For anyone who caught my post towards the end of July, either here on on facebook, you may already know that I found June a bit of a struggle. I’m generally quite a positive person, who tends not to worry about things unless they’re actually happening — mostly because I feel it’s a waste of anxiety to worry about something twice. However, with the Covid-19 situation, even I’m feeling a little hard pressed to maintain my positive outlook on life, the universe, and everything when I’m on a Fixed-Term Contract at work.

My contract was due to terminate today, but thanks to an amazing manager, myself and several collegues have had our FTC’s extended until the end of August. This, you may assume, should be a cause for celebration, but honestly, I feel as though the sword of Damocles is hanging over me as nowhere in the contact extension I had to sign was there the option to further renew it. So, for all intents and purposes, I won’t have a job from September.

Our manager is looking into it as there is still a need for us, and we’ll be needed even more once the business reopens, but there’s a nervous part of me that can’t help but think the worst. I don’t think it would be as scary a prospect if I didn’t love the job and my colleagues as much as I do. (Well, that and the bills I still need to pay!)

Le sigh. Hopefully, I’ll be able to push it from my mind as we step into July as I’d hate to waste another month being unproductive and on-edge about the whole thing.

Reading

Absolutely nothing. Nope, not even the Andromeda Strain I keep promising J I will read. I think tonight I’ll have him run me a nice bubble bath and hopefully make an attempt on the book this evening.

Writing

I didn’t write anything this past month, however I did come up with two new story ideas! Yes, you read that right: TWO! I’m so excited over both of them. They should be stand-alone novels. Not especially wordy, to the point I managed to plot out one of them in a single day.

Working Title: Kanoa
Genre: Adult, LGBT+, Romance
The first is a summer-esque story which I believe will be set in Hawaii. It’ll be a straight-up romance with dashings of hurt/comfort/angst (because, it’s me).

Working Title: K-Hearts
Genre: Adult, LGBT+, ???
Okay, so this one I do have a title for, but I can’t actually tell you what it is because it would give too much away when it’s still a WIP. This one was actually a dream I had recently and it was just so beautifully vivid that the moment I woke up I started writing it down.

It’s been so long since genuine inspiration struck me. I don’t know why last week was suddenly such a productive week for my imagination, considering everything else going on, but I hope I can hold on to this excitement and attempt to get the words down over the course of this next month.

Promotion

The Ridge (Amanzimtoti 1)
July saw The Ridge moving to wide distrubution from it’s exclusive Amazon KDP contract. It can now be purchased direct from websites like Apple, Google Play, & Kobo. For the full list of distributors, please check out the [ Novel Page ]

You can now also purchase the novel directly from me, with payment made through PayPal. After payment, you will be sent an email with your download link, simply select your preferred format and go! [ Direct from Author ] 

Inyoni Rocks (Amanzimtoti 2)
Inyoni Rocks was free for a limited time last month as I prepared to remove it from its exclusive-to-amazon contract. I’ll spend some time this month setting it up for wide distribution and updating the [ Novel Page ]. It should be all done before August, so expect that update in next month’s The Rough Draft!

I think that’s all for this month. I, for one, am glad to see the back of June and hope to come back to you next month having been far more productive!