July Newsletter...
July flew by.
The start of July was “getting ready for NASFIC” and the middle was “OMG I’m at NASFIC” and then the end was “AHHHH chaos happened and now that I’m home I’m cleaning up” and um… here we are?
For those who do not know: I’m a system administrator by day job. The Crowdstrike chaos happened while I was in Buffalo. I was walking my boss through rebuilding a server that Friday morning (luckily the one I lost that decided it wanted to reinstall Windows was NOT one that was hard to set up). There was still cleanup to do when I returned to work, plus a brand new set of chaos that sprang up in the following week for one of our cloud services.
It’s been… a lot.
So yeah, here we are.
I have other gripes and whining, but in the interest of keeping this positive (and y’all really don’t need to know all of my inner-whinging), I’ll let it go. Tiny anecdote though: if you have to start a brand-new Time Machine backup drive on a Mac laptop, it can take up to 24 hours to complete. Ask me how I know. :D
Things published…
Nothing new in fiction has been published. The hardcover and paper of Finding Their Roots are both available from Amazon, and I’m still struggling to find time to get the wide-distribution paperback settled.
I did write one blog post—“Imposter Syndrome and Performance Anxiety”—which has been posted to Pillowfort, Tumblr, and Dreamwidth.
I have several other blog posts that I’m ruminating about, and with luck, I’ll get to work on those this month. And writing. I’d really like to work on some fiction, yeah? Especially the newsletter story!
Brief segue—I will say that I have been reading a lot lately. And buying books (I may have purchased 7 or so while at NASFIC). I’m both enjoying reading and learning a lot from it by looking at what lives between the lines of the text that draws people in. Why are books popular? What appeals to the reader?
Writerly progress…
I redrafted a story this month! I may have started doing so last month? Time is wobbly at this point, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t exist.
Anyway, point is, I finished the redraft shortly before leaving for Buffalo, and I was able to submit it to an anthology call. It’s the shortest version of the story I’ve done, and it’s my favorite version. I feel like I’ve learned a lot in the years since I first wrote the story, and I was able to leverage all of that when I pulled it apart and rewrote it.
Oh, yes, I definitely started it last month. This is the story that inspired the sentence level editing post I wrote. I remain proud of how well the story came out after editing.
I worked a bit on the short story for newsletter subscribers—the peek into the second book of the Seven Lakes series. I’d like to finish that up so I can get it edited and sent out. In an ideal world!
What I’m working on right now…
Right now I’m writing a newsletter. :D
Oh, this is supposed to be more general than that. I’ve got a few blog posts in mind, including one on tropes, and another on switching projects, and a response to a Tumblr question that I haven’t been able to get to.
On the fiction side of things, finding time to work on Nate’s book, Devon’s book, and potentially some short stories… well, that’s a thing. Time and all. We’ve already talked about it being an illusion (see above). Wild guess what inspired the blog post about switching projects…
Seriously, though, I’m behind, and I can admit that. Finishing one thing makes me feel accomplished, but then I struggle to move on to the next. Add in life demands, and time seems to slip away.
I could also add in a bit about how my cats becoming intensely affectionate lately has affected both writing and knitting, but that seems a bit silly, doesn’t it?
In terms of goals, though, I’d like to finish the rough of Devon’s short, get started on both new novels, and draft two blog posts. That sounds so reasonable and easy…
Upcoming appearances…
Are you in the Albany, NY area? I’ve got two conventions coming up in the next six weeks: Fandom Fest in Schenectady NY on August 10-11 and Albacon in Clifton Park NY on September 13-15. Come out and see me! Duck Prints Press will be vending at both, and I’ll be available at the booth/table to sign any of my work published by them, or my independent work.
After that we get some quiet time until Boskone in February.
Before we go…
If you’re curious to see snippets as I work, all levels of my Patreon are treated to early chapters of PHU when it is posting, as well as behind-the-scenes looks at works in progress.
And find me on social media if you want to chit-chat or just hear me natter on about life, writing, and fandom. I’m tryslora everywhere!
Thank you for reading Tris Talks...!
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