1. My TBR pile is so out of control right now. example of how far behind I am: I STILL haven’t read Crooked Kingdom. FML
2. This blog is GoT s8 spoilers-free (not like I ever update anyway)
3. My mother has successfully made her move from SC to OR. She’s not living with me, but she’s close in case something goes wrong. Should be interesting, she hasn’t had to put up with adult-me except in sporadic visits.
4. Trying to stick to a March & October release schedule this year, but October is partially contingent on me failing to secure an agent with Mono*. It’ll be a little weird having Mono out before Ely2, but one’s ready and the other hasn’t even been started, ha.
5. Speaking of, WIP list also getting out of control (Mono, Ely2, CHAU, Stones, Stars, WSF, Train….). Am carving out time next week to figure out plots & timing, else the indecision and workload will get the better of me.
6. Spent this spring taking a certification course to be TEFL-certified. In a perfect world I could leave current job and just split my time between teaching online & writing. ((in a perfect world I would just write, but pfff.))
Hope everyone else is having an interesting spring as well! Well, the good kind of interesting. <3
* one day I’m going to give up querying, or so I tell myself, but the smallest part of me still says Maybe this time. Guess I really am an optimist.
I have been away for 70,000 years dealing with all sorts of RL things but I hope you are all doing amazing and having a fantastic time and have good things going on!!!
to the lovie who asked where I’ve been: sometimes I remember to update twitter (it’s slightly less stressful than tumblr is thanks to the character limit) and once in a blue moon I put a cat pic up on instagram
a couple stray updates:
1. am trying to let go of a book that I almost gave up on almost two years ago – if y’all were unfortunate enough to be following me that long ago you might’ve been here when I started trying to write it off as a failure. There are plot parallels between it and a series y’all love, and I teeter between Stress and Acceptance by the day. I’m about to the point where I’m just going to have to bite the bullet on it, because I can’t keep holding onto it.
2. have finally pulled one of the relics out of cold storage; think I’m finally ready to start work on it. TFC was intensely personal, but this is the story I most wanted to write. ‘tis a high fantasy about a holy war, reincarnation, and a love that can destroy worlds. etc etc. sounds a lot more interesting in summary. I’ve given myself a year to get it written, with two+ other projects out between now and then. (we’ll see how that goes, ha.)
3. Jex Lane (Beautiful Monsters) is doing a giveaway for TFC on her site if any of you are interested.
4. Read like… 8 or 10 books this year, am hoping to read a book a week next year. Am currently collecting recommendations for books. At the top of the list is Crooked Kingdom, which I pre-ordered but then never read (????!!!!!!!!!) but I’ve got plenty of room for recs if there’s something you absolutely loved or if there’s something you’re super hyped to read. (Simon VS and The Hate U Give are high on the list)
5. Look ma, no tumblr cut
1. The new job is.. well. I kind of got shuffled sideways into a different position than I applied to – business needs, kind of thing – and the position and I don’t get along at all even if I like everything else about the company. So that’s.. fun.
2.
Trying to get into reading again. Have read more books in the last two weeks than I’ve
probably read in the last three years. Whoops. Upcoming reads incl
Darker Shade of Magic, Aristotle & Dante, and (probably) Caraval.
Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
3. Have been trying off and on to work on a synopsis for Elysium. I say “off and on” in part because synopses are evil and in part because once it’s done I’ll have to start the submissions process over again. Queue the rejections! I used to print out all my “Thanks no thanks” emails and put them in a folder. Visible proof that I was trying, even if I wasn’t getting anywhere. It was not very encouraging, ahaha….
4. Can’t stop listening to Imagine Dragons’ Believer or OneRepublic’s Let’s Hurt Tonight.
5. What is new with you, lovies :O
1. Changing jobs at last, leaving sbux (again) and going back to full-time now that Elysium is done with its rewrite and latest edits. Going to miss the benefits and the short hours, but eh.
2. Might have a vague outline of a new series to work on, but keep pushing it further out of sight & mind until I figure out what I’m supposed to do with Monochrome.
3. The youngest sis has joined us in Portland, so we’ve been kicking around the idea of making games - board and mobile, etc. The bulletin boards I originally bought to help storyboard Stones is now covered in index cards of different projects. help.
4. Thank you so much to everyone who’s reblogged Hailey’s post :D <3 I appreciate your help in spreading the word.
5. I had at least three other things I wanted to talk about, but I have no honest idea what they were anymore. More later, maybe. What is new and exciting out there, lovies?
Actually let’s just get this out of the way now, because if I sign out of tumblr who knows when I’ll be back. So have an oddball list of updates:
1. Borrowing this idea from a good friend: please tell us something that made you happy this week. There’s so much ugliness right now, let’s find the bright spots where we can. Pet a happy dog at the park? Great! Read a book you wanna rec? Also good! Heard a song you haven’t heard in ages & remembered how much you liked it? Perfect. Just something that made you smile.
1b. In regards to the ugliness: I am trying–for now–to keep politics off of this tumblr. Please do not take its absence here as apathy or ignorance. It’s just that tumblr is not my preferred social network by a long shot — I come here to take a breather and sanity break when I’ve exhausted myself screaming and raging elsewhere.
2. Finished the latest draft of Elysium & bribed asked two people to read it. Will spend the better part of the week going through their notes and tweaking things. Then the fun part happens where I have to print it all out and give it yet more line edits before appealing to reader #3.
3. Speaking of fun, my younger sister – who has recently joined us here in Portland – asked me the other day if writing was fun. She’s finishing up a really intense grad program in fine arts, so maybe the question was born from that exhausted & stressed part of her. I told her No, but I remember when it was. My goal for 2017 is to recapture that feeling.
4. One of my BFFs is going to self-publish a book soon! I’m hella excited for her, and I’ll probably talk your ears off about it once she’s got more info out.
1. I cannot speak about the election results here yet. There is too much poison still in me, too much sickness and rage, and I am trying to contain it to closed doors and private threads until I can be coherent again. Just know that I love all of you, and I need you, need you to stay safe, stay together.
2. In true Nora fashion I have restarted my NaNo project three times in the last nine days, because why write 50K words and edit them later if you can just revise the first 10K over and over and over again. Somebody save me from myself.
3. Smashwords, by the way, has a very lovely team in charge–or at least, anyone I’ve ever had to deal with has always been super communicative and supportive. The last person I talked to has done everything he could to resolve things on their end of things. Now I’m stuck waiting to hear back from the other party.
4. There was something else but someone just sent me another post about the protests going on here in Portland and my thoughts have officially derailed again. Off to drink & then to write until I cannot think anymore.
A collection of random things:
1. Got stung by a bee on the train yesterday. Found him in my hair and he jabbed my finger before I realized what I was holding. Turns out I am not allergic to bee stings, hurray!
2. Kindle TFC temporarily has a price tag on it because there’s apparently an issue between me and “the original copyright owner”. Smashwords took it down until I have a conversation with – myself, I guess? – and that was what triggered the price-match free version on Amazon. Trying to get that sorted out asap. Sorry lovies.
3. Speaking of TFC, the older sister just read the series for the first time since its comic days. Victory :O
4. Made the decision to step down and transition to part-time at work. It’s gonna be touch and go, but it’ll carve out more hours to write. I think I’m finally ready again, so I wanna seize that energy while I can. Almost optimistic enough to think I can have minimum two separate projects done by year-end, but we shall see. ((granted, two of the hopeful three are rewrites, not new things.)) Schedule should change effective Halloween, still gotta nail down details though.
What is new with you?? :O
So the original plan was to take like 3 days off from tumblr, but apparently I was gone for 3 weeks?? Glad to see I still have no concept of time. The zoning-out thing is getting real old real quick, but I think enough RL things are falling into place that I’ll have anchors again. <3
I haven’t been around much lately, been distracted by work & the lingering mess of a crosscountry move & video games.
1. Going from 93 degrees to 53 degrees is absolutely amazing. Am curled up with Ancient!Laptop near the patio door and my fingernails are purple. In the middle of June. Whaaat.
2. Aside from our initial contact with them, working with UHaul has been an absolute nightmare. I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say we’ve talked to 20+ reps in the last couple weeks. Can’t wait to get our things & be done with them, tbh.
3. Ami’s cat has spent the last few weeks hating our guts as we take her world apart around her. We had to sedate her for the flight to keep her from panicking, but those drugs were a lot stronger than we expected. We checked on her once it was wheels up and she was so cool and still my heart stopped. She has since forgiven us for the move, but we haven’t stopped hovering.
WE HAVE ARRIVED.
((Technically we arrived yesterday, but our internet installation package showed up today.))
At some point this week I will attempt to play catch-up on Tumblr, if this computer will allow it. This thing is almost 8 years old and, since it struggles to power on, I try not to use it unless things are desperate, ha. My real computer will show up next Tues or Wed along with the rest of our things. :D
1
Sister: How was work
Me: It was fine
Also me:
Y’know, I have two “assigned” places in my room where I am supposed to put my glasses when I go to bed, but because I have Zero Common Sense and refuse to learn from my mistakes, I continue to drop them anywhere I goddamned please… which means half the time I wake up I get to stumble around my room and pat down every hard surface in search of the blasted things. You’d think I’d’ve learned by now, but that’s obviously asking too much.