(This was sunset in my neighborhood two nights ago. Particle count was 187 per AirNow.)
Life, my therapist is always telling me, is one thing after another. The last three weeks, for me, have been clear evidence of such, culminating in a death in the family and my partner getting sent up to Butte County to help with the Camp Fire. Through it all I’ve kept indexing, riding out this busy season as best I can, so there are now certain memories that are inextricably linked to Putin’s second go as President or the state of mental health services in Sussex. But I’m nearly done with what may be the last index of the year, and thus can return to all things writing—even if it is while wearing a N95 mask.
I am also NaNo-ing. I’m behind on my word count, but it’s been a while since NaNo has been about winning for me so I’m not bothered. It’s about the pretty graph and the commitment to writing every day—or as close to that as I can get, barring upsets like last night’s:
So, yeah, a little surgery has to happen before I push forward again. It’s too much of a problem to just keep going, it will do nothing but distract me until I’ve fixed it. Writers, know thyselves, and what you can or can’t work around.
In other news: “All That I Left Behind (We Are)” is an experimental piece that was chosen by The Fabulist for its Halloween story. My busy October felt good overall, and though it was nearly invisible I wore an armband for my relative at The Octopus and felt better for it. I’ve been looking back over this first year of freelancing and brainstorming ways to make my income less feast-or-famine going forward. And my goodness, but I have a lot of writing to do …
In other other news: if you’re a fan of Stranger Things, Russell Nohelty is giving away a fat prize of related stuff (including The Book of Barb! I clutched my chest when I saw that, so fresh still was my Barb-pain). Russell is a great writer of books and comics, and he regularly does these themed giveaways to help authors get exposure and build their mailing lists. I’m new to this sort of thing, but there’s a lot of choice stuff, including DVDs, Funko Pops, and more. If he ever does an Attack on Titan one I’m all in.