catherineldf | Entries tagged with personal update

This month has been a LOT. Here's some of the good stuff:

My latest sapphic pirate/spy story, "The Pirate in the Mirror," is up at Heather Rose Jone's awesome Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast! And here's a link to the full list of stories, including the first one, which is only available on my Patreon. Heather does an amazing job with her podcast and her blog and if you're interested in queer history, it's a great place to delve into depictions of queer women, as well as interviews and fiction. I learn a ton from it every time she posts!
The video for WritingOut, the queer publishing and writing panel that I did with Charles Payseur, J.M. Lee and Kat Weaver at the Eau Claire Library last month is up at the Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+ Center's YouTube. It was a great panel, so please check it out.
I taught at the Loft Literary Center with Jennie Goloboy yesterday and it went really well. I had a table at the FemFair at Hamline on Thursday and I had a good time at Flights of Foundry.
I got to see "Chevalier" with friends (decent movie, doesn't do the man's actual life and accomplishments much justice though), caught MORLS at BLB (excellent as always), went to Dine Out for Life (Aliveness Project benefit) and the return of the Women's Prison Book Project Breakfast. Did a hell of a lot of work on upcoming projects.
Acquired some lovely things, like a nice sweater from Myssy and earrings from Elise Matthesen and useful things, like an entire new setup for our rainbarrel to replace the bits we've been taping up for way too long.

The less great parts:

Last week, Jana got lost walking home on a route she knows well.
Three days ago, she broke into a neighbor's house (they were home and left the door unlocked, but not open) to give them a journal. She doesn't know this neighbor well and has never been to their house. They were, fortunately, amused, but...
So I get to start exploring longterm placements and adult daycare stuff now, rather than a month or two down the road. Apparently twice a week PCA visits won't be enough for much longer.
Our roof has not been deemed worthy of insurance-funded replacement so it's one more thing to wrangle.

I'm more or less managing, but help would be nice. Also a lottery win, while we're at it. Sigh.

Life has been a mixed bag of late. Last week, I turned 60, which is one heck of a milestone. PreCOVID and everything else, I used to imagine I'd be turning 60 in Spain. Jana and I used to love to travel, but that's certainly not happening right now.

Which doesn't mean that I had a bad birthday, by any means. I kicked things off on 3/25 by going to hear Boiled in Lead's 40th Anniversary Concert at the Parkway Theater with my buddy Matt. And you know what? They still rock and sometimes, you need to go hear music that vibrates through your bones. We had a nice sushi dinner at Bagu beforehand too. On Saturday 3/26, I went to Bingley's Teas for a lovely afternoon tea with my friends Sheila and Caroline; Julia and Jared pulled out all the stops and it was amazing.Then on Sunday, I took Jana out to breakfast, met my friend Marie for lunch at Tori 44 and a trip to Dancing Bear Chocolate. Then Matt came over and we ate my home cooking and watched the first half of "Going Postal."

On Wednesday, Matt and I went to the Guthrie to see Liz Duffy Adam's Shakepeare/Marlowe play, "Born with Teeth," which was excellent. On my birthday proper, Thursday, I sent Jana off to ASI with one of her PCAs and went to Flava Cafe in St. Paul, followed by a trip to the Como Park Conservatory for some quiet alone time with green things and the sloth (Chloe, who roams free in the rainforest enclosure), then on to Nelson's for lunch. Then Jennie Goloboy sent me a text reminding me to check out the new weird/horror bookstore in West St. Paul, Other Skies Weird Fiction, so I headed down there. when I say that the owner keeps an open casket for book displays, it should not surprise that I enjoyed my visit immensely. Hopefully, we'll be having an event over that way in the near future. Then it was home for celebratory tapas from Rincon 38 and then off to Park Square Theater with my friend Julia to see "The Revolutionists," which we enjoyed.

Friday, we got the beginnings of our surprise April blizzard. Saturday morning, when I was supposed to go pick up Mike Merriam for 13 Gears Steampunk vending, we woke up to no power or heat and over 8 inches of snow. I wrangled things as best I could and we went to Tiny Diner for warm food and coffee, then came home and I packed a couple of coolers with snow and tried to save what was in the fridge. It became apparent that we weren't getting power back soon and that I couldn't get the car out of the garage so we canceled on the first day of 13 Gears. The power did finally get turned back on at 8PM and I made it to 13 Gears on Sunday. We had a pleasant, mellow and rather cold day with slow sales but we did get to see some friends and that made it all the more pleasant. One of Jana's PCAs took her out while I was out and I was able to go have dinner with friends afterwards.

And today, the PCA who took Jana out yesterday tested positive for COVID. And Jana got lost during her usual noontime coffee run and had to be retrieved, which hasn't happened before. I was supposed to go see the Dungeons and Dragons movie but my big boy kitty, Shu, started staggering around and acting distressed. I gave him some of the Gabapentin the vet gave me a while back when he hurt his paw and canceled on the movie. He's been out cold for almost 2 hours now but I'll be sleeping on the couch to keep an eye on him. And I could do with less stress and less distressed loved ones, you know?
Blergh. Time to read a bit, then try and sleep.

Mostly good stuff, so far. Which is awesome because I turn 60 at the end of the month and I thought I'd be traveling and doing fun things for this birthday, which between J's health stuff and the things I'm juggling, is not going to happen. In assorted bits of good news:

Just got my contract extended at my day job (my contract was up at the end of this month otherwise). The work itself is kind of nuts, but I like the team, I can WFH and the checks don't bounce so it's all good.
Speaking of checks, I got my advance from Tantor Media for the audio books of the Wolves of Wolf's Point books. Which is a pretty nice 60th birthday gift, if you ask me! And incentive to knuckle down and write the third book in the series, Blue Moon.
Got the preorder up for Death by Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold (Lynes & Mathey #1). The gorgeous new cover is by artist and author Matthew Bright of Inkspiral Design and he's done a lovely job on the interior too!
Got in at another couple of events, including the FemFair at Hamline U., a couple of slots at Dancing Bear Chocolate and the new Raedial Bookfair in St. Paul this summer.
Started edits and chats about cover art for this summer's novella release, Little Nothing by Dee Holloway (Alternate history! Weird horse girls! Young lesbians battling the Confederacy! Good stuff!).
MarsCon was fun and I got to spend some time with friends and sold some books.
Got tickets to various fun things throughout the month.
Am enjoying the Acorn TV subscription that a friend gifted me with for my birthday.

More soon, as it happens.

Just realized that there's been so much going on, I hadn't announced the THING so here goes: I just signed the contract to have my menopausal werewolf novels, Silver Moon and Blood Moon, recorded as audiobooks by Tantor Media! I am so excited about this! Not just because it is happening at all and because I'm getting a decent advance (first time in years on that!) and because they're a well-respected company that will do a good job and because they've already requested an option on the third book (in progress!), but also because these are my passion project books. And, furthermore, they've never won any big awards or gotten reviews at the big sites or anything splashy, but they've been chugging along for years, recommended by book bloggers and readers passing them around, telling their friends about them, coming to my readings, following me online. All of that was enough to push sales over the top and inspire Tantor to pick them up, so for all of you who helped me get here: THANK YOU!

And a big THANK YOU to author and literary agent Jennie Goloboy who pushed me to try for it. I also pitched Jennie's hilarious and fun science fiction novel Obviously, Aliens, but the sales aren't quite there yet. I really want this book to find its people because I think it would make a terrific audiobook. Jennie is hitting the film festival circuit and starting to win awards and recognition for her scripts so this a chance to read someone's work on their way up. :-D

On a related topic, I have a Queen of Swords Press tradition in which when an author's book pass a given sales threshold, they get a mug with their bookcover on it. Michael Merriam's birthday is coming up on 2/19 and he's getting really close. We'd like to get him that mug next week so if you like urban fantasy, Welsh mythology, sapphic romantic fantasy, ghostly streetcars and Minneapolis circa 2007 nostalgia, Last Car to Annwn Station is perfect for you!

Otherwise, I finished a new f/f/ pirate/spy story for Heather Rose Jones's LHMPodcast, have nearly finished the preformatting and editing pass through Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold's Death by Silver (releasing soon!) and have worked with Melissa to assemble this year's Pride StoryBundle. In addition, Jennie and I are going to be teaching at the Rosemount Writer's Festival next month and some other things are afoot.

I also finished a 50 item To-Do list, which included various eldercare planning things for Jana, getting a new water heater installed, getting some things on my car fixed that have been making life somewhat less pleasant and getting in our new handywoman to work on the growing cracks in the kitchen ceiling which need to be patched, caulked, plastered and painted. I'm super tired, but have a great feeling of accomplishment. On a lighter note, have been to a couple of interesting performances and got to check out Owamni, the new indigenous cuisine James Beard Award-winning restaurant in downtown Minneapolis (it was amazing). Mixed bag otherwise on the personal front, but nice to have good news to report.

Well, this month is proving to be the proverbial mixed bag. So far:

I fell in the basement last weekend (tripped over the steps into the crawlspace) and got very banged up. Nothing broken, but lots of big, swollen bruises that really slowed me down for a few days.
J had a mysterious bout of projectile vomiting and I discovered a. the closest urgent care clinic to us had closed and b. If you put a quilt and multiple pairs of jeans in our washing machine, it creates much unpleasantness. Short version: by the time I got everything cleaned up and the washing machine bailed out, she decided she felt better, so I got to work late to make up time.
My car's tire pressure light went on, which shouldn't be that big of a deal, but it is a. difficult to find functioning air pumps around here (I will be buying one soon) and b. for whatever reason, I am startlingly inept with them, which is why filling the tires was something Jana used to do. Big shoutout to the nice young man with the neck and knuckle tattoos at the local garage, now under new ownership, who dealt with the problem before I could make it worse. I tipped him well for his help and everyone ended the day on a much happier note.
Other stuff happened, including my good glasses breaking in my hand when I put them, and it was a long, grueling week.

On the jollier side:

My essay, "Gothic Queer, Edward Gorey and Me" is out in Divergent Terror: At the Crossroads of Queerness and Horror edited by W. Dale Jordan (Off Limits Press) is out! This is my Edward Gorey made me a queer Goth biographical essay, for those wondering. :-)
I got a bunch of the release work for Wolfpack by Rem Wigmore (Queen of Swords Press's January title) underway and preorders up on the website.
I'm working on a new f/f pirate/spy story set in the seventeenth century Caribbean.
I submitted a proposal for an academic article on early queer speculative fiction writers.
Jennie Goloboy and I have been invited back to team teach another class at the Loft Literary Center in the spring.
I've been invited to give a talk at the library in Eau Clare, WI, in January, about which more coming soon.
The Sherlock Holmes exhibit at the MN History Center is pretty fun and I heartily recommend Slash/Back (group of 14 year old Inuit girls stop alien invasion, movie on Shudder and elsewhere).
And, on the bright side, despite a very grueling day, I managed to set up our table for the MN Women's Art Festival for tomorrow without injuring myself and had a decent dinner.

Now to rest up for what will hopefully be a good sales day tomorrow.

It's been a lively couple of weeks and a whole lot going. I/we made it to the end of the 9 or so events in a row, with only one weekend off and it was a LOT. Twin Cities Con alone was 3 12 hour days at the Convention Center, which would not have been possible without help from our authors Michael Merriam and Jennie Goloboy, my assistant Alexa and my intern, Annie. The cosplay was great, the event had definite moments and we did some fine networking...but we did not make our table costs back, let alone the costs for paying people, stocking the table, etc. and it was a pretty spendy event. So no Twin Cities Con for us next year unless we win the lottery or something.

My DreamHaven reading, on the other hand, was pleasant and went well. It was nice to see folks. And my Springboard for the Arts class was hopping. So a good month on the event front, if a very tiring one. And the steroid shot does seem to be helping my hip, albeit very slowly.

And there's more coming, of course. I am grieving the loss of my Twitter community and platform and information, but scrambling to keep things in motion for the press. I did join Mastodon, along with other platforms. More on this and other topics soon, as it is now bedtime.

5 days after getting the steroid shot in my hip and I'm still pretty achy. It also comes with bonus insomnia, which I've gathered is normal, as my body's urge to shed all the fluids, right NOW. So I'm very tired and still sore, but hoping this week sees some serious relief, hopefully in time for next weekend's 3 day marathon - Twin Cities Con at the Minneapolis Convention Center. I'll have help but it will be brutally long days in a giant echoey space filled with more people than I'm used to these days. Less hip pain would make for a much better weekend so fingers crossed on that score.

Then, of course, I'm teaching Genre Basics for Fiction Writers online for Springboard for the Arts on Tuesday 11/15 and reading at DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis on 11/16. In a rare moment of higher common sense, I cancelled on everything but the essentials as of yesterday afternoon, so this weekend was table prep, laundry, submitting a reprint, cooking meals for Jana when I'm in and out at weird hours, lining up Jana's PCA for weekend coverage, sending in a bio for a forthcoming anthology, working on edits to our books and more.

In other news, I have a new essay up at Ylva Publishing to celebrate the new German translation of Silver Moon too! I love saying that. The translator, Florian Kranz, reached out today to say something nice about the book and I love that part too. :-) Most of the reviews seem pretty positive too.

The new day job contract continues along. I'm pushing for more formal onboarding practices than finding myself on a call and a disembodied voice announcing that something is now my problem, which is mostly how it's been going. I'm getting in some quality Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple time, Miss Scarlet and the Duke time and time spent trying not to freak out about Tuesday. And Twitter, which has generally been a solid platform for meeting people, outreach and marketing and it hurts to lose it to the stupid.

That said, for the sake of anything you care about, please go vote and vote blue. The alternative is terrifying.

So, in addition to everything else that's gone on for the last few years in my life, I've been wrestling gradually worsening hip pain from a combination of bursitis and arthritis. When I was still getting regular chiropractic adjustments, I was managing, but the lockdowns and everything that happened locally after that, put an end to those and I recently have reached the limits of what I can manage and endure. Last week, I went to my local clinic and after a very painful examination, got a referral to the hospital for a steroid shot. I get to go in tomorrow and I gather the next couple of days will be pretty rough, but I will hopefully see some good results after that. Wish me luck?

I forgot to mention that we also voted early and got our COVID boosters and flu shots. Also sold or rehomed several items as part of my cunning "let's start cleaning out the house just in case" longterm plan.

So this week:

Silver Moon is out in the new German translation from Ylva Publishing today! Get your menopausal werewolf fix in Deutsch! Right at this moment in time it is #1 in Lesbian Fiction for Kindle and #2 for print. I'm savoring this delightful event for a bit.
Started my new contracting gig and it is every bit as much chaotic nonsense as I anticipated, but the people are nice so far. So we'll see how it goes. Also, I'm tired and my sleep is hosed, but such is the nature of first week.
I'm teaching Crimson Peaks and Menacing Mansions: Writing Gothic Horror at the Rambo Academy on Sunday, 10/23 and we got room for more signups! I'm fun, I'm entertaining and I know my shit! Come take a class with me!
I got profiled as a entrepreneur for Canvas Rebel this week.
Jana's new companion care PCA started today and it sounds like they had a pleasant outing. We're easing into this with 2 hours a week, which is about what our friends were doing for free, but cannot do consistently right now due to kids being back in school, etc. PCA care is not cheap so if you have room in your budget to do a bit of gift shopping on Jana's Etsy, it would help (she also sells things at the Open Book's MCBA Shop).
You can still sign up for Jennie Goloboy's upcoming virtual reading from Obviously, Aliens at Space Cowboy Books this Tuesday 10/25! Jennie gives a good reading and Space Cowboy Books (in Joshua Tree) has been getting a lot of big names in lately. Come join us!
Queen of Swords Press news - Rem Wigmore's sequel to Foxhunt, Wolfpack, will come out in midJanuary instead of mid December to give us all more time to get stuff done. Rem has a great new essay up at the Climate Fiction Writers League here.
More Queen of Swords Press news: the ALA's Barbara Gittings Stonewall Book Awards committee requested a review copy of The Language of Roses by Heather Rose Jones for consideration! A book has to be recommended by a librarian or two get considered for this and it's only our second book to be nominated. Roses is also up on the Nebular Award Reading List - it is eligible in the Novella category for the Nebs, the Hugos, World Fantasy and anything else that considers fantasy at the 40k word limit. Please consider nominating it!
Looking forward to another fine Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society show this Sunday night! Seriously, they helped me stay sane during lockdown and I haven't missed one of their shows in a couple of years now.
Going to The Queen's Ball: A Bridgerton Experience next month because I have the perfect group of friends to go with. And I need good, fluffy fun. Especially after I spend 3 days at the Minneapolis Convention Center the weekend before that tabling at Twin Cities Con, which is going to be wild.

And now to bed and trying to catch up on sleep. I hope the coming days bring good things your way.

The big news for this week is that I got a new day job contract. It's projected to start on the 17th, so I'll get through exciting cycle of weekend book tables and classes before then. I'll also be going back to healthcare and some work related to what I used to do at the job I held prePlague. New companies (contracting co and renter of services), new software, etc. I made them laugh a few times during the interview and they wanted me immediately, unlike last year's endless cycle of "we like her, but we want 3 more interviews." In the meantime, I need to knuckle down and get a LOT done beforehand.

Last week's table at Open Streets Minneapolis went okay. Not, perhaps, the liveliest territory for book shopping but lots of interest by afternoon. And presenting at the Loft's Wordsmith Conference on Sunday went swimmingly. Next up, Columbia Heights Pride this Saturday 10/8, then back to Dancing Bear Chocolate on Sunday with books and Jana's handmade boxes and journals. Then next Saturday, it's the Twin Cities Book Festival - Michael Merriam (Last Car to Annwn Station) will be a featured local author and we'll be tabling. Stop by one of these - should be fun!

Accomplished in the last month, while unemployed:

Edits out to author, cover discussion launched, cover copy and description written
Discussions with other authors and contracts sent
1-2 events every week
Getting the process of selling some of Jana's tools moving along (these are the ones she already decided to shed)
Verbally contracted with a companion care PCA to spend time with her
Contracted with an elder care attorney who help me get stuff organized
Sent in class proposals
Did some writing
Began catching up with people I haven't seen in years, in some cases
Did 2 Patreon posts
Took Shu to the vet for an injured paw (he's doing better)
Started the fun of scheduling fall maintenance on the house and yard
Watched and read some things that have been on my list for a while
Dragged Jana out shopping and managed to get her some needful things.
Financial stuff that I need to wrangle.
Saw "The Woman King" and a couple of fun live performances.
Cleaned out my closet and starting getting stuff out to consignment shops
Opened a discussion with the MIA about donating a piece of art I inherited from Mom.

Need to finish:

A lot. Tomorrow, I start investigating green burial versus green cremation. I may have found a place to spread my mother's ashes in a meaningful way, though not as she originally intended. And start work paperwork and other fun. Everything else is pretty much in progress so more to come!

So, after extending me to the end of the year, the renters of my services decided that the phase of the project that I'm working on is "done" and my services are surplus to requirements. Spoiler alert: it is not "done" and since one of the other contractors just quit and they deemed another one surplus rather more abruptly (I got the courtesy of two weeks notice, so it ends right before Chicon), they are now short-staffed and will rapidly be in the exciting Land of Your Work/Schedule is Not Sustainable. But no longer my problem. I'm wrapping up and stressing out. I contemplated canceling in person Chicon but, given J's condition, it's a last hurrah kind of trip, and the first thing approaching a vacation that I've had in years. In addition, several friends provided some assistance of various kinds, house and cat sitting is all set up, train tix acquired and I like my schedule, so we're going, dammit.

Thus, I will be back on the market again. My cunning plan is to job hunt (has to be WFH due to caretaking duties), get some Salesforce training, tackle some organizational projects and do a ton of Queen of Swords Press events. I'll also be open to editing, marketing, coaching, teaching and so forth. Part of me is thinking that now's the time to go all out, do all the things and see if I can ramp up to get the Press and my extra activities to a point where it could support us. The other part of me is terrified that I'm screwed no matter what I do. J's medical care is going to be huge and even if I am working, I'll likely not get anything stable enough or long term enough to provide for that. So many choices, so many fraught paths. Sigh.

This has been, on the one hand, several weeks of some big accomplishments. It has also included getting carjacked at gunpoint on my block, which my friend whose car was stolen and I could have very much done without. We had gone to the Riverview to see Thor: Love and Thunder (it was okay, but definitely not as good as Ragnorak) and we were chatting in the car before I got when my friend looked over my shoulder and said, "Oh shit." I turned around to find a masked teenager with a gun pointed at us gesturing at me to roll the window down. His companion was on the other side of the car and they demanded our cash and our phones, (along with unlock codes). We turned those over and they had us get out out of the car, took my friend's keys and one sped off in the car and the other made a getaway through our back yard.

We waited until they were gone, then went inside to borrow my wife's phone to call the police. Despite all the dire predictions to the contrary, they showed up within ten minutes, burbled at the cats, were quite polite and set off in pursuit of where my friend's phone tracker suggested they had gone. We spent a jolly hour or so changing passwords and I had to wake J up repeatedly because I just could not remember her pictograph sign-in. Then we got to spend another hour and a half trying to get my friend back into their secure building without keys or an onsite resource. We did eventually succeed but I didn't get to bed until 1AM.

And, since I don't have vacation or sick time, went back into work the next morning for hell week. My friend's car was found, but he can't get it back until they're done processing it. I spent a week without a phone because my now former service provider, Credo Mobile, simply could not grok that I did not have handfuls of spare phones laying around and refuse to work with me unless I called. The 10 hour work days, plus no phone, plus the r/Fantasy AMA on Friday (which was fun, but I was really scattered because work did not let up) made that impossible, so on Saturday, I took myself off to the T-Mobile store in St. Paul and their nice staff made it all better. New phone, new plan and all.

So, exhausting and scary, but survived. And the AMA was lots of fun, as was West St. Paul Pride. This week's adventure will be our Thursday night reading at DreamHaven - do come by if you're up it and live in the area. I moved the Dancing Bear book/art table to August 14th because even I know I'm running on empty.

Otherwise:

Finished a new article for DreamFoundry
Applied for Social Security for Jana and got the process rolling to cash in a small retirement before it vanishes into the ether.
Did a bunch of stuff on my various accounts to consolidate and simplify.
Did some writing, including a Patreon post about the Twin Cities street car system, which features prominently in Michael Merriam's Last Car to Annwn Station, which we released this month.
Got in touch with an eldercare business and am starting the process for evaluations, etc.

I am unbelievably tired. We are also running sales for various books on Smashwords, DriveThruFiction and later this week, Amazon. And Jana has her Etsy. It's been an expensive month and things won't be sorted for a bit, so books and pretties for sale for them as are interested.

Well, June has been quite the month. On a personal level, I co-taught a workshop at Clarion West (online) and was on a small press panel at the Library of Congress. I did my first Twitch event for GeekGirlCon and wrote a new article on what goes into publishing small press books forDream Foundry. I kicked off a new TikTok channel for Queen of Swords Press. And finally, the Pride StoryBundle ends on Friday 7/1 and right about now, I'm hoping for a big final lift as the result of the anthology We're Here edited by C.L. Clark and Charles Payseur (Neon Hemlock, 2021) winning the Locus Award for Best Anthology last weekend; it's been a struggle this year, what with everything, and I would so prefer not to add financial stress to everything else. Sigh.

A bit of good news today: I finally, after months of trying, got a copy of Jana's birth certificate, which means that this weekend I can apply for Social Security for her! And then, wait. I also got in touch with a local company that assists families with elders in negotiating everything from getting PCAs to assisted living. They helped me build a plan for my mother when we were moving her around so I'm going to throw more money at them and have them help me with some of that as well as setting up an emergency support for J so I can actually be away occasionally to teach, etc.

Other than that, it's been about work and releasing Mike's new book and being very tired and very angry. How do I feel about the loss of Roe? Well, I was active in a lot of prochoice reproductive rights stuff for a very long time and for most of that time, I think a whole bunch of prochoicers did a lot of screaming into a vacuum. So here we are and the terrorists have won and we've lost and people are angrily demanding magic fixes and ignoring all the work that has been done to date and kind of being idiots, sometimes well-intentioned, sometimes less so. Ironically, after years of "Listen to Black women and women of color," etc., we've got right back to ignoring them in favor of babbling about a whole bunch of things that not only will not get any rights back, they will make things much, much worse. I need to spend less time on Twitter, for sure.

And also, get more sleep.

Jana's good friend Sue Bjerke died this month too. She was a very talented box maker and woodcarver, two things she took up while working in IT. By all acocunts, she was an excellent teacher and she was also a good friend and colleague to Jana. She was quite sick for the last couple of years, unfortunately, so her passing was not unexpected, but I think we'll still miss her quite a bit. :-(((

Ooops, I almost forgot! I was invited to a friend's birthday party last week and actually went. I don't know him and his housemates very well, but I thought it was time to go bond with some new folks. As it turned out, I had a lovely time and knew several of the other guests, either from other circles or from online. It made for a lovely Pride weekend kickoff. Pride itself was fun, if hot and crowded and we wrapped up the weekend with a Sunday matinee Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society show.

Another bright spot for this week: Give Out Day is Thursday, June 30th. It's the largest day of giving for LGBTQ nonprofits around the country and they're doing to need it, especially in places that are hardhit. If you can toss a coin or two to your Witcher, now would be good.

Onward!

All my tests were negative, so apparently last week's sore throat, etc. were the usual con crud. Which was good, because I recovered in time to teach online for Clarion West on Sunday. Jennie and I had a fun time - the students were engaged and asked good questions and I hope we get to do it again! And we launched the Pride StoryBundle in the midst of things last week and being sick always makes things like that more of a challenge. This year's StoryBundle is very cool: we have an epic fantasy novel by Melissa Scott, 3 anthologies from Neon Hemlock and Speculatively Queer, a couple of novellas from Cynthia Ward's vampire series, a new ghost story by Andi C. Buchanan, Queen of Swords Press titles Foxhunt by Rem Wigmore and The Language of Roses by Heather Rose Jones, a new spin on gay vampires by Jerry Wheeler, a climate fiction novella by Sim Kern, fantasy novellas by Ginn Hale and Nicole Kimberling and queer robot stories by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor and Vincent Scott. Our charity is once again Rainbow Railroad, an international nonprofit that assists LGBTQ+ people at risk and refugees to get to safer areas, something that is even more critically important now. The Bundle runs through 7/1 and I hope you'll give it a look.

Also coming up next week, I get to do my first Twitch event with Geek Girl Con. I'll be on a panel about world-building in art and fiction on 6/14. Then it's off to St. Louis Park for 4th Street Fantasy and a couple of panels on immortality and modern sensibility and progressive narratives, plus other interesting discussions. Then we do our panel at the Library of Congress the week after that! It is an action-packed month!

Speaking of which, our next title, a new edition of Last Car to Annwn Station by Michael Merriam is up for preorder! I am gleefully describing it as "Last Car is the most Minneapolis fantasy novel since War for the Oaks!" And it is - phantom streetcars, visits to Uptown, evil rich people living on Lake Minnetonka, a race through Lakewood Cemetary - good stuff! We'll be doing a DreamHaven event in July to kick it off.

The home situation: I've been trying to get a copy of J's birth certificate so I can file for Social Security for a month and a half now and finally broke down and spent the money for a service that expedites gov docs. Then to hope that we can get her application through in a reasonably timely manner. I also just set up an emergency contact failsafe with some neighbors (I wanted to get to know them better, anyway). I had to push our doctor's appointments out to August due to the crud, since I wasn't sure what it was, but now I get to follow up on some new issues she's having. I, meanwhile, could really use a checkup myself. Sigh. Still have to figure out how to handle my Novel in Progress teaching weekend in early August as I think the thing I was hoping for will not work out. She did have a good run at the WisCon Art Show, so big thank you to the Art Show staff and everyone who bought her work!

Onward!

We got in on Thursday without too much stress and grabbed dinner at the hotel restaurant (the hotel check-in staff was wowed by just how long we've been coming to this con, which was charming). I got to see my always delightful pal, Caroline Stevermer, and we got unpacked and watched "Midsomer Murders" and I worked on things. Friday morning was all about setting up for the Dealer's Room and the Art Show. I didn't get to go to The Gathering because I was on the Killjoys squee panel, which was delightful. One of the other panelists had left her laptop at home and the panel was online, so she came to our room and we broadcast from there, seeing as everyone was double-boosted and had tested negative within 24hours. We had a blast talking about our favorite elements of the show and now I need to finish my epic rewatch, which is currently in the 2nd season.

Saw bunches of friends and colleagues and sold some books when I got back to the table. It turned out that I got a spot next to Shawna Brown of Dragon Abbey Jewelry, and we get on splendidly. Queen of Swords Press author Heather Rose Jones is also in attendance and we had fun reconnecting and plotting (and did more of it on Saturday). We also made Friday dinner plans, so I went to go find Jana after we closed up shop for the day. Turns out that she had gone to a nearby art store to shop.

And things got...fun. So she wasn't responding to texts or email and by this point, I was down in the lobby running into friends and chatting and hugging people as well as intermittently trying to reach her. Finally, she responded to a call and informed me that she was on a bus. Then hung up. The art store is 5 blocks or so from the hotel, so this was concerning news. 4 or 5 phone calls later, it was clear that wherever the bus was going, it was not toward the hotel. More phone calls, more check-in. I give up on dinner with Heather and she went off to meet someone else and I started walking toward Jana's last known location, the bus stop where she got off the bus. This began as a 15 minute walk. Which turned into 17 phone calls and an hour and half long walk because she kept moving around. I had had no dinner and am hypoglycemic and she is sundowning so good times! Finally, I track her down at a gas station and call a cab. I picked up snacks and water because everyone is dehydrated (and they had let her use the bathroom, which was employee only, so I thought I owed them one) and we got back to the hotel around 8:30 (the adventures began at 6). Everyone was very tired, grumpy, hungry and in her case, sunburned.

This morning dawned with the unpleasant news that one of the friends I had seen in the lobby the night before had tested positive for COVID. I tested negative for this round, but get to look forward to a couple of days of testing ahead. Otherwise, I was smarter this time and walked Jana around the Farmer's Market until she was worn out, before going back to the con to work the Queen of Swords Press table. We had a splendid day and I had a good panel on the topic "Where are the Grandmothers?" Also got some lovely fan squee from people about my work and the press, which was a balm to the soul and bought cool art and books, including a first edition Joanna Russ. But I am, unsurprisingly, completely wiped out. Jana has been out cold since 6PM. Tomorrow is her birthday and I'm hoping for an expedition to breakfast as well as a side trip to Period Garden Park before I open back up again. Wish me luck and negative test results?

posting a couple of times a month thing is going well. Sigh. Like everyone else, I've been watching events elsewhere and like most people not collecting a side gig paid in rubles, I'm rooting for Ukraine and the Ukrainians. In case that needed saying.

What else has been going on? It's been very lively. I sold our second car, my solid, sturdy Corolla which we've been driving around since 2005 because we are down to one driver in the house. it is off to go live with the college-age daughter of friends of friends and I think it will serve her well. I've started some attempts to deal with some the various issues that have come up around me being the only driver in the house.

I wrote and submitted a new Weird West story on Monday. This is significant because I haven't sat down and blitzed through 600 words of new fiction in a week in far too long. Is it any good? Well, I like it, so there's that. I got to go to the "Supernatural" show at the Minneapolis Institute of Art with a friend and really enjoyed it. I introduced another friend to "Black Sails," so that's all good. Apart from getting sick yesterday, we've been relatively healthy. I'm making keffir in the yogurt-maker I got for Xmas and dehydrating herbs and fruit in the dehydrator. Taxes are in progress to go to the account. We have enough to eat and people who care about us and no one is doing anything really terrible in our vicinity, so that's all good.

Other things:

I have a story in Vol. 4 of Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives edited by John Linwood Grant and the Kickstarter is doing pretty well. 20 days left to get your mitts on some fine Sherlockiana and bonus Carnacki stories.
I'm looking forward to 13 Gears Steampunk this weekend. First in person event of the year! I'll be tabling with Michael Merriam and Patrick Marsh and there'll be deals on Alex Acks's steampunk books and our tea! Also, crafts, music, tea dueling and other fun.
Next Wednesday (the 9th), I'll be on Querying Tips, a Q&A hosted by Dot & Dash with author Jenna Miller, literary agent (and Queen of Swords Press author!) Jennie Goloboy and a publisher (me). Register if you want to join us.
After that, I'm Author GOH at Marscon here in Minneapolis. It is in person and promises to be fun! Come join us if you can!
Then, on the 15th, Jennie Goloboy, Michael Merriam and I will be guests on Write On! Radio on KFAI Radio talking about ta-da, Queen of Swords Press, and our work as authors. It will be streamed on the web too!
Then, we wrap the month with SMOLFair, an online small press book and zine fair. We'll have an FB Live event and do a book giveaway and a virtual table and all that other fun stuff.
Finally, Queen of Swords Press author, Rem Wigmore, has had a couple of stellar interviews this week. Here they are on Hannah's Bookshelf on North Manchester 1066 FM (U.K.) - streaming link is at the bottom of the page. And on the Queer Words Podcast, also out this week. Listening to people excited about writing and books and their work is a balm.

More news coming when I have it. I just sent an acceptance to an author and when we finalize things, will be making a cool Queen of Swords Press announcement!

Considering that we're only 11 days in, there's been quite a lot going on. Some of it is personal stuff which I'm not quite ready to share in public yet and some of it is just wacky stuff like having to sleep on the couch with the front door barricaded because, due to an unhappy confluence of several events, someone pulled the handle partway out of the front door and I couldn't get a locksmith for 24 hours. Good times! Anyway, fixed now. And tomorrow, we go get the kitties checked out for their off-schedule annual and on Thursday, I get my first haircut in nearly a year. Tonight was a nice book club chat about The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper, with me representing A.J. as well as Queen of Swords Press.

What's next? Well, Queen of Swords Press turned 5 years old last week, which is pretty wild. There are times when I did not think this day would come. But it has and I'm damned proud of the work we've done to make that happen. I had been hoping that we could have an in person birthday party, but that's not going to happen right now for obvious reasons, so I'll do some book and prize drawings instead and we'll have some online author readings and hold off on in person celebrating for a few months. Sign up for our newsletter to be included in the drawing!

The year is already looking pretty exciting. I've got Stabby Con (online Reddit convention) and Capricon in February and my Author GOH gig at Marscon in March. I'll be back teaching at the Rambo Academy in April and Jennie Goloboy and I will be team-teaching at Clarion West Online this summer, as well as teaching in a larger group at the Novel in Progress Book Camp in Wisconsin. I just sent edits out for our next book and am working on some new fiction. The day job is a mess but not impacting me too much. I'm worried about some of my friends, who are going through rough patches, but otherwise soldiering on. We'll see what the year ahead brings and hope for better things all around!

This one will be shorter than the publishing one. 2021 was kind of a trashfire on the personal level. I kicked off January in a seriously unpleasant and abusive job situation, didn't get much support from my union and got bounced out of my job under circumstances that suggested that my supervisor had a younger buddy that he wanted to hire. I was out of work for a month, then picked up a 3 month contract, with assurances of more work to come, with a former employer. They were "unable to place" me after 3 months (and believe me, given my skill sets, if you can't come up with something, you're not trying very hard or don't know what you're doing - my guess is that the problem lay between these two points). So I interviewed and interviewed and interviewed, 3 and 4 times at the same place in some cases and about 3.5 months later, got picked up for another contract at a company I had interviewed at 4 times previously for other gigs (5th time's the charm!).

I lost a good friend to cancer, several acquaintances to other illnesses and saw my friends and social networks lose an enormous number of people and pets to all kinds of things. Minneapolis is still struggling to recover, unsurprisingly, and that process is very fraught. The environment and social issues, the attempted coup, the refugee crisis and on and on, overlaid with COVID and its impacts, made for an incredibly hard year.

We spent most of the year on stopgap insurance because I wasn't sure how long I'd be out of work. Jana's health issues are definitely getting worse, so finally being able to get back on the ACA next week is huge. This week started with an incident that will result in her getting her driver's license pulled - fortunately, no one was hurt, my friends and the police officer who came to see what was going on went above and beyond and were awesome and I'm very relieved that it wasn't worse. But it amps up the amount of caregiving that I will have to provide by quite a bit. It will impact everything from my weekly schedule to travel to things I haven't even considered yet - I'll be figuring this out for a while. And asking for help, which I am terrible at. So...

I'm ending the year with that and this same week, got an invite to teach a workshop for Clarion Online, about which more when we get things sorted, got asked back to the Novel in Progress Book Camp, got an invite to teach at a prestigious art festival in 2023 (about which more later) and got my first Author GOH invite (Marscon in Minneapolis, March, 2022) last month. I joined my neighborhood Buy Nothing Group and started working on paring down our stuff and building some new community. I've managed some amazing quality time with friends either in person or online and seen some great online music, plays and readings. In addition, I got invited to do a ton of great interviews by wonderful people, a ton of friends and complete strangers have supported my Patreon, bought Jana's work, bought QoSP books, did minibenefits (thanks, Elise!) for me, fed us and did a bunch of things to help us stay afloat and I am so, so grateful. Thank you all! I'm hoping that 2022 is a less tumultuous year than the last 2 and that we all get so see some good things coming our way!.

Almost, anyway. I'm starting to prep my end of year stuff and get ready for our last in person event of the year at the AZ Gallery in Lowertown on Saturday. Getting back to in person events for the last couple of months has been pretty wild. We did the MN Women's Art Festival last Saturday, the day after our first blizzard. Tonight, we've got a freak heatwave mixed with thunder and lightning, high winds, "some rotation," as they charmingly call pretornados around here and, if we play our cards right...snow, first thing tomorrow morning. Good thing that climate change, like COVID, is mythical. Queue shrieking into the void.

Otherwise, last weekend's event went okay and I went to Winter Lights at the Arb with some friends on Sunday. Got us both our booster shots on Monday night and we're both nicely recovered. I'm trying to get caught up on work as well as projects before the end of the year. I'm also downsizing us and giving away a bunch of stuff on our neighborhood's Buy Nothing group and elsewhere. Start tackling eBay sales in January and see how that goes. It's a combination of looking around and feeling cramped, now that I spend a lot more time at home, and concerns about the future.

Apart from that, I am wildly behind on holiday cards and I need to finish an evaluation for my intern, who is rolling off. Gotta say, working with her has been a great experience and I'm sorry to see her go, but I hope she gets the chance to dazzle. Anyway, still alive, still working, still doing stuff and will be back soon!

It has been an absolutely wild couple of weeks. New job is in Week 4 and it's okay? The people are reasonably nice and I'm learning a different part of the forest, kind of. Still stuck in QA Land, just the biz side of it this time, which does not fill me with delight and honestly, I'd rather be writing and publishing so it's been hard to switch gears. But it is what is and I've had worse gigs. Still wrangling insurance (new contracting co. will partially insure me, but not Jana, so I have to do stopgap again until I can get her on the ACA. Good times!).

So what else is going on, Catherine? I won a writing grant from Ladies of Horror Fiction! After I finish digging my way out from a few more contracted obligations, I'm planning on doing an expended version of my queer horror historical survey which originally ran in Nightmare Magazine's Queer Destroy Horror. :-D And my short story, "A Cry in the Night" is now a game scenario in the brand shiny new RPG World of Darkness: Ghost Hunters, which just came out from Onyx Path Publishing last week! And my novel Blood Moon got an Honorable Mention (finalist, essentially) in the Rainbow Awards yesterday!

I've also had a swell month as a publisher. Foxhunt by Rem Wigmore has been getting some great write-ups, including this one from Tor.com that includes it in a list of 5 essential solarpunk novels. And Obviously, Aliens by Jennie Goloboy is up for preorder now and will be out on 11/1. It's already getting some nice buzz too. The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater also got a Rainbow Award Honorable Mention. :-D

And I did most of these events, except for my upcoming Gothic horror class and my next book club appearance. Still room for signups for both!

WROTE Podcast - October 9th. I'll be a guest and talking about small press publishing and Queen of Swords Press.
Columbia Heights Pride - October 9th, 11-5PM CST. Columbia Heights, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table and I and my staff will be around.
Writers Drinking Coffee Podcast - midOctober air date. Interview about my writing, Queen of Swords Press and more.
North Country Gaylaxians Book Club - October 11th, 7:30PM CST. Quatrefoil Library/online, Minneapolis. They talked about my novel, Blood Moon.
Twin Cities Book Festival - October 16th, 10-5PM. St. Paul, MN. Queen of Swords Press will be there! I'll also be on the Local Author Showcase, talking about Blood Moon.
Lambda Sci-Fi Book Club - Thursday, October 28th, 7:30PM EST. The Book Club is discussing Silver Moon and I'll be joining to chat with them online in the second half of the discussion.
Crimson Peaks and Menacing Mansions: Writing Gothic Horror - Saturday, October 30th, 9:30-11:30 PST. Online class at the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers. Writing Gothic horror! Tips, tricks and techniques.

Plus a few more things. I am...exhausted, but have miles to go before I sleep and all that. Stay tuned!

Profile

catherineldf

My Website

June 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Syndicate

Page Summary

Active Entries

1: And here we go again...
2: Where I and Queen of Swords Press will be in 2025
3: Catching up...
4: IT’S OFFICIAL!
5: Fun and games in sf
6: Good news!
7: Emerging...
8: Jana Pullman 1960-2025
9: Driveby posting
10: Uncertain times

Style Credit

Base style: Nouveau Oleanders by branchandroot
Theme: Hunter Green by dancing_serpent
Resources: OpenClipart

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jun. 29th, 2025 05:43 am

Dwelling in Probabilities

Catherine Lundoff's blog

Entries tagged with personal update

New story out and updates!

Catching up, sort of

And March begins...

BIG NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT!

New essay, new hijinks and more

November catchup

Updates and updatey things

Big day tomorrow...

Silver Moon translation is here! And sundry other things

Catching up, again

And more nonsense...

And the latest...

Catching my breath, kind of...

There is, as usual, lots going on

WisCon and related adventures

So I see that the whole...

Launching the new year

2021 Year in Review - Personal

The end of 2021...

Catching up, sort of...