You have to protect your mind. Remember this will come to an end.

We are on week 2 of lockdown in London. Hoping everyone is doing okay! I work remotely so not much has changed for me. Walking down the road is a trip. It's literally a ghost town and finding toilet roll and pasta is like stumbling across a pot of gold. I miss seeing my mates, church and driving! I literally volunteer to go to the shops just so I can drive! The lockdown had to happen though. When I was driving to the shop I could see bare people in the park just laying down, sunbathing and me and everyone in the cars were just staring at them like wtf?! But despite all the crap the lockdown has made me very appreciative of my health, my family, that I have a garden to all least go for run in without people breathing on me. I am bored enough that I'm messing about with filters on Instagram. My uncle and cousins have natural blue eyes so it's defo my mum that ruined the gene.

The publishing world is slowly closing down and loads of books are being delayed. We haven't been affected yet except having to postpose The Author School full day, but Helen and I always have loads of ideas of how to overcome these challenges so hopefully our businesses won't be affected too much. If you want to buy a Hashtag Press book, best to order directly from us www.hashtagpress.co.uk or Waterstones online if they have it in stock.

Since being on lockdown it has given us time to actually put into place a lot of online content (we've been talking about doing it for years) and now we have the time to do it! Lots of FB live and IGTV and now we're putting our online course together so writers we've got you! We're also doing some story times and submission callouts for Hashtag. I actually don't love pics and videos but I'm slowly getting into it.  Use this time wisely to do something new. Not everyday Netflix :) and switch off the news and Twitter and anywhere where fear is manifesting. You have to protect your mind. Remember this will come to an end. Keep your faith and stay safe.

So I am self-employed and have been for over 10 years but I also have a limited company. Unfortunately that puts me in the 5% off people that the Government can't help. I know right. But this is how God is so good. Helen and I received Arts Council funding for Hashtag BLAK!! I'm so grateful that we are able to really build up that imprint into what we want it to be, especially in these very strange times AND we signed our first author!! More info soon but it's a YA book and I love it!

I was today years old when I realised that I was a millennial. I actually thought millennials were born in 2000 so the way I would cuss and be like these damn millennials are so lazy, so entitled and yeah I am part of them!

Who has been watching Noughts and Crosses on BBC1? I love how Nigerian it is! That book was actually the first book I had and for a long time with a black female main character. It's amazing how relevant the book is today. The racists came out on full force on Twitter lol. It's actually amazing that people can be so racist and yet not see it, like that is a skill in itself right?

Have you joined Tik Tok yet? I don't think I'm bored enough to do it yet but I did learn the JLo superbowl choreography which I was proud of myself for. I love the Tiki's Tok's with families dancing on it. I might have to persuade my family to do one. Now that will be worth getting an account for.

Good Girls on Netflix is sooooo good.

Before the lockdown happened, I wanted to get some hand weights. My family laughed at me for wanting to get it and I explained that the gyms would defo close at some point and I wanted to be able to work out. So I ordered some from Argos but for some reason it delivered to Sainsbury's. I went to Sainsbury's who were stocked up! So of course I had to do a shop as I was waiting for them to get my weights. When I tell you they couldn't even carry the weights. Here I am with 2 bags of shopping, weights I can't hold and then the cashier says, “Do you need toilet roll?”
Me: Oh yes you have some?
Cashier: In 10 minutes we will
That's when I notice that the delivery truck is there and about fifteen people in the store with no shopping just waiting for toilet roll! In the end I had to order a Bolt to get my shopping home. The driver carried the weights. The gym closed the next day. Now my family are asking me if they can use my weights. Typical.

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