Life Inside My Mind

I've been very busy with an impending book deadline this week (er, this year, actually), and I JUST GOT MARRIED, like, two weeks ago, but I wanted to be sure that I called your attention to a wonderful anthology that I was fortunate enough to contribute to, which recently hit shelves wherever books are sold. It's called LIFE INSIDE MY MIND.

Here's the description:

Your favorite YA authors including Ellen Hopkins, Maureen Johnson, and more recount their own experiences with mental illness in this raw, real, and powerful collection of essays that explores everything from ADD to PTSD.

Have you ever felt like you just couldn't get out of bed? Not the occasional morning, but every day? Do you find yourself listening to a voice in your head that says "you're not good enough," "not good looking enough," "not thin enough," or "not smart enough"? Have you ever found yourself unable to do homework or pay attention in class unless everything is "just so" on your desk? Everyone has had days like that, but what if you have them every day?

You're not alone. Millions of people are going through similar things. However issues around mental health still tend to be treated as something shrouded in shame or discussed in whispers. It's easier to have a broken bone--something tangible that can be "fixed"--than to have a mental illness, and easier to have a discussion about sex than it is to have one about mental health.

Life Inside My Mind is an anthology of true-life events from writers of this generation, for this generation. These essays tackle everything from neurodiversity to addiction to OCD to PTSD and much more. The goals of this book range from providing home to those who are feeling alone, awareness to those who are witnessing a friend or family member struggle, and to open the floodgates to conversation.

This is such an important, helpful, heart-full collection of thoughts by so many writers I deeply admire. The essay I contributed to this anthology deals with the hands-off manner in which I used to regard the topic of depression and suicide in my friends while I was in high school--one friend in particular--and how my view changed as I became an adult and lost my own brother to suicide.

Please consider picking up a copy. This would also be a great one to buy and donate to your local library or high school library.

Here are links to some of the places you can buy:
Amazon / Barnes & Noble / IndieBound (which is a site where you can locate your nearest independent bookstore who is selling the book)

Thanks.

Also: I JUST GOT MARRIED!

My friend and co-author Brodi Ashton was the officiant, and she cried through the entire time we were reading our vows, which was so cute and sweet, and I love her so much! (and of course I ALSO LOVE MY HUSBAND!)

Underground

Okay, so I haven't been around on this website for a while. *checks the last time I posted* *it was February* Yep.

I've been super super super busy promoting and writing marketing content for my latest book, MY LADY JANE, on the Lady Janies website here: www.ladyjanies.com. And I've been working with my besties on a new Jane book, too. Woot woot!

I am also on a very tight deadline for my next solo book. So I'll be underground for a little while yet.

But check back soon for some amazing news that I'll be allowed to share with you any day now, and, if you're interested in what I'm doing, keep track of my feed on Twitter (@cynthiahand) or Instagram (@cynthiahand).

I'll just be here typing away.


via GIPHY

Deadline Week Rundown

This is what last (deadline) week looked like for me:

Monday - Friday:

6 am - Woke up, drank coffee, and worked on my revision for the new book.

7:30 am - Woke the kids up, drank coffee, and got them ready for school.

9 am - Returned home from dropping off the kids, drank coffee, dinked around on the internet and/or called my agent / editor to freak out over my impending deadline and book issues.

10 am - 4 pm WORKED WORKED WORKED on the revision, eating lunch at my desk. Also drank some coffee.

4 pm - Picked up my kids. Homework. Shenanigans.

6 pm - Threw something together for dinner and shuttled the kids to various activities and / or found a movie for them to watch so I could WORK WORK WORK on my novel.

8 pm - Bedtime for kiddos, which is always a circus entitled, Tricks My Children Do To Avoid Going To Bed. I should charge admission for this. . .

9 pm - WORKED WORKED WORKED on the novel.

12 am - Went to bed. Stared up at the ceiling thinking about the revisions.

1 am - Fell into fitful sleep in which I actually revised my novel in my dreams. All night long I wrestled with phantom lines.

5 am - Woken up by two cats jumping all over me who had decided it was time for the human to WAKE UP AND PLAY. Threw ungrateful cats out of the bedroom.

6 am - Started all over again.



Behold the oh-so-glamourous life of a writer! It went like this until Friday, where I'll add -

11:52 pm (8 minutes before my deadline) - Pressed send to give the draft back to my editor

12 am - Went to bed, stared up at the ceiling for no good reason.

3 am - Finally got my brain to turn off enough to fall asleep. But that's okay because it's Saturday so I can sleep in. . .

5 am - Woken up by my 4 year old because she was cold. Also, was it time for cartoons?


The weekend was a total blur- not even sure what I did there--maybe cleaned up the house and had some friends over for both me and the kids, ate donuts and pizza, played the game Munchkin for the first time, which was highly entertaining, but mostly just sat still with my brain going DUHHHHHH DOHHHHHHH DERRRRRRRR.



Which leads me to this morning, which went like this:

7 am - Woke up and laid in bed for a while.

7:30 am - Woke the kids up and got them ready for school

9 am - Returned home and threw myself into my To Do pile: finished several writer errands I've been procrastinating on, like signing up for YASH and filling out my author profile stuff they make me do for every book for the new book, sent a barrage of emails

10 am - Stared at the computer.

11 pm - Spent an hour making homemade banana bread. The house now smells amazing.

12 pm - Ate leftover pizza and took a shower so long it would have made Al Gore cry.

1 pm - Stared at the computer.

1:30 pm - Wrote a bizarre blog post about my schedule for the past week.

2 pm - Eyed the notebook for the next project. . .

2:03 - Picked up a pen.

New York, New Book

Hello. Long time, no read.

I know.

I have been busy traveling. And traveling. And traveling. So far this year I have spent almost 3 months, in total, on the road. At first it seemed glamourous and fun, a great adventure, but at this point I'm like, "Oh. It's you, airport." Then I sigh.

But this week I am teaching a summer conference at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, holed up in my very own quaint little dorm room, meeting with students and talking about writing until my voice hurts, and then hiding out in the later hours to write.

I am writing a new book.

And it will be published. Unfortunately I can't tell you much more about it until things are signed and sent and finalized, but I will say two things:

1. It is not related to the Unearthly series. But I hope the fans of the Unearthly series will love it, because I love it, and it is a story that is very near and dear to my heart.

2. I will be reading a bit of this new book at the faculty reading on Friday night. So if you want a preview of my coming work, come out and listen! The reading is open to the public at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York (you take the Metro North train from Grand Central Station, about 20-25 minutes).

Here are the details:

7:30pm, Friday, June 28
Reisinger Auditorium
Sarah Lawrence College
1 Mead Way · Bronxville/Yonkers, NY 10708

Here's a link to the campus map.

I will read, and if you wait for me at the end, I'll have time to talk to you and sign anything you want and give away a few bookmarks and such. So if you're in the New York area, and you want to know something about my new book before anybody else, come out.

Hope to see you there.

And now I must go back to writing, writing, writing, writing, writing!