I’ve discovered Mastodon Okay, that isn’t that thrilling a discovery. Many people are there before me. But if you’re interested, here’s my link. You can follow me. Or not. As you wish. Invite link: https://mastodonbooks.net/invite/f4hNYW5n Image by F. Muhammad from Pixabay

I have a ton of books on my kindle that I either haven’t read or read so long ago that they have lost their ‘read’ status. So rather than spend money I don’t necessarily have, I decided I should try to read what I’ve got.

Deciding to quit is tough for me. I was raised to believe that winners never quit. But in just the last few years I’ve realized that quitting things that aren’t working works for me.

Sometimes reading email is a chore, and other times, it’s a delight. Today was one of the latter days.

My tastes in reading have changed. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise, but it was to me.

I never used to like the phrase “it is what it is.” It seemed like something people would say when they were dismissing my very real anger or frustration. Or something they would say when they were trying to pretend they weren’t feeling anger or frustration themselves. I know now that the reason I didn’t like the phrase was because I didn’t understand it. I hadn’t truly lived it. Along came 2020.

A friend of mine calls the folks arbitrarily buying up every random thing in the store (e.g. TP and bottled water) “panic hoarders.” Honestly, that is an excellent name for them. I mean, I understand the people frantically buying Purell by the gallon (why, oh why didn’t I buy stock in Purell???), but bottled water? Did Covid-19 get into the plumbing? I guess I will invest in a LifeStraw. That way I can drink from the creek in my backyard.

It’s been a long time coming, but Digital Dryad is nearly ready for me to show it to agents and publishers. I’ve gotten some amazing feedback from my alpha readers and the Barnsian Nobility (my writing group) and it’s turned this story into something I’m proud of. Of course, that means that if I share it with an agent or publisher, they will likely 1) ignore it/me 2) trash it. At least that’s what I’m afraid will happen.

I’ve written 50,366 words in November 2019. I’m a little under half way through the novel. It’s been fun, and not really all that stressful. I had hoped to cross the 50K mark a little earlier in the month, but life got in the way. However, it’s all moot as I’ve proven to myself for the third time now that I can write a good chunk of a novel in 30 days if I just push myself to do it.

This year I discovered that outlining is my jam. In August, I finished Digital Dryad (currently in editing and alpha readers). I had been working on that novel since around 2009, but I was able to complete the entire second draft–a complete rewrite from scratch–in around 28 days. That novel is currently 79,000 words. I was able to write this draft so quickly because I created a comprehensive outline first.