Roundupdate?

You may have noticed that my blog posting pace increased dramatically over the last month. That’s because I wasn’t focused on writing a book, so I plowed through all my backlogged blog ideas. Now I’m out of pre-written posts, but I want to keep updating more regularly, so I have to start generating posts again.

(You might have noticed that doing a general update is a quick and lazy way of creating a blog post. But it’s also sort of a useful brain dump for me. So enjoy!)

Book:

I’ve finished the edits based on beta reader feedback, and the thing is ready to submit. Based on advice from my mentor, I’m not starting to submit until September, though, because everyone is on vacation right now.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to get my brain back into fantasy-writing mode so that I can return to revision of my fantasy adventure novel. This will keep my mind off what agents are thinking as they read my book and I wait ot hear what they think. And it’s also a really fun switch-up from the darker material I was working with in the YA.

I’m also considering some blog posts about writing. I don’t want to present myself as an authority on the subject, but I do think some of my systems might be useful to people, as they would have been useful to me if someone had presented them to me before I went to all the effort of inventing them myself.

Works in Progress:

I actually did what I said I would (shocking!) and finished some of my works-in-progress.

The mystery birthday gift can now be revealed: it was a crocheted and beaded wrap for my mother-in-law. It was a pleasure to work on and I’m going to do so many more beaded projects now. I’m going to sparkle everywhere I go. The pattern is the Orchid Shawl by Rich Textures; the beads were my innovation.

The dorm blanket is finished, except for weaving in a few ends. This was also a fun project, and dead easy, and my son loves it.

I finished the knitted hat! It turned out I was wrong about not having enough double-pointed needles. I found two more as I was cleaning out my knitting drawers. Finishing was a quick matter, and the yarn is amazing and I would love to use it again, only I have no record of where I got it from. It’s extremely soft and has a chainette construction. I tried searching the internet for it, but no dice. It will forever remain a mystery, I guess.*

I’m now making progress on the vertex vest. I thought that I was using a smaller needles size for this — a 5 or even a 4 — based on how it makes my hands feel. The hat on the 7s didn’t hurt at all. The vest causes a definite ache in my arthritic thumb joint, and I have to be careful about how I position my thumb. But when I checked, it turned out that the vest is also on size 7s, and on Prym ergonomic needles at that. So either my hands actually prefer the standard round, wooden needles over Prym’s ergonamic, triangular, plastic ones, or simply the weight of the vest is more of an issue. I’ll have to do a side-by-side test of Pryms versus traditional needles on the same size project.

Veronica Mars:

I’ll be posting the season one finale in the next week or two! Then I’ll probably take a little break from the series while I’m in the process of moving house.

Science Fiction Double Feature:

Next up is King Kong. I’ll be watching the original Fay Wray version, followed by the 1976 version, and depending on how fed up with giant gorillas I am by that point, I may also watch the 2005 version.

To be honest, I don’t see why this is a franchise that’s had so many rebirths. It’s just a giant ape. But I’ve also never watched any of them, so maybe I’ll discover that it’s actually a super compelling story and I’ll want to watch all the giant ape content that’s out there. Maybe this will be my entree into the giant-ape-versus-giant-lizard cinematic universe.

Bundles of Joy:

I've only done one "bundle of joy" post but I want to do more, I just need to pay more attention to things that are bringing me joy. Stay tuned.

Domestic stuff:

As I mentioned, I’m moving house. We’ve had a place in Portland since 2017-ish, when my sister, her children, and my parents moved to Vancouver, Washington. I grew up in Seattle, and have always felt like the Pacific Northwest was my home during my long exile in Silicon Valley. I’m very happy to be returning there, and I adore Portland. I’m looking forward to it being my real home rather than my vacation home.

In the process, I’ll be setting up some new spaces, including the new Frog Palace for Olive and Basil, and a new sewing/craft room (which is actually a ridiculously oversized closet). I love organizing spaces, so I’m sure I’ll be posting photos and stuff on here.

I think that covers everything. I’ll try to get a more interesting post up next week, but thanks for bearing with me through this one.

*I happened across the yarn again months after writing this: it's Berroco Talara, and it's baby llama.