Insert: that awkward moment when you realise you took a year off the internet and everything fell apart.
Do you remember that time when everyone thought Covid was just a cold? When the lockdowns and restrictions wouldn’t last any more than a few weeks… six months… a year… two years…?
It’s been a long two years. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that. Although, maybe long isn’t quite the word I’m looking for. I feel like I’ve lost the past two years of my life (work, eat, sleep, repeat) to keeping my head down and just ploughing through things.
I’m generally a pretty positive person. I like to think I have a healthy outlook on life. I don’t tend to get stressed, or overwhelmed, or like to worry about things until the situation absolutely demands it.
As a result of this… I’ve realised I’ve been in denial about just how much everything has been getting to me.
I don’t know if I honestly believed 2021 was going to be any different from 2020, but I guess a little part of me was holding out that hope because, as soon as I realised things weren’t ‘going back to normal’, everything just kind of hit me all at once.
The last time I posted to this blog was December 2020.
I was so optimistic about getting back into blogging. Back into writing. And reading. And travelling. All those things I’d lost the brain-power or privilege to do.
When 2021 rolled around, however, well… I can’t even begin to put into words the sheer exhaustion I suddenly felt.
(Fun fact, this has a name! It’s called ‘burnout’ and has been my constant companion for the past 12 months.)
As such, everything barring my immediate needs (sleep, eat, work, repeat) got put on the back burner until such time as I felt I could handle the additional brain-power that comes with running a blog, or interacting socially, either online or in real life.
It took pretty much the entirety of a year, but I think I’m ready to step out of my self-imposed exile.
In preparation for returning to society, I took a quick peek at my website over the weekend and instantly cringed at all the upkeep work that needed doing. Dead links, dodgy formatting, just your general wear and tear when you don’t keep an eye on things, and what started as a quick tidy up soon became a full revamp of the homepage and The Amanzimtoti Series page, amongst other things.
If those of you reading this wouldn’t mind checking both pages out and letting me know what you think? Nothing too drastic in terms of changes, but hopefully enough to be noticeable. I’ll settle for clean and easy to navigate if nothing else! Though if you do spot anything needing fixing, I would greatly appreciate the feedback.
In the process of sorting these pages, and fixing the dead links, I also discovered that the paperback version of Inyoni Rocks is no longer showing as available on Amazon UK despite my account telling me it should be.
So, I’m now also trying to deal with Amazon to get that sorted. I’ve no idea how long it’s been down, but I’m rather concerned by this discovery. Please keep your fingers crossed this’ll be a nice easy fix for them! Especially as I’ve started experimenting with WooCommerce and have since created my own shop front so that I can sell my novels direct to my readers.
(This is still a work in progress, so please bear with! Although, if anyone would like to test things out by purchasing the eBook version of The Ridge, I certainly wouldn’t complain! heh)
I’m not going to make any promises, especially considering what feels like the loss of the last two years of my life to survival-mode, but I’m hoping that, by taking this step to update the blog today, it’s a sign that things are on the mend. At least for me. At least for now.
So, I guess this is as good a time to say hello as any!
If anyone is still around, that is?
If you are, I’d love to hear from you. Let me know how you’ve been doing and how you’re surviving things at the moment <33
