wittering noun
witยทโterยทโing หwitษrษฬn, -riล
plural-s
chiefly Scottish
: a piece of information (as a sign, token, or hint)
Etymology
Middle English (Scots) wittering, witering, from the gerund of witteren, witeren to clarify, inform, teach, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse vitra to manifest, reveal, vitr wise, vita to knowโWittering.โ
โ โWittering.โ Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wittering.
Thank you for helping Craving Beauty top the charts!
Moving Wylder Tales fully into KU wasn’t an easy decision. But at this point in my life, I haven’t had the time or brain space (mom of young kids) to set up my own store, or do the “things” that breed success for many of my fellow authors. KU, much as I loathe it at times, has helped me find visibility I wouldn’t have otherwise with my limited budget (and again… time). I set up my first free promo days this past week and was honestly surprised my little fairy tale fantasy gained any traction. (I’m always surprised when one of my books does moderately well – as you’ll discover below…). So thank you so much to everyone who ordered a copy and to those loyal KU readers who gave my little series a chance! For those of you who haven’t yet explored Wylderland, follow the link below:
Slaying Dragons and Imposter Demons
Raise your hand if you struggle with that time-honored affliction known as “imposter syndrome.” What is this silly term, some of you may ask. According to Encyclopedia Brittanica imposter syndrome is:
a persistent unjustified feeling that oneโs success is fraudulent. Imposter syndrome is characterized by doubt in oneโs abilitiesโdespite a record of achievement or respect from oneโs peersโand a fear of having oneโs unworthiness exposed.
I don’t know a single creative person who hasn’t experienced this feeling at one point or another. It’s infuriating. Like knowingly and willingly being possessed, the doubts creep in, and if you aren’t careful, swallow your creative drive whole. Pesky demons…
Four years ago, I had the questionably brilliant idea to revamp and republish my Wylder Tales series. I reasoned that the new gorgeous covers deserved an equally gorgeous interior and spellbinding words. I poured my creative self into the project and found some success with Craving Beauty. But I’m a one-woman show with two kids (I gave birth to my daughter the same year I released CB). And by the time Scarred Beauty rolled around a year later, I felt satisfied creatively with no clue how to move forward from there.
Bound Beauty was the book in this series I used to feel most proud of. It was my first experience writing a book that seemingly wrote itself. This time, as I breathed fresh life into the series and made quite a lot of changes, I struggled to bring the vision to life. I’m still slogging through it with sheer determination. I decided to slay the dragon (poor dragon?) and so I shall. I won’t give up until it’s in your hands, you wonderful readers who happen to be reading this long-deserved update.
You may be wondering what happened the past year and half as I failed to finish and publish this bloody beast of a novel. Honestly, I’m not even sure what happened. I wrote and wrote and edited and revised the hells bells out of this thing. And somewhere along the way I started to doubt myself.
Imposter syndrome and I are old frienemies, so I knew what was happening as it was happening. Again, infuriating, but no less difficult to deal with. this time I started to doubt my ability to pull off my vision for this series. I found myself incapable of getting past a certain scene in act two. It wasn’t right, and I wasn’t doing it right, and I didn’t even know what would make it right. But that’s not the point. The point is, I started to believe the liesโฆ again.
In the midst of my creative crisis, fate threw a couple of lovely curveballs my way. I don’t want to go into all the pesky details here. Suffice to say, I felt so depleted at the end of every day that it was a struggle to evenlook at my ongoing draft. It was impossible for me to create, and I started to tell myself the worst lie of all… that I wasn’t going to ever “make it” with my writing anyway, so why bother?
Why indeed?
Why should we bother when life is hard enough as it is?
Why devote hours I should be sleeping or doing something more productive to a passion that’s never going anywhere?
For two months, I took a step away from it all.
I’m not sure if taking a step back was the right choice, especially when I didn’t even bother to update anyone on my site or socials. But my lovely imposter demon whispered, “No one cares anyway. Everyone has their own lives and you’re just writing into the void.”
The demon isn’t wrong. We do all have responsibilities that need our primary focus, and no one should spend every minute online for the sake of their sanity and health. And it’s amazing, isn’t it? We have the capability to reach more human beings than ever before, but we’ve never felt more lonely. Looking past the politics and the struggle to keep your kids safe, educated, and fed, maybe this lack of genuine connection is why so many people are so angry and heartsick.
Those of us who remember the “good old days” before cell phones dominated our lives are keenly aware of this. And I think younger generations feel this even more. Our society is starving for genuine conversation and kindness. Take off the masks for a little while and talk about something nonsensical but real. It doesn’t even need to be something deep or profound. Just true.
What is your truth? Who do you want to be?
Going somewhat “off grid” for the last two months has made me really slow down and wrestle with my imposter demon. I realized that it’s okay if I still haven’t figured out the “business” of writing after a decade of paddling through this crazy market. What I’m best at is this. I’ll never post a viral TikTok or Instagram and I don’t think I really want to. I would rather write books, and write about books, and sometimes share something true and genuine with you.
I’m picking up the proverbial pen and my literal one (I keep separate journals for different book series). I’m vanquishing the demon and slaying the dragon, and I’m going to keep going. Along the way, I want to make a promise to myself to be more grounded in 2026. I want to write in my diary again, and maybe get to know who I’ve become since I last picked up the pen.
What’s your journey going to look like this year?
What’s your truth?
What are you reading?
Have you read something that made you laugh lately, or made you cry? I’d love ot hear your book recs in the comments! Here are a few of my ongoing reads I’m determined to finish this coming month:
Jennifer Silverwood 
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