June 2019 Update
Hello everyone!
I’ve been relatively quiet the last couple of months. If you’ve been following me on social media you’ll know I’ve been suffering from brain inflammation since December 2018–but I’m pleased to say I am recovering now.
My illness has meant I haven’t been able to write as much recently, but during my recovery, I began to write for Medium, focusing primarily on mental health and disability. If you’d like to know more about the condition I have, Paediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (which despite the name also affects adults!), you can take a look at this article I wrote all about it.
And today, I found out I’m now a “Top Writer” at Medium for their “This Happened To Me” tag. As such, this achievement is now mentioned on my Medium profile!
I am so glad that my articles about mental health and my experiences of this illness have been so positively received so far. Deciding to write about something that would make me so vulnerable was a tricky decision, but not only is it helping me process everything that’s happened, but it’s also been helping other people. I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of messages I’ve received from others, sharing their experiences with me and thanking me for being so honest about mine.
As such, this has really been motivating me to write a full-length piece about my experiences with this neuropsychiatric illness–and I’ve been writing a book about it!
Writing this memoir turned out to be something that really helped me as I navigated my recovery too–while my brain inflammation had affected my creativity, I found I was still able to write this nonfiction account of my experiences and doing so helped me process everything that has happened.
I’ve also now got a new guinea pig–he’s called Toby, and he’s my “Get Well Guinea Pig” who’s helping me recover from the brain inflammation. Isn’t he adorable?
Toby’s really been helping me focus on my recovery, and I feel much better now. He’ll shortly be introduced to my other guinea pigs too!
I’m pleased to say that in the last couple of days, I’ve been able to restart my fiction writing! My creativity is coming back, and honestly, it is such a relief–especially as being a writer is a huge part of my identity.
Not being able to write fiction the last couple of months really affected me, but I’m now having fun outlining a new YA manuscript as well as working some more on my upcoming release, This Vicious Way (the sequel to A Dangerous Game). I’m not yet sure whether we’ll be sticking to the planned release of December 2019 for This Vicious Way or whether it’s going to get delayed a little because of my illness (which I’m still receiving treatment for at the moment) but I’ll keep you updated. And of course, I’m continuing to work on my memoir and write more mental health articles.
I’ve set up a new Facebook page for my mental health writings, so if you’d like to follow it, you can find it here. And if you’re interested in my regular author page on Facebook for my fiction, that’s over here.
In upcoming news, I know we’ll shortly be revealing the gorgeous cover for This Vicious Way, and I am so excited to share this with you very soon!
That’s all for now!
All best,
Madeline
