Featured Guest: A.D. Ellis: Getting through quarantine, Helpful hints, and What I’m writing #Giveaway

Hey, everyone! I hope you're all hanging in there and are healthy and being safe. We are so glad to have A.D. Ellis here with a perfect guest post. She's talking about getting through quarantine, helpful hints, and also talking about what she's writing. There's a giveaway at the end so lots of fun. Check it out.

When Meredith asked for volunteers to be on her blog, I eagerly raised my hand. Then she told me that I could write about anything I wanted.

Cool, I’m a writer. Easy, right?

WRONG! How is it someone who writes 1,000-2,000 words a day on stories I’ve created in my head can completely freeze in terror when a blogger tells me to write whatever I want?!?

Meredith was kind enough to throw me some lifelines and I decided to do a hodge-podge from all three of her suggestions.

Getting Through the Quarantine-

How are you? Surviving? Going crazy? Affected a little, not at all, profoundly?

At this point in time, I’m doing okay. I’ve been “working from home” from my job as a teacher/instructional coach since March 13.  As a mom and teacher, I’ve been grateful for the past couple weeks of Spring Break, but this week we dove back in. I’m lucky that my kids are almost fifteen and thirteen, and they are pretty self-sufficient with their online learning. Their district was already set up for online learning, but it was designed for a day here and there due to snow or similar. Now they are doing full-on, every day online learning and it’s a bit different. Due to the 20-day waiver our governor has given, they will be out on May 15.

My school organization was zero percent prepared for this type of situation as a vast majority of our scholars do not have access to reliable technology. So, we’ve been adjusting on the fly and doing the best we can. Our biggest concerns are making sure our high-poverty students have food and are safe. I’m doing four to five video conference calls a day with my admin team, working with staff to assist them with connecting to and teaching scholars, and assuring staff, scholars, and families are taking care of themselves.

My husband is now working from home, smack-dab in the middle of our living room, using our television as a second monitor. We moved my desk from the bedroom to the living room; every day we moved it to the middle of the room and every night we move it back to the side so it’s out of the way. I’m learning a lot about his job and maybe why he doesn’t have much to say when he gets home because he’s so busy with frustrating calls all day long.

My husband has an autoimmune disease and the medication he takes suppresses his immune system, so I’m having a lot of anxiety over him getting sick. My son has asthma and a long history of lung issues as an infant, so I’m super anxious about him getting sick. We’re mostly at home, only going out for groceries. My daughter is super down about not being able to see her boyfriend; I know it’s not much consolation, but I told her it’s good she has FaceTime.

Helpful Hints-

I’ve found the following truly does help me feel better and be more productive (not that I’m 100% perfect at doing all of them, but with 4-5 video calls a day, I have to look professional)

·       Go to bed at a regular time; get 6-8 hours of sleep a night

·       Get up at the same time daily

·       Shower and dress and get ready as if you were going to work

·       Keep a schedule

·       Take walks or movement breaks

·       Get out in the sunshine and fresh air

·       Connect with friends on FaceTime or Zoom or text or even just a phone call (I’m still highly phobic of making phone calls, but it’s weird how quickly I’ve gotten used to Zoom calls for work and connecting with friends)

·       Learn something- I taught myself to crochet a couple years ago by watching videos (and LOVE IT!) I do A LOT of writing in my downtime. I’ve been teaching video lessons for school. Maybe learn a new language? An instrument? It’s sad that the reason there are so many freebies is the current situation, but take advantage. Keep your mind busy. Puzzles and board games are both things I loathe, but I know a lot of people love them.

What Am I Writing?

My latest series is Silver in the City (getbook.at/SilverCity) It’s a three-book series focusing on twin brothers and their cousin. Each book is a different couple, but all connected. It’s a steamy, slow-burn, age-gap, opposites-attract, forced proximity gay romance series. Readers were so in love with the Silver guys, they wanted more. So, I created a new spin-off series called Forged in the City. This new series (which starts releasing on April 10 with Hearts Ablaze getbook.at/HeartsAblaze) is a three-book series with each book focusing on a different couple and is set in the same world as Silver in the City. The books in Forged in the City are steamy, male/male romance with several of my favorite tropes such as: age-gap, opposites-attract, friends-to-lovers, bisexual-awakening, men in lace.

The Forged in the City books will be books twenty-eight, twenty-nine, and thirty for my career. I’ve got a romantic suspense about halfway complete and plans for what will probably be my kinkiest book yet to round out numbers thirty-one and thirty-two.

I adore creating and writing new characters and stories. I love getting to know the characters and how they completely take over my mind. My characters are very real to me and I think of them as often as I think of my real-life friends and family.

Odds and Ends-

Just some things about me if you’re interested in knowing them:

·       I love tea. Unsweet iced tea, sweet hot tea. Black tea and chai tea latte are my favorites.

·       I don’t like coffee at all. LOVE the smell, the taste is not good on my tongue.

·       I love sushi (only the cooked kind), crab Rangoon, and lo-mein noodles.

·       Brussels sprouts and asparagus are delicious.

·       I love to crochet, read, write, and take naps.

·       I pretty much despise cooking (but this quarantine has found me making homemade vanilla pudding and white chocolate chip cookies—no macadamia nuts!)

·       I like cashews, pistachios, almonds, and peanuts. I despise all other nuts.

·       I despise coconut (the texture, not the flavor)

·       I don’t like mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, olives.

·       Cheese pizza is a favorite.

·       I have a warped sense of humor and can be a sarcastic smart ass a lot of the time.

·       I’m very quiet until you get to know me, then I’ll never shut up.

·       A wasp nest fell on my head on the first day of first grade.

So, do we have a lot in common or are we complete opposites?

If you made it this far through my somewhat rambling post, thank you! I want you to know that I’m so very grateful for all of the essential workers, I feel for and along with all of you who are struggling, I’m with all of you who feel this is absolutely surreal and unbelievable, and I’m so ready for our “normal” to return. I hope we can all stay as sane as possible, escape into fictional worlds, find comfort in stories and friends and family, and use this time to find ourselves, make connections, and be the best we can be.

Thank you for reading. Reach out if you’d like to connect. Check out my books if you like real-life romance. Sending virtual love and hugs to you and yours!

getbook.at/SilverCity (Silver in the City series)

getbook.at/HeartsAblaze (newest release)

Author Bio 

A.D. Ellis is an Indiana girl, born and raised. She spends much of her time in central Indiana as an instructional coach/teacher in the inner city of Indianapolis, being a mom to two amazing school-aged children, and wondering how she and her husband of almost two decades have managed to not drive each other insane. A lot of her time is also devoted to phone call avoidance and her hatred of cooking.

She loves chocolate, wine with friends, pizza, crocheting and naps along with reading and writing romance. These loves don’t leave much time for housework, much to the chagrin of her husband. Who would pick cleaning the house over a nap or a good book? She uses any extra time to increase her fluency in sarcasm.

Find all of Ellis’ contemporary romance and male/male romance at www.adellisauthor.com

FREE books-- sign up at bit.ly/ADEllisNews for a FREE male/female romance.
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Links

Facebook www.facebook.com/adellisauthor

Twitter www.twitter.com/ADEllisAuthor

Instagram www.instagram.com/adellisauthor

Amazon author.to/ADEllisAmazon 

Bookbub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/a-d-ellis

Giveaway

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Contest ends April 16th

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