It’s hot as hell in Brisbane today and we’ve been struggling to get our air conditioning repaired for nearly two months now. Master Librarian Radish Loki Izar has responded by hiding in the top of our wardrobe where it’s cool, occasionally poking his head out to make sure everyone else is ticking along.
He hopes you’re having a safe and comfortable December. As always, the holiday season is a reminder that you don’t owe family your time, and have a right to your own boundaries.
Let’s look at the state of the honeydew for a second.
WARHOL SLEEPING
The first chapter went live yesterday, moving us into the story proper. I forgot Patreon really dislikes scene breaks, which means four separate scenes appear as a single block of text. I’ve gone in and edited things for clarity, so it should read normally now—if you checked things out yesterday and couldn’t figure out the flow, it might be worth another look.
Warhol Sleeping is the least commercial writing project I’ve ever done, which is saying something given my back-catalogue includes novellas about unicorn snuff flicks and a long streak of post-modern, “assemble your own meaning” discontinuous short stories. It’s also been sitting in my works-in-progress folder for over a decade, one of those projects I love just enough that I want to finish it, but never really had a good reason to give it time.
As the PhD finishes up, it’s a test-run for the way I’d like to run the Patreon in 2024. There’s a lot of thinking that’s been going on in the background since early in the year, waiting until I had time, and I’m aiming to build up to a new normal here around March.
THE THESIS OF DOOM
The next-to-final version of my thesis went off to my supervisors yesterday, so they can give it a last look over before I turn the fucker in. Two novellas, one critical essay, which added up to a hundred and eight thousand words. I sat down and had a cry after mailing the draft off, because I never actually thought I’d get this close to having the thesis done after COVID hit. It got back burnered again and again, to where I thought they had turfed me from the program, and only some panicked emails when they officially started the kick-me-out process in May got me the window to finish it.
Now, seven months later, it’s almost done. The official submission deadline in December 31, but I predict I’ll get it in before Christmas. Either way, the project that’s occupied almost all my mental real estate for the last eight years is nearly done.
I can’t wait to devote all that brain space to new projects. Nor can I wait to share some of the thesis project here, once I’m cleared to do so (I was going to launch the first of these in January, but submission protocols suggest that waiting until I’ve complexed the thesis is completed will involve far less paperwork).
ECLECTIC PROJECTS ISSUE 5
I’ve finished proofing and have a bunch of corrections to add to the file, but this should be out before Christmas (with issue 6 hot on its heels). Running behind because our household got hit with COVID in the week I’d earmarked to complete things, and everything became PhD focused when unexpected corrections and rewrites showed up.
I’m taking this weekend off from hardcore writing because my brain is burnt out, but I’ll begin drafting new stories on Monday.
WRITING ABOUT WRITING
It’s neem a long while since I’ve done some serious writing about writing and publishing, but I’ve been noodling with a bunch of thoughts and ideas tangentially related to the thesis. I’ve been reading huge amounts about subscription models as my break from the thesis drafting, and thoughts are slowly cludging together into something coherent.
If you’ve been hanging out for some writig about writing/publishing, it’ll be back on the menu real soon.
