BIG THINGS ACHIEVED THIS WEEK: The first week and a half of January has been a bit of a mess for me–lots of disruptions to work habits, lots of anxiety about upcoming thesis milestones and presentations. Which, in turn, has leant itself to a god deal of practastiprojects between hammering away at my draft (although, thankfully, having just read Rest, I’m at least able to understand how the downtime has been helping).
I’m on the third draft of a conference paper at the moment–and this one, at least, seems to have the content in the right order. I’ve also done a massive notebook cull, which saw approximately 70 notebooks leave the apartment and the rest nicely arranged in blank and ongoing-project boxes.
I’ve finally eliminated spiral binding from my life–something that brings an incredible amount of relief and frees up a lot of mental space I didn’t know those old notebooks were occupying.
I’ve also divested myself of cheap, 8mm rule notebooks that I’ve been holding onto just in case I need them. Given the number of notebooks in the blank’s box (aka, that one on the left), I don’t think I’m going to hit that kind of emergency any tie soon.
STATE OF THE WRITING PROJECTS: I’m off to the Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia conference on the Gold Coast on the 22nd, which means 90% of my focus is being spent working on the paper I’m scheduled to deliver there. I think I’m through the literature review part–the bit that I find hardest–and onto the stage where I just get to talk about my sample texts.
CURRENT EARWORM: My partner has been singing snatches of Kool and the Gang’s Jungle Boogie all work, and it’s been waging a war with Morris Day and the Time’s Jungle Love as the ear worm du jour.
CURRENT READING: Given the focus of my paper, I’m re-reading Elizabeth Bear’s New Amsterdam series and both books in the Cheshire Red duology from Cherie Priest.
BEST SCREEN MEDIA OF THE WEEK: The Marie Kondo Netflix series has made the biggest impact this week, kicking my partner and I off on a long-overdue attempt to try and sort out the apartment. That said, it’s hard to past Season Three of Lucifer as the best thing I’ve watched this week–the show impresses me with its capacity to reinvent itself every season, and it’s willingness to keep trying new combinations of characters in scenes rather than relying on established pairings.
It is, quite frankly, one of the best spec fic TV shows that I’ve seen in probably two decades.
EMAIL INBOX STATUS: 51 emails plus a handful of messenger notifactions and texts I haven’t processed. Anxiety-driven weeks are hard on my inbox habits, given my tendency to turtle up and ignore the outside world. Fridays are being being declared an admin and planning day for the foreseeable future, so I’m hoping I can get that reigned in today.
WHAT AM I LOOKING FORWARD TO RIGHT NOW? December and January have seen an uptick in book sales for Brain Jar Press, and I suspect it’s got a lot to do with it being the time of year where people buy multiple books at once. Regardless of the reasons, I’m looking forward to that cash hitting my account in February, where it will give me a decent buffer to risk on marketing on various platforms.
