Hello!
There’s been a moderate amount of progress since my last post, health issues and trigger thumb notwithstanding!
- I’m still very slowly plugging away on Watermyth, even though every now and then I negative self-talk myself with “you’re doing all this work but you’ll be lucky if five people buy/read it”. Nevertheless, life is short and fragile and I am determined to publish it this year. Also, it’s finally turning into the novel it was always meant to be. This is making me both happy and sad. Sad because, if this was the novel I’d submitted as full to agents, maybe things would have wound up very differently for me. Nevermind. I’m telling myself not to have high hopes for how the Cantata of the Fourfold Realms will fare. I’m self-publishing them. But I will learn from this process, and the next series will be sent to agents. Hopefully written with skills I will have gained from this process. I’m quite certain (prolly negative self-talk again, but I’m also prolly right) that it will be buried but it’s okay. At least I will have physical books with my name on the spine.
- Oh: I’m quite sure it will be four books. I’m publishing Watermyth this year, Rosemirror next year, Gardenswitch the year after that, and finally, Woodsgyre. There’s a deep joy in writing these books all for myself first, but then considering how readers will enjoy them.
- No short fiction work YET because Watermyth has been taking all of my creative writing time.
- FINALLY submitted an Anthropocene-based article that’s been bugging and torturing me for two years. This is MASSIVE. Even if it means I had to sacrifice this baby of mine to an in-house journal because I can’t keep waiting for my theory babies to be published.
- Currently working on another theory baby originally targeted for a Q2 journal, but I’m sending it to another in-house journal. Another sacrifice. But I have reached this stage of being a “mediocre” mid-career academic that I’d rather have it be published soon than wait another 2-3 years for some well-positioned international journal to accept it. Oh well. But it’s just such a pleasure to be working on this research again. It’s part of a group of articles I somehow forgot to work on when the pandemic hit. Also because I’ve been so engrossed with my Anthropocene-based research. At the end of the day, I’ll just be happy to have it published so I can work on other theory babies. I have so many!
- Anthropocene collection! I finally broke the block/wall here with some insight of how I want to progress with the introduction. I’m actually really excited about this but I need to submit two more articles by end of June. After that I will get cracking on this.
- After a break since 2019, I signed up for the Clarion West Write-a-thon again, with some very modest goals: complete two short stories and the current revision pass of Watermyth. Will likely lurk with zero involvement in some of the Zoom events. Well, apart from saying thank you because I do mind my p’s and q’s. Enjoyed last night’s lecture by Piper J Drake which had me thinking about ways in which I’ve been underutilising relationships in Watermyth. Also heartily enjoyed the discussion on Sarah J Maas’s ACOTAR series which I’ve been reading like it’s brain-crack.
I guess that’s all. I’m still alive! Huzzah! I feel a bit weakish but am back to my usual self-ish. I’m happy we had another good Salon, and happy that my students are inspired. *I* am inspired by the wonderful conversations with Darcie Little Badger and Angela Slatter (it was such a good idea to have both of them in the same session, I’m still patting myself on the back for it because wow, the combination was MAGIC), plus the really comforting and encouraging video made by Sean Wallace. My students are still raving about the video!
Next up, I’m holding a small Memory Studies webinar in October and will release a call for papers soon. Three of my PhD students who are working with memory studies and trauma theory in their dissertations will be presenting their research, I’m still wrangling guest speakers, and will have 2-3 slots for other presenters. And we’ve already started talks for next’s years Fairy Tale Salon IV. Stay tuned, this one is also going to be a whole lot of fun and my football team of supervisees are already telling me what they want to present!
Nothing else to say, except that I turn 47 on Saturday, and I’m having all of the feels about it. Three years away from fifty! I’m simultaneously dreading and looking forward to turning 50. It feels like such a mystical age, beyond which dragons lurk. But, if I keep to my schedule, by 50 I’ll have my first music diploma. That will be cause enough for celebration. I’m okay with being a feral 50-something gnarly hermit if it’s a life doing the things I love, and with music always by my side.