{"id":403,"date":"2016-09-25T12:57:49","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T19:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/?p=403"},"modified":"2016-09-25T12:57:49","modified_gmt":"2016-09-25T19:57:49","slug":"once-more-with-feeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/once-more-with-feeling\/","title":{"rendered":"Once More With Feeling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Holy cow; I haven\u2019t made a blog post in a really long time. As with last periods of blog-less-ness, this time is no different. Living here in the Oil and Gas capital of Canada, we\u2019re slowly succumbing to the failing price of oil. This means job losses, increases in the cost of living, and lots and lots of stress.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"That's<\/a>

That’s basically how it works<\/p><\/div>\n

I work in the corporate office of an environmental company, supporting our production accounting and energy marketing teams. It\u2019s a big job on a normal day, but add to that a reduction by half of my workforce, increase workload from other teams who are also understaffed, and you have a recipe for a full-on creative disaster. My day starts at 5:30 am, ends at around 7:00 pm, and I\u2019m in bed by 10:00 pm to start it all again the next day. That leaves three hours in the day to squeeze in the all-important family time and attempt to do any writing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"bathroombreak\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am still writing, thankfully. I try to do it daily, although much of my writing doesn\u2019t make it outside of my computer. The Rose Cross Academy Book 2 is gearing up for launch and surviving the onslaught of one last beta reader before final editing happens. Whether or not I\u2019ll be able to have my book professionally edited all comes down to whether or not the company I work for can make it\u2019s next debt payment or not. There\u2019s a fifty-fifty chance that by Halloween, I\u2019ll be unemployed. It\u2019s just a reality all us in Oil & Gas have to face.<\/span><\/p>\n

Surviving adversity is becoming a mainstay around here. After my own recent diagnosis of anxiety disorder, family members succumbing to cancer, and a mystery ailment affecting me, every day is becoming a delicate balance between doing what I love and want to do (which is writing) and trying to stay afloat in this terrible world. But enough about that and the horrible run-on sentences, let’s get to the interesting stuff!<\/span><\/p>\n

Find Time to Enjoy Life<\/span><\/h1>\n

I discovered several online communities for writers in which I\u2019m actively participating. Facebook groups, Wattpad communities . . . I\u2019m feeling like I belong again, after so many months of being a hermit trying to keep her job. I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that whatever happens will happen whether or not I work myself to the bone or not. So therefore, I cannot single handedly prevent the economy from spiraling down the great Liberal toilet. So I need to enjoy myself lest I fall further into mental illness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"best-online-friend\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s fun to participate in conversations about writing with other writers. I\u2019ve tried meet-ups where no one socializes, I\u2019ve tried writers groups full of older, stuffy men and women who frown upon paranormal fiction. Neither were for me. It\u2019s ironic for my introverted nature, that all my best writing buddies are now solely online.<\/span><\/p>\n

Risers\u00a0and Dreamers on Wattpad<\/span><\/h1>\n

In order to drum up interest in Grimms & Garms, Book #2 in the Rose Cross Academy series (which has received zero marketing or publicity due to time constraints), I\u2019m putting up Book #1, Risers & Dreamers, on Wattpad<\/a> for free and announcing the chapters to my Instagram followers and slowly moving into Twitter <\/a>as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"rnd_wattpad\"<\/a>

…and with a brand new cover!<\/p><\/div>\n

NaNoWriMo 2016 Prep<\/span><\/h1>\n

It\u2019s almost October; time for NaNoPlanMo<\/a>. This year, I\u2019m fleshing out my new series, The Gamemasters<\/em>, as my project for this November. The Gamemasters<\/em> follows three teens out of 120 other players chosen as beta testers for a virtual reality video game that ends up trapping them and picking them off one by one. If you watch enough anime, you\u2019ve certainly heard of Sword Art Online, which was a major inspiration for this novel. This will be in the sci-fi genre of young adult with a second book. I\u2019m not sure if I\u2019ll write a third book or not; we\u2019ll see how NaNo goes this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"crazy-nano\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, that felt good to get out. I haven\u2019t blogged in a while. Let\u2019s see where the universe takes us over the remainder of the year. Hopefully things will start to look up, hopefully the economy will begin to recover, and hopefully I\u2019ll still have a job. If not, well, then I\u2019ll just have to make a new plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until next time!<\/span><\/p>\n

-Rissa<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holy cow; I haven\u2019t made a blog post in a really long time. As with last periods of blog-less-ness, this time is no different. Living here in the Oil and Gas capital of Canada, we\u2019re slowly succumbing to the failing price of oil. This means job losses, increases in the cost of living, and lots […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-day-to-day","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6odz9-6v","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":631,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/when-life-gives-you-dead-leaves\/","url_meta":{"origin":403,"position":0},"title":"When Life Gives you Dead Leaves . . .","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"October 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Geesh. It's been ages since my last blog post! Since my last check-in, our brutally-hot summer has changed into an unusually cold and rainy autumn. Granted autumn is my favourite season, but I can\u2019t help but feel we\u2019ve been cheated out of summer. Well, maybe it was just me who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Updates"","block_context":{"text":"Updates","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/AutumnHighwood1-1-300x152.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":295,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/sometimes-life-gets-in-the-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":403,"position":1},"title":"Sometimes Life Gets in the Way","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"April 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm ba~ack. I\u2019ve been quiet lately \u2013 a bit of an oddity for me, I\u2019ll admit. Since Christmas, a lot has happened and my writing has had to take a backseat to life's curveballs. I live in Alberta, Canada in the major Oil & Gas city of the west \u2013\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "About Me"","block_context":{"text":"About Me","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/about-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Life.jpg?fit=535%2C535&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Life.jpg?fit=535%2C535&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Life.jpg?fit=535%2C535&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":419,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/surviving-beta-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":403,"position":2},"title":"Surviving Beta Reading","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"October 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's face it. Beta Reading is equivalent to having teeth pulled at the dentists. Sure, it may be necessary, but it hurts like hell and is bound to leave a few bruises. The Beta Reading phase of writing a novel is one of the most important, and also one of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Beta Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Beta Reader","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/beta-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Surviving Beta Reading","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/SurvivingBetaReading.gif?fit=420%2C420&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1142,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/a-change-of-scenery-moving\/","url_meta":{"origin":403,"position":3},"title":"A Change of Scenery – Moving","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"September 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I think we can mostly agree that COVID-19 has changed the landscape of the modern workplace. Whether that be office work, service work, or health and safety, where we work has changed. For me, the biggest change was going from working eight-to-five in an office to working eightish-to-sometime-in-the-evening hours from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British Columbia"","block_context":{"text":"British Columbia","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/british-columbia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210903_TravelapseToBC_YT.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210903_TravelapseToBC_YT.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210903_TravelapseToBC_YT.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210903_TravelapseToBC_YT.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":761,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/its-not-a-cotton-easter\/","url_meta":{"origin":403,"position":4},"title":"It’s Not a Cotton Easter","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"May 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A little back story: This past weekend, Mother's Day weekend, I gave an associate at the local home & garden centre something to chuckle about. You see, in the front I have these nice shrubs planted between my columnar aspens, and wanted to plant the same in the back yard.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gardening"","block_context":{"text":"Gardening","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/gardening\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/FieldSparrow1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/FieldSparrow1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/FieldSparrow1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/FieldSparrow1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":684,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/fighting-anxiety-with-nail-polish\/","url_meta":{"origin":403,"position":5},"title":"Fighting Anxiety with Nail Polish","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"March 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Nail polish? How does that even . . . No, really. Just stick with me on this one. It\u2019s been a tough six months for me. Real Life has kicked my butt bad. 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