TL;DR: No action items for you. If you have questions or concerns about anything relating to your order please email [email protected]. I'm giving you all another chapter to read. The chapter can be accessed by clicking over to Backerkit and logging in. The Motivation Problem is now available to people who have the lecture bundle. Stickers have arrived! Your next update will be the week of February 10- 14. Details below.
Details
January is frequently a heavy month for me. Deep winter sometimes lands me in depression. I miss daylight, warmth, and flowers. This particular January had an accumulation of variously-sized hardships that piled on top of the general winter malaise. (tendinitis in one shoulder, tight finances, a car repair bill, ongoing diet restrictions, etc.) And then this past week the national news has been a barrage of anxiety-inducing headlines. Some of them are just that: headline news designed to catch my eyes but with little real-world impact. Other headlines warn of things that are going to have long-term affects on the lives of me and people I love. At the moment it is hard to tell which are which, what I should be jumping into action about, and what I should wait-and-see. The uncertainty, winter, and hardship of it all are not helping me get this book done for all of you.
Nevertheless, I have managed some persistence. The caregiving, health, and Grief chapters are done. I thought seriously about skipping the chapter I'd titled "When Things Go Sour" cutting it from the book so that I could move on to Conclusion, Introduction, and Chapter 1. I so want to be done with this re-write pass. However when I looked at the chapter, I realized there were some important things still to say. So the chapter is re-titled "When Creative Work Hurts" and I'm in the midst of talking about the impacts of emotional injury on creative work and what we can do to consciously assist in healing those injuries.
Having all the heavy chapters land in a heavy month has been both good and hard. I'm feeling the need to get these chapters right. I don't know if "right" is even possible here. I'll settle for "useful"
I have something fun to show you. The stickers arrived! They are heavier duty than I'd anticipated. These stickers are very solid rather than being a thin washi paper. But I think those of you who have stickers in your order will like them. I still need to put in orders for the notebooks, bookmarks, and notecards. I'm focusing on finishing SLSC first.
I've uploaded another lecture for those of you who have the Lecture Bundle. You all now have access to The Motivation Problem and should have gotten an email about it.
I have two weeks before my entire focus is completely eaten by teaching at LTUE and then running the expo hall for StoryCon. I'm planning to dig in and get as much done as possible on SLSC before that happens. Of course I'm also going to have my throat scoped to check whether the restricted diet is resolving my EOE, and I'm working to set up for launching a Schlock book Kickstarter at the end of February, and I'm in the midst of shipping out 1200 packages to the people who backed the last Schlock book Kickstarter.
So ... I need to take my own advice and be kind to myself about how much I do and don't get done in the next two weeks. No matter how it turns out, I'll give you an other update the week of February 10-14. It will likely be a very small update considering everything else, but I'll plan to give you a more detailed one after the events are over.
Thank you so much for being my supporters! When I'm in the middle of the hard and worrisome stuff, sometimes I pause and remember how you all showed up for me and believe in this book. It really helps carry me forward. All the Best, Sandra
Small promo: Deadline is coming to apply for the Writing Excuses Scholarship. You have until January 31. Don't miss your chance to have expenses covered for one of these amazing retreats! writingexcuses.com/scholarships/ You can find out more about the retreats here: https://writingexcuses.com/retreats/ I'll be teaching at the Minnesota Retreat and would love to have friendly faces there.
