I was asked a question on how this book I am currently is different than all my other books. 

That's simple. 

​It's completely different. 

The first thing that is different is that I am plotting out every thing. Every last thing I possibly can. Actually let me change plotting to blueprinting. I am living inside my new world and taking all the notes I absolutely can at each visit. This is entirely new to me. 

I am a pantser by nature, but have found when it comes to my writing I end up adding so much after the story is finished it hinders my flow. Over the last year, I spent time really analyzing my writing process and business. Turns out I am not a pantser with writing. 

The second thing that is completely different is I'm writing outside of my normal genre. This is something I have wanted to try for a long time now, but I let fear take ahold and shove that "dream" into a box. I said enough with that and broke the chains. 

I am still hesitant to release a book like this one, but new adventures and what not. That's my motto for 2021. 'Do the things that make me happy.' 

More so here than anywhere else, I'll share my process of writing this book. It's going to be a doozy, that's for sure. 

Hope your week has been spectacular! 

2020 was absolutely exhausting on our mental health. Some of us may have been able to navigate through the murky waters and trudge to the other side. While the other half of us were only able to do all they could just to stay afloat. It was all new territory and we didn't know what to do. Confusion. Fear. Disappointment. Anger. It all circulated. And it did it rapidly. We grabbed on to the hope that 2021 would be better. Everything would magically disappear and we would all be living our normal, respective lives again. 2021 had nothing to do with that. If I'm being honest. 

We just wanted something to look to to make us feel better. There's nothing wrong with that. To want things to get better? To want hope for humankind? No. I think I can live with knowing that we placed ourselves in something to hopefully pull us back out again. 

If you didn't know I don't hide my mental health on social media. Actually, I post quite often on Instagram about it. This is how this blog came about. I want to open up my avenue a little wider. 

Mental illness is not something we should be ashamed of. And most definitely something we should talk about. 

It is a part of you. No matter how much you hate it. It is a part of you. There is absolutely no reason why you need to keep that hidden from people because it's too... I don't even know what people classify mental health/illness as. Taboo? Depressing? Yeah, tell us about it. 

But that's what we need. We need more room to talk about the things that bother us, the things that trigger an episode, things that we just cannot move past. There has been an influx in mental health cases for the past twenty years. 

Why? Look back at the last two decades. What has happened in that time? I think we all have a few instances that have occurred in history to accumulate increased mental illness. There is absolutely no doubt why we are crumbling from the inside out. But we have it in our heads that it's weak. People don't need to talk about it to know it's there. To me, that's the wrong kind of thinking. We are not weak for wanting talk about our mental. We are not weak for succumbing. We are not weak. 
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Please hear that. See that. And absorb it. YOU are not WEAK. 

I speak often on mental health/illness, but that doesn't mean I have all the answers. I don't. Not even close. What I have is knowing we can't do this alone. We shouldn't have to do this alone. Later on down the road, I might share somethings that help me, personally, but they may not help you. And that's okay. There isn't a one for all type of cure for this. Is there even a cure for it? See, I don't know all the answers. 

I am just someone behind a screen extending a hand to you. My social media profiles are all over my websites, but I will link them here. You can also reach out to me there, or just lurk in the shadows. That's cool, too. 

Remember. Today is another day. One foot in front of the other. We will make it to the other side. Whether it's scraped, bruised, or mangled. We will make it. Together.

Much love and much hope.