Lockdown 3.0

Where to start…

We’re in the third lockdown since all this began and so I thought I’d share my thoughts with you.

Wedding Blues

We postponed our wedding last year (2020) because we had no choice. And, I fear, we might have to postpone it this year, too, or worse…

I had high hopes that the end of May was actually going to be okay. That everything was moving in the right direction. But then this new strain of covid-19 appeared and now I just feel like we’ll have to cancel yet again. Even if we do end up getting married in the registry office, it probably won’t include the wedding garden ceremony I’d worked so hard for.

I knew my wedding wouldn’t be exactly as I dreamt it. However, it feels like it will be nothing like I dreamt it. In fact, it just feels like it will never end up going ahead, apart from the legal part.

I know there are much worse things going on in the world, but I can’t help feeling utterly devastated for the second year in a row. This time last year, we were giving notice. I was organising my hen do/30th birthday party. I had no idea that everything I’d been working so hard for was about to be postponed. With no clear sense of when it was ever going to go ahead.

You should be able to be excited about your wedding. But right now (and for the past few days) I’ve wanted nothing more than to cry and cancel the whole thing. It’s just eating away at my heart. Mr Bear and I have been together so long. Yet, it feels like the universe is conspiring to stop us from getting married. It all seems so hopeless right now.

Anyway, I just wanted to get those feelings off my chest.

Alpha Wolf Series

I haven’t done anything more with the Alpha Wolf series since just before Christmas. I apologise greatly for that, but I do have covers for the next two books, Alpha Submission and Alpha Consummation, both sorted. Once I have a release schedule sorted, I’ll post a cover reveal and a date.

It’s exciting to think that this will be my second complete series once Alpha Consummation is finished. The Survival trilogy is the only other complete series that I have even though Indigo Skies was the one that I started first. I just don’t feel like I’m done with Violet Eonsen, yet, though.

Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

Part of the reason why I haven’t quite got as much writing done has been Christmas presents. One of those was a game I’d been dying to play for quite a while, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

It really is amazing. From the world building, to the art, to the story, to just… Well, I mean… It’s a Zelda game. They’re pretty much all amazing, but this one has to be one of the greats. Pretty much everyone in my family has played it and I’ve been dying to.

So Howard Bear got me a copy for our Wii U for Christmas. And, oh my god, I have been obsessed. Perhaps not as much as my parents (who both have Switches so they can both play it at the same time and have, thus, been competing), but still.

It’s actually been really nice to be able to escape into a completely different world during this third lockdown. The landscape etc gives you the feeling of having been outside, despite being cooped up while the weather is a mixture of rain or icy cold. I’m actually really grateful for the game for this, because I’ve been home since the start of December, stuck in a combination of Tier 3 or lockdown, and, though I’m usually quite happy in my own company, the amalgamation of not being able to do anything outside and not even being able to go potter around at a shop has had my mood spiralling.

DIY

Where do I start?

Well, we finally got some new sofas, which means no more hip and back pain for me! They’re not quite what we originally wanted, but they are lovely and they were affordable. That’s the main thing.

We also cut up a fitted cupboard in the back porch. Cupboard space is useful, but we wanted a bit of worktop space there instead so the cats would be able to eat off the floor. It also meant that we could put the kitchen bins underneath the worktop and keep the two small cupboards at the very top.

Unfortunately, what we didn’t realise was that we would end up having to take apart the whole cupboard just to be able to keep those two higher bits of cupboard due to the way everything had been put together. It’s another little DIY job that was made harder by the way some of the things in our house had been put together by previous owners, which also became apparent in our bedroom…

We’ve been changing the flooring in our bedroom, which, as you can see from the pictures was a horrible brown and pink carpet. What we didn’t realise before pulling it up was that there was no underlay beneath the carpet. There weren’t even any carpet strips holding it down. Instead, the horrible thing had been stapled into the bare (and misshapen) floorboards.

As such, we’ve replaced it with a lovely warm laminate that has really made it look much tidier. It also means that I won’t lose my contact lenses on the crazy floor pattern if I drop them.

Christmas Books

I got five books for Christmas:

The Immortal Rules – Julie Kagawa
Omens – Kelley Armstrong
Arcane Solutions – Gayla Drummond
Rogue Souls – Chelsea Mueller
The Big Book Of Serial Killers – Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

I’ve already read the first two and the last on the list is more of a reference book rather than anything else. I really enjoyed Omens; though, there’s no real surprise there as Kelley Armstrong is probably my favourite author. Howard even contacted her and got me an email from her one Christmas as a present, which was wonderful.

Figaro Immortal Rules — Figaro likes to help me have a relaxing bath…..

I’d had The Immortal Rules on my wish list for a while, but I wouldn’t say I’m in a rush to read the sequel. It was pretty good, but it was slower paced and heavier on the world building than the books I typically read these days. Having said that, I may read the sequel in the future, though I’m not as eager to buy it as I was to get Rogue Souls after reading Borrowed Souls.

I’m looking forward to reading both Rogue Souls and Arcane Solutions with their beautiful covers. Even moreso, Arcane Solutions as I know Gayla Drummond and her writing is amazing not to mention that she is just a generally all round awesome person as well. So, I already know that I’m going to really enjoy her Discord Jones series, which I have been meaning to get for so long.

Did you guys get any great books for Christmas? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think I should be reading next!

Social Media Questions

I also wanted to know what you guys would like to see more of on my social media accounts. You can follow me on facebook, twitter, and instagram, so it would be great to know if you guys would like to see any more of anything specific.

For example, are you happy with the stuff I currently post? Would you like to see more WIP (Work In Progress) lines? Do you want to see more personal thoughts?

I’d really love it if you could leave me your thoughts in the comments below.