We have a guest blogger today: the lovely and brilliant Yasmine Galenorn, New York Times Bestselling author of the Otherworld and Indigo Court series. Please give her a warm welcome!
So, today I have two releases. One is BONE MAGIC-book 7 in my Otherworld Series. The other is ETCHED IN SILVER, an Otherworld prequel novella in the INKED anthology (which Marjorie is also in!). And I’m exhausted. The promotional whirlwind has been dizzying. And now, I have to wait to see how the books do, and what my readers think. Another exercise in nail-biting and stress.
Writing is–in my biased opinion–the most wonderful job in the world. I get to do what I love for a living, I tell stories people want to hear, I play goddess as I make up all these worlds in my head, I get to take out my irritation via villains who are Evil Evil Evil. AND…people write to me telling me they love my books. How great is that? Well, pretty damned great.
However, writing is also an extremely stressful occupation, especially when it’s a fulltime job. Deadlines, rejection from editors, publishers, and readers, trash-talking reviews, fans who really want me to write X character in a different way, and I write multiple books in a year, so overlapping deadlines can be overwhelming. Yet it’s wise for the fulltime writer to meet everything with grace and aplomb (well, that’s the ideal). And no whining in public. ~grins~
So how do I de-stress? In several ways.
I unplug from the net as often as I can, which isn’t that often. It helps me to center and realize that most of my life is NOT connected to the net, that there’s a big wide world out there just waiting for me. I try to get out once a week or so to Starbucks, to just sit in the coffee shop with a journal or a magazine and my latte and relax.
I watch movies. Watch TV. Read magazines. Anything where I can be entertained and don’t have to think too much. I love to read-always have–but when I’m working as hard as I’ve been, I can barely stand to look at another word. So I switch over to passive recharging.
I get out if I can, when weather permits, and go sit somewhere nice and sunny. Or overcast, considering we have at most 65 cloud-free days a year here. If the weather is too chilly for my asthma, my husband I may just drive around one of the lakes here, or we’ll drive somewhere, park, and talk.
Playing with the cats-we have four and they are a joy, all the way around. In 2008 we lost two of our senior girls, and early 2009 lost another. We have one senior left-she’s 16, and three rambunctious kittens-14 months, 14 months, and 9 months old. They never fail to delight (and frustrate at times-do you *know* what havoc three kittens can get into when they put their fuzzy minds to it?).
Get together with friends, eat dinner, watch movies, talk, vent-blow off stream. Friends are a vital link to staying sane and the fact is, that good friends are better than gold-they are priceless.
I’d love to have the time to garden, to get back into some of the arts and crafts I loved doing, to leisurely meander through vacation days, but right now I don’t. So I take my time where I can find it, I carve out breaks when I need them, I let friends help me because they know I’ll drop everything to help them if they need it-that’s just the way it works.
So: how do you de-stress when you’re overwhelmed with work and life? What makes you take that deep breath, sit back, and close your eyes for a moment’s rest?
One commenter will win a $10 gift card to Amazon.com.
Yasmine
Bone Magic by Yasmine Galenorn (book 7 of the Otherworld Series)
Berkley (Mass Market); January 5, 2010
Urban Fantasy
ISBN: 9780425231982
We’re the D’Artigo sisters: savvy–and sexy–operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. But being half-human, half-Fae short-circuits our talents at all the wrong times. My sister Delilah is a two-faced Were who turns into a golden tabby when she’s stressed. And Menolly’s a vampire who’s still trying to get the hang of being undead. As for me? I’m Camille D’Artigo, a wicked-good witch who’s learning death magic with my youkai-kitsune husband. Until now, the Moon Mother’s pretty much ignored me, but she’s about to take me on the Hunt of my life…
Another equinox is here, and life’s getting more dangerous for all of us. The past is catching up to our friends, Iris and Chase. Smoky–the dragon of my dreams–is forced to choose between his family and me. To top it off, there’s a new demon general in town and we can’t locate her. And when the Moon Mother and the Black Beast summon me to Otherworld. I think I’m just going to reunite with my long lost soulmate. But once there, I’m forced to undergo a drastic ritual that will forever change my life, and the lives of those around me.
Bio:
New York Times bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn writes urban fantasy for Berkley: both the bestselling Otherworld/Sisters of the Moon Series for Berkley and the upcoming Indigo Court urban fantasy series. In the past, she wrote mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, and nonfiction metaphysical books. Yasmine has been in the Craft for over 28 years, is a shamanic witch, and describes her life as a blend of teacups and tattoos. She lives in Bellevue WA with her husband Samwise and their cats.
Yasmine can be reached via her website at http://www.galenorn.com, Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/yasminegalenorn and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/yasminegalenorn .