The only way is up...?

So yesterday was a bit disheartening all round. I had two children home sick, the brief burst of spring-like weather had degenerated into a wet day with a wind chilly enough to bring tears to the eyes, I managed a dismal five lines of rewrite on the damn sequel that is torturing the living daylights out of me, I got an MS rejected and then, at the end of the day, not only did my daughter show signs of coming down with the same illness but my editor announced she had left my publisher and wouldn't be working with me any more. Wow. Hey, at least nobody died, yeah?

The upshot of all that? I had a cry and promised myself tomorrow would be better. At least my two boys are showing signs of being a bit more perky. And sometime soon muse is bound to come up with some stunning solution to my story woes, right? But losing my fabulous editor after working so closely and so hard together on my first release has left me reeling. And now I don't know what's going to happen next. I hadn't got the sequel delivered to them yet (and if this stuck scene doesn't free flow soon, I'm never likely to) so I'm assuming I go back to making a general submission and see who's willing to take me on. It's a bit unsettling.

But I'm resilient - okay, stubborn - so I shall grit my teeth and get on with it. Try to see this as an opportunity for something and someone new. I always try to see the bright side. It's just a little hard to see it right now. :-/

Using the darkness...

I don't like to complain. I always feel that I have no good reason to, no right to ever do so. It's very easy to look at the world around you and see someone far worse off than yourself, but I always find that increases my own depression. Trying to make myself feel better by comparing my own sorrow to the plight of another suffering human being only emphasizes the sadness and pain of it all. It helps no-one, solves nothing.

So what is the cure? Hot chocolate and marshmallows? Talking to friends and family? A facepalm and a stern injunction to yourself to 'buck up'? Helping someone else out? It can certainly ease the problem or provide a distraction. When I feel myself sinking, I tend to hide away - if I can't stand my own company, why inflict it on the people I love in my life? I know it will pass. I know life has its highs and lows. The swings of a pendulum, the shift from day to night and back again, the rise and fall of the waves....nothing in this universe is constant, everything subject to flux and change.

So will I be happy tomorrow? Probably. Will I get depressed again? Likely. Am I going to keep on complaining about it? Well, maybe just a little! In the meantime, what can I do with it, this darkness pouring through my soul, dragging me down? Perhaps this is a good time to write a dark, depressing scene for the next book....?