I’ve got them in my head right now. Before you completely think I’ve lost my marbles, let me explain. Maggie’s talked about the squirrels, busy digging up stories, and squirreling away all those ideas that bombard you as a writer.

It’s unfortunate my squirrels have morphed into gremlins, because they do the opposite of those cute fuzzy squirrels. Feels like my gremlins are eating away at my brain. So maybe that makes them zombie gremlins?

You’re probably asking if there is a purpose to this post. There is. Promise. It’s about coping with stress when everything in life feels like it’s gone downhill. By downhill, I’m totally referring to those green gremlins I’m hacking up every few minutes right now. J TMI, I know.

I was doing okay with the crazy load that daily life likes to deliver me: kids, writing, revisions, work, life in general… now a cold gets thrown into the loop, and this one has nearly knocked me on my ass for a week now and still counting the days to feeling better.

So writing for the past week has taken the backburner as I adjust to what is apparently some sort of latent asthma (is this like a late birthday present, Universe?) mixed with allergies from hell, and brought on my this lovely cold virus.

I always feel guilty about putting writing on the backburner. And I can’t stop thinking about it. (Thank god those revisions are done–or I’d be totally screwed! LOL) But sometimes life is telling us to back off and rest, it just does it in the most mysterious of ways, if you ask me.

So, tell me readers, what makes you slow down? Do you realize you take on too much (because you are obviously smarter than me) or do you come crashing down when something literally throws you on your ass?

Please, if it’s in your heart to banish those gremlins from my head, send some heal vibes my way, blog readers.

Also, it’s pay it forward day. Which is all about random acts of kindness and passing it on. So do something nice for someone who needs it!