Looking into the Abyss of 'Why Bother'

by Judy Black

I have to be honest, the past month I have been struggling. 

My mind constantly circles the 'why bother doing this?' question constantly. I wonder if I'd be better off spending my limited free time sleeping or catching up on all the TV shows I still haven't watched. I wonder if it's worth it, or if anyone would care if I stopped making things. 

Thankfully, I have a wonderful group of creative friends who worry about this too, but who also grab my shoulders and shake me while lovingly screaming 'I'd care if you stopped making things you weird little potato!' which is very reaffirming. 

But, almost every creative person I know struggles with this question. Circles this abyss and feels it start to pull them apart.

Creating things is hard in the best of times. 

Creating things when *gestures vaguely to the chaos of the world* is happening, feels impossible, like trying to bail out a boat with a cracked teacup.

But every time I think 'I'll just stop, why bother?', I can't bring myself to put down the cracked teacup. I want to create, I want to share stories, and games, and weird little ideas with all the people out there like me. Creation is a way to share pieces of ourselves with the wider world, to say 'I'm not alone, and neither are you' and it feels magical when that connection is made. 

So, to everyone else out there circling the edge of the abyss, staring into that bleakness of 'why bother?', I see you and I'll hold your hand until you can move from the edge, and you'll hold my hand when I inevitably teeter towards the edge because that is what art in all its many forms does.

It connects us when we feel like no one else understands our hearts. 

So, I guess all this rambling is just to say, why bother? Because I want all the other weirdos like me to feel a little less alone in this chaotic, scary world. 

This article originally appeared in Judy Black's email newsletter.

Get all 4 Finnegan Family Supernatural Hunter novellas in one gorgeous book!

If Sam Winchester was the illustrated lady in a traveling sideshow in the 1900s, he'd be Hazel Finnegan.

Hazel has a power, and with that power, a responsibility. She hunts down the things that go bump in the night, and once she kills them, traps them into her skin via magical tattoo transference. Then she can call upon the monsters she's vanquished to help her take out other baddies. But she might be in over her head this time.

Her father is missing, and she and her brother are desperate to find him. But they also have a traveling sideshow to run, locals to placate, competing shows to handle, travel to coordinate, and monsters to slay.

Now Hazel needs to find out where her father has gone, who took him and why, and what it means for the future of her sideshow, her family, and just maybe the world. And time is running out.

Shadows & Sideshows collects the first four novellas of the Finnegan Family Supernatural Hunters, a new historical fantasy series from author Judy Black, set in the world of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter.

Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Sideshows-Finnegan-Supernatural-Hunters-ebook/dp/B086M4ZVJ2?

[Link] Writing with a day job

by Andrea Judy

Most of the writers I know manage some kind of a day job for at least 40 hours a week, but sometimes a lot more than that, as well as all of their writing projects. It can be really hard to figure out ways to manage that and in my case, I don't even have a spouse or kids to complicate my schedule further. What I want to share today are some tips and tricks I’ve found to help manage my energy while spending my day working.

1. Taking a serious look at what my schedule actually looks like.

I know that it may sound a little silly but actually conceptualizing the times that you are committed to anything related to your day job is vital. If your commute is an hour in the morning then you probably can't try and squeeze in an extra 45 minutes of writing without sacrificing some major sleep. If your job allows for remote working then maybe you can easily fit that in first thing in the morning.

Know the reality of your job: do you actually get to take a lunch break where you could write? It's a really vital part of figuring out what times are even available for you to write. Know when the busy seasons are for your day job. If you work in financials than the end of fiscal year is probably going to be a really stressful time for you. By knowing that, you can try to mitigate the number of projects or external creative due dates you have during that time. Be aware of the most stressful times in your job if it follows a pattern like that and try to work around them.

2. What are your priorities? 

Figuring out what projects are the most important to you can really help make sure that when you do you have time to work on your creative endeavors you actually know what to work on. For a long time, I spent a lot of energy spinning my wheels trying to figure out what project I was even supposed to be working on or wanted to work on next. I lost a lot of time by not having my priority set. Now I know what projects I have coming up and what projects I really want to accomplish. It really helps make sure that the limited time I do have is used well.

Read the full article: http://www.judyblackcloud.com/blog/2018/10/15/writing-with-a-day-job

Falstaff Books annouces Cabinet of Aberrations by Judy Black!

If Sam Winchester was the illustrated lady in a traveling sideshow in the 1900s, he'd be Hazel Finnegan.

Hazel has a power, and with that power, a responsibility. She hunts down the things that go bump in the night, and once she kills them, traps them into her skin via magical tattoo transference. Then she can call upon the monsters she's vanquished to help her take out other baddies. But she may have bitten off more than she can chew this time.

The troll was big, dumb, and strong as an ox, but that wasn't the real threat. The real threat lurks in the woods, and just maybe in whatever made her father disappear…

The Shadow Council Archives are historical novellas set in the universe of the Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter books. They are the tales of folklore and legend collected by The Shadow Council in the centuries since their founding.

Get your copy on Amazon.