T.D. Shields's Blog

I am SO excited to tell you that I have signed with Aelurus Publishing! They have picked up Into Shadow and Into Light and will be re-releasing them with some beautiful new covers, a bit of extra editing polish, and a lot more know-how when it comes to the marketing and publicity side of things! It's an incredible opportunity and I am just thrilled that we are going to be working together.To make it all that little bit more awesome... Aelurus means cat in Latin. Their logo is a cat. I am a cat-lady who writes books featuring cats as major characters. What a purr-fect match!

Have you ever wrapped yourself in a big, thick blanket? Just covered yourself from head to toe so you have only a tiny gap left to allow you to see and breathe a little? The blanket muffles what you hear, interferes with what you feel, and prevents you from moving and acting and relating with the people around you.It’s stifling and confining, but at the same time, it’s almost comforting. Your blanket is your own little world and if no one can reach you there, no one can trouble you. You get so used to the confines of your blanket that the idea of unwrapping it a little can cause panic or anger. It’s easiest just to stay there in your blanket and let life move on around you.Of course, you don’t want everyone to know that you’re wrapped in the blanket, so you go about your life as if it’s not there. You pretend that it’s not tangled around your feet every time you want to take a step forward. You smile and laugh and pretend that you don’t feel smothered and restricted.That’s how it feels to me when I’m stuck in a bout of depression. I’m disconnected from the world and observing it, but unable to really interact with it. I want to do things. I make plans to do things. But I can’t follow through. The blanket wraps around me and all I can do it make excuses for reasons that I’m not going to do things after all.I’ll start on that work in an hour, after lunch, once the kids are in bed, tomorrow… but not right now. I’m just so tired.I’ll write a chapter later. I’ll check my email in a little while. I’ll get off the couch and fix the kids some dinner… but not right now. I’m just so tired.I’ll make that phone call. I’ll pay that bill. I’ll finish that work I postponed earlier… but not right now. I’m just so tired.When the blanket interferes with every little thing you do, life is exhausting. Everything makes you tired. It’s just so hard to accomplish anything.Sometimes the blanket falls on you like a crushing weight out of nowhere. Sometimes it creeps up on you, a little bit at a time, so you hardly notice until suddenly you realize that you’re completely smothered. This time around, the blanket snuck up on me. I was doing good… and then I wasn’t quite as good, but still ok. And then I finally realized that there I was again, stuck in the blanket.For months I struggled every single day to just make it through the things I HAD to do. I could force myself to get work done on my day job – but not until I had a deadline staring me in the face. I could force myself to do the things that HAD to be done around the house, but not a bit more. I managed to do what I HAD to do for church and school and family, but it was such a struggle that the bare minimum was all I could handle. So Facebook and other social interactions had to go. Networking and marketing for my books were gone. Writing a new book just wasn’t happening. All of these things that I actually really enjoy could no longer be part of my life because they happen outside the blanket.I knew I was wrapped up in the blanket. I knew I needed to find a way out. But it’s so hard to find a way to break loose. Even reaching out enough to say, “I need help” is nearly impossible. But finally, FINALLY, I was able to force myself to contact my doctor and say, “My meds aren’t working.”It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Just call the doctor and tell her you need something. But I couldn’t do it. Depression wraps you in the blanket, anxiety makes you afraid to reach out of the blanket, and you just sit there doing nothing instead.So all of this long and rambling analogy is to say, “Hey, I’ve been gone for a while.”I spent a few months being strangled by the blanket and procrastinating everything in my life, but I think I’m back on track again. My new meds are keeping the blanket at bay and I think I’m finally caught up from all the backlog I created for myself when I could only manage the bare minimum.I’m creeping back into social interactions, so I hope you’ll see me on Facebook. I’m trying to participate in life. I’m starting to hear the stories in my head again, so I can start writing them down and finish the three books I have in progress. (And doesn’t it sound strange to say that it’s a GOOD sign when I start hearing stories in my head?)The blanket isn’t gone. I can still feel it tripping me up sometimes. But it’s better than it was, and I’ll keep hoping that it will get better still.

This week's challenge for #LifeBooksWriting is to share my book marketing tips with you. Ha! Like I have book marketing tips! If I had great book marketing tips, probably a lot more people would be reading my books (and reading this post)! Honestly, I do what I can, which is not a lot, and have to then hope for the best. Things I have tried include buying advertising (on a limited budget), building a website and blog, and having a social media presence to the best of my ability. Other than that,

Last week (on Mother's Day), I was asked to talk in church. Since it was Mother's Day, I chose to focus my talk on mothers... and I took a little different tack than some might have. Since I made some excellent points (if I do say so myself) which I REALLY need to remember in my own life, I'm going to post the text here - in case it can help anyone else. :) I think many of us have friends like this friend of mine who is intimidatingly impressive. She has a beautiful house which is always

This week's challenge for #LifeBooksWriting is to tell you about what I'm reading. I do that fairly often, but usually focus on a specific book. This time, I'm going to show you the bounty of books I received for Mother's Day from my sweet husband who understands that my favorite gifts are books.  As you can see, a great mix of some old favorites (Jayne Ann Krentz, Mary Janice Davidson, Linda Howard, and Robin McKinley), new favorites (K.L. Phelps, Erin Evans, and Victoria Laurie), and a new

These days, the eternal question for an author seems to be, Will you self-publish or look for a publisher? There are plenty of pros and cons in either direction and really it's a hard choice to make. Recently I made the decision to sign with a publisher who had offered me a contract and I did it mainly for two reasons. First, this particular publisher was set up in a team structure I really liked which gave me the chance to connect with a book manager whose role on the team was largely focused

I'm joining in on a blog challenge aimed at letting readers get to know their favorite authors (I'm one of your favorite authors, right?), and the first week's entry is to talk about where we write. As much as I wish I was writing here...  In reality, this is where I do my writing... (Full disclosure, this room is pretty much NEVER as clean as in this picture, LOL.) This big brown chair is beat up and scarred. The stuffing is leaking out in spots. The footrest won't pop out anymore unless I can

Last week I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, merrily liking everything along my path, when suddenly I caught site of an image that made me stop and take a closer look. “Love this!” I proclaimed, and moved on. A few moments later, I scrolled up to look at it again… and there it was in my brain – a book cover centered around this gorgeous dress. That was the inspiration for a new project that I’ve begun working on (in tandem with Bump In the Night, which is still in the works). The new book

I just finished reading the second book in Rachel B. Smith's Reflection series and I sure wish I knew when the next one was coming! These books are hard to categorize... Amazon calls them "magical realism" and "fantasy" and there is definitely magic and prophesy and other elements of the high fantasy genre. But there are also hints of dystopian - there once was an advanced society that has since lost the technology of the past. And since the series' conflict focuses on the clash between a