Book Panel: A Room of One’s Own I AM ACE Panel Discussion

I was a panelist at A Room of One’s Own’s book panel for the I AM ACE Panel Discussion.  This panel, organized by Caide Jackson, featured Cody Daigle-Orians with their new book I AM ACE, along with fellow ace activists Ashabi Owagboriaye and me. We covered some asexuality-related topics and some content-creation-related topics and then took questions from the crowd. Very well attended and a lovely time. You can watch it on replay.

powered by Crowdcast

Personal Digest Saturday: November 6 – November 12

Life news this week:

• Saturday I cleaned up some stuff in the house and hung out with my friend Fen starting about midday. We ate fruit and bagels from Publix and caught up on our lives, and then at night we got thai food and watched Steven Universe. We got into a bunch of the more thought-provoking episodes so we ended up talking a lot about some of them as we went into the night. They left and went back to their hotel, and then I found out my friend Victor's mom died. o_o
  
  
• Sunday I had to get up early for band practice with Dad. We drove to his place and we practiced with the band trying out some of our new songs, and it was a good time. We're optimistic about some of these songs. Then we got to have some sushi before going home. After I got back I hung out with Fen again and they asked for pizza and Steven Universe so that is what happened. ;) I love when I get people engaged with good shows! We finished Season 1 and Fen had the purest and most fun reaction to the big surprise in the season finale. We ended up talking about it for like half an hour afterwards. :D After they left I was exhausted and went to sleep early.
  
  
• Monday was a relatively easy Monday even though we had two letters going out. After work I had a longish nap and played games with my friends online. Meg had the new Jackbox game box so we got to try new games. After work I took a look at some of the ace panel questions I'd be dealing with the next day. Made some partial arrangements with Mom about taking her phone shopping.
  
  
• Tuesday I got up early and got some work done before heading out to the doctor. I had my blood taken for labs and then Mom picked me up so we could go phone shopping (but there was some delay and confusion so it took a while for her to get there and I got kind of hangry, aka hungry plus angry, because I'd been fasting and wanted to go eat a bagel). We did get her phone shopping done and then I went back to work, had coffee and breakfast finally, and got my refrigerator repaired! After work we had the Beyond Awareness ace panel and I set up a cute ace flag background to go with my appearance. Afterwards I was tired again and zonked out early.
  
  
• Wednesday I got up early to talk to Tony and pay him for yard work. Then I had to work on letters at work and helping a new employee with some stuff. I also went to an informational meeting about paycheck protection and decided to buy a couple policies. Then Jeaux warned me that he was stuck on an issue at work and might be late. He ended up not updating me for multiple hours and it turned out he just got really into work mode and forgot. When I finally asked him what was going on we ended up moving Jeaux Day to Friday and I was kinda frustrated since I really wanted to get some refrigerated food after not having any for almost two weeks, but sometimes crap happens, so I decided to just deal. :)
  
  
• Thursday I did a few work things but it was a bit on the slow side. I cleaned up the outstanding issues from one of our work orders and helped with business development. I finished making my spreadsheet detailing how much my Steven Universe merch collection is worth. Yikes. In the evening I talked to Victor and tried to finish my webcomic but I didn't get all the way through.
  
  
• Friday was another early day and I mostly just fulfilled document requests and had a meeting. After work I posted my comic and met with Jeaux for our substitute Jeaux Day. I finally got to get my refrigerated and frozen food. We then watched Colbert and some silly videos and took our walks, and ate McAlister's food. It was weird having Jeaux Day on a Friday.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• Beyond Awareness Panel is up on YouTube, with me, Yasmin Benoit, and the organizers of the UMassAmherst SpACE+ organization discussing asexual and aromantic spaces.

New Reviews:

• Betsy gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Laura Engelhardt gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads and a four-star review on Amazon.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Okay! I finally got normal refrigerated stuff and can eat more vegetables besides high-calorie canned beans again, so I'm hoping to lower this by next week. High weight: 116.5. Low weight: 114.6.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Not nearly enough vegetables because of no frozen or refrigerated foods. Just a lot of starch and a little bit of packaged fruit. I've been surviving on bread, pasta with no sauce, canned food, peanut butter, cereal, and beans. Had some oatmeal with a banana one day. I'm looking forward to eating a BUNCH of veggies next week. YES. Water goals are a little down, but I've done well with the caffeine levels.
  
• Activity stuff: I made my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Tuesday at 10,008 steps, and my high day was Thursday at 18,881 steps.

Books Read:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. I'm on page 82.

New singing performances:

No karaoke this week, I had band practice and never caught up with a recorded song.

Stuff drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0861: "I Could." 

New videos:

None.

New photos:

Ace Panel Grin

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,324 for swankivy (5 new), 672 for JulieSondra (1 new), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 134 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 924 for swankivy (no change), 2,305 for JulieSondra (15 new). Facebook: 298 friends for swankivy (no change), 634 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 231 likes for So You Write (1 new), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (lost 1). Tumblr followers: 2,457 (1 new). Instagram followers: 242 (2 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: June 20 – June 26

Life news this week:

• Saturday my boss called to help finish up a package that needed to go out, but then he took care of it on his own and I ended up going back to sleep for like five hours. Too much sleep! I got up after that and wrote down some notes for my podcast. My sister P called and we talked for a bit while I did some dusting. I managed to get some blog stuff written down but didn't finish before podcasting started. Daria and I covered episodes 41 and 42 of Steven Universe ("Horror Club" and "Winter Forecast"), and that was the end of my night.
  
• Sunday I had a lazy day and got my unfinished blogging done. I also called Meggie while cleaning up some messes and let her get some rants off her chest. I did some ranting too, haha. I ate a potato, sang karaoke, and did my usual Sunday chores, including cleaning off the outdoor table.
  
• Monday I was still dragging in the morning. Sleep is all messed up. I received my early copy of the Beach-A-Palooza card battling game that will be out at the end of the year, and looked through the package enjoying all the game notes and card art. After work I listened to Night Vale while doing some filing and dusting. Also had an Internet argument. Yay.
  
• Tuesday my co-workers decided not to chase a proposal I was working on so the day was freed for my data entry project. After work I was dusting a shelf--I had been anticipating receiving a visit from my dad and was hoping to use the shelves for putting new photo albums there--and one of the shelves tilted and all the stuff fell off and I had to clean up broken glass so that wasn't so fun. Afterwards I vacuumed in there in case there was glass in the rug, and after I talked to my sister P and we just ended up talking until 6 in the morning. We have to steal sister time sometimes. :D
  
• Wednesday I woke up at the typical time despite the late night, did some work, talked to my lawn maintenance person, did some more work, took a nap, and went to the grocery store with Jeaux. We made sandwiches and watched Kipo and ended up playing the Card Battling Game. It was fun but we were really unlucky in the beginning because we got really hard monsters to fight, and didn't know the game isn't usually that hard. After he left I went to bed!
  
• Thursday I did data entry at work. It's nice because I can listen to music while I do it. After work I drew comics while talking to Victor. This time he didn't fall asleep. :) I ate tater tots and hard boiled eggs for dinner. Weirdo!
  
• Friday I finished the data entry for my project. After work I drew the rest of my webcomic, posted it, and watched reactions.

Articles, interviews, mentions:

• Slate's "How to do it" column answered several questions for write-in problems and one of their writers contacted me for "expert advice." This story is about a woman who has begun to identify as asexual in her perimenopausal stage because of lack of interest in sex, and now wants to know what to think about the fact that she's suddenly having erotic dreams. You can read my response to "Heat of the Moment".

New reviews of my book: 

• Julia gave it a five-star review on Goodreads.

Food Plan Update:

• I bought some salad and an assortment of fun dressings to make my salad more of an adventure. This will be a nice way to get some more greens into my diet. Along with the broccoli I bought. But I'm eating too many tortillas. I mean, just a tortilla, warmed up. Sometimes that's breakfast. Yum!

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing, paused on reading projects right now!

• Currently reading: Emma by Jane Austen. I'm on page 225.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Lucky Star" by Madonna.




Stuff Drawn:





Webcomic Negative One Issue 0789: "Several Unprecedented Things."









New videos: 

None this week!

New photos:

Showing my Appa plushie to my nephew. (He has just begun watching the
show this guy is from. He was impressed.)

Card battling game!

Playing the card game!

New starry scarf!

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,278 for swankivy (6 new), 675 for JulieSondra (1 new), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 101 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 954 for swankivy (no change), 1,353 for JulieSondra (2 new). Facebook: 297 friends (overall no change, but I lost and gained 1 friend; I unfriended someone who was already kinda on probation from me after he said something wacky about ~unreasonable~ female behavior, and I accepted a friend request from a person looking for asexuality advice) and 220 followers (no change) for swankivy, 635 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 61 likes for Negative One (no change), 159 likes for So You Write (no change), 81 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,480 (1 new). Instagram followers: 205 (lost 1).

Personal Digest Saturday: April 16 – April 22

Life news this week: 

• Saturday I did all my biz like a boss. I did some pre-sketches for Drink and Draw and got my blogging done before Eric picked me up for the event. Then it turned out he was interested in my opinion on a graphic novel and wanted me to talk about it on his podcast the next day, so I read the graphic novel at the event and STILL got all my drawings done for the next So You Write (which is going to be TWICE as long as usual because it's a multiple-of-ten issue, which means I did EIGHT drawings instead of FOUR). And then he fell asleep on my couch after, and I went in my room and wrote a review for the book and watched cartoons. Sweet day!
• Sunday I watched some cartoons and talked to my sister and did some laundry. And then it was time for the podcast, which is called Handsome Boys, and we discussed The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks and, as Eric says, solved racism forever.
• Monday was kinda poopy. Busy day at work and had to wrangle some tax stuff for my mommy. Argh. But I found out the book The Answer has a cover, which turned out to be really cute and made me all happy.
• Tuesday was work and Mom Day again, though Mommy didn't come until much later than anticipated. It's really fun that my mom is a night owl like me. We were eating spring rolls at 4 AM, I swear. And I got a bunch of my comic done, helped her with online stuff, and watched cartoons a little bit. She also randomly washed my dishes. (!!)
• Wednesday was Jeaux Day and we had Five Guys food and goofed off and forgot to listen to Night Vale, so we'll have to cram it in next week. Also I tried to go to Target with Mom in the morning but they didn't have anything I wanted so I got up early for nothing. Boo! Oh, and also I found out my friend Corinne had her baby and all is well! YAY! So cute.
• Thursday I had a lot of work at work, went shopping after getting off work, and came home to pack for going out of town for my grandpa's 95th birthday. (Since I was getting picked up right after work, I needed to pack the night before.) Also finished my comic.
• Friday I worked a short day and got picked up by my dad to go to Sarasota! I left work early and met up with my grandpa and aunt at my grandpa's house, and we went out for dinner at a really nice place where I had a baked potato and mushroom dish. He got a special slice of cake for his 95th birthday. And I gave him a cool plant for a present. Oh and I found out Steven Universe is coming back earlier than expected (May 12!!!), and tried not to flip out because HONESTLY I AM A DIGNIFIED PERSON YOU SEE. *snort*
• Also I found out late on Friday that a podcast recorded a long time ago discussing my book was finally released online. Hooray!

New reviews of my book:

• Steve Johnson reviewed it on Amazon. Four-star review. 

Interviews, Features, Mentions:

• Handsome Boys Comic Hour #142 was the podcast I was on.
• Friday Night Lip Service: #51 Lip Readings: The Invisible Orientation (Aces and Queens) discusses my book in depth.
• A Place to be Ace summarized some of my book's discussion of asexual discrimination in answer to a submitted question.

 
Reading progress:

• Finished this week: The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks. Four-star review.
• Currently reading: Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler.

New singing performances:

Here I'm singing "What U Own" from Rent.

 

New drawings:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0571: "A Mirror There."







New videos:

None.

New photos: 

My usual Drink and Draw selfie, with poster by Christian.

Eric holding one of his creepier Drink and Draw posters.

Some of the Drink and Draw crowd doing their thing.

Another angle of Drink and Draw stuff, now with Action Eric.

I took this silly picture of my toys because my Pearl figure keeps falling again and I think it's kinda cute how she needs to be steadied by a sturdier Gem.

My grandpa's 95th birthday happened at a restaurant where they gave him a giant spoon to eat his cake.

Social Media counts:
 
YouTube subscribers: 5,316 for swankivy (11 new), 570 for JulieSondra (1 new). Twitter followers: 775 for swankivy (no change), 1,225 for JulieSondra (6 new). Facebook: 290 friends (no change) and 198 followers (1 new) for swankivy, 639 likes for JulieSondra (3 new), 55 likes for Negative One (no change), 121 likes for So You Write (1 new). Tumblr followers: 2,408 (6 new). Instagram followers: 66 (no change).

Personal Digest Saturday: September 26 – October 2

Life news this week: 

• This is apparently my five hundredth post on this blog?

• Finished edits for my Pitch Wars mentee and sent her a couple epic letters! Good to have that bit completed.
  
• An article I wrote was published in Mindbodygreen. It was adapted from a post I made on Tumblr.
  
• My editor tweeted a photo of my paperback edition with some other fall releases!
  
• Saturday was Drink and Draw, and Eric and I went out for Korean food before the event. I had some yummy dumplings. At the event, it was a little crowded but nice and low-key, and I got to have that veggie sandwich I fantasize inappropriately about. :D Eric had invented a robot that says rude things if you tweet at it.
  
• I made a video about "Writing to the Market" on Sunday. Sunday was actually a really productive day. I did laundry and got all kinds of stuff done.
  
• Stayed with my mom on Tuesday as usual. She had bought two frozen quiches and we cooked them and cut them in half and each had half of each. We both liked the spinach artichoke quiche and didn't care for the butternut squash one. I helped her carry a box spring and I stepped on her glasses and broke them. Oops.
  
• Wednesday was Jeaux Day again. Our dinner was at Moe's, where I had my usual tofu burrito, and at my house we didn't really do much besides talk about cartoons.
  
• Thursday was more new cartoons! I went to Jeaux's after work and we saw the new Steven Universe and listened to the new Night Vale. And again had my usual call with Victor during the wee hours.
  
• We had a pizza party at work on Friday because we made some money. Yay!
  
• I've begun planning my Halloween party. WHEEEEE.

New reviews of my book:

• Five-star review on Amazon from Darren Gravatt.

Places featured:

• "Ten Things You Should Never Say to Someone Who's Asexual": Mindbodygreen's article reprint by me.
  
• Resources for Ace Survivors: For Professionals: Several of my pieces and works are recommended for asexual survivors.
  
• The Asexual Agenda Linkspam mentions my Mindbodygreen article.

Reading progress:

• Completed reading: Asexuality: A Brief Introduction by Asexuality Archive. Four-star review.
• Currently reading: Steven Universe: Volume One by Rebecca Sugar, Jeremy Sorese, and Coleman Engle.

New singing performances:

Here I'm singing "Your Song" from Moulin Rouge.

 

New drawings:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0542: "Trouble With Words."

New videos:

Writing to the Market



New photos:  

Me at Drink and Draw September, with Eric's poster.

Eric is setting up his rude robot.

Me with the FU Bot. Tweet at it (@therealFUbot) and it insults you.

The tiny Cokes I drink at Mom's are back.

Stack of fall releases from Skyhorse. My paperback is there!

Pizza party at work. Square pizza?!

Social media counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,097 for swankivy (10 new this week), 510 for JulieSondra (1 new). Twitter followers: 684 for swankivy (4 new), 1,183 for JulieSondra (14 new). Facebook: 287 friends (no change) and 182 followers (lost 2) for swankivy, 612 likes for JulieSondra (2 new), 55 likes for Negative One (1 new), 110 likes for So You Write (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,166 (16 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: September 19 – September 25

Life news this week: 

• The week didn't really go like I wanted. Mostly because making and editing the video for my 5,000 subscriber special took FOREVER and then it had rendering problems too. I recorded it on Saturday and got it half edited, edited the other half on Sunday, and dealt with all the rendering problems on Monday.
  
• Went to my mom's on Tuesday. We had dinner (scalloped potatoes and corn) and I made oatmeal cookies with raisins! I made the 5,000 subscriber video public that night before going to bed, after making sure it didn't have any errors in the uploaded version.
  
• The video is really freaking cute, guys. It's also really freaking long. But I answered a lot of cool questions in it! 88 questions to be exact! This is it.
  
• An interview I did a while back with Tech Insider finally dropped.
  
• Wednesday was Jeaux Day again. For the first time in a while we had our meeting at my house because America's Got Talent is over so we didn't need to use his TV. We ate at Five Guys and goofed around doing nothing.
  
• Thursday was more new cartoons! I went to Jeaux's after work and we saw the new Steven Universe and Gravity Falls, both of which were great. Had my usual call with Victor during the wee hours.
  
• Also spent the latter half of the week trying to complete edits for my mentee. I'm (disappointingly) not done yet. I thought I would be by now. But all the video glitches and the extra social stuff got in the way.

New reviews of my book:

• Four-star review on Goodreads from Lia. 

Places featured:

• "What it's like to be completely asexual": Tech Insider interview with me.
  
• LGBTQ Fall Book Releases to Be Excited About: Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian recommends my book on this list of new fall stuff. Initially it was identified as just released, but when I notified them that it was a year old and doesn't really satisfy the post description of new books for this season, the post got incorrectly modified to state that the paperback is newly out this month. (It's not out 'til next month. But close enough!)

Reading progress:

• Completed reading: Nothing because I'm busy.
• Currently reading: Asexuality: A Brief Introduction by Asexuality Archive.

New singing performances:

Here I'm singing "Eat It" by Weird Al.

 

New drawings:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0541: "My Fault."

New videos:

My 5000 Subscribers Epic Q&A video is out!



New photos:  

None. I'm lazy. :(

Social media counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,087 for swankivy (19 new this week), 509 for JulieSondra (3 new). Twitter followers: 680 for swankivy (4 new), 1,169 for JulieSondra (1 new). Facebook: 287 friends (friended someone's alternate account) and 182 followers (lost 2) for swankivy, 610 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 55 likes for Negative One (1 new), 110 likes for So You Write (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,150 (9 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: August 8 – August 14

Life news this week: 

• I finally sent out my newsletter again. I last sent one in March 2015, so the update was a bit overdue. You can actually read the newsletter without subscribing, but if you read my blog you've probably seen the highlights anyway.
  
• Also made a video the same day (Saturday). It's nice when the videos are easy and quick without much editing to do.
  
• Went to dinner with my mom on Sunday night, and we hung out for a long time after.
  
• Made a bunch of Pitch Wars blog posts this week, gearing up for the big event. Which sneakily opened for submissions on Friday night instead of Monday, because Brenda is silly. :)
  
• Tuesday I went to Mom's, had pancakes and blackberries, and helped her with some chores. Also finally got to go to the craft store, which is something I put off because I go inside that place and spend all my money.
  
• Jeaux and I ate at Pei Wei (I had tofu pad thai) and we watched America's Got Talent. It's finally getting good now that we're at the live shows. I didn't think I'd care this year because the auditions were kinda meh, but we're having fun now. :)
  
• Finally got edits out to one of my critique partners. (He graduates to critique partner rather than friend who reads my junk because he finally wrote a book for me to read!) And helped him with his query a little. He's entering Pitch Wars but not submitting to me.
  
• I made a silly video for my personal channel inviting people to come ask questions for me to answer to celebrate hitting 5,000 subscribers. The comments are already full of great questions. I just hope I hit 5,000 soon so I can close the comments, or the answering video will end up ridiculously long.

New reviews of my book:

• Three-star review from Abbie Cotter on Goodreads.
  
• Three-star review from Kate on Goodreads.
  
• Four-star review from Angela on Goodreads.
  
• Five-star review from Darci on Goodreads.

Places featured:

• New York Magazine published an article called "5 Ways to Better Understand Asexuality" and my book and I are mentioned in the beginning.
  
• Get to know the Mentors: Brenda Drake published "mini interviews" with some of the participating mentors and I threw in some answers to text questions. I didn't participate in the videos this year because I did it last year.

 Reading progress:

• Completed reading: Landline by Rainbow Rowell. Five-star review.
• Currently reading: Lovely Complex #3 by Aya Nakahara.

New singing performances:

Here I'm singing "Love Is a Battlefield" by Pat Benatar.


 
New drawings:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0535: "Game Over."

New videos:

Letters to an Asexual #29 is here. It's about "deserving" a community and the circumstances under which I will engage with abusive comments.



And then there is Ask Swankivy Anything, my 5000 subscriber invitation video requesting questions for me to answer.



New photos:  

None.

Social media counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 4,934 for swankivy (33 new this week), 499 for JulieSondra (1 new). Twitter followers: 667 for swankivy (no change), 1063 for JulieSondra (32 new). Facebook: 286 friends (no change) and 185 followers (2 new) for swankivy, 591 likes for JulieSondra (3 new), 54 likes for Negative One (no change), 110 likes for So You Write (no change). Tumblr followers: 2126 (9 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: June 20 – June 26

Life news this week: 

• So! Saturday and Sunday I spent at the asexuality conference! I wrote a more detailed Conference Wrap-Up elsewhere on the blog if you want a bunch of details, and I actually just posted a video sum-up too. Highlights included making a presentation about handling asexuality detractors and hanging out with new and old pals, and getting to sign copies of my book for people. :D
• An interview with me was published in A Plus. I gave them the quotes last week.
• Tuesday was my first day back to work. My company's president was there and we had this huge interview with a potential client. I had a lot of clean-up to do but I did it all and was really satisfied with how fast I caught up. Also, it turned out we won what we interviewed for, so all that effort last week was not wasted! YESSSS!
• Sadly, though, in not-winning news, the results of the last pending book award I was waiting for are out, and I found out I did not get a medal or honorable mention in the Foreword Reviews INDIEFAB Book of the Year competition. So I just get to be listed as a finalist for that.
• Mommy came over briefly and gave me Chinese food on Tuesday and tried to get me to fix her tablet but it didn't happen because it is a Windows 8 tablet and I don't think I can teach her to use it. I ordered her another one. :)
• Jeaux Day involved food at Chili's and hanging out at his house watching AGT which continues to be kind of disappointing. We also spent much of the night talking about cartoons. It's nice and kind of a relief to be around somebody who is almost as obsessive as I am. Heeeheeeeeeeeeee.
• On Friday my office ordered pizza and also same-sex marriage was basically legalized and wow and I made a video about the conference and picked my free copy winners for my book. :)

New reviews of my book:

• Ian Wood on Novellum gave me a rather long negative review, claiming the book "made no case" for its subject and failed so hard that he couldn't read but half of it. He repeated these sentiments in a 1-star Amazon review and a 1-star Goodreads review. Can't win 'em all!
• S Prescott posted a short recommendation for the book on a "currently reading" post.

Places featured:

• The Asexuality Movement is Gaining Traction: A Plus article featuring quotes from me.
• The Asexual Agenda linked my conference writeup in the linkspam.
• Redbeardace wrote a description of how my session went at the Toronto conference.

 Reading progress:

• Completed reading: Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown. Four-star review.
• Currently reading: Some Assembly Required by Arin Andrews.

New singing performances:

Here I'm singing "That's How You Know" from Enchanted. A guy on SingSnap asked me to do the female part of this duet, so the embedded video below is just my part. If you want to hear how he completed the duet with me, his video is here, but it's just sound.


 
New drawings:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0528: "Reading Time."

Webcomic So You Write Issue 49: "Research."








New videos:

Asexuality Conference 2015: winners, updates, news, and more!
 
New photos:  

Me behind the Asexual Outreach banner, doing my table.

My workshop at the Toronto conference, where I discussed how to handle detractors.

Me with my group of pals at the Office Pub after the first day of the ace conference.

I got some coffee from Tim Horton's, which is apparently a must while in Canada.

Signing books and tabling at the asexuality conference. I signed a bunch of books and held a drawing to win a copy.

At the asexuality conference, some of us took a group photo! There were lots of people who didn't want to be in the photo or weren't there, though.

Sebastian and me at the Insomnia restaurant. They picked a very cool place to eat!

Social media counts: YouTube subscribers: 4,729 for swankivy (22 new this week), 483 for JulieSondra (5 new). Twitter followers: 659 for swankivy (1 new), 959 for JulieSondra (5 new). Facebook: 279 friends (1 new--actually two because I friended Katah and Sara, but someone must've defriended me) and 169 followers (no change) for swankivy, 579 likes for JulieSondra (9 new), 54 likes for Negative One (no change), 107 likes for So You Write (2 new). Tumblr followers: 2053 (33 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: May 9 – May 15

Life news this week: 

• I guess there's not really an official big announcement, but the Next Generation Indie Book Awards posted this list of winners and finalists recently and I'm on it, so . . . here we go, my fourth book award. I'm the winner in the LGBT category. YAyyyyYY!
  
• Saturday was Spend Money Day. I had to buy a bunch of stuff for my upcoming trip and I hate waiting for the last minute so shopping happened. Got new shoes and a new purse. I also made a new video, redecorated my apartment, and made cookies and biscuits for my mom, all on the same day. It was kind of a busy scene.
  
• Sunday was Mother's Day and I hung out with my friend Sarah in the morning (went out to eat at Panera) and then I went to my mommy's house. Where I fed her biscuits and cookies and also brought tomato soup, oh and I gave her a skirt for her present. And Lindsay came over too! Hadn't seen her since January. She stayed all day, and Patricia called on Skype so we could "hang out" with her and baby Ash, who provided quite a show for us pushing his mommy down for fun and making all his adorable babbles for us.
  
• Got some edits done on a short story that is going to be published soon and sent it in to the editor. Woo-hoo! Done!
  
• I created a contest for my Negative One webcomic readers to enter. Since the comic hits TEN YEARS AS A WEBCOMIC on May 20, I'm accepting entries into this contest and I made a little trivia quiz to go with it (helps earn points for the contest). And I drew a little illustration to accompany it. The contest is here.
  
• Jeaux Day was food at IHOP and inconsequential hanging out at my house. We're such nerds!

New reviews of my book:

• Three-star review from Rift Vegan on Goodreads.
  
• Four-star review from Eli on Goodreads.
  
• Four-star review from BooksAndTea on Goodreads.

Places featured:

• The 2015 Winners and Finalists List for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards is posted, and I'm on it.
  
• Someone on Tumblr is kinda gloating that they got their library to order my book. Thought that was kind of neat. :)

Reading progress:

• Completed reading: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. Five-star review.
• Currently reading: Filler Bunny by Jhonen Vasquez.

New singing performances:

Here I'm singing "Orinoco Flow" by Enya.


 
New drawings:

The illustration for my Ten Year Contest for Negative One.

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0522: "Birds and Bees."





New videos:


Letters to an Asexual #27: My video about aromanticism! 

New photos:  

The donut I got as a reward for winning the Next Generation Indie Book Award.

My latest wardrobe addition: Another Steven Universe shirt. (I now have four if you're counting.)

And here are my haircut comparison photos since the 15th has come and gone again:

Back, February 2014	Back, May 2015
Front, February 2014	Front, May 2015

Social media counts: YouTube subscribers: 4,584 for swankivy (19 new this week), 465 for JulieSondra (5 new). Twitter followers: 647 for swankivy (3 new), 945 for JulieSondra (1 new). Facebook: 278 friends (no change) and 163 followers (1 new) for swankivy, 557 likes for JulieSondra (2 new), 54 likes for Negative One (no change), 104 likes for So You Write (no change). Tumblr followers: 1,992 (11 new).