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Hey and Happy Spring to Everyone

Just a quick missive for you all. It’s been a busy month for me but most of it has been quiet, incremental stuff. Sort of like spring, where things are busily burgeoning under the soil for a few days before the swell bursts and there are BUDS EVERYWHERE.

Fingers crossed that my work blooms.

That said, it’s also been a busy animal week. In the past few days I took ALL the roos to the vet, and they are Very Annoyed and want you to know All About It. So hey - I thought a few extra pet pics wouldn’t be a bad idea for a March update.

Quick Roo Report

Monte, a.k.a. Timelord Cat, was the first one up, much to his dismay.

Timelord Cat is scared of people, so visiting the vet is a tough ride for him. They tried to be very sweet to him. He’s lost a bit of weight so we’re doing some tests.

Sammi was VERY LOUD at the start (he’s a hound, after all) and for the first time ever, he humped the vet tech’s leg. But after that he was a Very Good Boy. Mostly.

Kizu was so frenetic I didn’t get a photo of her there, but she was also a Very Good Girl, aside from the many laser beam noises she made in an effort to get more attention from the techs.

Both dogs have conditions that need monitoring, but we have no reason to think their numbers will show any bad news.

Writing News

While I don’t have any new publications out and I’ve been submitting less, I’m very happy to report that my output is increasing! I'm almost to 20k words for the month. Yes, the month. Considering I was at “18k during both Jan/Feb” from last month, I’m thrilled.

In years prior, I haven’t been able to raise my word count appreciably without having a multi-hour time slot in which to write. But I’ve been doing at least an hour of writing, 5 times a week, for the past 3 months, and this month it’s finally bearing fruit. I find it SO much easier to get back into the flow state now. It reminds me of my school experience with cross-country running. I never got the runner’s high, but after six weeks I WAS able to run longer distances without hitting the “I’m gonna die” point. Building up my endurance made it easier to start the run.

Now the writing practice is paying off, and I’m hoping to hit 7k words a week next month.

I’m also elated to report that LOTS of my favorite stories and novels and poems ended up on the Nebula nomination list, and I’d love to be able to say the same thing about the Hugos and Locus awards this year! If you haven’t voted yet and you’re eligible (or would like to see if you’re eligible), Hugo voting is open until March 28th and Locus voting is open until April 1st. The latter is open to all with a quick survey about your reading habits.

And that’s all the news at my end!

And?

Yep, I have your usual puppy:

AND a post-vet DGAF reverse cuddle:

With Love and Weirdness,

~Risa