Hello. It's that time again for a life update of sorts. This blog is a mix of disability, PhD, and creative writing, so grab a cup of tea and settle down. The title of this blog is inspired by a song by Black Water County, and you can listen to it here.
Are you ready for the next UK heatwave? Because I'm not. I was so ready for autumn. The dark nights, the candles, Starbucks have just released their new seasonal drinks. I was so ready, and now boom, heat. It's getting up to around 30 degrees in Suffolk for the next few days. And being a Guide Dog owner means the stress levels are high! I take Yashka on an early morning walk, usually before 8 in the morning, and even then I get comments from strangers. The majority are about how I am such a bad dog owner for taking my dog on a walk when it's under 20 degrees. I usually ignore them, stick my headphones on and carry on. I always ring Guide Dogs if there is an issue with someone - for example, if I am worried that the individual would report me (which has happened a few times), then I relay the incident from my point of view to make sure I didn't do anything wrong. Which I never do, but it's better to give them a heads-up if someone does decide to complain about me and my Guide Dog.
Anyway, the heatwave can go away. I don't deal with the heat very well because it makes me feel ill. My concentration is appalling, and I have no energy when it's hot. But I do have some good news to share. I've sent the final draft of my thesis to my supervisor! With any luck, I should get feedback within the next few weeks before another supervisor is brought onto the team for the final stretch towards my submission in January. It has been such a stressful few weeks trying to get everything together. It's been a lot of long days, missed days out and late nights sitting at my desk to get the entire thesis completed as a final draft. It's currently at around 100K with both components which I am very proud of. So, I took a few days off to rest, and now I am ready to crack on with more creative writing.
While I have one novel on Amazon titled Faith Remains, which you can find here, I wanted to do something new. It's still early days, but I want to publish another novel this year. Maybe at the beginning of 2024, but who knows, it might be longer than that. It's exciting because I am stepping away completely from my Ph.D. to give my mind a break and do something I love. And I will endeavour to post more creative writing shorts on here because I love doing little one-shots of streams of consciousness. I firmly believe that picking a prompt, be it from a song, a book, a quote, or even something a stranger has said, can open up your imagination and creative skills. Then the possibilities really are endless with creative writing. So what are you waiting for? Get writing!
And that is about it from me. Not an exciting blog post, but I want to remind anyone reading that you got this. You can do anything that you put your mind to, and in the background, I will be cheering you on.
As always, I will end with a quote.
"You just do it. You force yourself to get up. You force yourself to put one foot before the other, and God damn it, you refuse to let it get to you. You fight. You cry. You curse. Then you go about the business of living. That's how I've done it. There's no other way." ― Elizabeth Taylor.
Until the next time.
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