spiderplanet

It's been months since I last posted, but I thought I'd better let all of you know that I'm still alive and kicking.

My days have been busy. The way my schedule works at Anoka County, I basically work every other day. This feels especially true on a week like this last one, when I worked both Saturday and Sunday. The job continues to be FINE. It's not terribly much more than that? But, it's also decidedly not awful. I like books and libraries? Since all I do is shelve books, I have leaned into that and just spend my shift rather idly straightening shelves, double-checking my work (aka light shelf reading), and browsing. Alas, Northtown is small enough that there's not a lot that catches my attention, but, again, it doesn't suck. I've learned to do a couple of other bits of work, like a thing they call "wanding" (which is basically a fancier way to shelf read) and so it's not ENTIRELY boring.

But, it's pretty boring.

Still, it could be worse and I'm grateful for the work.

I'm also slightly busier in my off time than I usually am because I'm once again rehearsing for a show. Remember that gig I had last November where I read a story that was then set to a kind of musical accompaniment? Well, I'm doing that again, with the same organizer (Cole Sarar) but with  a new musician, Caly McMorrow, in the Space Lounge at Convergence! As much as I love my super villian adopts a cat story, I decided to better match Cole's missive style story and will be reading "Sincerely, Yours" a short story of mine that appeared in The Reinvented Heart. If you're going to be at Convergence: the performance will be on Friday, July 4, at 12:30 pm in the Space Lounge. (Convergence runs from July 2-5, 2026 and will be at the Hyatt Regency, Minneapolis, MN (1300 Nicollet Mall.)  This story routinely makes me cry when I read it out loud, but so far I've been able to recover enough to get through to the end. Practice does seem to be helping. 

I've read a couple of things since the last time I've posted on a Wednesday, including a book that should be coming out soon which I was able to get an advanced copy of--Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher, which I whole-heartedly recommend. I have not caught up on all the clockwork/swordheart books and I can tell you that doesn't matter one whit. I mean, maybe it's not the best jumping in point? But, it worked okay for me! Pre-order it now? I would for the pillbug alone! (And yes, I said what I said.) I'm also finally reading Witch Hat Atelier. Don't hate me because it's popular. I can still happily say that I bounced out of Demon Slayer, Fieren, and Solo Leveling. So, I'm still the same complete loser you once knew. 

Work has definitely slowed my ability to get much writing done. When I sit down at the end of the day, I really don't want to do anything hard. I really don't know how I managed to write so many books while working full-time. All I can say is that I was younger then. Much younger. 

I have been drawn back into some fic writing, but I don't know what that means. I might be gearing up into figuring out how to do this while working a Real Job (tm) or it's just a sign that I was not lying when I said that I will never NOT write. 

Gaming persists. I'm trying to find a good date that will work for people to do a one-shot in D&D. And, god help me, I'm still running a Thirsty Sword Lesbians campaign on Tuesday nights, which probably means that one of those Tuesdays is coming up again soon. Tuesdays are a day that I always work, so I have come screeching home, jump out of the car, slam food into my mouth, and basically start running a game.  (We game at 7 pm; I arrive home from my commute at 6:30 pm.) Luckily, with TSL I have fully become a GM who is like, "Notes? Who needs notes? I run on VIBES."

There's probably a bunch more I could catch you up on, but this is what I know at the moment. I mostly just wanted to post so that you all knew that both myself (and my computer) are alive and well.