October Goals Update

Here we are in November, folks. So I owe you the update on October, and I tell you what. It's a doozy. Here we go with a quick review of the goals I set at the beginning of the year:

1. Health Goals: Four glasses of water per day; three servings of fruits and veggies; taking vitamins; walking 10,000 steps a day plus an aerobic activity every other day; visiting health professionals on an appropriate schedule.

2. Personal Project Goals: Complete editing on In Bloom, share with test audience, collect and incorporate feedback, develop pitch materials, start querying it; start another book; write two more short stories; submit queries and short stories; finish the photo project and start the SU site, autobio site, and essays/rants site; practice music; post regular webcomics; post ace videos; submit voice-over auditions and complete assigned voice-over work.

3. Reading Goals: Read at least every other day.

4. Relationship and Communication Goals: Document more consistently; keep up with e-mail and online messages; keep social life active.

5. Other Goals: Get rid of garage items; clean the house; watch TV shows; plant herbs; wear pajamas/have a night routine; use a new coffee cup every day; do something cool with my hair.

Progress Update:

HEALTH GOALS:

Summary: Everything health-wise fell off a bit this month. I managed to keep up with my water goals, but a couple of days I didn't get all my fruits/veggies in, definitely didn't get enough protein, missed my walking goals twice, and haven't been able to exercise most of this month because of an injury. I don't know when I'll be able to exercise again but I will be taking it very slow to avoid re-injury. I still have a mysterious illness as well, and it just keeps going away and coming back.

Here is my Health calendar of progress:

(Click these calendars and they will expand so you can actually read them!)

PERSONAL PROJECT GOALS:

Summary:

EDITING: I have no active edits at this time. My YA novel In Bloom finished edits and is on submission to agents. Stories that have been accepted for the future have not started the editing process yet.

WRITING: Unnamed new novel has not been touched this month, so it's still sitting at 62,000 words. That is because I've been preoccupied with a variety of new short stories! Let me count the ways:

• "Just Like Stephen" complete rewrite: Modern Fantasy / 3,000 words
  
• "Getting Lucky": Adventure Fantasy / 6,000 words
  
• "To Greater Heights": Adventure Fantasy / 15,000 words
  
• "The Juicy Ones": Contemporary Fantasy / 900 words
  

I don't typically write that many short stories, so this is really weirding me out. You'll notice I had a goal to write two new short stories this YEAR. I wrote four this MONTH. Total is 10 new short stories this year. I gotta say I really like this development, but at the same time, it does take me away from my first love (writing novels). I will have to find a good balance.

SUBMISSIONS:

• In Bloom is still being queried. I have had no activity to share on this, though I've found some promising agents to query recently.
  
  
• Last month I was talking about three outstanding statements of interest on "Karma Is Dead," my 19,000-word novella. One of those was upgraded into an acceptance, making it my first sale of the month. I had to go back to the other interested parties and discuss the offer with them, and the other one (reportedly reluctantly) stepped aside, so I finalized my participation in an upcoming anthology called Longer Worlds. It will be published next year. Table of Contents reveal and cover reveal on Bluesky
  
  
• My short story "The Wagon," completed in August and submitted in September, was accepted in October to the only place I sent it: An asexual and aromantic–led anthology called Space Ace. I am especially thrilled about such a substantial story (10,000 words, at the tippy top of their word count cap) being chosen for a project that's so perfect for me! These stories are all science fiction associated with space and have aspec characters. It will be published next year.
  
  
• My short story "In Love With Love" was then accepted by a magazine that shall remain nameless--because I ended up retracting the story. I found out after the acceptance that even though the magazine does not accept AI-generated or -assisted stories, they DO use AI-generated art on the site (shamelessly), and I am not okay with "well we only steal from one kind of artist, not the kind of art we actually respect," so I pulled the story and sent it back on the market.
  
  
• My short story "A Shadow to Light" was then accepted by a little anthology called The Mystic's Pen, Volume 2. This one was a shocker to me because the story is a weirdo with a non-traditional plot--I honestly didn't think it would ever find a home. The story is 6,000 words--the shortest one I've sold this month--and it features characters from my webcomic, Negative One. The mission statement of the anthology was to encourage readers to seek out the authors' larger work, so that was why I chose that story to appear there. It will be published next year.
  
  
• And finally, last month I was talking about my novella In Your Favor being accepted into consideration by a publisher. That has been upgraded to an acceptance as well. In Your Favor, 27,000 words of adventure fantasy, is currently in contract negotiations with the Wild Rose Press. I have not seen the contract yet so I can't 100% confirm this is a done deal, but things take longer when dealing with book publishers than they do with typical short fiction. This will be my first time trying to negotiate a contract without an agent (since I'm dealing with short fiction at a small independent publisher). I do not know the publication timeline.
  
  
• One more of my stories, a very strange hybrid piece called "The Witch Next Door," is being held for consideration at one of the publishers I submitted it to, which is super exciting and I hope I can report that it has been upgraded to an acceptance soon.
  
  
• I still have my newest short stories written this year--"Not My Sister," "Home to the Sky," "Just Like Stephen," "The Curse," "Getting Lucky," "To Greater Heights," and "The Juicy Ones"--on submission to promising places, along with some older ones still trying to find a home, and my short stories "For the Record" and "Aquarius" that sold last year and earlier this year are still awaiting publication. I believe "For the Record" comes out this month.

Still having a BLAST in the new writing group, and it is still fueling my motivation, but I am also a bit distracted wanting to read all the fun things they write. I have bought multiple books this month so I can read my friends' work.

Writing Progress:

PHOTO PROJECT: Last month I rediscovered a bunch of photo albums from my grandparents and I have begun to go through the albums. Because of the sharp turn into focusing on my writing, I have not had time for this project and I no longer know if I will complete by the end of the year. But we shall see.

VOICE ACTING: I have auditioned VERY sparingly this month and have not had any new cast announcements. THREE projects I'm involved with came out in October, though:

• A science fiction project where I'm a main character came out October 31
  
• A science fiction project where I'm a minor character had its second episode, my debut, come out on October 3
  
• A creepy paranormal-style project where I'm an interviewee in an institution premiered on October 9

REGULAR CONTENT: I have posted my Negative One webcomic every Friday; my So You Write webcomic on the last day of the month; and a new asexuality video for the month.

MUSIC:
No new practices and only one new song learned for the band this month, but we plan to have a cool open mic in November and kick things off a little better.

Here's the Projects Calendar:

READING GOALS:

Summary: I met my reading goals this month except for a couple days I couldn't find time to read while preparing for my Halloween party. I finished last month's book and started a new one, and read another person's novelette and began reading stories in an anthology simultaneously toward the end of the month.

Progress:

RELATIONSHIP AND COMMUNICATION GOALS:

Summary: I've been doing Jeaux Day, Game Night, hanging out with friends here and there, and threw a big Halloween party with complete success. I have done no extra journaling. I'm caught up on e-mail.

The first week of November will be a New York City vacation with Jeaux.

Progress:

OTHER GOALS:

Summary: I should try a push toward getting the extra items in my garage cleaned out once I am no longer injured; I plan to pull all the stuff out of there and clean the floor real good because, as it turned out, toads were getting into my garage and shitting everywhere. (Last month the suspects were rats, mice, squirrels, and opossums. Nope. Toads.) I have had my garage sealed with better weather stripping and have plugged some holes myself. Now I'm not finding the poo anymore. But since my leg is not ready for me to do anything strenuous, I cannot do this until I feel up to it. I purchased the special enzymatic cleaner to do the job.

House-cleaning and maintenance has been fine other than the garage issue.

There's still a TV show I plan to watch eventually but now the new Avatar shows and the Heartstopper movie have joined the queue. Jeaux and I tend to just not make time for TV these days.

Gardening news is nonexistent, but I am happy to announce one of my plants survived a brush with death. I really didn't think it was going to come back from that but it did.

My night routine has been inconsistent. Haven't been doing my skin care routine like I should but I'll try to improve this month. At least I'm doing better about not just falling asleep in my clothes though.

My "do something cool with my hair" goal has manifested in continuing to dye it pink throughout the year. Just had my latest touch-up.

Personal Digest Saturday - October 24 – October 30

Life news this week:

• Saturday I made excellent time with everything preparing for my Halloween party. I put out all the party dishes and labels, organized the living room with extra chairs, did my silly eye makeup for my costume, finished writing my short story (!!), and had time to chat to Ben for a while before getting into all the real prep work for the party. I got the sodas chilling and the snacks put out, put on my costume, and got everything ready, with a small glitch surrounding the cider (the top of my hot drink cannister got stuck!). Then people started arriving and we just hung out, ate food, listened to music, and chatted all night. Everyone I invited came! And at the end of the night it wasn't super late when everyone left, so I still had a little energy to clean up and relax.
  
  
• Sunday I took to relax. Did some of the party dishes and ate a lot of leftovers all day. Got my new story edited down to below 15,000 words (it was initially over 17,000) and decided to title it "To Greater Heights." Did my usual chores (including more recycling and trash than usual from the party) and recorded a couple Polos.
  
  
• Monday I woke up before my alarm (as has been common lately). Besides work, I spent the day working on my story and fine-tuning it. Recorded more Polos and continued eating lots of leftovers. Finally cleaned up all the party platters.
  
  
• Tuesday work was busier. Lots of proposal work plus a meeting where we were arguing about a mast arm. I did some reading of other people's work and edited my story some more.
  
  
• Wednesday I woke up early again and had tons of time before going to work. I did some laundry. At work I went to meetings and worked on a proposal. Messed with some submissions, including my new story's first submission to a magazine. Did a Polo before going off to the hair salon and getting my hair's pink dye updated. Jeaux picked me up and we ate at Fresh Kitchen, did our grocery shopping, and took a walk while talking about plans for New York. We had some leftover pie. After he left I submitted another query.
  
  
• Thursday was slower at work even though everyone else was busy. I had to update some proposal documents though. I did a query, read a story, wrote my two webcomics, and reworked a query for a UK agent (because their process is different). I also did some story submissions. I drew and inked my So You Write comic. Chatted to my dad on the phone. At Game Night I was able to draw most of my Negative One comic, and I learned and recorded a karaoke song.
  
  
• Friday I was up whoa early again. Stayed up a bit getting things done and then went back to sleep. Got up for work properly and spent a lot of the day working on a proposal. Also did timesheets and reports. Randomly got a short story idea and wrote it within an hour. And edited it and submitted it! I usually don't do stuff like that. The new story is called "The Juicy Ones." (It's only 900 words.) Dad called and we caught up, continuing a conversation from the previous night. I finished my webcomic and posted it, and then finished reading a couple of other people's short stories. Did three loads of laundry and put them away.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• YouTuber ria dms recommends additional asexuality-related books while acknowledging that my book and two others are the most common "go-to" recommended books.
  
• Lambda Literary listed The Invisible Orientation in a post about Ace Week.
  
• queery_reads on Instagram profiled a section of my book in an Instagram post for ace education.

Health Plan Update:

• Nutrition stuff: My goal to have three servings of fruits and veggies every day was met this week, but I was not watching the balance at all because I was literally eating leftovers from my party all week. (And a lot of it is fruit and vegetables! But a lot of it is also sweets!) Given that, it is not surprising that I did not meet my protein goals ANY day this week because I am just eating up the sugar. I am still taking my vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: Honestly, the healing for my leg is quite slow. Strained and torn muscles can take six weeks or more to heal and I'm finding that's the case for me. I still have to be careful with walking because I've gotten to that dangerous stage where I'm not in pain generally so I think I can move normally, but I can't, and I have to be very careful to avoid re-injuring myself. I will not be ready to return to any exercise beyond walking for a while still. Based on my phone's app, my low day was Saturday at 9,470 steps (I didn't make my 10K step goal; too distracted with party!), and my high day was Thursday at 10,639 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Have Hands, Will Hench by Lily Lachance. Four-star review.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli. I'm on page 224.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Phantasms & Phenomena: An Aspec Paranormal Anthology by Meaghan O'Connor. I'm on page 85.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song was "A Symptom of Being Human" by Shinedown.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

#1120: adele #273: unconventional.

Videos Made: 

Asexuality: Simple or Complex? is this month's video. This video is about detractors suggesting that asexuality is either too simple to deserve a discussion ("so what, you're not having sex, what's there to talk about?") or it's too complicated to be legitimate ("you people are always making up your own labels to feel special about being a virgin"). But it's both simpler and more complex than that!

New photos:

I'll let you click through to my Halloween Album to see this year's Halloween party food and costumes!

Hair appointment photos:

Me with the new universal ace flag designed by Ashabi

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,462 for swankivy (lost 2), 673 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 215 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change) 10 for Vinyl Impact Band (no change). Twitter followers: 734 for swankivy (lost 1), 3,308 for JulieSondra (lost 2). Facebook: 284 friends for swankivy (no change), 623 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 78 followers for Negative One (lost 1), 244 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,405 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 338 (3 new). Threads followers: 92 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 529 (2 new).

Personal Digest Saturday - October 17 – October 23

Life news this week:

How do I keep having super overwhelming weeks! AAAAAAA

• Saturday I succeeded in my goal of getting all the seasonal decorations changed out to Halloween decorations, dusting the living room, vacuuming the living room, and getting cleaned up before Jeaux came to pick me up so we could go get our flu and Covid vaccines. Now we'll be maximally protected for our trip to New York in a couple weeks! After that was over, I spent the day writing, working on my blog, and reading. I had no noticeable effects from the vaccines.
  
  
• Sunday I worked on house chores, mainly cleaning the kitchen in addition to doing my trash and laundry chores that I always do on Sunday, but I also did lots of writing and watched my short story approach 10K words. Yikes. Did some messing around on Discord and Bluesky. Did a couple of Polos and paced around planning stuff about my story. Folded my laundry.
  
  
• Monday I found out my novella, In Your Favor, was accepted by an editor at a small publisher and it's going to be published! It'll be its own released story but it's too short to have a physical release since it's not a novel, so it'll just be digital, but I'm very excited for people to meet my magical adventurers. :) I am not posting about this one on my official site until I see the contract, though. I went back to work and I had a meeting with a coworker, edited a letter, sent out invitations to teams, and went to another meeting. And then I got not one but two items that completed sets of Steven Universe collections that I've been trying to complete for quite a while! Very happy. I did some reading and went to bed.
  
  
• Tuesday I processed some timesheet stuff and went to a presentation at work, and then I helped with a proposal. I worked on printing out my food labels for Saturday's party but my printer has decided cyan ink doesn't exist. Talked to Tony outside. He helped fix my garage door that wasn't opening. I wrote my storyboard early for Negative One so I could get it finished earlier in the week and not have as much on my plate for toward the end of the week when I need to be working on party stuff. I also drew most of the comic. Tried on my costume for my party and it's pretty disappointing, but I'll make it work I guess. Wrote a bunch on my new story.
  
  
• Wednesday I got up early and worked on a proposal that needed to be turned in by 2. In between, I did Polos to Meg. After work, I made molasses-ginger cookie dough and let it refrigerate, and cleaned up a little. Finished my comic drawings and processed them. Jeaux came and took me out for sushi to celebrate my novella selling. I tried a new kind of roll and loved it. Today was the first day I was finally not limping from my leg injury--I'm not quite back to normal but my walking looks mostly normal again. Went shopping to get the rest of the party supplies (plus usual groceries). We didn't do much after--just told each other silly stories. After Jeaux left I cleaned the bathroom and finished processing my comic.
  
  
• Thursday I was busy at work with three proposals. Did some Polos for Meg. Wrote more on my new short story. Baked pumpkin pie and a pumpkin roll in the evening, then went to game night, and after game night I made candy corn fudge. I did a quick proofread for a writer in my writing group. Then I cleaned up the kitchen.
  
  
• Friday was busy. I had to work and was very busy there with proposal preparation and juggling communications plus getting my reports done. After work I made a new recipe for my party: apple cider donuts. They seem to have turned out OK. Then I made my pumpkin muffins and banana muffins. All done with baking! I cleaned up the kitchen and did some small projects around the house to prepare it for the party. And I did some writing.

Health Plan Update:

• Nutrition stuff: My goal to have three servings of fruits and veggies every day was met this week, and something weird also happened: I was very much not paying attention to protein goals but I somehow just ended up meeting the goals 5 out of 7 days. (As usual, one of the days I didn't was the restaurant day. I had a bunch of sushi.) I am still taking my vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm still not ready to get back to my every-other-day aerobic exercise goal because my leg is still healing. I finally stopped actively limping on Wednesday this week, but the torn muscle has a little ways to go before I'll feel comfortable doing anything more strenuous than walking. Based on my phone's app, my low day was Friday at 10,012 steps, and my high day was Thursday at 11,350 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli. I'm on page 137.

New singing performances:

Nothing this week.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:


#1119: ivy #371: more than a babysitter.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

I did take some baking pics but I'm just going to wait and share them with my Halloween album next week.

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,464 for swankivy (lost 4), 673 for JulieSondra (lost 2), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 215 for Not-So-Giant Women (lost 1), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change) 10 for Vinyl Impact Band (no change). Twitter followers: 735 for swankivy (no change), 3,310 for JulieSondra (lost 1). Facebook: 284 friends for swankivy (no change), 623 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 79 followers for Negative One (no change), 244 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,406 (no change). Instagram followers: 335 (2 new). Threads followers: 92 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 527 (2 new).

Personal Digest Saturday - October 10 – October 16

Life news this week:

The eventfulness keeps coming! Here we go.

• Saturday wasn't a hugely productive day, but I'm not worried about it. I worked on my blog, read over some of my in-progress novel, took a couple naps, and completed some final edits on "Aquarius." (I thought I was done, but there were still some things to address.) I found out my short story that sold last week was accepted by a publisher who uses AI art on their site, which I am very against. (I hadn't looked into it because the publisher explicitly says in their guidelines that they do not accept AI stories--obviously!--and they have the word "human" in their mission statements three times, so I guess I didn't expect them to be AI sloppers in the art arena??) I was immediately looking for a possibility to retract the story. Certainly don't need a pub credit that bad. I updated my voice-over site and some of my library of projects in a little sub-forum of my writing group. My leg has continued to improve from its injury last week on Tuesday.
  
  
• Sunday my leg was even better, but still definitely not ready for any stress. I have continued to not be able to exercise. I got some work done around the house (dishes, cleanup, laundry, trash) and got some disappointing rejections on stories and sent the stories out again. Spent a bunch of the day organizing my writing-group-private library again. Finished the project. It's so nice. Then my friends Yasmin and Arthur picked me up and took me to the Kyle Gordon show, where we had pizza and fries beforehand and rocked out to silly music. It was kind of an unhinged night and my leg was unhappy because it was a standing show, but I did find a place to sit down halfway through the show and that was probably for the best even though it meant I couldn't see. I went home and fell asleep early.
  
  
• Monday my leg was better most of the day and then it started to be really uncomfortable at night. Don't know why. (Usually it was mainly painful only when I walked on it, but at this point it started just aching while I was sitting around. Weird.) I did a Polo to Meg and did my usual work for the day, including reading a letter, fixing timesheets, and organizing tabs for my boss. I got the great news that another one of my stories is being held for consideration--sort of like being a finalist, I guess. I also got a rejection from a magazine that basically said they were very seriously considering the story and that was why they held it so long, but it was ultimately a pass. So, two maybes from opposite directions (one a maybe-but, one a maybe-and!). The market that rejected me seems really cool though, and after I read their guidelines again I got inspired to write another new story. And I did! Just sat down and wrote another 6,000-word story in a day. Unfortunately because my leg was bothering me more I didn't get the walking done for the first time in a LONG time. Really something because I was still able to do it the previous days, including even the day I was injured! Really disappointing.
  
  
• Tuesday my leg was about the same--still hurty for no reason. Work wasn't super busy but I made it through the day with nothing notable. I spent some time with my new story and deliberated for a LONG time on what to call it before settling on the questionable title of "Getting Lucky." Anyway. Jeaux called me later in the day to tell me he got into the University of Florida. I am so proud of him.
  
  
• Wednesday was busy at work--did some resume stuff and credit card charge input and even some project research. I finally managed to get some communication going with the publisher that used AI art, causing me to no longer want my story published with them. We went back and forth a bit and I got the editor to release my story because he wouldn't budge on the use of AI. (Unsurprising. Some of those people are really dug in and do not think it's a huge betrayal of artists everywhere. This was one of those "there's room for everyone's opinion!" type attitudes. But I appreciate that he was polite about letting my story go. It's back on submission now. Easy come, easy go.) I did one query and also sent my new story in to the market I wrote it for (kind of a quick turnover on the editing, but I felt ready). Also got some chores done before Jeaux came over. We ate at Kobé to celebrate him getting into UF, and my leg was definitely starting to feel better again. We grocery shopped and I spent too much because I'm starting to get supplies for my Halloween party. After he left I went to sleep.
  
  
• Thursday was another slow workday at the office. I did some reading, wrote my comic storyboard, reread some stories and did a story submission, and chatted with the writers. Did some Polos for Meg and Ben. Wrote some more of YET ANOTHER NEW STORY that's bothering me to be written. (Less than a thousand words of it done, though.) I went to game night with my friends and had a nice time. Then right after game night I got another story acceptance! My story "A Shadow to Light" was accepted to an anthology. That one was a REAL long shot. I updated some records to reflect the acceptance and managed to get my walking done.
  
  
• Friday my leg was pretty OK but yeah, still tender. I went to work for a meeting but it was canceled, so I focused on project reports and timesheets. I unwisely started working on my new short story before finishing my webcomic, which sucks the time away, and then went back to the comic in time and finished it, posting it in plenty of time. Did a Polo for Meg and worked on the writing more until it was time to sleep.

New Reviews:

• يوسف عبداللطيف gave my book The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Nutrition stuff: My goal to have three servings of fruits and veggies every day was met this week, but I was again not conscientious about my protein goals. I only met the protein goal 2 out of 7 days and that's the worst I've done in a while. I am still taking my vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: I've still significantly shifted my goals for activity because I am injured. My leg is not strong enough to do any meaningful exercise, but I am still attempting to get all my steps in, sometimes through alternate means. I did miss the goal (barely) one day because of pain. Based on my phone's app, my low day was Monday at 9,580 steps, and my high day was Wednesday (the day I went grocery shopping) at 10,997 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli. I'm on page 114.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You" by Heart. This song is newly in my belting range, which is so cool! It was briefly featured on the karaoke site's front page, but that didn't translate to many views.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:


#1118: adele #242: mother figure.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

Me, Arthur, and Yasmin at the Kyle Gordon show

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,468 for swankivy (lost 1), 675 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 216 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change) 10 for Vinyl Impact Band (no change). Twitter followers: 735 for swankivy (no change), 3,311 for JulieSondra (no change). Facebook: 284 friends for swankivy (no change), 623 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 79 followers for Negative One (no change), 244 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,406 (no change). Instagram followers: 333 (1 new). Threads followers: 92 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 525 (12 new).

Personal Digest Saturday - October 3 – October 9

Life news this week:

Another batshit week, if you can believe it. Details incoming.

• Saturday I went out with Meggie and Katelyn to look at wedding dresses. I'm really happy that Meggie loved the first one she tried on and the rest of the appointment was about trying to find one she'd love as much as that, rather than feeling crappy about not being able to find anything! It went so beautifully and we went out for Greek food and cupcakes after. I signed a contract for the novella I sold on Thursday and got paid already. AND two productions I did voice acting in came out: Episode 2 came out of this story (it's my debut, I have a small part), and a trailer for this story (I am a character who gets an interview, and my voice has one line in the trailer). I did some reading and then worked on some submissions and did some preparation for a story rewrite I'm planning.
  
  
• Sunday was another super-productive day. I was getting kind of nervous about whether I would be picked for the Space Ace anthology because I knew the decisions were coming in and I really wanted to get into that one . . . it's a whole book of science fiction stories about asexual people and space! C'mon! So I kinda channeled that energy into other projects. I wrote the beginning of my rewrite of an old story called "Just Like Stephen." I had time to crank out a few scenes before Jeaux picked me up and we ate at our favorite Mexican place, Vallarta's. We were supposed to go mini-golfing too but it was too rainy. We chatted a little bit about stories and how there's an interesting submissions call coming up. Jeaux might enter it! I hope he writes a story and does. Anyway, after he left I FOUND ANOTHER TOAD IN THE GARAGE. I had thought the whole thing was over but no, there was a second toad. I chased it around until it ran into a hole in the wall and I trapped it in there with a brick so it couldn't get out! Then I asked the toad expert to come get it. I got my chores (laundry and trash) done and did my exercise and wrote the rest of the rewrite of "Just Like Stephen," but I felt like it wasn't quite done. Decided to sleep on it.
  
  
• Monday I had to go to work and deal with timesheet processing. And then!! Mid-morning I got my acceptance to Space Ace! I was really happy and relieved that I got chosen. But that's two acceptances within a few days of each other. Wowee! The toad guy came and rescued the toad from my wall. It was alive and fine. I worked some more and did some stuff with a letter and a teaming request. I tried to take a nap but couldn't sleep. Did a Polo for Meg. Read some of the book I'm reading. Did a voice-over audition. Wrote a final wrap-up of the Stephen story because I figured out what it needed. Updated some project folder stuff.
  
  
• Tuesday I had to jump into preparing some proposal stuff at work. And I went to two meetings. And I found a third toad in my garage. This time I just chased it out. They are most likely just coming and going and I have to find ways to stop them. I got very excited at how well things seem to be going for me lately and while skipping to the coffee machine I hurt my leg in the most old person way ever. I strained my leg muscle (and probably tore it a little). Welp! It left me barely able to walk and I couldn't put weight on that leg. Jeaux came over later with an ace bandage and a cane to help me get around. It helped a lot. I did some agent queries and played with my new story a little bit.
  
  
• Wednesday I did some digital errands at work and had a utility meeting. My leg was still in terrible shape and I had to use a cane to get around still. I had some swelling too. Very uncomfortable but I just dealt with it and figured out how to use different muscles to get around, which later turned out to give me sore muscles in those places, so I guess I just can't win, haha. I got some stuff done with agent queries and reading, and then Jeaux came over and we went to a special cupcake place to buy a cupcake for my Space Ace story selling reward. We ate really yummy pizza at Flippers and it was pouring rain when we tried to leave. The street turned into a river and we almost got stuck in it. On the way to get groceries I got an e-mail saying ANOTHER ONE OF MY STORIES HAS SOLD so that is literally three stories in one week. I yelled "I knew I should have bought another cupcake!" Jeaux wanted to give me his. LOL. We got our shopping done but it was very hard on my leg. I did the best I could.
  
  
• Thursday I had to do some timesheet invoicing packages for my boss and went to meetings and did some teaming invitations. My leg hurt probably the worst of the days because of the sore muscles from extra activity the day before (I am preserving the injured muscle which makes the other muscles do overtime, and they are mad, and at this point they were hurting worse than the injury). I wrote my webcomic script and submitted some more queries. I did my edits on a short story that will appear in the Common Bonds 3 anthology. Took one more look at my revamped short story and submitted it to the submissions call I wanted to shoot for. Went to game night but there weren't many of us since Meg's away and Steve hasn't been showing up, so we just chatted. Got some drawings done for the comic. Looked at some more submission opportunities.
  
  
• Friday was a tiring day without much I cared about getting done. I did have some improvement on my leg. I got up early and helped my boss with a qualifications package. And also did some supporting paperwork for another firm and did my weekly reports. The handywoman came and did more weather stripping on my garage so maybe that will keep toads out. I drew the rest of my comic, sang a new karaoke song, did some reading, and looked for more submission opportunities. I now have five sold but unpublished short stories, and I'm looking forward to kicking up more of a backlog!

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• My book The Invisible Orientation is listed as a resource on LGBTQ Reads' Nonfiction page.

Health Plan Update:

• Nutrition stuff: I still made every effort to get my fruits and veggies this week (and succeeded!), but I underate in general and just wasn't hungry all week (maybe nerves and my injury). I didn't pay attention to the balance of nutrients at all. Still managed to hit the regular protein goal 4 out of 7 days, though. I am still taking my vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: This is gonna be different for a while. I still did my exercise on Sunday and was planning to do it early on Tuesday, but that's when I busted my leg, so I have not done any specific exercise for the rest of the week because I just want to let my leg rest. But I didn't want to give up entirely on movement, so I worked out an alternate way to "walk" at my desk without hurting my leg, and still made my step goals somehow, though they were low counts. Based on my phone's app, my low day was Tuesday (the day I got hurt) at 10,075 steps, and my high day was Sunday (before I got hurt) at 13,928 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli. I'm on page 47.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Precious Things" by Tori Amos.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:


#1117: meri lin #146: big kid.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

Meg found a dress

we helped :)

cupcake place!

Meg and Katelyn enjoying cupcakes

Lizards being weirdos!

Vanilla Flower cupcake for selling my story "Karma Is Dead"

Cookies N Cream cupcake for selling my story "The Wagon"

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,469 for swankivy (no change), 675 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 216 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change) 10 for Vinyl Impact Band (no change). Twitter followers: 735 for swankivy (no change), 3,311 for JulieSondra (lost 2). Facebook: 284 friends for swankivy (no change), 624 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 79 followers for Negative One (no change), 244 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,406 (no change). Instagram followers: 332 (1 new). Threads followers: 92 (lost 1). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 513 (3 new).

Personal Digest Saturday - September 26 – October 2

Life news this week:

This was a batshit week, just wanted to warn you. Details incoming.

• Saturday I got some relaxing in--slept late, bothered people on Bluesky and Tumblr, and made a new asexuality video. Got some exercise in too. Sent Polos to Meg and Ben. Scanned some more photos for my photo project. Worked on some short pitches for my book for a pitch party event coming up. And another author on Bluesky invited me to a Discord full of authors who are largely doing what I'm doing--submitting work and/or trying to find agents (or in some cases they have their self-released work). I got very excited to finally find another place to make writer friends.
  
  
• Sunday was a weird day. Got up early and messed around on the writer Discord and Bluesky some more. Finished processing my ace video. Sang a karaoke song. Read some more of the book I'm reading. Packaged up some eBay stuff. Did laundry and put out trash. Did some VO auditions. And I meant to spend some time on photo scanning, but instead, the wieners on Discord locked onto me complaining about my high word counts and bullied me into writing flash fiction. WHICH I DID. I wrote a new short story (in about 2 hours) called "Not My Sister" (under 1000 words) and I chucked it at a submissions call. I do not recommend doing this. I did it anyway.
  
  
• Monday I went to work and edited two letters for the team. I also got some photos scanned for my photo project, and I played DDR. I got paid for my short story "Aquarius" which will be published soon in an anthology (it sold last year and if you follow my updates you know I have been through two rounds of edits on it recently). It is the most I've ever been paid for a short story. I guess writing long stories when you get paid by the word can pay well. Ha. There were some submissions calls and ideas being thrown around in the Discord and as the end of the month approaches, a lot of people are preparing submissions for places that open October 1. I made some notes for things I want to send. Unfortunately my throat started bothering me again after a short hiatus of being pretty good.
  
  
• Tuesday my throat improved a little. And I had to scramble to get a proposal together under the deadline at work. We did it! Then I sent invitations to a team for another business development effort, walked to the post office to send an eBay package, wrote more of my pitches for the pitch event, and bounced them off my critique partner Ben. Then I wrote my comic So You Write, sketched it, inked it, colored it, scanned it, processed it, and posted it once midnight rolled around. And then, in the middle of the night, I STARTED WRITING ANOTHER SHORT STORY and finally decided to go to bed at like 5 in the morning when I was only a couple hundred words away from finishing. I was coaching one of my friends on a VO audition in between working on the story.
  
  
• Wednesday I finished the short story in the morning, sliding in at 1,900 words. (Very short for me, and well below the word count cap I was writing to). I decided to title it "Home to the Sky." I edited it a couple times through the day and submitted it the same day I wrote it, which is again something I do not recommend doing. The Discord people are a bad (good?) influence on my submission habits. At work I did stuff with meetings and responding to little requests. I played DDR, did my dishes, and sent carefully spaced-apart pitches to the pitch party online. (Sadly, so far I did not get any requests from agents, though that is also something that could change if agents read the backlog.) It was worth a shot though. Managed to get a nap in and then went out with Jeaux. We ate at IHOP and did our grocery shopping and silliness. After he left, the clock turned over to be officially October 1 and that meant some of the submissions calls opened. I sent some of my planned stories in.
  
  
• Thursday felt so long. I jumped out of bed to respond to another highly anticipated submissions call (which I didn't know about their tiny window of submissions until I joined that group on Discord), and enjoyed camping the submission window with other people waiting to submit. At work I wrangled templates for an upcoming proposal and got it done. I wrote the script for my webcomic. At home THE CREATURE THAT'S BEEN POOPING IN MY GARAGE WAS MAKING APPEARANCES and I got very determined and started stalking it. I literally caught it THREE DIFFERENT TIMES throughout the day and IT ESCAPED. But I finally caught it a fourth time by slamming a trash can on top of it to trap it. Guess what? It wasn't a mouse, a rat, a squirrel, or a possum. IT WAS A TOAD. I caught it!!!
  
  And then after all that excitement I got a notification that one of the publishers that had previously expressed interest in my novella Karma Is Dead is offering to publish it!
  
  I had to go back to the other publisher that had asked to hold the story and ask if they were still interested, so I couldn't accept right away. Right after I found out, I had to go to game night and play games with my friends. I told them the toad catching story. And after we played games I told them about my novella. They are excited for me!
  
  After game night I finished the book I was reading and reviewed it online, and caught up on some story submissions and queries that are all newly opened at the beginning of the month. Sleep doesn't exist.
  
  
• Friday I woke up early and somehow still had energy. Went to work and worked on forms for an upcoming submittal. Also had two meetings. Walked to the post office to drop off an eBay package at lunch. In the afternoon the pest control man came to pick up my toad (and all the various traps that have been in my garage for an entire month). This elderly man reached into the trash can I'd trapped it in and pulled it out with his bare hand. He said he would release it more than a mile from my house. Ugh. I swept all its latest poop out the door but I still need to clean the hell out of the garage from all the mess this thing made.
  
  I got my new shelves in for my Steven Universe toys! So I set them up and put my toys on them and it looks a lot better. Also put up a poster I'd been meaning to put up. Finished drawing Negative One and went to be loud on the Discord. Did my exercise video, cleaned up, and did a few more submissions/queries.

Health Plan Update:

• Nutrition stuff: Eating was rough this week because I was SO busy and distracted. I underate several days of the week but I got my three servings of fruits and veggies every day this week and met my protein goals 5 out of 7 days. I am still taking my vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to do DDR or aerobics every other day. I made my 10,000-step walking goal every day this week. Based on my phone's app, my low day was Friday at 10,176 steps, and my high day was Tuesday at 13,673 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: The Awakening of Roku by Randy Ribay. Three-star review.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli. I'm just starting.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Barracuda" by Heart.

Stuff drawn:

My monthly writing webcomic, So You Write:


#184: rejection math.

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:


#1116: weaver #171: stressed out.

Videos Made: 

A new asexuality video is out: Ace Happiness. This video discusses the audacity of detractors who decide on our behalf that we can't possibly be happy as asexual people and why said beliefs describe the limits of their imagination, not ours.

New photos:

The toad that's been pooping in my garage

THE CULPRIT

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,469 for swankivy (4 new), 675 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 216 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change) 10 for Vinyl Impact Band (no change). Twitter followers: 735 for swankivy (no change), 3,313 for JulieSondra (lost 2). Facebook: 284 friends for swankivy (no change), 624 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 79 followers for Negative One (no change), 244 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,406 (no change). Instagram followers: 331 (1 new). Threads followers: 93 (2 new). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 510 (23 new--I made a lot of new friends during the pitch party).

September Goals Update

I'm shocked at the arrival of October, but there's nothing I can do about it! It also means I have to tell you what I accomplished in September! Here we go with a quick review of the goals I set at the beginning of the year:

1. Health Goals: Four glasses of water per day; three servings of fruits and veggies; taking vitamins; walking 10,000 steps a day plus an aerobic activity every other day; visiting health professionals on an appropriate schedule.

2. Personal Project Goals: Complete editing on In Bloom, share with test audience, collect and incorporate feedback, develop pitch materials, start querying it; start another book; write two more short stories; submit queries and short stories; finish the photo project and start the SU site, autobio site, and essays/rants site; practice music; post regular webcomics; post ace videos; submit voice-over auditions and complete assigned voice-over work.

3. Reading Goals: Read at least every other day.

4. Relationship and Communication Goals: Document more consistently; keep up with e-mail and online messages; keep social life active.

5. Other Goals: Get rid of garage items; clean the house; watch TV shows; plant herbs; wear pajamas/have a night routine; use a new coffee cup every day; do something cool with my hair.

Progress Update:

HEALTH GOALS:

Summary: Walking, water, fruits/veggies, and exercise: perfect this month. I scheduled and attended my eye doctor visit, so now I just have one more annual exam (dentist) that I need to do before the end of the year. I unfortunately have had to go to the doctor multiple times this month to deal with whatever's wrong with my throat, which I still don't know and am still not rid of. I had two doctors' appointments, an ultrasound, an X-ray, and an endoscopy, plus two rounds of antibiotics and one round of steroids. No progress. Whatever the issue is keeps kind of waxing and waning. Sighhhhhhh

Here is my Health calendar of progress:

(Click these calendars and they will expand so you can actually read them!)

PERSONAL PROJECT GOALS:

Summary:

EDITING: I have no active edits at this time. My YA novel In Bloom finished edits and is on submission, and I got back second edits on "Aquarius" (due to be published in Common Bonds 3 soon); the edits were accepted and I got paid for the story.

WRITING: Unnamed new novel is sitting pretty at 62,000 words, meaning I wrote 15,000 words on it this month. That's relatively slow for me with an active project, but that's because of the absolute explosion of other stuff I'm doing in submissions and new projects. I have also written TWO new short stories this month (both quite short, which is new for me)--one at about 975 words, one about 1,900 words. My first time writing a soft horror story as well. I am full of surprises these days.

SUBMISSIONS: In Bloom is still being queried. Very little action--agents are busier than ever. I participated in a pitch party on Bluesky but did not get any attention for my pitches yet--some agents are still going through the backlog, though. I still have THREE outstanding statements of interest from different publishers on my novella ("Karma is Dead"), and the newer novella I wrote a few months ago ("In Your Favor") has been accepted into consideration by a publisher as of this past month (with some other submissions unresolved). Three promising short stories have been submitted to submissions calls and I'm awaiting (good) news: "The Wagon," "Not My Sister," and "Home to the Sky." I sent short stories to 15 markets this month and only 1 has been rejected within the month. Two of my accepted short stories ("For the Record" and "Aquarius") are waiting to be published.

I joined a writing group and BOY has it been great for my motivation but also very distracting because the people are very fun. I became aware through them of some submission opportunities I didn't know about, and some of them are hitting the same markets I already was. So good to be with people who know what it's all about and can share and request advice.

Writing Progress:

PHOTO PROJECT: I COMPLETED going through the planners to help date photos. I have now rediscovered a drove of photo albums from my grandparents and I have begun to go through them album by album. The progress has been really good on the days I could find to work on them. I still hope to have this project completed before the end of the year.

VOICE ACTING: I still haven't been super active on my auditions, but I have sent in a good handful this month, including a really exciting musical cartoon (but given the probable competition, I'm not really expecting a callback). Two projects I'm involved with should have drops this coming month: a science fiction project where I'm a main character is coming out October 31, and a science fiction project where I'm a minor character, has its second episode premiering soon (which is my debut).

REGULAR CONTENT: I have posted my Negative One webcomic every Friday; my So You Write webcomic on the last day of the month; and a new asexuality video for the month.

MUSIC:

I have learned several new songs for the band this month but I have not attended any band practices--their practices right now are instrumentals only.

Here's the Projects Calendar:

READING GOALS:

Summary: I met my reading goals this month but still not reading much in a sitting. I should finish the current book very soon.

Progress:

RELATIONSHIP AND COMMUNICATION GOALS:

Summary: I've been doing Jeaux Day, Game Night, band practice, and hanging out with friends here and there. I have done no extra journaling. I'm caught up on e-mail.

Progress:

OTHER GOALS:

Summary: Last month I cleaned out my garage a little bit because there is evidence that a critter is living in there. The pest control company got involved and it is a SAGA. Something is clearly still living in my garage and they have sent three different levels of people to help me including their top expert. No one can catch this thing. It has been variously suspected of being a rat, a mouse, an opossum, a toad, and a squirrel. I am pretty sure it is a rat but the expert says no. I can't WAIT to clean the floor in there.

I have bought some cute new air plants. My night routine was better this month too--a little more intentional and consistent.