Empress of Dorsa Update:
Total words today: 727 (I’ll write a little more later)
Manuscript total: 131,635
Four Years Ago This Holiday…
Know what I realized? I started this website and wrote my first few blog posts almost exactly four years ago. Donald Trump had just been elected president, yet in the midst of that darkness, I had also just released my first lesfic novel, To Have Loved & Lost, which, incidentally, I still think is one of my best books outside the Chronicles of Dorsa series. In fact, my first blog post was written while my liberal parents and I celebrated Thanksgiving with my conservative aunt, uncle, and cousins in a suburb of DC.
My, how things have changed over the past four years.
I had no idea that To Have Loved & Lost would lead me to LT, who would read my book around Christmas that year and message me for the first time just after the new year.
And even when we started corresponding — first by email, then by messenger, then by text, and finally by phone — I had no idea that I’d be writing blog posts four years later from southern California.
My life has changed dramatically since then, and it’s been a bumpy ride for sure. Nothing like a little midlife crisis to spice things up. And while I’m grateful that the dust has finally settled and the midlife realignment (which I think is a better term than “crisis” anyway) seems to be complete, I don’t regret the bumpy road itself or the sometimes painful transformation I had to undergo — in fact, I think I’m grateful for that, too.
Other random things I’m grateful for (in no particular order) include:
- LT still putting up with me after all this time
- Joe Biden winning the election
- A COVID vaccine being just around the corner
- Having a job — that I love
- My readers!
- Speaking of readers, those amazing few who go the extra step of supporting me on Patreon <3
- Living in an awesome (if expensive) little corner of paradise
- Having roommates I genuinely like as human beings
- Having a space heater since one of my crazy roommates refuses to turn on either the heat or the air conditioner
- Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Trevor Noah
- Not being sick
- None of my close family or friends being sick
I’m sure there’s more, but that’s a pretty good list.
What about you? What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving?
4 Comments
Lorry Romano · November 27, 2020 at 2:01 am
I am grateful that you have written 131,635 words as I am really looking forward to the latest installment of the Dorsa adventure. I am also really happy that an unexpected teaching job in South Korea for my partner uprooted our lives in the U.S. and landed us here in country where they take COVID seriously. Due to quarantining, contact tracing, and mask wearing South Korea has lost less than 500 people (in a population of 55 million.). I am thankful, too, that within a week of renting a house, a typhoon blew in an deposited 4 orphaned kittens on our doorstep. (Okay, I wasn’t so happy when I discovered what it takes to care for newborn kittens – the 24 hour feedings almost did me in.). We were able to adopt out two, and have kept two – Kimchee and Sugarpaws. They have become my defacto writing assistants as I try to complete my first novel. I am thrilled beyond imagining that we will have a new president in January. I even tried to make Kamala’s cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving. I am certain she will be a much better vice-president than I am a chef. Thanks for sharing your journey as a writer and human being.
The Real Person!
Congrats on your move, your novel, and your new kittens! Keep up the hard work with your writing. 🙂
Jan · December 1, 2020 at 3:43 pm
What a great list–and positive glance at your past 4 years [‘realignment’ is a beautiful repurposed ‘crisis’]! I think all of that outlook is a healthy way to keep from merely crawling to safety from 2020. Continued congrats on the word count, and for loving your job [which I think is still MS teaching?]. Lots of gifts amidst the debris–thanks for the reminder. 🙂 Stay safe.
The Real Person!
Thank you!