Good morning, Readers!

Image by Evgeni Tcherkasski from Pixabay ​

I feel like I haven't blogged here in ages. Of course, it's been the usual three days away from the blog over the weekend, but for some reason, I feel like I've been absent for a while. What to say for myself?

Well, I've finally finished editing the first manuscript for a friend. I have to send that along to them today. That's good. That means I can make a start on the next manuscript. Once that's done, I can return to my own writing, which I put off because I was juggling too many things all at once for a while there.

My leather working stuff is coming along. I have used up all the soft leather I had, and am now moving to the stiffer leather. It's still too thin to really carve, so I'm just tooling. It's a good project that uses my hands, and I was missing that a lot. It will take me a lot longer to do than the soft leather ones, obviously, as there are designs to stamp in, but I've done more than half of it already.

I've been binging InuYasha of late. For more than a week, in fact. I'm almost finished the entire story, and I have thoughts, people. I'll probably discuss them in my allotted blogging spot on Black Gate magazine.

I'm hating the weather, of course, and I am thanking my lucky stars that I have some air-conditioning in the house. I'm sad we don't have functioning air-conditioning everywhere in the house, because leaving my bedroom when it's miserably hot and humid like this is not fun. Though, with the sound of cicadas, the heat and the humidity, I've been getting Christmas carols stuck in my head.

Because, you know, this is Christmas weather in Australia.

Frankly, though, Australia, I'd like you to take it back.

Oh, I had to buy a new keyboard. The old one used to get the 'a' key stuck all the time, which was frustrating. Whenever I wanted to write something, there'd just be a whole bunch of random 'a' in between letters of words, making it look like some sort of secret code or something. Not how I want to be writing important emails and such. It got worse this weekend. Not only was the 'a' key sticking. But so too the 'n' the 'y' the spacebar and delete buttons. Which means if I wanted to his space bar, it would go on not just the once I tapped it, but ad infinitum. Unless I pressed another key. If I happened to press the delete button, the same thing would happen and everything I had written would bet deleted. It was frustrating and boy did I let my vexation out in a string of very blue words. Still, I have a new keyboard now. It was an expense I didn't really need at the moment, but there was no helping it. I wouldn't be able to get my work done if I didn't.

Grumble.

And that was my weekend. Right, there are a couple of pitches I have to prepare, and there is also a whole lot of job hunting I need to be doing. I'm off to go do those things. Have yourselves a great Monday.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I'm over on my other blog, talking about my first failed attempt at a new project.

Good morning, Readers!

Image by Richard Norris from Pixabay ​

Isn't the photo beautiful? It's from Cornwall in the UK. I just think it's lovely.

Anyway, I am utterly exhausted today. I stayed up quite a bit later than I usually do, working on a project, trying to figure out how to do a thing. It turned out okay. Not great, but okay. I think I can do this thing. I just need to get it refined. Leather is not a cheap thing to practice on, so I'm kinda annoyed at myself for screwing up as much as I did. It's not all a loss, though. The project works and I can use it for my own stuff, so if nothing else, I've made myself a thing.

I had intended to write a huge long blog post examining why a show I'm watching right now works for me, despite all the things in it that would normally irritate the hell out of me, but considering I almost put my coffee grinds in my breakfast bowl instead of my French press this morning, I'm not really up for any real thinking. I'm not going to examine reasons for anything today,

Today, I'm just going to write my blog posts, edit that manuscript, do some exercise, and then do my second attempt at that project, and then sleep for a hundred years.

Right, I'm off.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

My excellent publisher Renaissance Press is putting on another virtual convention!

The last one this summer was a great success, so they're doing it again. Which I think is great.

Of course, they need volunteers to help them out. Some of the things they're looking for are:

• Panel Ideas
• Help with close captioning/subtitles
• Panel moderators
• Help with the website

I'll let you read all about it here. Please lend a hand if you can.

Right, editing to do. I'm off.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Image by Ria Sopala from Pixabay ​

I spent all of yesterday in bed, in my room where there is air-conditioning, rewatching Inuyasha.

Last week was pretty much a bust for me. I did the bare minimum work required before stopping for the day and losing my brain to television. Happily, though, I am almost done the manuscript I've been reading through for a friend, and I can finally start on the next one.

Anyway, I didn't really want to talk about that.

Last week, a friendly acquaintance got in contact with me, noting that they, like myself, have finally figured out that they fall somewhere on the asexual spectrum. They've had a bit of push-back from friends, who appear keen to erase asexuality and its variants. This makes me so sad. I've had similar push back from loved ones, a huge fights where those who claimed to care about me couldn't be bothered to do the research and instead insisted that I was wrong somehow, or broken in need of fixing; invalidated, erased. It was really tough. Like, really tough. My therapist made a whole lot of money from me.

In the end, I had to walk away from that particular relationship.

It was hard and harrowing, and if I didn't have the friends I had, and the circle of support that I did, I might not have escaped the abuse, not without hanging by my own belt from a rafter. It was hard.

That was, in part, why I blogged about it so much. I was the only asexual person I knew in my circles. I felt so alone and lonely. I spent years believing exactly what my now ex-friend believed - that I was wrong somehow. Broken in need of fixing. It was a profound relief when I discovered that actually, I'm not alone. I'm so not alone, in fact, that there is even a label for the thing that I am. And if it took me until I was in my thirties to come across this information, to find out that actually, I'm perfectly fine, how many others out there are similarly struggling?

Blogging about it let me sort it all out, and if even one person who felt as I did stumbled across my posts and discovered they were not, in fact alone in the world, then good. I achieved something worthwhile.

It's gratifying when people reach out to me to let me know that I did, in fact, help, even if in some small way.

I'm not saying this to pat myself on the back, but rather to express sadness. Sadness that it's 2020, and people like me are still struggling to find acceptance - even if not belief - from our supposed friends and family. That it's 2020 and people who navigate the world like I do are still feeling erased and ostracised. Still.

It also makes me angry. People like me are your friends. Surely if you claim to love and care for them, you'd do the research instead of dismissing them outright.

Asexuality is real.

Anyway, I'm annoyed and saddened on behalf of the person who reached out to me; angry because a fundamental part of themselves has been soundly rejected by folks who ought to care for them. Sad because they've contemplated leaving those relationships, and that is hard and harrowing and if they don't have a good place to land amongst good, kind folks, it might be impossible.

So, if there are any asexuals reading this, feel free to drop a link in the comments to your asexual communities - the safe places you've found when you landed. In person meet-up in the Ottawa-Gatineau region are especially welcome (even if you're on hiatus because of Covid).

That is all I've got today. I'm off to go edit stuff.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I've gone and blogged about my art on my art site about a piece I did while I was out of town getting some much needed relaxation at the cottage. A cottage. Away from the city.

​Anyway, here it is.

Good morning, Readers!

I'm over at Black Gate magazine today, this time with aa short story.

Remember a while ago when I asked for story prompts for a sort-of communal writing jam? Yeah, well, neither did I until recently. I had a month to work on this, and so naturally I completely forgot about until the week it was due. University essays all over again. Nevertheless, I figured I’d try my hand at it anyway.

This was the only prompt I received:

She impatiently checked her watch, sighing and rolling her eyes as burning debris rained onto the ground around her.

Many thanks again to Jaina for that prompt.

Short stories are not my strong suit, so it’s probably going to be stupidly rough and less than brilliant. I’ve not written a short story in a long, long time. So, if you’re reading it, feel free to have a good chuckle at my expense.

I tried. Also, I’m terrible at titles.
​
If you can do better (and I don’t think that’d be difficult), link to your story in the comments!