Have you ever been running along and then suddenly faceplanted into freshly laid cement? While I’ve only faceplanted into slightly hardened cement (it was no less fun, let me tell you), I feel as if I’ve been metaphorically faceplanting for the past couple months.

I suppose that it’s just the way that things go. Technical errors caused a number of problems. The live Nanowrimo writing went fine so long as I didn’t try to put it up on the Internet. Currently, my Internet speed is so low that a five minute video takes almost a full day to upload. We’re trying to get that fixed. And the software I was using to record the writing process crashed my computer on November 30. I didn’t lose more than one chapter and one video, thankfully. Eventually I’ll get everything processed and uploaded, but for now, it’s fallen to a back burner.

Other writing goals and activities have not gone as planned. Formatting difficulties as well as disappointed expectations have been at play. And chronic illnesses love worsening at times like these. I recognize that many of these issues could be resolved by hiring people to do them, but that requires money or bartering. And I don’t have the funds for anything else, and I am fairly tapped on time as well.

So I have plugged along, doing the best I can. One of the more odd recent developments is that sleep is not restful, and the insomnia has worsened. For now, I’m trying to make the most of it. I spend a lot of time in prayer and meditation as well as plotting out different stories and working on projects. But I also know that this can’t continue like this.

Hopefully as several projects draw to a close, I’ll be able to rest again. In the meanwhile, I am still trying to take time to enjoy life. The time I have doesn’t change based on whether I enjoy it.

Now it may sound like this isn’t a good start to the new year, but…I still believe it will be a great one. Hard starts don’t mean hard roads all the way through. And perhaps this is necessary. I never really learned how to rest. I’ve always been so focused on my stories and other projects that I struggled to take time for myself or to relax. (In fact, I actually don’t know how to relax very well.) So perhaps the purpose of this is to teach me what that means. Eventually exhaustion will claim me, and then I will rest. (And if it doesn’t, I’ll be contacting some medical institutions to see if they’d like to conduct a few studies. Provided they fund my writing, of course. ;))

There’s lots of writing news on the horizon. I’m participating in more events and have many more stories about to be released. I’ve decided that 2016 is the year that I move through my backlist and see what is a good fit for traditional publishing and what is a good fit for indie. But more on that later. For now…blessings and joy to you all. Have a wonderful night, and may your sleep be sweet and restful.