New web site incoming....

Went ahead and registered my own domain, so I can at least attempt to market myself like a grownup. 

Very exciting, I know.... 

Book Announcement!

So here's a bit of excitement for me to share! After all of these years of working on the story, writing queries, being rejected, selling the book, having it not work out, and so forth and so on to exhaustion, I decided to self-publish my Taos Toolbox novel.

It's a pulp-inspired science fantasy adventure that has all of my favorite things in it.

I had some great help with the story along the way, and I'm excited to be taking this new step with my work. What ultimately led to my decision to go this route was the (incredibly kind and encouraging) rejection note I got from Gollancz. I had submitted the book to their open door period, and apparently made it through several rounds of consideration before they decided that it wasn't for them. This was disappointing, obviously, but did suggest to me that the book itself is solid, but possibly too niche in its appeal and too quirky to market for a major publisher to go in for.

That situation being exactly what the self-publishing industry is for, I decided to put the book out there and find out just how big that niche might be. The process itself wasn't too difficult, although making decisions on things like cover art definitely was.

And I should probably start blogging regularly again! 

What Can I Say About 2017

I think it's undeniable that this has been one hell of an eventful year. During the early months, especially, time seemed to be moving with a painful kind of slowness -- the number of remarks I have seen equating each month to "dog years" defies counting.

One of the best things I did this year was to start a bullet journal. I have kept a journal off and on for most of my life, but lately it's been more "off." I thought the minimalist format and single point of contact provided by a bullet journal would be useful, and I am absolutely a convert; since I started mine in May, I've only missed a couple of days. I have no talent for art, so my journal does not have beautifully lettered headers or dividers or even much more than a few doodles when I have an awkwardly-sized bit of leftover space to use up, but I love it anyway.

I am also not so good at using it for being hyperproductive like some people seem to do. Maybe that will be something I work on in 2018. Mostly I've made do with a pretty high level kind of tracking. Even glancing over that stuff, though, it's been a decent year in terms of accomplishments.

• I got serious about learning French; as of this writing I'm at 62% on Duolingo. 
• I started getting back into some technical subjects with a refreshing class on HTML/CSS via Codeacademy, and have moved on to their Python course. 
• I've subscribed to a slew of podcasts -- too many of them to really keep up with, to be honest, but they've introduced me to further new ideas, in a rather dizzying virtuous cycle. 
• I've read ten more books than I read last year. Some of them kinda sucked, but there were some gems in there as well. 
• I finished NaNoWriMo for the first time in a long while. 
• I learned to knit. 
• I've committed to a career change. If everything goes well, I'll spend a lot of 2018 collecting experiences toward making that jump, and exploring what it would take to make an even bigger leap. 

 All of that while dealing with a shit-ton of anxiety and all of life's usual challenges. So here's hoping for a bountiful year. Happy holidays!

NaNoWriMo 2017

Generic Update

NaNoWriMo is going well; I got myself a day ahead, and have been writing consistently. I sometimes think that the best use for NaNo is the reminder that this doesn't have to be stressful, doesn't have to be about a future career, or a brand (ugh), or anything but a story you want to tell. Maybe it's a funny story, a scary story, a moving story, all three and more. It's just yours.

I have been thinking a lot about social media, its unforeseen consequences, and the ways in which we can use it without being, ourselves, used. These companies are vampires that we have blithely invited into our homes, where they feed with impunity. There must be a better way.

I have been thinking about starting my own company someday.

NaNoWriMo 2017

Because I don't have enough going on, apparently, I signed up for yet another NaNo. So far, so good - almost to the 10k mark on time. Anxiety has been eating up much of my energy that should be used for creative work this year.

Learning Goes On

I'm not sure what motivated this, but over the weekend I decided to learn to knit. I was delighted to find that it's not very hard, and am now about 1/3 through my first real project (a cowl).

I also started learning Python, mainly because it looked easier than JavaScript.