Friday Status Post: 15 Feb 2019

BIG THINGS ACHIEVED THIS WEEK: A few hours ago I passed through my mid-candidature review for the PhD, which means I’m about halfway through my thesis (slightly more than halfway through my scholarship, but these things don’t necessarily sync due to the way PhDs are assessed from what I’m gathering).

I’ve stuck to my writing schedule really well, and established a system for prioritising projects and figuring out what’s achievable in 2019 and what needs to be moved to next year’s to-do list (there’s more details in this week’s newsletter if you’re curious).

I’ve also been gearing up for the first Short Fiction Lab release, Winged, with Sharp Teeth, heading into a wide release once it’s Amazon exclusive period is up in about 48 hours time.

The gains in reading time after implementing some of the advice from Digital Minimalism continue to add up. Two weeks ago I’d finished maybe two or three books for the year–now I’m up to 14 and starting to feel a bit more like the kind of reader I like to think of myself as being.

STATE OF THE WRITING PROJECTS: I’ve been tinkering with a particular short story for about a decade, on-and-off. One of those drafts that was good, but never quite hit the point I wanted it to hit, and has gone through various permeations while I tried to fix that. Over the last week I’ve been doing a fresh draft of it, playing with a new structure and tone that seem to be working (finally), and I’m hoping to get it out to first readers in the next seven days.

CURRENT EARWORM: I caught up with friends after mid-candidature and the musician playing in the cafe did a fantastic cover of Sweet Child of Mine, which has done a great job of getting the song stuck in my head.

CURRENT READING: Catherynne M. Valente’s Indistinguishable from Magic, an essay and blog post collection. Thus far, a lot of great stuff about writing, including an online essay I’ve searched for and linked too every time I’ve run a workshop on character. Also some stuff that is showing it’s age with regards to the ebook/indie publishing debates that raged around 2011 or so…but this is an increasingly common thing when reading books written prior to 2015 or so.

BEST SCREEN MEDIA OF THE WEEK: You know, I’m really not sure. This has not been a big week of watching TV–almost all the time I’d have spent doing that has been turned towards reading.

EMAIL INBOX STATUS: Totally cleared and up-to-date last time I checked, but that was a few hours ago. Bringing the inbox back to zero has become a daily habit that I’m really pleased about, though.

WHAT AM I LOOKING FORWARD TO RIGHT NOW? The new season of The Dragon Prince is scheduled to drop on Netflix real soon, along with the Umbrella Academy series. I’m kinda between TV series at the moment, outside of my weekly watching of Riverdale, but I’m looking forward to some gleeful nerdery when these hit my account.