The Nativity by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621-1674)
Hello everyone!
First I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and I hope you are doing well. Our country is struggling and I don’t think we’re going to head out of this recession any time soon, especially with our current leadership. But who am I kidding? I live in California-the capital of BS.
Anyway, I will try to provide a monthly update on what I am doing behind the scenes while I explore my brain a whole lot more now that we can’t go into places of business or worship without wearing a mask again. Not trying to soapbox but I’ve had COVID-19 back in October (which is why I missed a few weeks of posting). To be honest, yes I got sick but didn’t have to go to the hospital for anything. I had body chills, loss of taste and smell, and nausea for a few weeks. And you know what? After having it, I can honestly say it was not that big of a deal. The flu made me sicker.
To NFT or not?
So I was reading a post by Elle Griffin about publishing on Mirror and turning chapters of your book into purchasable NFT’s and was inspired to test out this avenue. Elle is notorious for making me consider other avenues for my writing (it’s the reason why I’m here on substack). She recently started publishing on there and made some Ethereum through it as well.
It’s no secret that being a writer/author is tough going, especially if you want to quit your day job because most book authors don’t make livable wages off of what they write. Sad, I know but it’s the truth. Needless to say, I keep writing for free. Ugh, I know! And I just complained about writing and livable wages. So I’m looking into this NFT thing. If I take the plunge, you’ll be the first to know.
Updates on The Nationalist
I’m still going with this one. I think the chapters are a bit long for online reading but perfect for book format. Still, I’m going to leave it as-is and do only the self-edits I plan to do as I release each chapter. I think I’ve actually gone through this whole manuscript at least once already. Yes, it is fully written but needs professional editing. But it sits at 90,000 or so words and may end up being more because there are chapters I’m thinking of editing further or omitting altogether. So, as far as publishing this, maybe a little further into the future.
Not reading The Nationalist? Click here and start on Chapter 1.
Updates on The Shoes that Charlotte Wore
Still writing the first draft! Currently at 40,000 words and I’m shooting for 60k. We’ll see how it goes because I have about 5 chapters left to write and each chapter is on the shorter side (compared to the Nationalist). I plan to send this manuscript in for professional editing once I’m done and then either self-publish or shoot it over to 20 or so publishers and agents and see if I get a bite. In addition, I’m thinking of changing the title in the future. I just don’t know if people will understand what kind of horror/fantasy I’m pushing with a title about some girl’s shoes. So if I keep the title the same, then the book cover artwork will have to portray to the reader what they are getting into.
Not reading TSTCW? Click here and start on Chapter 1.
Personal Life
I’ve been doing a lot of baking lately. I made bagels for the first time ever last night and they came out really good but a little denser than I expected. I have some ripe bananas I’m going to mash up for some bread later today and I started my own sourdough starter. I can’t believe I’m actually going to attempt to make sourdough bread! I bought this huge 20 lb bag of all-purpose flour at Costco last week (don’t get me started on the price of crab legs there -eeekkk!) and I have to use it!
I’ve also been thinking about canning and how to grow more food next year in my vegetable beds. Did I mention before that I have a mini veggie garden? I made some excellent spaghetti sauce with my own tomatoes and you know what? It felt fucking great! It also feels liberating to grow my own food. It’s not enough to live off of but I’m inspired to keep at it and get better at doing it each year.