Entries tagged with personal updates

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Updating like an updating thing....

So it never rains and all that. The current renter of my services, ie. the day job where I am a contractor, had told me back in October that I "was doing a great job" and they wanted to convert me to being an FTE. Now they are wildly dysfunctional and in a healthy job market and without a dying wife and chronic burnout, I would have politely declined. But under current circumstances agreed to the conversion "once they got the budget and planning sorted out." Fast forward to today when I find out from a reliable source that there will be not hiring and that there will in fact be layoffs and I can plan on being one of them. Unsure of timeline, but rumor has it they will start next week. Fortunately, I have been trying to treat each week like it might be my last one on this gig because of aforementioned dysfunction and have done some planning...but they had just extended me to June. I could live with not going FTE, but June would have been a solid date to plan for and I could get a number of things done around the house as well as planning for whatever future I may have. So now I get to add job hunting anxiety and probably commuting to my newly-honed mortal terror that my wife will hang on long enough that the safety net that supports her in hospice disappears. I was hoping she would pass soon for her sake as well as my own, but now I get to throw money into the mix just to make it all perfect. *Screams into the void*

How are things apart from that? Queen of Swords Press is putting out a new title tomorrow!Point of Sighs (Astreiant #5) by Melissa Scott is a terrific installment in the Rathe and Eslingen series set in the magical city of Astreiant and I love it to pieces. I also just sent Melissa the edits for the brand new Astreiant novel, Point of Hearts (coming out early in 2025). Its so good and I'm so excited!

I've also got another submission to look at and have heard rumors more are on the way. And I have started overhauling the next werewolf novel so hoping to dig into that. I also picked up a very part time gig in January vetting arts grant proposals. And I have a few ideas about pitches and class proposals and so forth, always assuming I can continue to do the queer fiction and nonfiction work I've done for decades now. I accepted an invite to be guest at Readercon this summer - I've been wanting to go for years and decided that now is the time. I'm also planning on Seattle Worldcon, seeing these are both things that I pay significant costs up front for.

Apart from all this, I'm stocking up on needful things. I had a successful house cleanout sale and give away this last weekend that dented things a bit. I'm spending time with friends and going to events and donating and buying things from tiny businesses in hopes that they can survive the times ahead. I'm working on reconnecting with folks I haven't talked to for a while. I have some plans for retraining in a new field if that becomes necessary. And so it goes onward, step by step, Sending everyone who needs one a giant hug for the here and now.

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Back from Glasgow Worldcon!

Well, actually I've been back for a bit over a week, but am still getting caught up. And by "caught up," I mean deal with day jobbery, sleep, do huge amounts of laundry, deal with getting the house cleaned, checking in on Jana and putting a new book out. But let's start at the beginning with Iceland, shall we?

I flew to Iceland and met up with author Heather Rose Jones, who was my roomie throughout the trip. We stayed at a nice hotel in downtown Reykjavik near a couple of fabulous restaurants and other than some minor stuff about room reservations on the first day, all went well. Day 2, on the other hand, launched with me being ghosted by my tour bus driver for a trip that I'd been looking forward to for months. No luck on getting a refund from Reykjavik Excursions either so suffice to say, I do not recommend them. Heather got to go on a different tour, though, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I took a very long walk around the city visiting museums to work off some of my grumpiness and did see some lovely things that I hadn't seen on our first trip. It was not entirely successful, but the new shoes, convertible travel bag and folding walking stick were all very helpful and I managed to avoid twisted ankles and such. Day 3 was better. Heather and I roamed around on the water front, checked out the Saga Museum and enjoyed a splendid lunch. We opted to walk back to the hotel and rest up for Glasgow afterward (worth nothing that I was sick for two weeks before I left and my sleep patterns were completely hosed before I got jet lag).

The expedition to the airport was relatively uneventful and when we found our gate, we also ran into a bunch of people headed for Worldcon, including Julia Rios, Naomi Kritzer and some folks Heather knew. So that was delightful. The trip was lowkey and we made out way to our hotel without incident. Heather had gotten us a room at the Clayton House, which used to be the old Customs House on the Clyde River. She requested a view, so we got the 13th floor with an amazing panorama of Glasgow.

The first day was all resting (me) or fetching her badge and meeting with friends (Heather). I didn't roll into the con until Thursday. We met reviewer Liz Bourke on the train, which was fun, and then I ran into the folks from AtthisArts Press and Joyce Chng, who I haven't met in person before. We hung out until my Table Talk (for some reason, no one from the Registration told me I was missing my Program Participation envelope so that took a journey and another day). The Table Talk (formerly known as a "Kaffeeklatch") went reasonably well and I had a small engaged group asking good questions. After that I wandered a bit, went to a panel,then made dinner plans with Alex Acks.

Had a great time catching up with Alex, who was serving as the secretary for the WSFS Business Meeting. These were scheduled 5 hours a day, every day of the con, all in person, so if you've seen the motion to make them online and limit them, please support it because that is way too much to ask of volunteers! At any rate, I began a pattern that I stuck too throughout - due to the sleep issues and the occasional issues with the trains (there was a work slowdown in progress, I skipped a lot of the evening events in favor of watching things online. I also found that some of the programs I wanted to go to, like a meet up, had been moved without signage or info, and many of the meeting rooms filled up quickly. This turned out to be a good thing in that I dodged getting COVID, what between the booster I got before leaving, masking everywhere and skipping super crowded spaces.

I did have a perfectly fine time running around seeing people and exploring Glasgow, lest I imply otherwise. Just did less con than usual. I went to a lovely tea at the Willows at Mackintosh, the Rennie Mackintosh-designed tea room, with Julia Rios, had hot chocolate with the delightful Ally Lester and her spouse, had tea at an adorable teahouse called Hidden Lane Teahouse with Jennie Goloboy and Heather and saw an interesting exhibit about the tea rooms. I also had some hangout time with Kari Sperring and Heather, which was lovely,met Sara Uckelman (also delightful), took LaShawn Wanak to lunch (also fun) and briefly saw lots of other people, including Paul Weimer before he won his Huge (yay!), Pat Cadigan, Martha Wells and more. I enjoyed the Art Show, met several book vendors who I know from online and generally socialized and networked a lot. My Sunday panel on book marketing went really well and I met a bunch more people and saw friends I haven't seen in forever, including Laura Antoniou. So overall, a good con experience.

Monday, I did get to go on the other tour I'd been looking forward to. LaShawn, Kathy Sullivan and Melissa Kocias also signed up and we had an absolute blast touring the Highlands with Discover Scotland Tours (highly recommended). The tour guide was great and the assorted group of American and Spanish tourists, including a couple of families and another friend group, were really pleasant. We got to see some absolutely stunning scenery, including several castles (from the outside). After we had lunch in Oban, our guide put on The Proclaimers' song "I'm Gonna Be" and we all burst into a singalong. Just a glorious time and I'm so glad I went!

On Tuesday, Heather and I went to Kelvingrove, the big museum in Glasgow and enjoyed ourselves. After that, we were off to the Broken Clock Cafe for amazing pastry and hot chocolate, then back to the hotel for packing and dinner and such. Wednesday, I flew home (despite losing a wheel on my luggage to the deadly cobblestones for Glasgow and having to replace my luggage at the airport) and Heather hopped on the train south, headed for Shibden Hall (Anne Lister's manor) and more adventures. I was glad I gave myself a couple of days to do laundry and more or less cope, about which more in the next part.

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And so, dear reader, it got me in the end

But so much happened before that! To recap, I spent the first half of January getting my wife into memory care, which included everything from a raptor of paperwork to assembling furniture to labeling her clothes to negotiating new medical stuff and many, many medical-related things. I got her signed up with all the appropriate entities and got everything organized. I set up backs for my backups so I could leave town. And in the midst of all of that, had not 1, but 2 credit cards hacked.

And then I hopped on a train to Chicago with my friends to go to Capricon 44, where I was a guest of honor. It was a whirlwind! Day 1 before the con started was all about travel, recovery and exploring the hotel (the Sheraton Grand, which is very nice - here’s a TikTok video tour of my suite).
Thursday morning, we went and visited the Bean and the Art Institute, which is alway amazing.
Day 2 launched with the “All the GOHs” panel at which K. Tempest Bradford, Victor Raymond, Ariela Housman and I got into a discussion about AI, uses and discontents. Then Matt, Mike and Sherry and I went off to my favorite fancier Chicago restaurant, Vermillion, now serving Indian/Chinese fusion. It was every bit as good as I remembered! Then we headed back for Opening Ceremonies, which were charming. We each got very nice gift bags and mine included a statue of the con’s mergoat mascot by artist Chris Rose. You can see a photo montage here on Patreon. After that, we enjoyed a GoH and friends bar con for a few hours, which was fun.

Day 2 began with a lovely breakfast with Cecilia Tan in her room. Cecilia was one of my first publishers, back when I was writing erotica, and we have gotten to hang out since before lockdown so it was wonderful to start to catch up. Then we went to the LGBTQ + Meetup and from there, I went off to go moderate the Queer Eye for Sci-Fi panel. Lively, if rather free-ranging discussion at the latter, but I enjoyed it. Then I was off to be interviewed by publisher Larissa Davila of Stone Raven Press, which was delightful. After that, I enjoyed a fine dinner with Mike and Matt at a local pub, then went up to my room “to rest up for a few minutes.” Reader, I drank my tea, put my feet up and called a night.

Saturday was an intense amount of programming, starting with a 3 item block at 10. We started with a small press panel with Larissa and Kris of Stone Raven and Greg Clumpner from Parsec, followed by my Guest of Honor reading with Tempest. This was unfortunately scheduled over lunchtime and was sparsely attended, which meant you all missed out since we both read new things. But we got to chat and Paul Weimer got some great photos of us, so there was that. After that, I was off to do a much more lively presentation on aging and representation in sf and f - engaged audience, good questions and thoughts. Then I got a brief break to hit the Art Show and the Dealer’s Room before going to my autographing. I did get to chat with folks who dropped by, but did not actually sign any books. Then I got whisked off to dinner at the same pub, this time with Matt, John O’Neill of Black Gate, Tina Jens, Rich Horton, Brendan Detzner and his partner, Reina Hardy. Reina had a movie she had written, “Paging Mr. Darcy,” debuting on the Hallmark Channel that night so we chatted about that and sundry genre topics. Then I went back to the con for Self-Promotion for Writers, which was quite interesting. I often daydream about how much more I could do for Queen of Swords Press if I didn’t also have to work full time and this gave me some ideas. After that, I did an erotica reading from some of Emily L. Byrne’s work, which was well-received, and then I crashed hard.

Day 4: went to the American Writers Museum, followed by tea at the Russian Tea Room, which was delightful as on past visits. Then we headed back to the con for the whirlwind of luggage wrangling and good byes and such. Our train trip back was plagued by weird things like Michael being offered onboarding assistance, then getting abandoned in a room with Sherry, from which they had to rescue themselves. There was lots of misdirection and basic mistakes by staff and one of the women in our car acted out for hours because she didn’t get a smoke break. But we survived and eventually got dropped off at our respective homes (thanks, Kevin!). I didn’t get to bed until 1, but had planned on taking Monday off anyway.

Monday was sort of a catch up day, mostly on hacked credit cards and such. I worked Tuesday and began feeling poorly on Tuesday night. Tested positive for COVID on Wednesday morning, got in touch with the state telehealth program on Thursday and got Paxlovid delivered to the doorstep. Still not feeling great, but definitely on the mend. Bummed that my 4 year streak at dodging it is broken, but glad to get the meds pretty easily. And now I get to lay low and try to get stuff done between naps.

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personal updates

A Weekend of a LOT

Which always bodes well with me of late, doesn't it? The week was exhausting - the second shot hasn't worked as well on my leg and I'm still in a lot of pain, which is impacting my sleep. Thursday morning, I woke up with a killer migraine and had to miss a half day of work (unpaid, since I have no vacation or sick time). Then I got a note from a friend, who had bought a ticket to a Thursday night MN Fringe show on the assumption we were going together. So I decided to pull it together and join him. The show itself was mildly amusing but needed more time to bake. And the weather, which my headache but not the weather service, had predicted, turned semi-apocalyptic. We couldn't see across the street through the driving rain so we had to stay put for an extra half hour.

Then we got out and I started driving home, which is when it got really nasty. I made it back much later than planned and got to bed late, then had trouble sleeping due to pain. Then had to get up on Friday morning for our first official attempt at getting Jana into adult daycare. I got out her out the door, then we almost got hit by a big tow truck, then nearly hit again when the drive jacknifed it in the residential street that i turned into to avoid getting hit. Then we got to the daycare and discovered that they had no record of Jana starting that day.

But they got her seemingly settled, I filled out paperwork and took off. Got home, was able to work for about 2 hours and then she started calling. I told her I would get her at 1PM. Then the daycare called - she had made 3 escape attempts, one of them resulting in her ducking out the staff entrance and trying to walk away. Once back inside, she just kept hitting the door to make the alarm go off. So I had to go and fetch her home again. They're willing to give her another try if she calms down, but in the meantime, this is catastrophically bad news. It means I don't get a break, she'll keep getting lost when I stop watching her and there is a much greater likelihood of her ending her days in a locked ward on the bad drugs. And there are no other adult daycares within easy driving distance that aren't culturally specific (she does not speak Somali or Spanish, for example) to try elsewhere. The paperwork for the funding application is filed, but I have no idea how long that will take to move forward for things like transportation nor am I sure that I can get her to ride in a van someplace, then hang out there for the day. If I can't, my job ends being at risk because I'm chasing after her and there's greater opportunity for her to get hurt.

So not enough sleep Friday either, because I had tickets to another show and went to that with friends and got back later again. We did manage the farmer's market and errands on Saturday. I did some food preservation stuff before crashing and burning to read and watch TV. And today was, of the day I had made arrangements to drive out to Prairie Oaks, the eco memorial place, to scatter my mother's ashes. In the rain, naturally. It was pleasant and I felt okay about letting her go into the wind at a nature preserve, but I was shaky when I got back into town. Now I am unreasonably tired. But I am writing and editing a bit tonight, because, dammit, I'm not giving up. But I would really like life to be less grindingly exciting. :-(((

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personal updates

More July and so much of it

Actually apart from being low on sleep, high on some work frustration and my hip still hurting, I'm holding up okay. Considering that I published a new book this month, started work on our next title, finished and turned in Jana's CADI paperwork, got her a trial day at adult daycare (it went okay) and did a tiny amount of writing on the new werewolf book, I've been a miracle of efficiency. This month will be lower key and have many fewer events because I really need a break and I need to get a draft of the new book done. Old Me could have done it in a few weeks. We'll see what New Me can manage.

Saw the "Barbie" movie last night with friends and enjoyed it quite a bit. And I am going to have a terrifying adventure this weekend, namely shopping at a furniture sale in the suburbs. Specifically for a recliner. Why a recliner? Because my friends let me try out their state of the art one on a visit a few weeks back and for the duration of "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" (the film we were watching), I was almost pain free. So I'm going to go try out some models.

J is bopping around with her PCAs and was relatively good humored about adult daycare. I got really frustrated with her tonight and am feeling bad about it, so going to try hard to be a better human tomorrow.

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The Aftermath...

Honestly? I miss Twitter. I/we are still on it for brief intervals, but I deleted one account and am inactivating the other two. And I recognize that as necessary. But I miss my friends and the communities that I had out there and the ease of popping on to chat or get news from trusted sources. I hope EM suffers horribly for, well, everything he's done to so many people.

But onward because there are no other options. So I'm out on Mastodon as clundoff on wandering shop and mastodon.lol (one of the queer and progressive instances). I'm hoping to get on the new book publishing instance soon too. I'm reconnecting with friends from the Bird app and with new folks and eventually, I think it will feel good, but right now is in the learning stages. I/Queen of Swords Press are also out on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Discord, plus a monthly newsletter. Which one would think would be enough, but the Bird app was our main channel for outreach and discoverability. Grrr.

This is likely to go on for a while. In the meantime, Thanksgiving was fairly lowkey. I learned last year that I can order in dinner from one of the co-ops instead of toiling over the stove so we did that. Worked on a puzzle, watched stuff, did a video call with Jana's family, with mixed results. I think they got an introduction to sundowning that they weren't expecting. Friday, we went to the Merriam's new place and hung out with them and their housemate/bff Kevin. We ate ridiculous amounts of yummy food and watched the Worricker trilogy, with a pause between Page Eight and Turks and Caicos for me to run Jana home and get her settled in. Then back for the next two films. It was delightful! Saturday, I had breakfast with my friend Sheila and ran some needful errands. Sunday, we visited and reconnected with our friend Jeff, who has had health issues of his own resulting in him disappearing for a while. Then more errands and edits and cooking and so forth.

Rem Wigmore's excellent Foxhunt sequel Wolfpack now has a glorious cover by artist Laya Rose and is off for formatting. I've started the preorder process and expect to have that in full swing by next week. Then its on to the next couple of book we have planned for next year and the anthology I've been wanting to do for ages. Jennie and I had another class accepted for the Loft Literary Center and I've got some ideas for nonfiction proposals of various kinds I need to get cracking on. Fiction projects are inching along slowly. And now I need to go to bed. More news soon!

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Back from the Novel in Progress Workshop and thinky-thoughts

Back from an exciting trip to teach at the Novel in Progress: Speculative Fiction Edition in West Band, Wisconsin. I had originally thought that I was going to be able to send Jana to stay with a friend in Utah, but between her health issues, her friend's health issues and the state of flying, it was pretty obvious that it wasn't going to work out. Then I had hoped to hire a PCA, but that, it seems, will be a longer and more elaborate process than I had hoped. So in order to go to Wisconsin for four days, two spent traveling and two teaching, I organized a network of 9 friends and an organization, plus some assistance from our neighbors. People picked her up every day and took her out and checked on her. The backyard bluejay discovered our security camera which led to some entertaining staredowns. And it went well: she had a good time, the cats got tended too and I confirmed that I have awesome friends. Next up, I'll be talking to Pathfinder Care Management about longer term plans, etc.

The travel part consisted of leaving early to go stay in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, at the Fargo Mansion B&B, where I stayed last year. It continues to be a delight, from its weird, haunted turret with its missing bannister to its ancient kitty looking for scritches to its haunted photos, knick knacks and antiques and its charming innkeepers. I got to roam around town, check out the new since last year bookstore, have a good dinner and meet nice people at the inn. It was almost like a vacation, which I haven't had since a single day last year. The workshops themselves were pretty fun; they were down an instructor so I picked up additional teaching, which was fun but grueling. I did get to walk the labyrinth, which was soothing and meditative and have some great conversations. On the way back, I got to stop off to see more friends and have an excellent lunch with them. Rural Wisconsin is scary rightwing and if you have any spare change to throw at organizations trying to turn things around, like Movement Labs or Wiscon Dems, consider sharing. But otherwise, good trip all around, and lacking in last year's gruesome storms.

Mostly tired today and trying to get caught up. We may have some very good news about a Queen of Swords Press title in the future, but it's not in a place to be talked about yet. And I recognized that I am very, very behind on everything, will not be caught up in a reasonable timeframe and that we cannot open to submissions this year. I'll be following up on some invites so and working on the anthology I've been wanting to do so I think it will work out, if not the way I tried to plan for it. And I'm tabling at two different farmer's markets with art sections this week, which should be interesting. Chicon 8/Worldcon is a go; I am bringing Jana and we're going by train. Looking forward to seeing people and roaming around the big city once again, for the first time in many years.

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Updatey things....

And, of course, happy May Day/Beltane, however you're celebrating it!

I decided that I was long overdue for addressing some chronic pain issues from some old injuries and am dabbling my toes in the waters of acupuncture again. This time around, I'm going to a community acupuncture clinic where the acupuncturist sees multiple people at the same time rather than to a setup where they are focused on one person. So far, I'm two sessions in and seeing some improvements and I'm not having a huge "Oh god! Needles! I hate this reaction!" which I've had in the past. I'm not phobic about needles but I don't like feeling like a pin cushion so I wasn't sure if this model would work for me. Going to give it a few more treatments and see how I'm doing then.

I was asked to fill in for a guest who cancelled on the If This Goes On Podcast yesterday and had a delightful time chatting with the hosts and with author Matthew Kressel about hopepunk, running green business and our current projects. The link should be going up soon here and elsewhere. And last week's anthology class at the Rambo Academy went really well - good questions, lots of engagement and I'm inspired to get off my butt and start dealing with the next anthology project. Edits on Michael Merriam's Last Car to Annwn Station are off to the author and the cover for the German translation of my novel Silver Moon (coming from Ylva Publishing in October!) looks amazing.

Other stuff: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once really is that good and you should see it as soon as you can.

More other stuff: I looked at some options for Jana and since the evaluation didn't go particularly well (it upset her and annoyed me) AND what she'd get from Disability, even if we can get her on it, would be minimal, I'm working on getting her set up to apply for regular Social Security early. Currently awaiting a copy of her birth certificate so I can (hopefully) get the application in before her 62nd birthday at the end of this month. Beginning to look for a PCA as well; right now, our former neighbors are taking her out on shopping expeditions every other week or so when they have time, but I'd like to get someone/an organization in place for when I need to be out of town as well as for future care needs. If you're in the Twin Cities area and have recommendations for PCAs who work with folks with dementia.

Otherwise, off to revamped In the Heart of the Beast May Day with friends today, enjoying Our Flag Means Death, planning for more events and doing a bit of writing. May be picking up another short term side project soon and will be looking for more editing, coaching, etc. in a month or two. Also writing and editing my own stuff and getting caught up on Queen of Swords Press Projects. So, lots of stuff, quite a bit of it good or benign.

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Updatey things

It's been a very full couple of weeks! Last week, I added a panel on querying to my schedule and author Jenna Miller, agent (and Queen of Swords Press writer!) Jennie Goloboy and I talked to a local meet-up hosted by Dot and Dash Editing about the querying process. Then on Friday, I took the day off to do a mad scramble out to St. Louis Park to drop off our taxes with our accountant and do morning errands before we headed down to Bloomington, MN for MarCon.

So how was my first Author Guest of Honor weekend? And first all weekend in person convention in 2 years? Pretty good, on the whole. MarsCon is an old school fan-run con, very heavy on music and comedy acts, and including science and prop rooms, an author track, costumers, gaming and so forth. The author track is a bit of an afterthought and that was made a tad more challenging by lower than pre-pandemic attendance numbers and so forth. I went in expecting that and recruited some friends, including a pal to serve as my Guest Liason, and on the whole, felt it went pretty well. I got to reconnect with a writer friend I haven't seen in over a decade, hung out with some pals and see some folks I hadn't see in a few years due the pandemic shutdowns. I also picked up some nifty things from a local artist who makes gorgeous pens and this year, added pen-sized multi-tools. DreamHaven had my books in the Dealer's Room and they sold some and I sold some directly so that was all good. On Saturday night, my buddy Matt and I got whisked away by my writer pal and her roomie, the current Mayor of Columbia Heights, Amada Marquez Simula, after my last programming item and got to hang with them and drink ginger beer (me) and other things (everyone else) and chat. This was delightful and we had a fine time. Amada is also a cosplayer and one of the organizers of Columbia Heights Pride as well as being the first Latina mayor of the city (and she's up for re-election, if you happen to live there). Jana did reasonably well until Sunday noon, when she was clearly anxious to get home so my marvelous pal Jody dropped her off on her own way back home. Bonus: we got to bring in our former, now current, cat sitter, who is also a striking Minneapolis Schools staffer, to watch the kitties and do our bit to support the strike.

My MarsCon 2022 schedule from last weekend

Author GOH - me

Friday - 3/11

7 PM - Opening Ceremonies

8:30 PM - Steampunk, Dieselpunk, Decopunk and more! Panel with Michael Merriam (Read Mars)

Saturday - 3/12

10AM - What Does a Small Press Publisher Do, Anyway? Presentation on Queen of Swords Press (Kruschenko’s)

1 PM - Author GOH Interview (Kruschenko’s)

2 PM - Autographing (Dealer’s Room hallway)

4 PM - When I am old, I’ll Pilot a Starship and Kick Some Butt (Read Mars)

7 PM - Rainbow in my Skiffy: New LGBTQ+ Media (read Mars)

Sunday

11 AM - Author GOH Author reading (Read Mars)

2 PM - Red as Blood, White as Snow: Gothic Fiction (Kruschenko’s)

4 PM - Closing Ceremonies

I also caught a mild cold. No, it's not the Rona, Yes, I got tested.

I was healthy enough to mask up and go to KFAI last night for the Queen of Swords Press special on Write On! Radio with Michael Merriam and Jennie Goloboy. That was really fun! We on air for the most of the hour, reading from our books and talking about inspiration and the press. Give it a listen - it'll go to the Archives soon and also to their podcast.

And I just had a new interview go up today in Australia on Elizabeth Fitzgerald's Earl Grey Editing blog! We did the interview a few months back so this is its go-live date. :-)

Finally, Past Me did some actual planning. Turns out when I last renewed our AARP memberships, I picked up a multi-year version, which in turn meant that when I finally decided to go looking for vision insurance, I got a good deal on a policy that starts tomorrow. Where this is significant is that I was trying to budget for glasses for both of us and mine alone are super spendy due to my various needs so getting coverage that will help AND kicks in before our joint eye doctor appointments later on this month is super helpful.

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And 2022 is on track to be a seriously mixed bag of a year

The family health issues have been confirmed and are worse than I had thought, but I need to have some discussions with other people before talking too much about it. The next few months are going be very hard and likely very expensive in the bargain. I'm already looking at picking up side gigs and rearranging deadlines and such. It continues to be a good day to buy something from the Etsy or Queen of Swords Press, or both.

Apart from that, I have been to an online, interactive play (Reboot: Walking Shadow Theatre Company); seen Death on the Nile (lordy, but that was some scenery chewing. And so much emoting. ALL the emoting); and been to the MN Opera for the first time in years. The Anonymous Lover was a lovely bit of fluff and now I have a crush on the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the composer. Seriously, absolutely fascinating man and there needs to be a movie or three and some romance novels about him, stat.

We also went to see the snow sculptures in St. Paul, which were impressive, and the Como Park Conservatory, which was lovely and warm and green. I am enjoying "Around the World in 80 Days" and Vienna Blood: Season 2." "Gilded Age " is silly, but good to watch while working on things. I have started the next werewolf novel, a new chapter of my serialized novel for my Patreon and a new short story. I am also addicted to Wordle.

I just finished loading up the next Queen of Swords Press title, The Language of Roses by Heather Rose Jones (coming in April!) for preorder. It is a glorious retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" that goes to many unexpected places. And Heather is a terrific author so I'm excited to be publishing her.

Otherwise, it looks like a friend of a friend will be buying our now "extra" car, so that's good. I'm getting better at making keffir (the yogurt is just not getting solid) and dehydrating things in the dehydrator I got us for the holidays. The day job is survivable most of the time. And I'm looking forward to some fun events and such this year. More soon...

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Weekly Accountability Post, the Return! Plus cool things!

This week had been a LOT, even by my standards! I left last Wednesday for the wilds of Wisconsin to teach at the Novel in Progress Book Camp: Speculative Fiction Edition so I could spend the night in Lake Mills, Wisconsin and drive in fresh and rested in Thursday morning to teach and panel and such. Lake Mills is very charming midAmerica: I stayed at a lovely Victorian B&B run by an older gay couple and their charmingly crabby elderly kitty, had a nice conversation with one of the other two guests, visited the farmer's market, did a very tiny amount of shopping at a couple of local shops and had a very pleasant time. It was my first time away from home overnight in nearly 2 years so it was a bit of an event! And from there, it was on to NIP and an action-packed schedule. The grounds were beautiful, the students very focused, the other pros interesting and engaging - 10/10, would do again. Which is good, because I've been invited to teach there again next year if we can get scheduling to work out. After that, I got to drive back in a horrible series of rainstorms that doubled the drive time (bearing in mind that I haven't been more than an hour and a half away from home in nearly two years). But made it home, despite having to miss my planned lunch with Madison friends.

The rest of the week

So the Very Cool Things: on Thursday night, I discovered that a Queen of Swords Press book had received its first starred review from Publishers Weekly! Foxhunt by Rem Wigmore will be out on 8/20 and it is glorious queer hopepunk/climate fiction (and up for preorder now!) with a bi trans protagonist and an all-queer cast. :-D
Next bit of news hit early the next day: The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater won New Zealand's Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collection! This was A.J.'s first book, our little Pandemic Book and Queen of Swords Press first award win (A.J. has won multiple times for their short fiction)! We are very psyched. :-D
Then on Friday night, I finished polishing up an article on writing marketing copy and submitted it and it got accepted the next day. So by the time I left NIP, I looked like the one very successful small press publisher/author. :-D
Had a fun time doing an author reading from Blood Moon at OutwriteDC on Sunday.
Got Jana a tiny show at Dancing Bear Chocolate's Sunday Artist series (9/12 12 -4PM). We'll be in a tent outside selling her handmade boxes and books. Dancing Beat is in the Victory Neighborhood of North Minneapolis, the owners are lovely and their chocolate and baked goods are amazing.
Pitched some more nonfiction and have almost finished tweaking a story to submit.
Worked on a couple of other fiction projects.
Interviewed for 2 jobs - 4th time for 1, second time for another. Did not get the 4 time interview one but they may pull me in for something else. Don't know about the second one, may have a 1st interview at a third place next week. At any rate, still unemployed, tired of interviewing and rather frustrated.
Cancelled on Multiverse Con with reluctance, but had to be. 3.5 months of unemployment + dicey insurance situation + COVID surge in Georgia + Delta Airline's attitude about vaccinations and safety (that being "screw it and screw you; we don't care" - we are a hub city for Delta so it's generally our best option for direct flights) was just a bridge too far. :-(
Applied for a couple of other events - more news when I have it.
Read submissions.
Saw Suicide Squad 2 and mostly enjoyed it.
Had a complete crash and burn day and spent it icing a mysterious foot injury, nursing a migraine and binge watching Season 3 of the BBC Three Musketeers series. Not quite as well written as the previous 2, but still fun and I thought they handled the ending well.
Took toxic waste (batteries and old paint) to country drop off today.
Took on moderation duties for a horror panel at Skepticon tomorrow (see pinned post)

And now back to virtual Readercon and hopes for another round of good luck next week.

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Accountability post, part the whatever

As noted in yesterday's post, I came down with a hellacious cold early last week and only recovered my voice completely yesterday, so productivity has been a gradual thing. I did manage to talk to a couple of recruiters (before I lost my voice) and sent in a resume to a local company via a friend's referral. I'll knuckle down and do more applications next week. I also managed (before I got sick), a trip to see actual in person theater for the first time in a year and a half (MORLS - highly recommended) and a trip to a movie theater to see "In the Heights" (which we enjoyed). Since recovering (yesterday), I've also been to see "Fast & Furious 9," which was ridiculous and fun. Plus a couple of outdoor meetups with friends and one gaming night before I got sick. Jana also got to go to Utah to visit friends and family for a week, thanks to a friend's generosity.

What else has been going on?

Wrapped up this year's Pride StoryBundle, which looks to be the best one so far in terms of most bundles sold and most $ raised for Rainbow Railroad since this started (Melissa Scott kicked it off in 2017 and I came on as co-curator 2 years later).
Applied for an IT job that looks interesting and promising.
Got our latest title, Foxhunt by Rem Wigmore, up for preorder. This is a great new queer climate fiction/hopepunk science fiction novel featuring a transwoman protagonist by another terrific queer author from New Zealand and it will be out on 8/20/21!
Got a bunch of stuff out for reviews, etc.
Kicked off a Smashwords sale on Queen of Swords Press titles.
Started working on a new on demand version of one of my classes for Cat Rambo so I'm learning Teachable now.
Finalized a couple more readings, panels and classes and an event table in the next month or two.
Did an author reading and interview at a new to me romance group, Romance in Her Prime, which features older heroines and was a lot of fun.
Picked up another story rejection, which was less fun.
Got a new chapter of my novel in progress posted for our Patreon.
Started a new short story.
Sold some of Jana's tools and unused equipment and did some giveaways to start decluttering the house.
Started work on a new publishing/editing resume to sue for those kinds of job applications.
Did some job networking.
Made reservations for tomorrow night's drag show at our local coffee house (the drag queens perform on the street while people watch from the patio).

Next week, follow up and finish up more of same, plus get some more stories and article pitches out the door and go blueberry picking.

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Like an accountability post, only different

Well, it's certainly been lively. The end of March into the beginning of April and very much a mixed bag. In a single week, we had my birthday, the first year anniversary of my mom's death, an invitation to do a Small Press AMA on Reddit (a Q&A like this one), a request from a European publisher to release a new edition of Silver Moon translated into German and a request from the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Awards to submit Blood Moon for consideration for this year's awards. The blog tour went off well, then we had significant issues with both cars,I had to get a story pitch sent in, do multiple readings and for today's adventure, am now hearing that the client I'm at may not be renewing me at the end of the month (issues on their end, not with my work) so I may be interviewing soon. I'm also still waiting for the tax Sword of Damocles to drop; our income can be highly variable from year to year so we have tax "surprises" and I'm dreading this one.

Anyway, here's what's coming up (and Flights of Foundry and our second shots next weekend):

Steampunk CommuniTea Weekend – April 9th-12th. Look for Alex Acks and Catherine Lundoff at this fun new online event! They’ll both be on panels as well as roaming around on Discord. And Alex’s titles, Murder on the Titania and Wireless are both on sale this weekend when you buy them direct from us!
S o You Want to Put Together an Anthology? – Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers, online. April 10th, 9:30-11:30 AM PST. Catherine Lundoff will be teaching this class. What goes into creating an anthology? How do you find authors? Decide to pitch it to a publisher or indie publish? And what do you do with it when you’re done?
Publishing Basics for Genre Writers – April 14th, 6:00-8:00 PM CST. Zoom, Springboard for the Arts. Catherine will be teaching this interactive online workshop for Springboard, a Minnesota nonprofit.

I also wanted to mention that Elise Matthesen is selling a lovely pair of earrings to benefit Queen of Swords Press. Look at the pretties! More soon - I need to go sleep for a bit.

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All the things...

Which often feels like my entire life, but wow, has this month been full!

I did the blog tour and multiple events (see promo post below for links).
Queen of Swords Press got offered a Reddit AMA in June, just at the start of the Pride StoryBundle kickoff. We also got an intern for the summer so I can finally tackle that Kickstarter I've been pondering. We'll also open for submissions.
I'm in talks to have one of my books translated and sold in an overseas market. More bulletins when I have them!
I landed a reading slot at StokerCon, 2 panels and a Dealer's Room table at Flights of Foundry, a reading at virtual Outwrite and who knows for other venues. I've applied for the Nebula Weekend programming as well as for GCLS, so we'll see how it goes from there.
This week included my first vaccine, my birthday and the first anniversary of my mother's death so it's been a LOT.

More coming soon - I need some sleep!

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Weekly Accountability Post, Part the 4th

It has been a full and lively week! Again. In theory, I have a short term contract starting next week that is scheduled to go on for a few months; in practice, those of you in IT know that there are many hoops to jump through and the pandemic has not improved this so still wrangling the last few things.

I attended Capricon 41, where I was on a fair amount of programming and enjoyed myself. In retrospect, had I know I wasn't going to be able to fall asleep on Saturday night anyway, I should have gone to John Scalzi's D.J. Dance party. Hindsight and all that. Anyway, nice con, would attend again given the opportunity.
I submitted and sold a new story to Heather Rose Jones's LHMPodcast! "The Adventuress" is the latest installment of my stories about pirate Jacquotte Delahaye and her lover, French spy Celeste Girard, in the 17th Century Caribbean. This time around, they go to an English colony called "Willoughbyland" in what is now Surinam and meet up with English spy (and future playwright), Aphra Behn.There are now 4 of these stories and they may want to be a book of their own soon, with the intervals between adventures filled in with more adventures. Contemplating...
Found a stop gap short term insurance plan to get us through the next few months.
Had a nice chat with an engineer from a startup (a genuine venture capital unicorn) in the Bay about a potential gig they are still defining. This is likely to not amount to anything, but it was pleasant and nice to be on someone's radar.
Picked up a new event in May - I'll be on a panel on book and publishing coaching at the Professional Editor's Network meeting. You can hire me for this service, FYI. I'm most useful for explaining publicity, timelines, tech and the publishing process.
Turned in a new interview for Horror Tree's Women in Horror Month celebration and agreed to a new interview with an APA in April.
Worked on publicity for the Press and Blood Moon.
Read submissions and accepted 2 of them - more announcements coming soon!
Worked on taxes, reading next book to be blurbed, participated in an online reading of Aphra Behn's The Rover and did miscellaneous things.
Did enormous amount of paperwork and sundry tasks for ostensible new job.
Did not get to most of what I had hoped to do or planned for.
Did get in some Zoom and other calls with friends, so that was lovely.
Am teaching this Sunday, 2/14, at the Rambo Academy. Join me for In Flagrante Delicto: Writing Effective Sex Scenes! There are multiple classes about writing about sex and reproduction and romance this weekend so worth taking a look at the calendar.

Now to go see what else I get done while the lamb meatloaf cooks and I wait to talk to yet another entity about the job stuff for next week.Then may just crash and watch TV for a for bit.

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Weekly Accountability Post, the 1st

Like many other people, I'm relieved and reasonably happy with today's events. I'll go with cautious optimism for the next while and see how it feels to try that on again. Favor quote for today: "Big day for complete sentences." (Bryan Taylor Cohen). :-)

I've been unemployed for a week now so I'm planning on doing a weekly post about what I'm up to in the interim:

Built a giant spreadsheet checklist and began working my way through it.
Taught "No More Lone Wolves: Writing Characters in Community" at the Rambo Academy on Saturday and had a very good class.
Was on 2 panels at virtual Arisia, which went reasonably well, and attended a couple of other events. Had a pleasant time.
Applied for unemployment
Activated my LinkedIn job search and started following up on tips and such.
Worked on my next chapter for my Patreon novel in progress and got it posted.
Put in for our State of MN Political Donation refund.
Started looking at trying to get Jana a PPP loan and bogged down.
Began to tackle the giant cleaning and organizational projects that I've been wanted to get done for months now.
Sent out promo info and blurb and review copies of Blood Moon (coming 3/15/21!)
Mailed people their book orders.
Blurbed Juliette Wade's new novel.
Read submissions.
Began poking at my new online accounting class.
Started organizing for taxes.
Also, on the Queen of Swords Press front, delighted to see a story from The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater on Nerds of a Feather's Hugo Recommended Reading list!
Thanking lots of people for supporting my Patreon and the QoSP Ko-fi. buying Jana's work from Etsy, buying books from Queen of Swords Press, and in the case of Elise Matthesen, making a lovely piece of jewelry and auctioning it off. (See previous post for links). You all rock!
Watching: Black Sails (finally - enjoying!), new Batwoman (liking a lot), Miss Scarlet and the Duke (PBS - Victorian mystery, also liking a lot) and Wynonna Earp Season 3.

Next up, finish a short story, finish submissions, finished drafts for Kickstarter project and send them out for review, and then tackle the next hundred or so things. Onward!

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Missing WisCon something fierce, but...

We are online and doing the Discord and YouTube thing, in all its glory. If you are attending WisCon Online ( registration closed yesterday), be sure and check the Discord channel in the Artists and Vendors chat. I'll be posting a coupon for 15% on 5/22 for all sales over $3 from the Queen of Swords Press website. Does it make up for not getting to have a party to celebrate the launch of The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper, A.J. Fitzwater and Alex Acks's Wireless becoming a Midwest Book Award finalist? Honestly, no, but hopefully it becomes its own kind of fun. Speaking of A.J., who has just been promoting like a promoting thing, they are doing an AMA on r/Fantasy right now and you can stop by and chat about dapper lesbian capybara pirates and their other work.

And more WisCon: my wife, Jana, is normally in the Art Show and has been happily making new pretties for the last few months. All of those are available in her Etsy: new handmade boxes, journals and her insanely affordable travel journals that come with their own pencil and refill pages.
WisCon is a sizeable chunk of our annual small business income, so if you can afford it and see something you like, please think about buying from us and the other vendors and artists.

If you are not at WisCon, but want to buy books, we are having other sales!

Through May 22nd (tomorrow) - I Heart Lesfic Megasale. Silver Moon (me), Medusa's Touch (Emily L. Byrne), Desire and Knife's Edge (Emily) are on sale at Amazon, Smashwords and direct from Queen of Swords Press.
Through May 31st - Authors Give Back on Smashwords. Pick up my collections Unfinished Business and Out of This World for about $3.

In the next few days, I'll be announcing the books and authors for this year's Pride Month StoryBundle, which will kick off on 6/3. Last weekend, I was at Flights of Foundry, which was my first online con. It went quite well and I had a lot of fun. This weekend is WisCon and next weekend is the SFWA Nebula Weekend. I'm not on programming at either of these because I thought I was going to be doing other things, but A.J. will be on a couple of panels next weekend. In June, I'll be teaching Book Promotion on a Budget (COVID-19 version) at the Rambo Academy on 6/14, I'll be doing my annual talk at DreamHaven on 6/17 (online as well as socially distanced in person, bookstore staff permitting), Rainbow Space Magic (a new LGBTQ con) from 6/20-21 and vending at Twin Cities Pride for the first time in the Virtual Marketplace. Queen of Swords Press now does print as well as ebook direct from the website.

In other news, my broken glasses have been dropped off for replacement, the squirrels are apparently evicted from the soffits and porch roof at great effort and expense, the attic is done (except for the floor) and is lovely, and sundry electrical fixes are happening around the house. So naturally, the washing machine is flooding, the garage door is iffy and the chimney needs repairs. Having the occasional financial/constant stress of having things always in repair or construction mode-related meltdown and trying to get an ton of stuff done, with mixed results. Hoping you all are doing well!

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Recovering from one helluva a week...

My particular version of it has included the insistence on the part of the higher ups that we all must be in the office all the time (office in question is a sealed room with 20 people in it. We've been passing the flu around for weeks and then someone went on a cruise. Wacky hijinx ensued.). So I was already very stressed, mostly from other people understandably freaking out, went into work with a migraine on Wednesday, had a crazy day, went to drive myself home and promptly drove my car into a very solid concrete parking ramp pillar. In my defense, the whole pale gray on pale gray thing made visibility rather poor. At any rate, I got banged up and my car is not driveable. I go to hang out in the parking ramp waiting for a tow truck and eating dinner from Afro Deli (the Somali Sweet Spiced Tea will make you sit up and take notice of just about everything in the vicinity). Eventually, got towed to the wilds of St. Paul and rescued by my wife. Then, after dragging my butt into work for a couple of days, the Governor declared a state of emergency so now it looks like we will indeed be working from home, possibly with staggered work days in the office. Good times!

At any rate, home recovering. Mom's nursing home has asked us not to visit and all of my events for the next week have been rescheduled. Looks like I'll have time to organize the Pride Month StoryBundle for this year and finish a novel or two. I did manage to catch "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" before things went south - it is lovely, queer and definitely worth seeing. Hoping to catch "Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears" tomorrow night at The Alamo Drafthouse in Woodbury (still open at the moment). Other than that, trying to support some of the organizations which are being forced to cancel events and performances. Gonna be a rough couple of weeks.

In the meantime, check out a new podcast interview with Publishing Me on Heather Rose Jone's podcast. And more online stuff coming soon. Sending good thoughts to you all.

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personal updates

Having a not..,

great week. Low on cope, ouchy and sucked briefly into other people's drama. One good friend is very ill, another is ghosting, there are some additional issues with people in my life that I won't go into on an open post and I'm feeling low and sore and unhappy. So this is a cheering myself up post.

I'm getting a bunch of stuff done for my new anthology, Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space). Blurbs are in, cover is almost done, interior is done, announcements and review copies are flying out the door. I'm pretty anxious about the cost for this one, since it's the most expensive book so far and table sales notwithstanding, book sales for the Press have been in the toilet for two months now. But hopefully this book will do well and give some of the others a boost. Not getting much writing done, which probably isn't helping, but I'm hoping to dig back in very soon here. My goal is to have a draft of Blood Moon done by the beginning of December. We'll see.

I'm going to try and take most of tonight off and watch "I am Not Your Negro," a documentary about James Baldwin, and "Disobedience," a film about two Orthodox Jewish women who fall in love, since they're due back at Quatrefoil on Saturday. Saturday is also when I'm taking a workshop on face-to-face selling techniques for artists from Springboard for the Arts and I'm going to see a production of "The Haunting of Hill House" at Hill House, a historic museum in St. Paul. Next week, I'll be reading at Kieran's Irish Pub for Wordbrew 6 so I also need to prep for that.

Day job just canceled everyone's layoffs, not just my department, so there's a lively combination of mixed feels since people had made a bunch of life plans assuming they were getting severance packages and now are not. Fun times.

Onward and outward.

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Working through bad news...

Not for me or my household, but for a good friend who just got a diagnosis for a nasty, unforgiving and almost certain to be fatal far too soon illness. This added to the several other less close friends diagnosed with a range of unpleasant, ghastly and or just plain unpleasant sicknesses and other fun in the last year and change. Add to that my mother is beginning to forget us. I had so hoped that she would be gone before that began to happen.

So between all of that and the national and international news, I'm feeling...less than cheerful.

So I'm doing what I always do and working and trying to deal with things. I went to see "The Little Stranger" yesterday with friends and found it okay, but not great. I've drafted an introduction for Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) and am about to embark on writing some article proposals. I've written 500 words of new fiction today and am hoping to break 1000. My day job layoff that I've been expecting for the last three years just got cancelled so I'm trying to wrap my brain around that (and the fact that I do not have time off to look forward to. My vacation time exists, but it's rolled up with my sick time, so I burned through most of my existing accumulation last winter and spring). It's good to have one less thing to stress about though. And the cats are snuggling with me a lot because it's a bit cooler (and maybe they know I'm upset).

In other news, I'm off to St. Cloud on Friday to give a reading and a talk at the Great River Regional Library and table at St. Cloud Pride. Both should be pretty interesting. Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain on Saturday. A friend loaned me a craft tent, but I'm not sure that we can set up easily. After that, it's off to Cape Code and Edward Gorey and pirates, so I'm trying to focus on that as much as I can. Now to go do some stuff so i can be more available to my friend when she needs me.