Updates, so many updates!
Dec. 15th, 2020 09:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catherineldfDidn't realize that I hadn't updated at all last week, but it's been busy. The last couple of weeks have been all about studying and prepping for my CPPM Exam at St. Thomas. This was a 10 week series of classes (last class is tonight!) on the basics of project management, followed by a long, complex certification exam, done in teams. Between studying and homework and team meetings and classes and the actual exam, it's been a bit hard to keep up with other stuff. But I just got my exam results and I aced it! 90 out of 100! The rest of my team passed too (and did yeoman's work! We didn't have a slacker in the bunch!), which is awesome because it would have been much harder without them being as engaged as they were.
So what's next? Good question! Well, in order to actually become a professional project manager, I would need to be able to get a healthy amount of on the job training. My current employer neither respects me nor appreciates any of my current skills really, so they're not going to let me grow into anything else so that experience is not likely to happen there. I can apply what I've learned to other things, however. What that currently looks like is me using some of my new training for Queen of Swords Press and looking forward to getting to some training in SEO optimization and copywriting so that's what I'll move toward next. Day job gonna do what day job gonna do, which means more toxicity until either I get heaved overboard or jump. But if I let them be a psychological millstone around my neck, then I just wasted 10 weeks and a lot of work and I, at least, know my own worth. So onward to building a new path. Which might mean being without consistent employment for a bit so brace yourself for a barrage of stuff of varying kinds. I will try not to be annoying about it.
Speaking of which, our sales have been pretty flat for the last few months and the last few events that Jana and I have done have not been stellar (by which I mean: no sales or very few), so we're trying something new. If you live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area within 10 miles of Bancroft Elementary in South Minneapolis and buy a print title from Queen of Swords Press or a handmade journal or box from Western Slope Press through 12/20, we will refund any shipping charges and deliver it to your home for free. Contactless porch pickup is also an option! Shop local, shop locally made and all that good stuff.
Otherwise, I'm back to working on submissions, writing a story that's due in January and prepping for upcoming classes and workshops. Stay tuned for a Queen of Swords Press Kickstarter to fund some new books and a new workshop that I'll be teaching at Springboard for the Arts. Edits for Blood Moon are chugging along and there'll be preorders and ARCS soon. If you're feeling adventurous and want to support a small press and like my writing, you can read my current novel in progress pretty much as I write it out on my Patreon. And so we go, and to quote my friend Cindy Potts, "onward and upward." Hope everyone stays healthy and has a pleasant holiday season!
So what's next? Good question! Well, in order to actually become a professional project manager, I would need to be able to get a healthy amount of on the job training. My current employer neither respects me nor appreciates any of my current skills really, so they're not going to let me grow into anything else so that experience is not likely to happen there. I can apply what I've learned to other things, however. What that currently looks like is me using some of my new training for Queen of Swords Press and looking forward to getting to some training in SEO optimization and copywriting so that's what I'll move toward next. Day job gonna do what day job gonna do, which means more toxicity until either I get heaved overboard or jump. But if I let them be a psychological millstone around my neck, then I just wasted 10 weeks and a lot of work and I, at least, know my own worth. So onward to building a new path. Which might mean being without consistent employment for a bit so brace yourself for a barrage of stuff of varying kinds. I will try not to be annoying about it.
Speaking of which, our sales have been pretty flat for the last few months and the last few events that Jana and I have done have not been stellar (by which I mean: no sales or very few), so we're trying something new. If you live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area within 10 miles of Bancroft Elementary in South Minneapolis and buy a print title from Queen of Swords Press or a handmade journal or box from Western Slope Press through 12/20, we will refund any shipping charges and deliver it to your home for free. Contactless porch pickup is also an option! Shop local, shop locally made and all that good stuff.
Otherwise, I'm back to working on submissions, writing a story that's due in January and prepping for upcoming classes and workshops. Stay tuned for a Queen of Swords Press Kickstarter to fund some new books and a new workshop that I'll be teaching at Springboard for the Arts. Edits for Blood Moon are chugging along and there'll be preorders and ARCS soon. If you're feeling adventurous and want to support a small press and like my writing, you can read my current novel in progress pretty much as I write it out on my Patreon. And so we go, and to quote my friend Cindy Potts, "onward and upward." Hope everyone stays healthy and has a pleasant holiday season!