANd I’ve got some interesting stuff to show off, already. That’s coming up on Thursday 😉
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
Looking forward to those recipes.