Accountability post, Feb. 8-25. Ow, I fell off the weekly posting wagon.

State of me and how that impacts my work

WELL, there's this national shitshow writ international now, so there's that.
Some friends with health issues, trying to help them as I can.

Feeling a bit worn thin - no. Feeling pulled in six directions at once, which means it's hard to stop and focus on my work, and that means creative work is suffering. 

Had two jury duty days in that period. I'm on grand jury this season, as an alt, so ... can't talk about it obviously, but that has been interesting and mildly depressing.

I HAVE been doing some piecemeal learning-necessary-things and wedging in shorter tasks, which I haven't had the energy for before, so I guess I'm picking up a little bit? And every task I cross off makes me realize I have made progress, so that helps.

Had a nice convo with my editor; she's starting work on book three. 

Started re-reading a single character's arc in the two books I have finished because I need a better culmination of her arc in book two.
 
Did some revision work on a short story, decided it didn't fit the call I was prepping it for and... kinda dropped it. Wrote a short flash piece tonight in two hours. That was delightfully fun (prompt piece for my crit group's spring reading) and it gave me an idea for ways to generate short stories in my universe.
 
Did some business-related stuff.

Have started using FOREST again (it's a "focus" app, you can't use your phone while your plants grow). There very silly focus challenge, where you earn a new plant by "planting" a certain number of plants for a certain amount of time each day, has been RIDCULOUSLY helpful this month. I really wanted their Lily of the Valley (they're calling it a bellflower but I know what I see and I wants it and I GOT IT. Yay me.)

Small joys. Small joys help a lot right now. *wry smile*

What I've learned/practiced this week/over the past two weeks: 
 A lot, actually. 

Downloaded Vellum and have been playing with it for the past two days. It's bog-simple except for the things that aren't; i.e., it expects Chapters to be Chapter Headed, and ... my book isn't formatted that way, so that was a headache. Was useful in that I had to think about sectioning the book into parts, and where those breaks would be and why was a nice arc tool. 

Also discovered that layout is a great way to find typos. 
So many typos.

Updated my Goodreads account (oh the dust was thick on that one) and realized I can't get an author page there until I publish.  

Watched several IBPA videos on metadata and figured out how to populate my ISBN metadate properly. 

Watched a presentation on marketing reels and took notes and got ideas for things this introvert can do to market without putting myself out there.

Checked out the SFWA discord thread on independent publishing and have been learning from the folks there.

Learned more about Squarespace's services and decided it would be better and cheaper to do a Mailchimp mailing list right now (not the best service, I know, but I'm familiar with Mailchimp and my learning slots are full).

What I want to practice next week:
 Self-care, and by that I mean refilling the well by doing creative things.
 More political action and less political social media.
 Organization, because... taxes are coming.

What I've been reading and what I've appreciated/learned from it:
 Finished KB Spangler's Digital Divide, part of her Rachel Pang series. I'm very much appreciating the world she's created. Maybe I'm noticing more how the characters -- though they're in a horrible situation-- in many ways are making the best of it and finding joy as they can, and that resonates with me right now.  There's action and mystery and over the top tech and... ghosts? Ghosts. I came to the books from the online graphic novel/s (it starts here: https://agirlandherfed.com/1.1.html) which feel more cozy and less ... bloody? perhaps because they're drawings. 

Projects status update:
Books:  A Dubious Hope and Thwarted: re-reading a character's arc because I have to wrap it better in Thwarted. I mean, I have an idea....

      Next steps: finish that read with some notes. Write a short story or two about her backstory. Outline the relationship arc I want her to interact with. Write her final scene.

Short stories:  Wrote a new one tonight, worked on revising an old one a week or so ago. 
Next steps: submit three more short stories by March 15.

Submissions so far this year:  Six.

Rejections this year:  Five.

Marketing:  Just lots of research so far. I think I've decided not to hire marketing yet?
Next steps: decide where to focus my energy between now and June.

S&W work:  Lots of learning and prep work, renewed my business registration. 
Next steps: Finalize cover design and enter my metadata now that I have it.

Writing update and accountability post Feb. 7

Lots of non-writing bits of the writing life in this Jan 19-Feb. 7 period. Been learning, or rather re-learning a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with writing, but has to do with the writing business. 

State of me and how that impacts my work

Bouncing between depression and fury, political action, local caretaking and paralysis. So, yannow, like everyone else in the U.S. in the last 20 days or so. Been making calls to my Senators and Representative.

All of that makes writing very hard for me personally. Been supporting another writer whose work is flowing in amazing bursts of story; supporting my regular writing community, trying to overcome the "who needs my book in this world" self-defeatism myself. Apparently I need my book, so I'm starting to move forward, if slowly. 

Also had jury duty orientation. Did some volunteer work for my choir. Sang some. Had friends over for dinner, visited another friend and took her to appointments, checked in on a few friends. 

Reviewed my publication plan and created an updated list of tasks. 

Changed the backend of my website slightly to shift away from google and create emails based off my website. Had to do that before I could do anything else because I wanted the emails working.

 Renewed my membership in the Independent Book Publisher's Association, and purchased a block of 100 ISBNs with the discount that comes with that membership. (Which saved me about half the cost of their membership fee, and that was just one discount, so I'm pleased). Most people won't need that many, but I have three books at various states of being ready, and each format-- audiobook, MOBI, EPUB, AZW, PDF, trade paperback and hardcover if you're doing that-- requires a separate ISBN number. They come in bundles of 10 or 100, so three books times seven is 21 (I won't be doing all seven but I already can see I need more than 10, so.)  I waffled on getting them and how many to buy for MONTHS, so getting my membership and buying them had become this huge mental hurdle. And, like most procrastinated tasks that feel like mountains, it took me a grand total of 15 minutes to actually make the purchase and ensure it had gone through and I had access to them.

Will I learn from this? Probably not.

In between doing that I submitted four short stories, critted six stories for others, straightened out a miscommunication with my editor about book three (only a minor panic attack, that) and got two rejections. 

What I've learned/practiced this week

- One foot in front of the other. 

- Don't tear your allies down, especially when you must confront a multi-faceted enemy. You fight your fight and let them fight theirs. You can't know which attack will be the most effective, and we're all the most motivated to fight for the things that matter the most to us.

- You can make political calls even if your voice shakes and you cry. 

- Quoi qu'il en soit (what that it some is/might be) means "regardless" or "be that as it may." 

- Joy is essential, even in hell. Feed your joy.

What I've been reading and what I've appreciated/learned from it

Finished reading both Teller of Small Fortunes and The Serviceberry this week. 

I appreciated the warm coziness of Teller of Small Fortunes, the sweetness of the characters and the sense of "little people lost in a big world who still make a difference for each other." Leong wrapped up loose ends from various adventures in satisfying ways, and created endearing characters with relatable flaws and needs--an ensemble cast I wanted to succeed.  Each of the character's desires were clarified in dialogue, narrative and action at various points during the story, so there was no hitting over the head with a single block of "as you know Bob" explanation. A novel gives one the space to do that, but the reminder that all three are useful to reinforce character is a good one.

Wall Kimmerer's Serviceberry is an expanded essay, an exploration of an alternate economy with a botanical example -- the serviceberry- at its core. As a plea for ecological sanity in a country gone nuts with capitalistic crypto fever, it feels both well-timed and ... sad. I could have enjoyed reading this much more during a Harris administration. But alternative economies may get us through yet, so I recommend it. Her descriptions of interconnected communities made me think about the assumptions I'd made about the communities in my own writing and how my background had colored how I'd drawn them AND what I'd left off the page and might want to at least hint at in a better fashion.

Projects status update

      Books: Updated publication plan. 

Next step: finish new intro to THWARTED.

      Short stories: Four more submissions, two more rejections.

Next step: More submissions, write more tie-in ss.

      Marketing: Next step: research hire versus DIY

      S&W work: Everything listed above; website update, IBPA renewal, ISBN purchases, educational vids.

Next step: Metadata gathering and give to ISBN registrar and ... Amazon? I guess? Research metadata.  Also finalize cover design.