Recovering from emotional whiplash
Nov. 1st, 2015 07:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thrihyrneCan't believe I posted nary a word in October. In all of my 12 years of blogging, I'm not sure that's ever happened— aside from a month or two when I was in rehab twice. Still.
In many ways I feel like I'm finally at the end of half a year of treading water in an emotionally dark sea. Anger, frustration, and sadness to do with my work life, sadness and inadequacy to do with my family life. Things with Evan are wonderful and without his support, I don't doubt that I'd be in far worse shape than I am. Thankfully he is my partner, and his dependable presence in my life and inspiration as he so elegantly walks a middle path, is inspiring.
Having finally arrived at November with its cooler weather, hopefully more grey skies, and 3 work days off spread out over 3 weeks (which gives me 3 weeks in a row of Tues/Wed off, a rarity for me with my usual split days off of Wed/Sat) feels like having been given pure oxygen. I have no trips planned. Work will slow down and even though we're in yet another major upheaval and my beloved supervisor is moving to Seattle, I don't feel like I'll get blindsided by anything over the next 4 weeks.
For the first time in many years, I won't be participating in Yuletide, purely because I missed the sign ups. Ooops. OTOH, I wrote to Storm back in September or so asking about her next Wraeththu compilation and the deadline and she wrote back that she'd extended the deadline to the end of the year because she had yet to write her own submission. :) So instead of Yuletide, my aim for this month is to finish the final few scenes of 'Defender of the Way' and write an under 6000 word new Wraeththu story set within my 'Rune-Throwing' mini-universe to do with animals, as that's the focus for this compilation.
I'm part of a Dreamspinner author's group on Yahoo and due to a comment I made there about how my sequel was denied, one of the senior editors emailed me to ask for more information. She wrote that was concerned about the feedback reception and wanted to discuss further. That was gratifying, and gave me an opportunity to be candid, but also to note that it was a learning process and I've had nothing but positive experiences with all of the Dreamspinner staff. Apparently I'm not the only author of late who's received confusing or non-existent feedback with recent submissions, so perhaps there's something larger going on. Don't know. I do know that I want to write a third and final work in the Reggie/Kelp universe, and at this point I'm uncertain as to whether or not I'd submit it anywhere or self-publish again. After 3 years the rights to 'Surprised at Nothing' come back to me, so perhaps at that point I could opt to pitch the completed series somewhere. But that's a ways in the future. ;)
All in all, I'm so grateful to have survived the 6-month summer. It really does feel like having tread water/been running for weeks and weeks, and at last, I can rest and rejuvinate and recuperate. I'll definitely need to find better coping mechanisms for next year, but for right now, I'm happy and grateful.
In many ways I feel like I'm finally at the end of half a year of treading water in an emotionally dark sea. Anger, frustration, and sadness to do with my work life, sadness and inadequacy to do with my family life. Things with Evan are wonderful and without his support, I don't doubt that I'd be in far worse shape than I am. Thankfully he is my partner, and his dependable presence in my life and inspiration as he so elegantly walks a middle path, is inspiring.
Having finally arrived at November with its cooler weather, hopefully more grey skies, and 3 work days off spread out over 3 weeks (which gives me 3 weeks in a row of Tues/Wed off, a rarity for me with my usual split days off of Wed/Sat) feels like having been given pure oxygen. I have no trips planned. Work will slow down and even though we're in yet another major upheaval and my beloved supervisor is moving to Seattle, I don't feel like I'll get blindsided by anything over the next 4 weeks.
For the first time in many years, I won't be participating in Yuletide, purely because I missed the sign ups. Ooops. OTOH, I wrote to Storm back in September or so asking about her next Wraeththu compilation and the deadline and she wrote back that she'd extended the deadline to the end of the year because she had yet to write her own submission. :) So instead of Yuletide, my aim for this month is to finish the final few scenes of 'Defender of the Way' and write an under 6000 word new Wraeththu story set within my 'Rune-Throwing' mini-universe to do with animals, as that's the focus for this compilation.
I'm part of a Dreamspinner author's group on Yahoo and due to a comment I made there about how my sequel was denied, one of the senior editors emailed me to ask for more information. She wrote that was concerned about the feedback reception and wanted to discuss further. That was gratifying, and gave me an opportunity to be candid, but also to note that it was a learning process and I've had nothing but positive experiences with all of the Dreamspinner staff. Apparently I'm not the only author of late who's received confusing or non-existent feedback with recent submissions, so perhaps there's something larger going on. Don't know. I do know that I want to write a third and final work in the Reggie/Kelp universe, and at this point I'm uncertain as to whether or not I'd submit it anywhere or self-publish again. After 3 years the rights to 'Surprised at Nothing' come back to me, so perhaps at that point I could opt to pitch the completed series somewhere. But that's a ways in the future. ;)
All in all, I'm so grateful to have survived the 6-month summer. It really does feel like having tread water/been running for weeks and weeks, and at last, I can rest and rejuvinate and recuperate. I'll definitely need to find better coping mechanisms for next year, but for right now, I'm happy and grateful.