RITA ® Award-Winning Author of Fantasy Romance
//Looking at some of my metrics for the year and the implications. Also a discussion of ideas for writing, how it’s different for newbie writers, how you know if an idea is good, and how to keep track of ideas.
//I’m talking about epistolary books today – both fiction and nonfiction, and the various styles – along with some recommendations from my recent reading binge. I’m still looking for more recs!
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As we wind down the last few days of 2022, looking forward to a new year and the waxing of the light, this week at the SFF Seven we’re offering thoughts or blessings for the year that has been or the year to come.
For me, 2022 delivered a kick of a ramp-up back to life closer to pre-pandemic levels. Though spring started slowly, with several in-person conferences canceled, I was able to return to hanging again with other writers in person in April at the Jack Williamson Lectureship. It was SO GOOD TO PEOPLE AGAIN. One of the great lessons of the pandemic for me has been how much of my social life depends on conferences and conventions. (Can I just call them both “cons” for short? What even is the difference?)
Seeing people in-person again meant I also made new friends this year, which has brought light into my life I didn’t realize I was lacking. Not unlike as the days grow longer and sunshine returns, warming the earth, and you begin to realize just how long and dark the winter has been.
I had a less productive year, wordcount-wise – in fact, my lowest year ever for wordcount, though I’ll give final numbers next week – but it looks like it will be my best income year ever. So, looking ahead at goals for next year, I’m considering decoupling my wordcount goals from my sense of success and focusing on what makes me most comfortable financially.
{{Content Warning: eating and body image}}
I’m also completing a year of 16/8 intermittent fasting, where I fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8-hour window. I also vastly decreased added sugars from my diet. I’m thrilled with the results. I’m down 18 pounds since January 3, 2022, 16 pounds of that from body fat, and I’m down over 4″ around my waist and hips. It feels like really healthy weight loss, like I’m no longer so insulin-resistant, and I just feel tons better overall.
{{Content over}}
While in many ways, it’s been a difficult year, the work I did at the end of 2021 to break the stress cycle has really paid off. While we’re facing the loss of our senior cat Isabel, who is 17 and declining, we’ve also welcomed in a new life, with kitten Killian joining our household. So many wonderful things have happened to me this year – including wonderful people entering my life – that it feels truly miraculous.
I’m grateful for the blessings of 2022 and eagerly look forward to what 2023 will bring.
//Introducing our new Maine coon kitten: Killian! There are kitten shenanigans, and also some discussion of writing – my year-end reevaluations, how good (or not) my data is, and thoughts for next year’s priorities.
//Placed FIRST in the short erotica category in Oklahoma Romance Writers of America’s first annual International Digital Awards contest
Can a woman wedded to staying in control risk giving it up?
Taylor Hamilton lives for her successful career. It’s the one thing she can control and she does it very well. She has no room in her life for anything else, especially messy personal relationships.
Adam Kirliss has had his eye on Taylor for some time—and has utterly failed at catching hers. Until he takes advantage of a wild night on a yacht, handcuffing her to the rail in the dark, and demonstrating just how distracting he can be.
Much as Taylor attempts to deny that she loved how Adam made her feel, she can’t resist the challenge he issues: a date, where she follows all of his rules. After experiencing exquisite pain and pleasure at Adam’s hands, Taylor discovers that the real danger is to her heart.
Torn between control and fulfillment, Taylor wrestles with offering the deepest intimacy of all…
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This week at the SFF Seven, we’re talking joy!
As in, three things that give us joy. As many of you know, I’m a big fan of making decisions based on what will yield the greatest happiness. Thus choosing the happy means a lot of things in my life bring me joy. But I’ll try to keep it finite.
I am so blessed.
//I’m doing a deep dive into Taoism today, comparing translations, and talking about concepts of desire and letting go in terms of my year-end evaluation and setting goals for next year.
//Talking a bit more about AI-generated art in context of the clip-art crisis of the early 90s and why I’m not worried about AI’s creatively supplanting humans. Also a CW-flagged discussion later re: intermittent fasting.
//Looking back at where I was this time last year and how I really have reduced my stress levels. Also, the difference between writing short and writing long and how not all craft/skill approaches work for both.
//More on worldbuilding – including my thoughts on how we worldbuild in EVERY genre, even nonfiction – and how this is the ninth secondary fantasy world I’ve built and trying to be at peace with *research*.
