Still here! Still doing it!
It’s been a while, but I forgive myself utterly. Who is as productive as they were last year? If you are, I salute you.
That ain’t me. I’m working a lot and keeping busy cutting and shaping the wire mom uses in her custom-made masks (she’s about to hit 3000 since March), and I’ve finally been able to read something other than encyclopedic non-fiction about who played drums on what David Bowie track. So it’s something.
As for my own work, I have 5000 words toward a sequel to my 2017 novel, Nuala: A Fable and I’m hoping to sit down with it a bit over the “holidays”. Because there’s no such thing as the holidays this year.
It’s fine with us. My family has always moved Xmas around however we needed to. We’ve had it in July more than once for various reasons. We very rarely celebrate on the 25th, and so it’s not really a hardship for us not to get together until we can safely do so. I never thought I’d say this, but thank gawd for zoom.
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What I’ve found amazing and really inspiring is that so many writers actually sat down and WROTE BOOKS OF LARGE SIZES over the past few months. While I could barely manage a coherent grocery list, some of you have been at it all day for months and handing me ginormous books to edit this fall.
Which I love! What’s yer secret, dammit? I know. Sit down and write. But that just wasn’t possible for me for a long time, and if the same is true for you, know that you’re not alone.
I don’t call it being blocked, and never have. I call it, “worrying about the fate of humanity”. That’s not a bad worry, as worries go, but I’m at a point now where I have to try to let the worry go so I can listen to the characters I know and love so well and get my ass moving on the new book.
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I’ve missed so much online stuff because I just didn’t have whatever it took to attend and be present. But Jenna Butler asked me jump on zoom with her to record a fun conversation for one of her creative writing classes. It was great because it reminded me that I still have things to say: both to writers, and to my readers. I’ve visited Jenna’s classes for years, and I’ve really missed it this year, so this was the next best thing.
Jenna and I go way back so this was no chore at all. In fact, the conversation inspired me to open up my document of the new novel that I’ve not looked at since August.
There’s something there! It’s shitty, sure, but first drafts always are. (Don’t kid yourself. They always are.)
I’ll take my own advice while self-editing this first draft. If you want that advice, but don’t have the finances/emotional strength/whatever else to hire an editor right now, this is a quick reminder that I have a self-editing course that will guide you through the reworking of your own writing. Click the Shop link above if you think that might be you.
And pick up Jenna’s new book about her year of beekeeping on the northern farm she runs with her husband. It’s not only about bees, but you will certainly learn things that will change the way you look at the honey you stir into your tea in the morning.