I am, indeed, still alive
When I last used this thing I mentioned that I didn't really have anything to talk about. So I didn't send any newsletters for checks 9 months? Hoo doggy. It's been long enough that frankly I don't blame you if you thought this was spam.
ANYWAY!
It's my birthday! I continue to age.
I do have stuff to talk about, because as I also said in the last email, I am the type to have Projects(tm). Right now, my main project is simply a much-needed vacation. I'm sending this off and then heading off to PDX to take a long flight (on WestJet; pray for me) to Paris, France. After a few days I head off to Berlin, and then again to Copenhagen. Once two weeks in Europe have passed, I fly home via Reykjavik.
It used to be that I would travel somewhat regularly. Not "all the time", but I took a few weekends going to PAX or furry conventions or what have you. Honestly, I enjoy travel, I'd love to do it more frequently, but that's obviously not been a sensible notion these last few years. So I've gotten by on travel YouTubers, like The Tim Traveller. It may not be a sensible notion to travel right now either, based on wastewater tracking, but I booked these flights and hotels a while ago so OH WELL
Vapormage
Book's done! I mean I keep fiddling with it in the hopes I'll make it slightly better, but all the scenes and asides and whatnot are there. I am of the opinion it is complete. If you would like to read it, feel free to ask! Just know that, while I consider it complete, it's not "done". It won't be done until it's published.
Which means querying! There are a lot of agents out there, most of whom are not interested in 110k words of a Final Fantasy-style blend of modern and fantasy adventure written by a functional amateur. But, I'm spending the rest of the year pinging those who might be interested. If every single one rejects me, then I'll consider self-publishing. I'm not gonna rush into that again.
Vapormage 2
No that's not what I'm calling the sequel, but I am working on one. I'm going to do NaNoWriMo again this year, and that's what I'll be writing. It's been outlined for a while, though honestly not as much as Vapormage was. That thing had been cooking for years.
The whole project has absolutely grown into a big world in my head, lots of stories I wanna tell. Just have to, y'know... get off my butt and write 'em. I'm thinking I should do little short stories in the Vapormage universe. Keeps me in practice, helps me work on short story writing (which I don't feel I'm good at), and I could submit them out to anthologies or whatever. Probably should've been doing that all along! Nobody said I was sensible
Pivot to Video
SPEAKING OF I bought a GoPro. I bought... maybe a comical amount of gear to go with the GoPro? It's a bunch. Point is, I miss doing video stuff. Scripted video stuff. Streaming hasn't really been doing it for me for a while now, so I'm tapering off that and will eventually drop it entirely. Instead I'm poking at making some kinds of vaguely educational video content. I've been really intrigued by how FFXIV intersects with reality (referencing obscure myths, history, material science, the list goes on) and I'm hoping that can be a starting point to poke at how other games intersect with reality.
I've got a few concepts to start with, and a general sense of the vibe I want to give off (I like Answer in Progress, I like Half as Interesting, it's a genre). Maybe it'll be a good thing for my brain to focus on, maybe it'll be as much of a failure as Facebook's "pivot to video" (though without the blatant fraud). Who knows! I am over-ambitious.
Since I'm clearly not good at keeping up on these things, don't expect them too often! I'm figuring just one a month should be viable.
If you wanna see stuff from me more frequently, I'm on Mastodon. And I have a Discord. I'm posting all the trip photos there.
That's all for now, ta ta,
-- Zoe