What it feels like to run on empty: #YouBeneathYourSkin

In the last two months, I haven't had an entire night's sleep. I'm lucky if I have five hours. No weekends. No evenings out. Almost no cooking or gardening. The worst thing? No creative writing, and almost no reading. I'm on a hamster wheel and the faster I run, the faster it spins--the book tour gig is not for sissies.

I'm traveling to various cities in India with You Beneath Your Skin, attending panels and discussions and lit-fests and all throughout an inner voice that remains calm and detached keeps asking me when I plan to get back to my current WIP again.

I'm fundraising for two charities I've volunteered with for a while: Project WHY and Stop Acid Attacks: all my proceeds go to them. This adds an impetus--I'm pretty sure if this was a normal book, with no causes attached to it, I would have bolted into a hidey-hole a long time ago.


To de-stress and keep myself functional, I've turned to meditation--just learning to breathe and remaining with that flow. I'm forgiving myself for falling a little behind, missing out on a few things, for falling asleep when I'm supposed to be working.

I'm sorely tempted to hide away for a while, but i know I'd have to come back, and things would be far more difficult then. Having a book out in the world is a blessing, and in my case, the culmination of 6 years of effort. Might as well try and enjoy a little of it while it lasts.

What about you? Does doing non-writing things most of the time annoy you? How do you work all of that into your life? What is your personal mantra?