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).