Hi. For anyone that is new, I’m Emily. I’m nineteen – almost twenty – and I’m a blogger and author based in the UK. I love writing, reading, and listening to awesome music. For anyone who has been around a while, hi, I’m still me. I’m doing better, I’m feeling more positive, and this blog explains why. I hope you all enjoy.
One of the most important subjects in my life which I feel like I should give you an update on is my writing, especially concerning the prospects of my future career. I’m still kind of in my rut, I haven’t properly written any of my novel for a few months, but I’m feeling okay about it. I’ve decided I need to stop beating myself up about it and instead try to find the root of the problem, which I think I mostly have.
I’m struggling with my Dimensions’ series, but I think it’s because I don’t want to let it go. I created the characters during a part of my life that I wasn’t doing so great, and they sort of became my friends in a really weird way. For a long while in my life they were my life, I expressed my feelings through their lives, and maybe to an extent it was partly a coping mechanism, as much as I hate to admit it. I needed them at that part in my growth, and I don’t want to lose them. I think it’s kind of bitter-sweet. It’s why I’m struggling with writing what I think will be the last book in my Dimensions’ series. Maybe it will be something I can face head on some when soon, when I’m stronger. I hope so, because I do miss writing the characters.
I also think my desire to give it all a reboot is holding me back from wanting to progress. I just want everything to be perfect, and my writing style is a lot different now to how it was two years ago when Dimensions was published. But I should be proud, that was my first step, and my books are like my babies. You can go and support my babies by clicking the ‘My Books‘ section of this website!
As you have all probably figured out, I’m trying to work more on my blogs at the moment, but I’m trying not to stress out about them. I’m not trying to force content, especially content I’m not enjoying writing. I’ve decided that it’s time to show the real me, and so I’m trying to focus more on blogging about my life, and the things I love, rather than blogs I think will do better for clickbait reasons. If I’m trying to build a platform, a supportive platform, who accepts the real me – rather than who they think the real me is.
When I get a blog idea, and I have the opportunity to sit down and write it, I feel so good about myself. It sparks a little bit of pride in me. I’m just generally so happy and grateful to be getting the opportunity to share my writing with all of you.
I’m also currently trying to work on a new idea for a novel that I sat down and planned out roughly about a year ago. It’s a cool idea, I started to write out a few chapters, but I sat down an revised them and have figured out I didn’t particularly like how I’d started it. So I’ve restarted it. I’m struggling at the moment with whether or not to go ahead and write the novel (obviously once I’ve properly planned it all out), or whether to explore the universe I’m creating with writing a series of small stories – which will also build up the side characters a little (what do you think I should do?).
It’s a new and exciting idea, but it’s making my brain mushy.
Moving away from the writing part of my life, we come around to visit my family – in a completely anonymous way. My family life is good. I’m finally starting to realise that I need to forgive everyone for not really knowing how to help me in the darker part of my life. I’m getting better now, and that’s the main thing. I know I have their support if I need it, which I do. I love them.
After quarantine boredom was getting to my sisters and I, I decided to gift the two that would be interested with a copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizon, for the Nintendo switch console. We’ve all been playing that a lot together, and it’s actually really fun. (Animal crossing is a game where you start out life on a deserted island, and slowly build your life with your islanders. It’s really fun, but pretty pricey. You can find the link to check out the game here, if you’re interested).
As for my favourite little dogs, there’s not much I can say. The youngest had an operation on her anal glands, as they were hurting her a bit too much, and the older one has had a load of rotting teeth removed (she’s a lot happier now!) I can show you pictures of the cuties:
Let’s move away from my fluffy best friends to my human one. It’s official. I’ve been dating my lovely C for over a year now and I’m not being dramatic when I say my year with him has probably been the best year of my life. I just love him. We both booked two weeks off work together, starting the first week of August. Although the holiday is almost over, I’m just excited to be spending time with him, and taking a few days to camp at my Grandparents’ was definitely a good idea.
During the winter we spent a lot of time at home, trying to stay out of the dark and the cold. But now that the summer has arrived, we’ve been spending more time making an effort to go out and about, even if it’s just a trip to Tesco. We have been going out to eat (we’ve been to a local Mexican restaurant, and a couple desert places in our area) and we’ve been going to more places on dates. It’s fun, I think we kind of forgot about dates during the winter, and now that I’ve got a steadier income, it’s also easier to go to new places – although, you don’t always have to spend money when you go on dates.
With C, comes his animals, all of which are doing fine. He now has two new hognose snakes, one called Cheeto, and another we’ve named Little Lucifer (because she looks just like C’s other hognose called Lucifer, but smaller – I said it as a joke once and now it’s kind of stuck. I have a blog on his animals, you can check it out here!). Cheeto is a very lively snake, and so the other week I got him some new leaves and toys to check out and stay occupied. Little Lucifer is the queen of sass. You just have to look at her to be hissed at.
Also, I feel the need to mention that Sparkle, my beloved angel fish, is no more. I woke up one morning to find Jasper eating at his spine (because Jasper is an evil fish), and I was so sad for the rest of the day. It actually made me feel really ill, and I got C to remove poor Sparkle’s spine because it was just so gross. That is the only sad update I have, however. In good news, if you follow my Instagram, you probably know that C has tiny, fertile, little gecko eggs, so hopefully we should have some babies very soon!
Moving away from my awesome boyfriend, we approach the subject of my driving. Now, not having a lesson for over a couple months is bound to throw me off on my first lesson back, especially as I get very nervous very easily (and because I’ve been cycling more, which means I still have a desire to hug the pavement as I drive – which is bad, because I do not leave enough clearance). However, my second lesson back went a lot better. I feel like I’m almost ready. All I really need to work on is my observations, and not getting so flustered and then I should be ready to pass my test.
When it comes to tests, I’ve got my theory booked for September – very, very early in the morning (I am honestly going to struggle I think, with getting up so early). I have, unfortunately, got to wait to book my practical until after I’ve passed my theory test and my driving instructor has warned that the waiting list might be long, as there were quiet a few tests that got postponed because of lockdown.
I also need to look into buying a car, but in order to do that I need money – and the only way I can get any money is by going to work. I don’t think anyone was prepared enough for how difficult working during a global pandemic would be.
At the moment I’m working five days a week – so I’m temporarily working full time. This is great, because it means I’m pulling in more a month which I can use to save for a car and eventually a house, but it does mean that I don’t get as much time to write as I would like. My planning and writing is usually left for me to do on my breaks (which kind of sucks – but I’ve got to do what I can – I think this is also why I’m churning out less writing content than usual).
Moving on, I think it’s only fitting that I talk about Covid-19 and its impact on my life at the moment. This virus has definitely negatively impacted my mental health, down to the point where I worried for a moment that life was going to get as bad as it was a couple of years ago. Covid-19 makes me worry, I think mostly because of the moral panic that’s been created surrounding it. I also think it makes me worry because everyone is getting a lot more relaxed about everything, including myself. It’s a serious thing, and I want my family to stay healthy and happy – especially my grandparents. Therefore, it’s not surprising that I like the masks. I think that for a while it helped reinforce how serious the situation is, and it definitely makes me feel safer at work and when out shopping.
However, Covid-19 isn’t all bad. It has helped me take a step back and look at what I enjoy doing. It only seems appropriate that I talk about my cooking. I know I wrote a couple blogs on it the other week but I really like cooking and I would like to talk about it again. Last week, C and I went out to go and pick some vegetables (yes, from a field – it was so cool) to cook with, which was awesome. We cooked some stuffed marrows, and it went surprisingly okay. I really enjoyed spending the time with C, and it also helped fill me with a bit of confidence for when we move out together.
Generally, I tend to be quite conservative with my cooking – in the sense that I try to stick to recipes and things that I know I can cook well. But, as I’ve had the time to step back, I’ve realised that I would be interested in the idea of trying to create my own cookbook (despite the fact I know there is a lot of competition when it comes to the cooking industry). I’ve, so far, created a total of one recipe – which needs improvement, so I’d need to get started on trying to craft up some more soon if I would like this cookbook to have more than one recipe – if I decide to try and make one.
I would love to just make a cool and artsy cookbook for you all to cook from, but maybe that’s me being a bit too ambitious, especially because I can’t really do any creative drawing.
There you have it! A quick (but pretty long) life update, so now you know how I’m feeling in life at the moment. With the roller-coaster of everything that’s going on, with work and Covid-19 and just generally my life, I’m pretty excited to see what happens in the next few months. See you next time!
Do you want to support me, but don’t know how? Did you know that I tend to drink quite a lot of coffee? If you want to, you could buy me a coffee or two. Feel free to check it out by clicking here, or finding the little coffee button (either on the side or to the bottom of your screen!), thank you!
If you haven’t already, and want to, you can give my latest blog a read: Why I like to cook.
You can also grab a copy of my books by checking out the ‘My books’ section of this website, or by following this link here. It would really mean a lot to me. Be sure to check it out!
As for keeping up with my life until next time, I have social media! You can check them out below:
Instagram: @emilybrownauthor
Facebook: @emilybrownauthor
Tik Tok: @emilybrownauthor
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