Writing update

Hi everyone! As I’m writing this (Tuesday 5th), I’m still in Malaysia, spending my last few days here in a hotel room, waiting eagerly to go. But when you read it, I’m back in Sweden, in another hotel since we won’t get the keys to our new home until tomorrow (Tuesday 12th). We’re eager to start our new lives, and you can expect updates from how I cope with the darkness and the cold that is Sweden in winter 🙂

Anyway. After not writing a single word during the month of October, I’m now writing again. I’m planning a new project: a collection of short stories revolving around a common theme. Books! It will be previously unpublished short stories and I want to bundle them together so I’ll reach a word count high enough for the book to be available in print as well as ebook.

And I’ve started writing my first short story for this collection. It’s called Late Night Poetry, and the tagline is “A love story told in answering machine messages.” It’s set in 1990, hence the answering machine, and it’s about two young men, Sully and Lou, who used to be together but they broke up because Lou isn’t out and his parents wouldn’t accept him if they knew he was gay. And after Lou broke up with Sully, Lou starts calling and leaving messages on Sully’s answering machine.

As I write this, I’m at 3415 words, but it’s entirely possible that I’m finished with the story when you read this. I have several other ideas (at least three) for short stories to go into this collection.

And for the first time in a long time, I’m not writing for a submission call, so I don’t have a deadline. I think I’ll enjoy that…at least for a while 🙂

After my month off, I really enjoy writing again which is a sign that we mustn’t forget to take care of ourselves. I have an entire list of self-care things in my bullet journal, things that makes me feel better when I’m stressed or down, and I’ve done plenty of the items on the list this past month. Like re-reading my favorite books, or searching for “fluff” on AO3, or listening to music I love.

Tell me about something that you do when you need to engage in self-care. 🙂