Category: Patreon

If you hadn’t noticed, and you might not have, some pretty serious allegations about harassment have been appearing across the entertainment industry. People in science fiction and fantasy publishing have been mentioned, along with the more prominent figures in comics and gaming, and... I really don’t know what to say about any of the allegations.What… Continue reading A difficult June past

  I may, or may not, have had Covid. Crazy, huh?The story goes something like this – earlier this month I developed a fever that hit me like a sledgehammer, then, thankfully, it went away. A very mild cough followed, along with some very kooky fatigue issues that haven’t entirely cleared up yet. Due to the...… Continue reading May things get better.

  I trust you’ve washed your hands. You haven’t? Go wash your hands – fingertips, backs of the knuckles, between your fingers. Lots of soap. Done that? Okay. Last time I updated you all on my progress, over here, we were at just under a million cases globally. We’re now past three million. It’s a scary number,… Continue reading April Disinfectant Showers

  Wash your hands. They washed? Okay. Chances are good that you, like an astonishingly high percentage of the global population, are in the middle of an unprecedented lockdown, or quarantine, or shelter in place. It’s a wild time to be alive. It’s a wild time to try and get ahold of groceries.Me and mine are doing… Continue reading Marching At Home

So. As my patrons know (thanks to the recent peek over my shoulder), I have been grinding my face against outlines for what is starting to feel like forever. So far, though, I find something useful to add or tweak every day, so I think there’s still a lot of forward progress happening.That’s good.Less good?… Continue reading Leaping past February

Just a quick announcement from here - as of March 31, the Patreon will - at long last - be unpaused. From now heading forward I will start to throw up snippets and whatever else I'm inspired to do alongside the work, just so there's enough of a lead-in period current patrons will have some… Continue reading Patreon back online (at last)

  So life’s getting kinda busy for me. Mostly in a good way – I’m getting hours and hours in at my keyboard, and while not all of that time’s spent writing (I just finished a 20 page world bible, for instance) it is all feeling productive and wonderful.In order to achieve that, rather than looking… Continue reading January Update (+ Thoughts about future Patreon efforts.)

  The thing about New Years’ resolutions, and why they fall by the wayside, is that they tend not to be decisions. They tend to be hopes and dreams. ‘I’ll go to the gym every day.’ It doesn’t sound like a hope and dream, but it is – it’s the result that’s the hope and dream.… Continue reading December Decisions

  Mistake tolerance. This is a term invented by Adam Savage in his book, Every Tool’s a Hammer. Naturally, as a lifelong maker and engineer, Adam Savage uses mechanical concepts as a way to frame his life philosophy. And I think it’s resulted in a very, very valuable perspective. Mistake tolerance is akin to mechanical tolerance.… Continue reading November News

  As I’m sure you’ve all heard, Brexit has been delayed. So that’s one thing off the collective national back, at least until January. My relationship with my work is... improving, lately. I’ve managed to do some hobby non-fiction writing, although very little of it is suitable to see the light of day anywhere. Think in terms… Continue reading October Update

  September has been a really long month for me, mentally. Making that long story short, what I can say is that as my mental health improves, it means I can look at deeper issues or things I just kind of shoved aside and ignored while under a lot of tension. While this is absolutely helpful,… Continue reading A September Update. (Still paused.)

 So. You all know I live in London, right? And you’ve all heard of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, AKA our prime minister, AKA Tory Trump?It was funny, and then it was alarming. Then Hong Kong’s protests got crazy, then people were marching to try and stop a ‘coup’ – in that Johnson’s government is… Continue reading A (not so) August update

  So this month, the main thing I’ve been up to is playing with time management and goal tracking techniques. I believe I’ve mentioned a problem I’ve been having – setting goals has been difficult for me. The mental health beast has had me being very punitive towards myself when I don’t achieve a goal, and… Continue reading Update in July

  So. I’ve had to change tack, a little bit. Last month I spoke about failing to forgive myself – part of that failure to forgive myself? That’s been a resistance to looking at the facts of where I’m at.My mental health journey’s been a long one. But with summer sunshine, I’ve been noticing that colours… Continue reading An update for June (just past)

So, did you all hear that the World Health Organization now recognizes burnout as an ‘occupational phenomenon’? It’s not quite a medical condition, but it’s totally a real thing. This news was strangely serendipitous – just a few days earlier I’d been in a session with my therapist, and my therapist used the phrase ‘burnout’… Continue reading An Update for May

This month I have done a tiny bit of travel, a medium sized bit of work giving feedback on a friend's manuscript, been refining some of my time management, digging into where the heck 'passion' comes from and what it is, and saw both Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame.No spoilers for either, but one unspoilery… Continue reading An Update For April

So, that prestigious workshop I applied to? Didn’t get in. But the process of making the attempt, and what that reveals, has been very helpful. Mainly because it shows I’m starting to take actions proactively, rather than reactively. Instead of searching for a solution to a problem I have, or seeking a way to cope… Continue reading A somewhat timely update

Ugh. I've been holding off on updating you guys about how it's been going this past month, because I've been wrestling with whether or not to apply to this prestigious workshop, and since I haven't solidly made an actual decision yet, somehow, just somehow, I let posting this (and pausing the Patreon) slip past me.… Continue reading A mildly delayed update.