What am I working on?

I want to tell you I'm taking the winter off from working on anything other than promoting what I've already put out. I want to make it sound like life is so luxurious that I can just take several months off and do that "picture perfect holidays with family" thing. But I think one of my cinquain poems gives a more accurate expression of what winter often is for me. 

The earth

sleeps. Families

prepare to celebrate.

The neurons in my brain say we

are doomed.

Winter is most definitely not "the most wonderful time of the year" for me. Holidays add stress to it, and I don't even have a mountain of social obligations piled up with the gifts. (I'm thankful for that. Please do not send me your social obligations. I'm good with what I've got.) Writing is work, but it's also therapeutic for me. I will keep writing through the winter.

And, seriously, maybe I don't want to make it sound like everything is so ridiculously luxurious. I'd either end up sounding like a heartless jerk who is ignoring everything going on in the world, or we'd all know it's a lie. Winter/holiday depression already makes people feel isolated and like there's something "wrong" with you if you aren't wearing a Santa hat and getting excited. So, no, I'm just going to tell the truth. Or...I just did tell the... Hmm...

Let's look at what I'm working on!

After saying I was just playing with cinquain poetry, I kept playing with it. Then it started growing into a more dedicated thing. Guess who's going to be putting out a poetry collection! I'm not expecting other people to get anywhere near as happy about it as I am. This has mostly been a project for myself. I won't have to spend the rest of my life wishing I had done it. The title of the collection is Little Things, and there will be more information about it soon.

I have holiday gifts to work on. At least one member of my family gets something from me that is handmade every year. That does mean taking a short break from focusing on writing. Presents that are bought can be wrapped quickly, but making a gift takes some time.

I didn't abandon my big writing project for all this other stuff, though. I know it would be easy to think the story just sat in a corner and withered away when I talk about knitting, juggling, plant care, poems, and all kinds of other things. I swear it all sounds busier than it is. A lot of the things I do are actually part of my self-care, and some of them keep me writing. The big project goes through bursts of "I just have to write!" Mostly, though, those bursts give me a lot to work with for continuing during weeks of working at a slower pace. Yes, I'm still working on the big project. No, I have no idea yet when it will be ready.

What is this big project? It's a Lovecraftian story that I thought would be a short story, or maybe a novella. Even when it kept growing, I figured so much of it will get cut out in editing that it's definitely not a short story, but novella is the right length. Then the way I'm telling the story changed, and I guess this is going to be my first full novel! There's a whole thing in the story about it being "a necronomicon, not the Necronomicon", and I now have a sketchbook for making a physical version of my main character's necronomicon. 

Before anyone starts an argument with me about it, I'd just like to point out that sticking with what's been established as canon isn't really the way Lovecraftian stories work. And it's all grown so much, with so many authors, that I probably wouldn't use "Lovecraftian" if it weren't for the next recognizable label being "Cthulhu". No matter what the cultists would tell you, all currents don't lead to R'lyeh. It feels like it would be unfair and inaccurate to put that label on what I'm doing. 

So, there we go! Poetry collection soon, Lovecraftian story in the works, and I'm sure I'll end up sharing at least some pictures of the necronomicon along the way!