Egad! Where does the time go? I know it’s a thing—that time seems to past faster the older you get—but, come on.
Before we get into the writerly update, my monthly PSAs:
I stand with Ukraine and condemn Putin’s unprovoked war.
All lives cannot matter until BIPOC lives matter.
Though restrictions have eased, case counts and hospitalisations are again on the rise. They’re talking about a sixth wave here in Canada. Wash your hands, maintain physical distance, mask when you can’t. Get vaccinated if you haven’t. Get boosted if you haven’t. Sign up for the next booster when it’s available.
The month in writing
March was a good month, I think.
I only have two projects to report on (that I recorded on my Excel tracker).
I set what I though was a reasonable revision goal for Reality Bomb of 20,000 words. And I revised 18,277 words, or 91%. I only have eight chapters left to go. Then I’ll take a short break to work through some revision notes in my map, consolidate the cause and effect between scenes and ensure that every scene has a proper structure. I’m in a good place, though there’s still work to be done. There always will be.
I blogged 5,982 words of my 6,000-word goal. Essentially 100%.
In terms of projects I’m not tracking, I worked on my Ascension series master document and have gotten to the point where I have to reread the existing material before I proceed.
I also submitted a piece of short fiction to an open submission period.
I forgot to mention last month that the story I submitted to an anthology in January was rejected. It’s the life of a professional writer, submission and rejection. It’s an entirely negative-sounding process. Submission—to put yourself, or your work, at someone else’s mercy—and rejection—to be turned away. No wonder most people think writers are crazy 🙂
Filling the well
I attended two writerly events in March. The first was a workshop on planning and outlining your novel with Kate Heartfield, offered through the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers. The second was a demonstration on how to use tarot cards to develop a character arc from Margaret McNellis.
I also watched the replay of Finding and Working with the Right Literary Agent with Howard Yoon offered through Jane Friedman.
In the self-care department, I had an appointment with my RMT, my therapist, and my support group. I’m working on identifying thought distortions in the moment. Self-awareness is hard work.
I made a discovery. I don’t need a duty to accommodate. I’ve managed 21 years in the public service without. I just have to monitor my mental health a little more closely and take my sick leave as I need it. In my autistic way, I was so focused on the DTA process and “doing things right” that I completely missed the obvious. I do get hyper-focused from time to time. Fortunately, I caught myself, with the help of my therapist, before I committed to a 30-hour work week and the accompanying cut in pay.
Financial wellbeing supports mental health. As the sole support for my household, a one-fifth cut in my income would have been a blow. And the uncertainty about whether I could pay down our remaining debts before I retire would have weighed heavily. The cut to my pension would not have been welcome, either.
I’m going to see through my “trial period”—just three more weeks—supported by the use of my sick leave. I just have to get a doctor’s note to say that I am capable of working full time, without restrictions, and I won’t pursue a DTA further. It’s a relief, really.
What I’m watching and reading
In terms of viewing, I have a gap to fill from January (!) At the time, I had watched the last episode of the most recent season of Nancy Drew, but the network broadcasting it was advertising its return in March, so I was unaware that it was the last episode.
I’ll fill that gap now by saying that the season was its usual highly supernatural, highly sexually charged stories that I’ve come to expect from Nancy and the Drew Crew. Though she finally has the chance to hook up with Ace, Temperance curses her so that if she ever confesses her love for Ace, he’ll die. Dun, dun, dun!
Back in the March viewing department, Phil and I watched the new Vikings: Valhalla. In tone, it strikes somewhere between the original Vikings and The Last Kingdom. One of the new cast is Leif Erikson (son of Erik the Red). I’m willing to see where it leads, though they do make liberal reference to the original Vikings and the historical inaccuracies therein.
The rest of what I watched was personal viewing. Three series and two movies.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow finished its season in early March. I could just say that the usual wackiness ensued, but there was a little more meat to this season. Gideon becomes human but an uncorrupted version of the Gideon AI exists and creates robot versions of the legends to hunt them down and kill them.
Batwoman ended around the same time and the angst of the season was resolved, Ryan’s back in charge of Wayne Enterprises, her brother is “cured,” and Alice is committed to doing the work of healing.
Discovery was good, but sappy. A first contact situation with traditional Starfleet values all over the place.
I watched Turning Red. I think it was awesome.
And, finally, I watched the new Dune. I appreciated the choices Villeneuve made, but there are still some issues.
I read four books in March.
The first was this has nothing to do with you by Lauren Carter. It was a story about healing from trauma, and very good, but I found it a difficult read because the protagonist’s name was Mel and the fictional city of Norbury is a stand-in for Sudbury. Though the trauma—how to deal when your mother kills your father for having an affair—was nothing I personally relate to, it was nonetheless an uncomfortable read. But Grommet was wonderful.
Then I read Matthew Saleses Craft in the Real World, in which the author makes the case for an alternate version of workshopping/critique within the MFA frame of reference, so that it’s more inclusive of craft from other cultures. Thought provoking. Excellent.
I followed that up with Intuitive Editing by Tiffany Yates Martin. OMG, so amazing. I have a feeling I’m going to return to it repeatedly.
Finally, I read Jael Richardson’s Gutter Child. Incredible. I’ll leave it there and encourage you all to read it.
And that was the month in this writer’s life.
Until tipsday, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
Welcome to my next chapter update for February 2022! In this post, I talk about my month in writing, what I’ve accomplished and what I haven’t; what I’ve done to maintain my physical, mental, spiritual, and creative health; and what I’ve been watching and reading.
February was a good month, I think, but before we get to the progress part of the update, my monthly PSAs:
All lives cannot matter until BIPOC lives matter.
Even though restrictions are being eased in many areas, covid is now endemic. You may get it, even if you’ve been fully vaccinated, and chances are that you will. But if you are fully vaccinated and boosted, you’re more like to have a mild case. I’d still recommend washing your hands more frequently, maintaining physical distance where possible, and masking when it’s not.
On the news yesterday, I saw that there are still anti-masking/anti-vaccine mandate protests going on. Check yourselves people. There are more important things going on in the world, like the Russian invasion of the Ukraine (and now, apparently, Russian troops are amassing in other places, too). Get your heads out of your asses.
That is all.
The month in writing
February is the shortest month of the year and I set my revision goal accordingly. Given that I’d barely managed to revise 5,000 words in January, I thought I’d aim for 15,000. I’d reduce to 10,000 if I have to. BUT I didn’t have to!
I revised 15,822 words of Reality Bomb, or 105% of my goal. Yay!
I blogged 4,842 words, or 97% of my 5,000-word goal.
I even wrote and revised a story (!), which I didn’t anticipate. More on that in filling the well. I made room for a 2,500-word piece of short fiction, but the story only ended up being 1,748 words in the first draft. 70% of my goal is great for a story I didn’t intend to write 🙂 I made room for 250 words of revision, but only revised 148 words, or 58%.
In terms of projects I’m not tracking wordcount for, I worked on my Ascension Masterdoc for the first time in months. I was just settling the last dates into my timeline for book one and am now starting work on book two. At this stage, it’s just structural. Adding or deleting or moving chapters around (in my map).
I received an email regarding edits for the short story that was accepted in January, and—there were none (!) That’s the first time that’s happened. Ever. I’ve now also signed the contract and reviewed the page proofs. Look forward to the cover reveal in coming months.
Filling the well
In terms of writerly events, I signed up for Daisuke Shen’s Speculative Fiction Workshop, run through Authors Publish. The course officially ran January 31st to February 25th, but I’m still working through the last couple of weeks, ‘cause work. It was in this course that I received the prompt that inspired my new story. While there are comments and corrections to make, Daisuke was, overall, very supportive of the story and I hope to receive some suggestions about where to submit it when I send my revised story for her review.
I signed up for a couple of free webinars through WordPress.com. They were informative.
My duty to accommodate (DTA) progresses. My doctor filled out the functional abilities form, and I submitted it to my manager. I have an official, but temporary, DTA agreement in place, subject to review in three months (from the date I initiated the process on January 25th).
I am concerned because I’ve been told that once the agreement is made permanent, I will no longer be able to use my sick leave to support my days off. I’ll be officially cut to part time hours. Although the reduction in income is not significant, I am sole support for my household, and even a small reduction in my income may cause hardship. That’s an additional stress I don’t need.
We’ll see what happens in April.
I met with my therapist and support group the day before I met with my manager to discuss my DTA. In both sessions, I’d praised my employer for being so supportive.
It’s disappointing.
Something I didn’t mention last month is that I’m engaged in an assessment process for my position. I’m hoping that qualifying on another pool will help keep me in the position on a permanent basis. Currently, I’m acting (until November 30, 2022). At any time, I could return to my previous position. It’s not the worst thing that could happen, but I worked hard to get this position and I want to keep it for the remainder of my career.
I had my first round of testing mid-February. Will let you know how it all goes in future updates.
My comfort and solace 🙂
What I’m watching and reading
In February, I finished watching Homeland. This series has always been a little depressing because of Carrie’s ongoing struggles with bipolar disorder and the dire nature of the international crises she faces each season. This eighth and final (so far) season is no exception.
Carrie is still recovering from her months-long detention in Russia during which she was deprived of her medication. She has no idea whether she may have disclosed secret information during this time and neither are her superiors, who continue to interrogate her about her incarceration. Saul, however, needs her in the field, and pulls strings to get her there.
The season’s arc is tragic. Carrie must betray Saul to prevent a war, but she redeems herself in the denouement in a way that offers hope.
Phil and I watched the first season of The Legend of Vox Machina. Helmed by the creators of Critical Role, TLoVM will be a balm to any old school role-players out there. In the opening minute, every high-level group of adventurers is killed by an unseen foe. The kingdom is so desperate, they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel, which is where they find and recruit Vox Machina. I won’t say anything more about the series. You’ll know by the above if you’re TLoVM’s target audience.
So. Much. FUN!!
We also watched the first season of Foundation. I loved it. The general atmosphere and effects were >chef’s kiss.< Neither of us have read the book, though, so I can’t tell you how it stacks up. Shuffling Asimov up in the TBR pile.
To keep things symmetrical, I finished reading three books in February.
The first was Brandon Sanderson’s Cytonic, book three in the Skyward Flight series. At the end of book two, Spensa fled into the Nowhere with M-Bot’s AI (in a cleaning drone) and her pet tanix, Doomslug. The Superiority is in negotiations with the Delvers to have the latter destroy all cytonics and the societies that produce them. Spensa has to find a way to stop that from happening by walking a cryptic path through the floating islands of the Nowhere to find the truth of the Delvers and her own nature.
The first problem she’s presented with is that few people ever leave the Nowhere. She soon discovers the reason: the longer a sentient being stays in the Nowhere, the more they forget of their life in the galaxy outside. The only way to hold onto memories is with something called an icon, which Spensa mysteriously has. When she loses the icon, though, it’s a race against time—and memory—to solve the mystery of the Delvers and save the galaxy.
Then, I finished Apocalypse Nyx a collection of short stories by Kameron Hurley. The stories centre on Nyx, the protagonist of Hurley’s God’s War series. They fill in some of the backstory of the characters in Nyx’s crew and share some of their misadventures.
Finally, I finished Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury. It’s a futuristic science fantasy that involves genetics and witches in a not-too-distant Toronto. Sambury is a Trinidadian-Canadian author (who I think is currently living in northern Ontario?) and I’m following her career with interest.
Voya Thomas comes of age, and in a witch family, that means passing her Calling, a task given by the ancestors. Voya’s task is to destroy her first love, or risk losing her family’s magic forever.
Aaaaaand … that was the month in this writer’s life.
Until tipsday, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
Blink and the month disappears. Boggle. I think 2022 is off to a reasonable start, though. More on that in a bit.
First, here are your monthly PSAs:
All lives cannot matter until BIPOC lives matter.
As restriction are once again lifted, it’s even more important that ever to stick with basic preventative measures. Wash your hands, maintain physical distance, wear a mask when you can’t, get double vaccinated if you haven’t, and get your booster. Make sure your children are vaccinated and boosted as soon as they become eligible.
And to the “freedom convoys”—just fuck right the hell off.
The month in writing
Revisions to Reality Bomb continue. Slowly. January was still a bit of a struggle, mostly because of work (more on that in filling the well).
Originally, I thought I might be able to get as much as 10,000 words revised on RB (though I suspected that it was a bit optimistic). Part-way through the month, I adjusted that down to 5,000 words. I still fell a bit short of that, revising 4,945 words, or 99% or my adjusted goal.
I wrote 5,390 words of my 5,000-word blogging goal, or 108%.
I revised and submitted another short story. I had thought that there would be more rework involved, but it turns out I only added about 70 words. The rest was all cutting. It’s an experimental piece for me. I tried out 2nd person POV and included footnotes. We’ll see what the editors think. I’ll let you know in a future update.
So, 70 words revised of a 250-word goal, or 28%.
In other writerly news, another of my short stories was accepted to an anthology that should be published later this year. I’ll share more as announcements are made.
And, a year to the day after I submitted a small sample of my poetry to a small press, I received a request for the full manuscript. I spent a few hours sprucing it up and adding one of my new poems published last year … and sent it.
Again, I’ll have to let you know if anything comes of it in a future update.
I’ve been slowly updating my blog and social media to include what I’ve come to think of as my new branding. Writerly Goodness has become Always Looking Up. This comes, in part, from my sky photos, but I’ve come to understand that everything I write has an undertone of hope. I’m also including the #actuallyautistic hashtag to my site and social media. I have to take some updated pictures, include the covers of my more recent publications in my header image, and other stuff like that, but I’m not stressing it. It’ll happen when it happens.
The other big thing I did in January was submit an application to Your Personal Odyssey, Odyssey’s new one-on-one program. The deadline isn’t until April 1st, but I wanted to get my application in sooner than later. I’ll find out if I’m accepted after that date. Crossing fingers.
Filling the well
In terms of writing events, I attended “The Anxiety Talk” from Jane Friedman, “Hosting Accessible Events” with Amanda Leduc of the FOLD, and “How Self-Editing—and Editors—Help You Perfect your Stories” by Dani Alcorn.
I also signed up for “Introduction to Illustration” with Millie Nice through The Guardian Masterclasses. It was something I wanted to do for myself. I used to draw and sketch a lot but haven’t been able to get back to it despite wanting to. Millie’s class was a lovely kickstart. I haven’t had the time to sketch since, but I anticipate that I’ll take some time to do it in the future.
I had another appointment with my therapist, another support group meeting, and an online writers’ meet up, which was nice.
I was boosted on the 11th! Side effects the same as the prior two vaccinations despite receiving Moderna this time. So, I’m a Pfi-Pfi-Mo.
My accommodation request has progressed. I now have Wednesdays off pending the official agreement. I have an appointment with my doctor to get the accommodation form filled out and then it’s back to my employer for next steps.
Again, this seems to be moving a lot faster than I thought it might and my manager has been supportive.
Feeling gratitude.
Rosy dawn and a wee pillar.
What I’m watching and reading
In January, Phil and I watched a couple of series.
First, we finished watching the last season of The Expanse. The feels! It was a great send off for all of the characters.
Then we watched the most recent season of Titans. All I have to say about it is … come on. It was not good.
We also watched The Eternals. I enjoyed it. It’s not your typical Marvel movie, but I appreciated what Zhao tried to do with it. It was more about the relationships between the eternals than big fight scenes.
I watched a couple of movies on my own.
The first was Free Guy. So. Much. Fun!
And then, I watch Encanto. Lovely, low-key family story. Loved.
In the reading department, I finished ReDawn, the second Skyward Flight novella by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson. ReDawn picks up where Sunreach left off with the gang on Detritus. [SPOILERS] Minister Kuna has been rescued, but now, the governing council of Detritus is considering an overture from the Superiority.
Alanik, the POV of this novella, returns to her home only to discover that her people are facing the same problem.
In Evershore, the third Skyward Flight novella, the POV character switches to Jorgen. Though he and the rest of Skyward Flight have helped to save Alanik’s people, Detritus has suffered a devastating blow, losing their governing council, including Jorgen’s parents.
As Jorgen works through his grief and tries to secure Detritus against the Superiority, he also has to solve a cytonic mystery. Spensa’s grandmother and their admiral have gone missing. Alanik was able to confirm that they were not killed with the rest of the council, but she can’t find them.
Then, she picks up a Kitsun transmission that they have some of Spensa’s people to return.
Jorgen’s growing cytonic abilities, affected by his grief, prove problematic as he leads Skyward Flight on a rescue mission in the hope of forging another alliance.
I took a break from Skyward Flight, reading Sarah Penner’s The Lost Apothecary. It’s a lovely piece of women’s fiction with a dual timeline. In the present day, Caroline deals with the disintegration of her marriage and the dreams she abandoned for it. Triggered by the discovery of an old vial, she delves into the never-solved apothecary murders.
In the past, Nella, the apothecary who dispenses poisons to help women escape abusive relationships waits to see her next customer.
Then, I read Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis. Katrell can talk to the dead and makes a little money on the side by writing letters that invite ghosts to talk to their living loved ones. She receives a warning that she chooses not to listen to, because she’s in desperate need of money to support her mother and a string of abusive, deadbeat boyfriends. When the current boyfriend kills her dog, Katrell tries to write a letter to him, only to bring him back from the grave.
And that was the month in this writer’s life.
Until next tipsday, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
It’s the first tipsday of 2022! Posts generally decline over the holiday weeks, so it’s a bit of a slow start. Still, get your fill of informal writerly learnings, such as they are. We should be back on track next week.
And, just like that (and, no; never watched SatC; won’t watch AJLT), the second year of the pandemic ends.
2021 was an … interesting year. I’ll get to that in a bit.
Before we get to my December update, my monthly PSAs:
All lives cannot matter until BIPOC lives matter. We need to keep striving to be good allies and keep the critical issues front and centre.
Wash your hands, maintain physical distance, mask in public, get vaccinated (if you haven’t), and get your booster. Delta and omicron won’t be the only variants to emerge. And let’s be clear. The variants are there. They always have been. It’s just that, as we get better at suppressing the ones we know about, the ones we don’t have a chance to surge. Some may be less virulent, or not virulent at all. Some may be less transmissible or not transmissible at all. Some may not even infect humans. But it’s the ones that are more virulent, more transmissible, and infect humans that we have to watch for. This ain’t over yet.
The month in writing
Following the marathon that is NaNoWriMo, I wanted to take a break from revision. I only intended to rest until December 5th, but work got hectic again, and I ended up revising as I could, which meant not much at all.
Originally, I thought I could, based on my performance in November, revise about 20,000 words of Reality Bomb. Unfortunately, I had to amend that goal mid-month and reduced it first to 10,000 words, then 5,000 words, and ultimately 1,000 words. Of that 1,000-word goal, I revised 853 words, or 85%.
Admittedly, I decided to read through the draft to the point where I left off in NaNo, which was about the midpoint of the novel. So that 853 words represents a bunch of cutting and adding that I chose not to get too granular on.
My only writing goal for the month was the blog and of my 3,500-word goal, I wrote 5,422 words, or 155%.
The writing year in review
I started out 2021 by trying something different. I’d finished the last rewrite of RB by the close of 2020 and decided to focus on short fiction and poetry for the first three months of the year.
This worked out well for me. I wrote, revised, and submitted several short stories and poems, earned several rejections, and then had three poems and a short story accepted for future publication in February.
In March, I entered the SciArt Poetry competition and won the community category. I read my poem on Science North’s YouTube channel at the end of March, and the poem would be published later in the year in Sulphur X, Laurentian University’s literary journal.
I also started to revise RB in March based on my returned critiques.
In April, I had another story accepted for future publication, and the last of my poems accepted in 2020 was published.
Revision was not going well, though.
I was somewhat stymied by the critiques I received back in January and February. I couldn’t figure out how to use the feedback to revise my novel. I had thought a couple of months would be long enough for me to figure out a game plan, but, because I had already started on my journey to autism diagnosis, I was thinking about other things.
I had intended to rewrite/revise between 500 and 1,000 words a day on weekdays and a chapter each day on weekends, and thus be finished my next draft sometime in the summer. At that point, I had hoped to move onto Marushka and prepare that draft, on which I’d also received feedback, for next round revisions in November.
I wrote a new opening chapter and revised from there, dividing chapters into smaller chunks. I was still writing in close third (or trying for it). I revised 28,202 words up to about the middle of July, when I hit the point where my protagonist enters another of the many worlds and is trapped inside her other self.
The challenges of having two people in the same physical body and trying to make then both distinct and identifiable in terms of formatting (italics for one, ? for the other?) made it clear that I had to rewrite the draft in first person. Past or present, though? I opted for present despite my failure to nail the POV on an earlier draft. There would still be some difficulties making the story dynamic enough for first person present (my protagonist is disembodied for three quarters of the novel and thus, largely “in her head”), but I decided that it would be the best fit and returned to the beginning.
From the middle of July through to the end of November, I revised 62,996 words, but some of that was reworking my novel map (chapter and scene breakdown), which I counted only in November. I got to the midpoint … and then decided, as I mentioned above, to take a break.
Since, I’ve been rereading the revised draft to date, making a few more additions and deletions, and thinking of a better way to weave in some of the minor characters throughout the novel so they don’t feel like wasted opportunities.
I’ve even been using tarot to help free my intuitive writer. It’s working out surprisingly well.
About the same time I made my fateful POV decision in July, I realized that if I wanted to work on any other big project this year, it would not be Marushka. But, as it turned out, I haven’t had the spoons to finish my work on RB, let alone start on a new novel …
In November, I made the decision to leave DIY MFA as a regular columnist. I’m trying to conserve my energy for what matters most.
I’m going to have to review my other commitments as well.
I haven’t been active in my critique group since summer. I need to reconnect, but I’m struggling.
Onto the statistics!
In terms of word count, I wrote:
10 poems,
4,146 words of short fiction,
58,061 words on Writerly Goodness,
5,623 words on my Speculations column, and
360 words on a side project.
That’s 68,190 words and 10 poems.
I revised:
92,048 words on RB (some several times), and
12,023 words of short fiction.
That’s 104,071 words revised.
Some of these goals I didn’t assign numbers to at the beginning of the year. I didn’t know how much I would write or revise on some projects and so just left them blank in terms of goals. The poetry and short fiction (writing and revision) were in this category and so any work done on those projects was bonus.
If you want to zoom in on the relative percentages of the writing and revision goals I did set out for myself, you’re welcome to do so 🙂
There was also the work on my Ascension series masterdoc (like that term so much better than bible) that I didn’t track in terms of word count. Throughout the year, I wrote out and revised the worldbuiding for my world (cosmology, history, peoples, languages, etc.) and character sketches, and I restructured the first book of the series in outline. I’ve had to work out the calendar of events for the last bit of book one. I had a lot of questions marks on my timeline. I’m working it out.
Eventually, I’ll expand the outlines/maps for each book in the series with scenes and sequels as I rewrite.
Looking forward
I’m going to try to finish my rewrite of RB this year. I’m not setting any hard and fast goals, but I’m hoping to do that by the end of June.
I might decide to work with a book coach or editor at that time. So, I’ll probably spend some time in the spring making initial enquiries.
Then, I’ll probably do with the summer what I did with January to March of last year and focus on short fiction and poetry as a break from novelling. I’ll also use that time to revisit my next novel project (partly written as a very long short story) and prepare to begin drafting in the fall.
I have most of my drafted novels included in my 2022 writing and revision tracker, but I’m not committing to them in any way. They’re just there to remind me that I have a lot of things I can work on, if I so choose.
Filling the well
In December, I didn’t attend any literary events live online. I did sign up for a Tiffany Yates-Martin webinar through Jane Friedman, but I watched the replay, ‘cause work.
My small family (me and Phil, his sister and spouse, our moms) got together to celebrate my mom-in-law’s 80th birthday and then again on Boxing Day for Christmas (it was supposed to be Christmas Day, but freezing rain changed our plans).
And aside from therapy, a support group meeting, massage, and a couple of days of leave, that was it for filling the well in December.
For the first year in … forever, I put up the Christmas tree.
The personal year in review
I started 2021 at a low point, feeling like an imposter at both work and creative pursuits. I was also feeling stuck physically, having slowly yo-yo’ed between 170 and 200 pounds since my early 20s.
It being a pandemic and all, I decided that, instead of going it alone, as was my habit, I’d ask for help.
For mental health support, I reached out to my employer’s EAP. For physical health support, I turned to Noom. By May 10th, I’d been diagnosed as autistic, a timeline that I’ve since come to understand is amazingly quick. By the end of July, I cancelled my Noom account, having surpassed my goal of 170 pounds and achieved 150. I continued to lose weight through August, finally settling at 140 pounds, which I’ve since maintained (even during the holidays!).
It’s the lightest I’ve been in my adult life and I’m feeling physically healthy.
In November, I finally connected with a therapist through the Redpath Centre, which specializes in support for autistics. When I met with her for the first time, my therapist referred me to a support group.
I’m currently working toward getting a workplace accommodation, having experienced autistic burnout as the result of a very stressful acting position and project. I struggled again in December because of a similar situation and I’m trying to find a way to manage my stress levels on an ongoing basis, so I don’t need to take additional time off to recover my head.
It’s been a transformative year with regard to my physical and mental health, and I’m ready to shift my focus back to creative pursuits.
What I’m watching and reading
In December, I watched three movies and finished watching three series. That seems nice and symmetrical, to me 😉
First, I watched Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. I loved it. Yes, it wasn’t really Shang Chi’s story, and there were a few things that stretched credibility, but I really appreciated the homage to Jackie Chan’s movies (many of which I’ve watched over the years) and fighting style. They even had choreographers from Jackie Chan’s team working on the movie. Wong and Morris rock.
Then, I caught John Wick 3: Parabellum. It filled in the series for me. What can I say? Over the top violence is something I enjoy? In the right circumstances, I guess. Didn’t appreciate the uncharacteristic twist that was JW’s dark moment, but the movie made up for it in the end.
Phil and I watched The Suicide Squad on New Years Eve. So much better than the first movie. Harley Quinn is the best character in the DCEU.
I finished watching the final season of Dear White People. Not sure if I liked the framing device (telling the season from the perspective of the characters in the future) or the whole season being focused on the musical review in their last year as Winchester. It was okay. They tied up all the critical stories in the end.
Watched the latest Dr. Who series, said to be Jodie Whittaker’s last. It was a bit confusing at first, but after a couple of episodes, everything came together. I also was the New Year’s special, thinking that it might offer up a clue to the next regeneration. It didn’t. I can’t not love Jodie Who. I’ll be sad to see her leave.
Finally, Phil and I watched the first season of The Wheel of Time. Neither of us have read the books. I really liked it. More than Phil did, I think. He was put off by all the comparisons to Game of Thrones. WoT is its own thing. I appreciated it as such.
Reading-wise, I only finished reading three books in December.
I read Julia Quinn’s The Duke and I (yes, the book that was the basis for the first season of the Bridgerton series). I’ve read romance in the past, but my preference runs to Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, whose books would probably be classified as “bodice rippers.” The book does treat Daphne’s technical rape of Simon more tactfully, but the story itself was less compelling.
Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson have written several novellas in the Skyward Flight series to bridge the gap between books two and three of the series. I read the first of those, Sunreach, which focuses on the secondary character of FM, the rescue of Minister Kuna, and how the rest of the flight back at Detritus deals with the discovery that Spensa’s pet Doomslug, a Taynix, is a cytonic creature capable of powering a hyperdrive. I really liked it and am now on the second novella, Redawn.
I finished off the year with Sarah Hollowell’s A Dark and Starless Forest. It’s a dark book, and thus was a little challenging to get through. It focuses on a remote house in which abandoned child “alchemists” live under the dubious protection of Frank. It’s clear the young alchemists, including Derry, the protagonist, live in fear of Frank, and it soon becomes clear why. But as Derry’s sisters disappear, one by one, she has to find a way to solve the mystery without arousing Frank’s wrath. Despite its darkness, I really liked the book.
Because of general busy-ness and distraction, I only read 55 books of my 65-book goal in 2021.
I’ve reduced this year’s goal to 60 and hope to attain it, but that will depend, in part, on work.
And that was the month (and year!) in this writer’s life.
Until tipsday, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
Sweet Lord! It feels like forever since I wrote one of these. Forever and a week. And three days. Sorry about that. The last couple of weeks have been hectic at work. Ran out of weekend on the 4th/5th (what with all the Christmas-ing). And I ran out of weekend again on the 11th/12th because it was my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday party. Both of those will feature in December’s next chapter update.
The month(s) in writing
Will start off with October … if I can remember that far back 🙂
The writing was not going well.
I was still recovering from my autistic burnout, still being kind to myself, and still busy at work. There are more days when I did not work on Reality Bomb than days I worked on it. Of my conservative 5,000-word revision goal for the month, I only revised 3,060 words. That’s 61%.
I did work on a piece of short fiction, but it was focused editing to reduce the word count, so there was nothing to record. I submitted the story and the rejection came back two days later.
Aside from RB and the story, I kept up with my curation posts. I wrote 4,811 words of my 3,500-word goal, or 137%.
And that’s all I did in October.
The November update is just going to be summary 🙂 I embarked on NaNoWriMo 2021 with a conservative goal. All I really wanted to do was get back to a regular writing habit, if for no other reason than to prove that I could do it.
I was a NaNo Rebel and titled my project NaNo Rebel Combo. I counted everything I wrote or revised in the month. It helped that I had the first two weeks of November off work, but I sincerely thought my progress would crater after I returned.
Surprisingly, it didn’t.
Words revised on RB and edits to its story map: 44,854
Words written on short fiction: 1,424
Words blogged: 2,138
Words written on (my last) Speculations column: 1,653
Other words written: 360
Total words revised: 44,854
Total words written: 5,575
Grand total: 50,429 words
I submitted the short story I wrote to an anthology call. Will let you know if anything comes of that.
Filling the well
In October, I attended two virtual writerly events. A reading by Wab Kinew, and the combined Writing Excuses/Surrey International Writers’ Conference online. Both were lovely. And WXR/SiWC posted all their sessions for attendee viewing for 30 days after the event, so I was able to watch all the sessions I had to miss because work.
My mom hosted Thanksgiving for our family.
I also tracked down a therapist who specializes in autism and scheduled an appointment with her in early November.
I went in to work on October 29th and retrieved my chair. It was an accommodation request resulting from an ergonomic assessment before we got our adjustable desks at work. At the time, sitting was the issue and standing was the solution. After eight years of standing to work and write, I decided to change things up and try sitting again for a while.
I adjusted the seat pan and back to encourage me to lean back, so I wouldn’t get tense and torque out my neck, back, and shoulders the way I used to. And it’s working. I had some difficulties with the height of the arm rests, but now that I’ve resolved those, I’m golden. I credit my NaNo win, at least in part, to my new, comfortable sitting arrangement.
I made the tough decision to stop writing my column for DIY MFA. They’ve become a kind of family. I’ll miss writing for them, but I have to refocus on myself right now.
In November, aside from NaNo, I attended several virtual sessions from this year’s Wordstock Sudbury and a couple of Jane Friedman webinars.
Home for the Howlidays, with my short story, “The Wolf You Feed,” was launched on November 23rd. It’s available on Amazon if you want some wolfish holiday reads.
I had my first session with my therapist, got a note from my doctor for insurance, and submitted my first claim (which was subsequently paid). I investigated the accommodation process at work. In short, I made progress.
My two weeks of vacation in November, compared to the two weeks of sick leave I took back in September, were truly restorative. September was just about getting my head back. My success in NaNoWriMo cemented for me that I can still write and/or revise daily, that everything I produce is not crap, and that I can still accomplish lofty creative goals if I commit.
But now, there’s another urgent project that needs to be completed at work, and I’m taking another break (not voluntarily). I have to manage my energy levels and health.
And get lots of cuddles!
What I’m watching and reading
Watching first, as has been my pattern of late.
The Black Widow movie wasn’t as bad as I’d been led to believe. It didn’t blow my mind, but it was enjoyable.
I finished watching the last season of Riverdale, for real this time. Not fond of the time jump and the super-clichéd storylines. Betty’s basically Clarice Starling, Jughead’s every substance-abusing writer ever rumoured, Archie’s a veteran now, but all his flashbacks look like WWII (?), Veronica is the vixen of Wall Street … just ugh.
The New Mutants was okay. I always enjoy Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor Joy, but I wasn’t fond of how the latter, as Illyana Rasputin, was framed as a mean girl. It just didn’t fit with my experience of the comics.
The series finale of Supergirl was sappy, as expected. The conflict felt off all season, though. Kara (and everyone, really) made a lot of uncharacteristic decisions, because final season? A little disappointing.
Phil and I watched the second season of Locke & Key. Not bad. Better than season one, I think, but it took a while to kick into gear, and, honestly, it had been so long since the first season, I was unclear on a lot of the plot, even with the season one recap under my metaphorical belt. It came together in the end, though.
The latest season of Doom Patrol was … frustrating more than anything. Excuse my language, but they’re all still fucked up fuckups. You’d think they’d have spanked their inner moppets by now.
Finally, the shining view of the last two months, Reservation Dogs. Loved! That is all. Go watch it now!
In the reading department, I read nine books over the two months. Having said that, I’m currently nine books behind in my 2021 Goodreads challenge. I may not even make last year’s goal (which I surpassed, by the way) of 60 books.
I listened to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, part 1 on Audible. It was a fully produced audioplay, with top actors, and I loved it, despite its meandering story. It was originally a graphic novel, and episodic, so that was to be expected. I’m looking forward to the Netflix series.
Having read and enjoyed P. Djèlí Clark’s Master of Djinn, I thought I should fill in the gap with the novellas that lead up to it. The Haunting of Tram Car 015, was fun and focused on supporting characters from the novel, Hamed and Onsi.
I read Django Wexler’s The Thousand Names as part of a book club my critique group started. It was good, but the protagonist, Winter, doesn’t show up right away. Maybe it’s because the novel is more properly Marcus’s story, but, being a woman, I connected to Winter more. As a result, it was an uneven read. I enjoyed it, and the world building was great, but Marcus was a very traditional protagonist in epic fantasy. I wasn’t as interested in his story and thus didn’t enjoy the novel as much as I might have.
I finished This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar next, though I’d started it before taking up The Thousand Names. It was actually the first novel selected for our book club. I loved the lyrical nature of the book and the largely epistolary structure. Other readers were not as enamoured. El-Mohtar is a poet. So am I (sometimes). I really got into the words, savoured them, rolled them around on my tongue and in my brain. Loved.
Witchmark, by C.L. Polk, was an enchanting (pun intended) read. It was so good I can’t wait to get into the rest of the series 🙂
Alice Payne Rides is Kate Heartfield’s follow up to Alice Payne Arrives. It was interesting reading this so soon after This is How You Lose the Time War. There were enough similarities that I wonder if El-Mohtar might have been influenced by Heartfield’s Alice, at least in part.
Catherine Hernandez’ Crosshairs was a bit of a harrowing read. It’s a dystopia, which takes as its genesis that Canada followed our neighbours to the south in instituting a totalitarian, fundamentalist, and fascist regime. In fact, Hernandez imagines a Canada that goes even farther, instituting workhouses for all “others,” be they people of colour, Indigenous peoples, LGBTQ2S+, or followers of religions other than Christianity. An excellent novel that challenges everything you think Canada is.
I then listened to Tanya Talaga’s All Our Relations. Excellent. I now want to find out more about the Sami, Scandinavia’s Indigenous people.
Finally, I read Roshani Chokshi’s The Bronzed Beasts, the third book in the trilogy that began with The Gilded Wolves. Yum! Bittersweet ending that in some ways reminded me of The Invisible Life of Addie Larue.
And that was the last two months in this writer’s life.
Until next time, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
Aaaaand … tipsday’s back! As December 1st fell on a Wednesday, it’s not its usual honkin’ self, but I managed to fill out the curation with some lovely videos. Enjoy!
As promised, here is a fulsome review of my experience of NaNoWriMo 2021.
The plan
I had no expectation of winning this year. Because I had just come out of an autistic burnout and was finding writing or revising anything challenging, I decided to be a NaNo Rebel again this year and I set my goal low.
In addition to revising Reality Bomb and filling in my chapter and scene map for the novel, I was going to write my Speculations column for DIY MFA, work on a short story (I had hoped, more than one), and to round things out, I also counted my blogging. In short, I counted everything I wrote in the month.
Even so, I thought I’d only get 30,000 words revised on RB, 2,500 words each on the short story and blog, and 1,000 words on my column. 36,000 words seemed like a reasonable goal.
The progress
I did have the first two weeks of November off work. I was kind to myself, got a solid 8 hours sleep each night, ate well, walked Torvi twice a day, watched television and streaming, and played a computer game as a nightly reward. I didn’t put any pressure on myself. I think it was a good approach 🙂
Between RB and the map, I revised 44,854 words, or 150% of my goal.
I finished my short story in 1,424 words, which was only 57% of my goal. I also submitted it.
I blogged 2,138 words, or 86% of that goal.
On my column, I wrote 1,653 words, which was 165% of my goal there.
Plus, I wrote 360 words on a little side project.
I wrote 5,575 words of the 6,000 I had intended to. That’s 93% of my writing goal.
My winning total for NaNoWriMo 2021 is 50,899, but when I add everything I recorded up, it totals 50,429. So, I made a mistake of 470 words somewhere. Still, I won!
Evidence …
I was all over the place!
The only badge I didn’t get was recording 1,667 every day.
The pivot
I had expected my progress to slow when I returned to work. And it did, but the progress I’d made in the two weeks I was off, plus the work I was able to do on the weekends was enough to shore up the low production days.
I’ve hit a problematic part of RB at this point, though. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s the mid-point of the novel. Yes, my middle is saggy. It’s going to require some thought and strategic thinking to tighten it up.
So, I’m going to take another little break, let things percolate for a bit, decorate the house for Christmas (which I haven’t done for … years), and marshal my resources.
I don’t know if I’ll get back to revisions later this month or wait until the new year. I’m going to take the same approach I did with NaNo. I’m going to be kind to myself, set reasonable expectations, and do what I can.
The other factor at play is my recent diagnosis as autistic. I’ve found a therapist, joined a support group, and I’m looking at workplace accommodations. And I’m working full time. I know there are a lot of authors who work full time, but with this new understanding of, and context for my life, I can see the times when I’ve been overwhelmed and burned out. I can’t do it all, all the time.
This weekend, I’ll be posting my next chapter update for October and November (the November piece should be short, ‘cause mini updates).
Until then, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
Always Looking Up 