I Aten't Ded...

So 2016 hasn't been a good year so far personally - at least when it comes to this blog.

I did so well last year, managing to write something practically every single week - sometimes more than once a week. I sat up late at night typing like a loon to get all those words that were fizzing around in my brain out onto the page. All the things from my childhood and my obsessions shared for the world to see. I even managed a weekly (and ever lengthening) commentary on series nine of Doctor Who - which admittedly had me functioning on four hours sleep at one point, but it was SO worth it. I started to think that I was getting passably good at this blogging lark. 

There are so many more things to come. The list of draft post titles is as long as my arm and I keep adding to it as inspiration or memory strikes. I fully intend to get to them all - and more.

But in 2016 I've managed just eight posts in almost four months, with nothing at all in the last six weeks. My day job has consumed more and more of my waking hours and what free time I have left has been tied up with other projects or more domestic tasks. That hour every morning I used to have to think and write? - gone. The early dawn of the weekend when the house was quiet and I could type in peace? - I'm now in bed catching up on essential sleep. 

It's incredibly, incredibly frustrating. All those book reviews I've promised people have not yet materialised and the tweets I sent our saying "something's going to be published this week" have come to nothing. All those comics and films and TV shows and the stuff about about music and ancient computer games are still waiting in the wings. The mind is willing but the body? It's dozed off in a corner. Snoring loudly.

The thing is, I'm not looking for sympathy here. This is a situation partly borne out of unfortunate circumstance and partly of my own making by spreading myself too thin and not accepting my own limitations - and probably making myself a little unwell in the process. I'm now being sent off to the USA for two weeks with my job and then I have some time off...so I've decided that after that I'm going to turn things around and get back on track. This blog is really important to me and I want it to continue, but it has to be a pleasure not a chore.

So to all those of you who have read the story so far and have said such nice things about the nonsense I have written -  a huge thank you. Plus a second one for being so patient over recent weeks.

On Terry Pratchett's Discworld, when Granny Weatherwax sent her conciousness off to posses the bodies of woodland creatures, she wore a sign round her neck that said "I Aten't Ded", to prevent people getting the wrong idea about her comatose body and burying her.

Well this blog aten't ded yet - not by a long shot. I'll be back very soon - I just can't say exactly when. In the meantime, here's some pictures of my cats...