In the WILD

I went hunting today.

Being quite the seasoned hunter, I knew how to find my prey. I researched its whereabouts and pinpointed its exact location and towed The Boyfriend along, you know, in case things got hairy. We fought off vicious leashed beasties and their heartless jogging masters. We resisted the temptations of the ever-so-seductive aromas that wafted from the cave of the Panda Express. We trekked over rivers, over fields of grass, across vast black tar wastelands. Until, at long last, we stood just feet from where my prey had made its home.

Such a dangerous prey required extreme stealth and caution in the final approach. Quiet like ninjas, The Boyfriend and I crept into my prey's lair, our senses all a-tingle. And there, right before our very eyes, sat a sight too fantastic to behold:

SLIDE. IN THE WILD.

And how did it get up there?? Yet one of the many mysteries surrounding this exceptionally valuable prize.

The Boyfriend and I quickly bagged my prey and retreated from the lair with all haste, lest other similar preys begin to tempt our fragile hunter psyches.

(No, that wasn't at all fun to write. *dons safari hat and speeds off in a mud-caked safari jeep*)

SLIDE into the AWESOME

HAPPY RELEASE DAY, JILL WHEELER!!

I never know whether to wish a Happy Release Day to the author or the book or the main character. Dilemma.

Anyway, the point is, TODAY Jill Wheeler's debut novel SLIDE hits shelves. If you haven't heard of it yet (we don't judge here. But seriously. *judgey glare*), watch this FREAKING AWESOME video trailer:



In honor of SLIDE's Birthday, Jill is hitting the marketing scene HARD. She's midway through a Blog Tour of Awesome (deets of which can be seen here). You can take a sneak peak inside SLIDE here. AND, most awesome of all, there are CONTESTS. Contests in which you can win SLIDE and SLIDE stuff and tons of other awesome MURDERY THINGS.

Or, er, well, not murdery things exactly. Because that'd be weird. But SLIDE is about murdery things, and, um -- moving on.

Jill herself is doing an iPod Nano PLUS an iTunes Gift Card giveaway here.
There's a Goodreads giveaway here.

And I'm sure through following the Blog Tour of Awesome, you will stumble on a FREAKIN' TON MORE of SLIDE goodies.

And of course, if you're out and about near a bookstore, be sure to stop by and wish SLIDE a Happy Birthday in PERSON. I'm sure Vee will appreciate it.

ASSASSIN CAT IS WATCHING YOU.

Even when you think he can't see you. HE CAN. And he knows you're supposed to be writing.

DO NOT ANGER ASSASSIN CAT.

Why Hiatuses are Beneficial to Your Psyche

It's spring now. It's also been 5 months and 2 days since I blogged. 154 days total. 3,696 hours. 221,760 minutes.

Now, I know most Writerly Bloggers will warn their avid followers (because you are my avid followers, aren't you? Hello? Is anyone still -- oh! I see you! You're still reading my blog, aren't you? YOU'RE MY PRETTIEST READER) BEFORE they take 5-month-long hiatuses, but, well, I like going against the grain.

I could blame my hiatus on a lot of things. I could say, for instance, that I got a new job that frowns upon the use of Twitter and Blogger by throwing up giant, horrible "WEBSITE BLOCKED -- YOU NASTY NASTY EMPLOYEE, YOU" signs whenever I try to access said websites. Or I could say that the holidays were SUPER BUSY, what with The Boyfriend's family living in one state and My Family living in another and airports and lost IDs and the aforementioned new job. Or I could say the truth. And the truth is:

I needed a break.

I needed a break from publishing -- in every sense of the word. I needed a break from bad news. I needed a break from good news too. I needed a break from books and queries and blog posts and Twitter feeds and news, news, news. I started to realize that the more I read and blogged and tweeted and TRIED to hold onto the Online Writing Community, the more I was getting --

bitter.

Horribly, disgustingly, darkly bitter. Bitter about every good thing that happened to every AMAZING friend/writer/colleague I know. Bitter about every single piece of good news. Bitter about the bad ones, too. I let it go on until I did get said aforementioned job, which does force me not to use Blogger/Twitter, which also inadvertently forced me to take a break while I got settled in to my new duties. And through that inadvertent forcing, I found I got much happier when I WASN'T constantly bombarded with news, news, news. So the first month may not have been a voluntary hiatus, but the last four certainly have been. And you know what?

IT'S BEEN GOOD.

I didn't put a time limit on it. I didn't say "Okay, self, you have to get NOT BITTER in X amount of weeks because there's a CAREER on the line here." I just let it go. Let myself take the time to come around to it, so I wouldn't fall right back into Bitterville at the first sign of re-emergence. Because no one likes a Bitter Blogger. Or, well, the General Public may like it when people are bitter and mean and Tabloidy, but you don't. Because you're not the General Public. You're Writer Public, and you are BETTER.

So while I cannot promise I will be blogging every day or tweeting every hour (new job still prevents such shenanigans. The lack of trust is ASTONISHING. And understandable. But mostly ASTONISHING), I can promise that I will be back to blogging regularly, at least once a week. And tweeting, too, because it's SPRING NOW, and everything needs to TWEET.

I can also promise I won't fall back into bitterness. Just like the tiny green buds The Boyfriend and I are cultivating in our kitchen, Good Things are growing, folks. I'm not quite sure what those Goods Things are yet, but I promise you, they don't live anywhere close to Bitterville.