Sorry For Not Responding

Being stuck in quarantine should mean I have all the time in the world to finally do all the things I've been saying I would do if only I had all the time in the world.

However, up until about a couple weeks ago, I was waking up at 3-3:30pm because I'd gotten used to staying up incredibly late and going to sleep at 7:00am. As one can imagine, I'd begun to feel like my entire day had been wasted each and every time I woke up in the late afternoon. And although I was still technically awake for much of the same hours I was awake during a normal working week, I felt like I had less time to get things done.

Now, I've tried to remedy my damaged sleep schedule so that I can get more work done during the daylight hours. I've been working on a YA fantasy series about witches, a story I'd created when I was about 16 years old during my junior year of high school. This series has been through so many rewrites in my head because I didn't understand the conventions of storytelling when I was that young. Now that I've had time to really focus on world-building, character development, voice, plot structure, and other narrative tools — I've been plowing away at this series. I'm halfway through the rough draft of the first book, sharing chapters with a critique partner of mine, and I'm feeling really excited about it. Like I'm drinking red wine all the time without the hangover that comes the morning after.

I've also reread a little bit of one of my favorite YA fantasy series, Throne of Glass by Queen Sarah J. Maas. I've developed a bit of a hyper-fixation on Manon Blackbeak and Dorian Havilliard and their ambiguous ending – what happens after "We'll see"?! When is The World of Throne of Glass finally coming out to give me those answers? The fandom hype has died down considerably on Tumblr in the past two years, making it difficult to lose myself in this world and the community around it, but a girl can try.

I've been reading more books as well; I've just finished The Reluctant Queen by Sarah Beth Durst, the sequel in her Queens of Renthia trilogy. I have to say, the first book was more electrifying and exciting. This one ... was painful to get through, per my review on Goodreads. I've also read Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, which I gave three stars out of five for the lackluster ending, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, which I gave five stars for the delightful twist – I was thoroughly impressed by the outcome of the prophecy and Tristran's journey over all! I also purchased A House of Earth and Blood, Queen Sarah J. Maas's newest adult fantasy book, and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley which I am excited to start soon.

But in the midst of all this reading, I've been neglecting TV. I'm in the middle of about a thousand different shows, including: Killing Eve (2018-present, Hulu), The Witcher (2019-present, Netflix), The Boys (2019-present, Amazon Prime), Itaewon Class (2020, Netflix), Dead to Me (2019-present, Netflix), Hollywood (2020-present, Netflix), Never Have I Ever (2020-present, Netflix) and On My Block (2018-present, Netflix). My movie watchlist keeps expanding too, rather than going down.

I've even had to start writing reminders to myself to email certain friends back and remember to respond to Insta DMs from college friends that I haven't spoken to in a while. Isn't it funny how one can be so lonely in this day and age of technology, and also so overwhelmed?

It's a little comforting to know that I'm not alone in this; being terrible at keeping up with communication, even though we have all the time in the world right now to be communicating with each other.

Hope everyone is staying safe, keeping busy, and living their best lockdown lives right now x