I'm still alive. Haven't been creating much lately. Finding it hard to focus and/or motivate. I have been dancing a bit. Getting into my body gets me out of my brain.

Been pretty sick the last few days. I spent a lot of time cuddling with my cats on the couch. This has resulted in my sneezing on them many times. After apologizing I explained that they can't get sick from me, and I can't get sick from them. Except for rabies, which none of us has... yet.

We had a little work thing this week where they were trying to get us excited about using AI. Most of the examples were work related, but one person said that in her personal life she used AI to help her write a bereavement letter. Absolutely not.

Focusing on my community today. I have a lot and that's the only thing getting me through this. Give people hugs, let them know you care.

I know we currently need art, but I haven’t been able to write lately. I have been able to dance through. Being entirely in my body and out of my head is very helpful.

I'm not religious, but I have a lot of respect for the way our local congregations have stepped up. Organizing to help our neighbors who are targeted by this horrible administration and their agents.

Keep fostering your community. Get to know your neighbors, help them when you can and accept help when you need it. Love is bigger than hate. ❤️❤️

Haven't been able to get any writing done with the world the way that it is. I know it might actually help me calm down, but I'm a dancer before I'm a writer and so I've been doing that instead. Stay safe everyone.

Happy New Years Eve all! Hoping I can keep up with the writing habit this year, but I'm not going so far as to call it a resolution. I'm also giving myself a lot more wiggle room, not trying to finish a novel in 11 months again. That felt like a lot.

Got the smallest amount of writing done. But I also made a prelim outline and some character background work, so that's something.

My sister has safely returned to DC ahead of the snowstorm this morning. She was here for a week, which was very fun. The holidays are great, but it's also nice to get back to normal. Hope to actually get some writing done today. We shall see.

Spent the day making holiday treats. Packaged the various chocolate barks that sat in the fridge overnight. Made a bunch of special k bars (aka scotcheroos, wow I have no clue how to spell that).

Newest book taken off the TBR pile: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. One of the more recently added books. Was suggested to me because what I’ve been working on also has some animal narrators. Really liking that aspect of the book so far.

Oops, haven’t posted for a bit. Work’s been busy, but after tomorrow I’ll be off until the week after Christmas. I really need to make some holiday treats!

I've taken the day off of work. With my extra time shall I: A) start writing the new novel brewing in my head B) keep researching agents to query C) read the newest book checked out from the library Whichever it is, it will wait until this afternoon. First I'm getting a massage.

Felt a little under the weather today. Still got some work done, and even shoveled the back walkway. I ignored that though a few snowfalls since I’m the only one back there. Nice to have it done though.

Making some peppermint bark today. The first two years I did this I unwrapped and hand crushed candy canes. I’m not sure if they didn’t yet sell these pre-crushed ones, or if I just didn’t know about them.

Went to a Jolabarnabal today. Ate a lot of good food and sang songs that I couldn't really sing along with because I do not actually know Icelandic. My niece had an excellent time. She's 3.

With my manuscript temporarily out of my hands I'm leaning back into my other hobbies. Tonight it's Magic The Gathering, going to some Friday Night Magic draft tonight. I never watched Avatar, but the set is feeling pretty fun so far.

I promise I will soon have a real profile pic, but since this is my potential author account I would like it to actually be my face. Getting a picture I approve of that features my face is difficult. I'll get there eventually.

Finally tackling some of the backlog of my TBR pile. Currently about halfway through Gideon the Ninth. I can see why all my reading friends are fans.

Writing a query letter is definitely more stressful than writing a novel.

I've spent most of the last year working on a novel as part of the Loft Literary Center's year long writing project. I turned in my manuscript earlier this week. I'm going to take a little bit of time off from thinking about my novel to recharge, then I'll be researching agents. Woo.