Tris Talks... May news in June (whoops)
Oh, hi there.
We’re late again.
May was an interesting month. Of the four weekends, we spent two and a half out of town, and the remaining one and a half at camp. How do you get a half weekend? Well, we drove back from our Finger Lakes vacation on a Saturday, unpacked into the house, spent an hour with the cats, then went straight to camp for the night so we could ensure everything was okay after the huge rainstorms that swept through our area the week before.
Anyway.
May was busy, but it was a lot of fun.
My younger child graduated from college. I won’t bore you with all the proud-mama squeeing, but suffice to say, I’m well, proud. Yes, repetitive, I know. He’s home now, with a job in the area, and he’ll be moving out of our house and into his sister’s house soon so he can have his independence.
Since he was graduating from college near the Finger Lakes, we decided to make a vacation of it and rented a house with enough space for all of our children (my daughter, her husband, and our son) and stayed for an extra week after graduation was done. This meant that we got to do things like go hiking for Mother’s Day, go to several wineries and breweries, and travel down to Corning to blow glass. The weather was much better than the last time I was in the Finger Lakes—we had good air quality, and it didn’t rain as much as it was back home, which was nice.
In fact, while I was getting notifications about the commencement ceremony where I work being rained out and moved indoors, I was happy in Rochester with the sun shining as we walked all over campus. Which reminds me—I love my Skechers sandals. No, I don’t get a thing from them for this, I just have to tell people how much I love the fact that I can buy shoes that look like cute heels but also allow me to walk for miles without my feet dying. Happy sighs.
I meant to do a lot of blogging while I was away. I wanted to talk about the hikes, and the wineries, and the good food… and I didn’t do it. I did, however, write a fic for May Trope Mayhem, and most of another fic after that. My goal for May was to let all the stress go and simply relax into writing for fun, and that was achieved. I needed that breath of fresh air, I think, and the chance to let my brain reset.
It did show me that if I want to write, I need to be able to relax. And once I relaxed, I found words.
The next big trip was down to Balticon for Memorial Day Weekend. As always, the convention was so much fun. I love the folks there, and I really enjoyed meeting new people. I always have such a great time on programming. Before we headed out, I thought this would be our last Balticon for a while. We’d originally started going a few years ago because my son was on co-op in the area, and we figured he might end up with a job down there. The convention was a great excuse to visit. Instead, he’s got a job here at home. BUT. We (husband and I) both had a good time so we might go back again. We have to see what the next year brings!
Conventions are sadly expensive, and sometimes we have to be practical. I’m not very good at that, but I try.
And now, here we are in June. I meant to draft this last week and get it properly sent out on Saturday before May ended. Instead I accidentally overslept, managed to finish my second May Trope Mayhem fic and get it posted, then had to run out the door to a graduation party for a friend. Whoops!
Today I finally caught up with advertising that fic, and with drafting this letter.
Today is also the first day in a month that I’ve felt like I’m back into my routine and feeling relaxed about it. The planned week is normal. Next week looks normal. Yes, there are little things out of place—like going to a concert instead of TKD on Thursday—but overall routine is routine, and that’s nice. The vacations were a good break, but I really need to be back on track with something my brain considers normalcy.
Setting a primary goal for May of “fanfiction only” worked. So June’s primary goal is “finish editing ITS” and we’ll see what happens after that is done. Hopefully drafting, but I’m not sure how long it’ll take me to finish editing the final 1/4 to 1/3 of ITS and sending the whole thing back to my editor at Duck Prints Press.
Brief pause for sales: if you haven’t yet followed the upcoming Kickstarter for Into the Split (and you’ll be able to pick up the first two books in the trilogy if you don’t already own them), check it out! We plan to launch late summer.
For those curious about May’s fanfiction, you can read the stories on AO3. Both are Teen Wolf fandom, and both are Derek/Stiles/Jackson for a relationship.
Buy One, Take Two - 925 words
Jealousy Will Fix Everything, Won’t It? - ~10k words
With luck, we’ll be back here at the end of the month (while it’s still June!) for the next newsletter, and I’ll have all kinds of progress to report. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Thank you for reading Tris Talks...!
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