I have been so busy with my day job, that I haven’t felt like I’ve had the time to work on this blog. The spoons from my drawer are almost always in the dishwasher. I started at Intel in June, and continued to Freelance. I found myself going from a 16-24 hour a week job, to full time plus. And I was trying to be a good parent, partner, and friend too. (I may have failed in some of the non-work areas.) Most of my Freelance work is finished, except for the occasional job, and I have a bit more time to spend on myself and my family.
Of course, as soon as I got more time, I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo for the second year in a row. I started writing with the premise of the second book in the post-apocalyptic series I started last year, and I just couldn’t get into it. After working at it for three or four days, I decided to give up and start with an idea that has been rolling about my head for a long time now.
I have a mostly “Invisible” set of illnesses/disability*, and I wanted to write a book where my main character has a more visible disability. I wanted the frustrations I have with my body, and with the way people treat me to have a more visible and active voice. My main character uses crutches on occasion, but mostly gets around in a wheelchair. There have been times in the past where I thought I would end up in a wheelchair, so I have thought a lot about accessibly and the pain in the ass that comes with our mostly non-assessable world. I also wanted to write a fun story where I could talk about cool old buildings, house restoration, drag-queens, and the friendships that come about through weird situations.
One of the things that I want to do with my writing is have people start to see groups that are marginalized and considered fringe, or abnormal, as normal. (Not that we need to be “normal” per-say, but it would be nice to been seen as a valid and functional human, so I guess that is my version of normal.) This means that my characters are queer, people of color (POC), disabled, or have mental illness. I am not writing these characters to get a rise out of people, or be sensational, I am writing about their (our) lives because they (we) are the people that I identify with. Not being a normalized person makes sense to me.
So, that is what I am doing this month. I am working my tail off at a job that I love, a job that I finally get to use my schooling for, and a job that I think I am getting pretty good at; I am also in the process of writing my fifth book. So bear with me a little longer, and hopefully, I’ll have more time for this blog as the winter continues. I miss writing here, and I miss interacting with you — yes you, my awesome readers.
As always, I thank you for reading.
*I have a social/general anxiety disorder, Fibromyalgia, Meniere’s disease, Gilbert’s disease, suffer from migraines, and I’m allergic to most of the world. If anyone was interested.
I wondered when you would the blog again. Thanks
I’m going to try to get a post out once a week. There is SCIENCE! and other fun things to catchup on.