Always room for more

As of today, I have turned in the first round of edits on both stories I have coming out later this year. While it is an absolute relief to have them off my plate (for now) there is still a residual anxiety hovering around. I’ve never been very good at relaxing and it’s quite pronounced today! Once I finished sending off my draft, I very nearly ran out of the Starbucks to get some air!

I’m exceedingly grateful to my writing group friends for tolerating me during the sea of editing crises. Editing my own work is very challenging, even with the assistance of a professional editor. Every time I receive feedback from an editor, I learn something. This time through, the insights were especially helpful. I was even able to apply what I learned from one editor to the change I made on the next piece!

The challenge now is… what to work on next? I’ve done nothing but edit for just over an entire month. I’m itching to do something entirely different, but I hear the call from a mostly finished short story in my documents folder. Only a few changes I could submit it!

I’m also thinking about looking for a few more anthology calls. I’ve found writing for anthologies to be a lot of fun lately!

Of course, what I should do is relax! Maybe just for a few minutes!

Truly Outrageous

As a person who vaguely remembers the 80’s, I was understandably eager about the Jem and the Holograms reboot. Women working together, rocking out with amazing wardrobes – what’s not to love? Then of course there was the inevitable let down. Women supporting each other? We can’t have that. What if women start to get uppity and have ideas? Next thing you know they’ll want birth control and clothes with pockets.

Is that hyperbole? Of course it is! I indulge in periodic hyperbole.

It saddens me that so many people have become crushingly divisive over issues of gender. It’s nothing new of course, it’s just the details and mechanics of how it plays out that changes. Women don’t need to be contrasted against men in order to be defined. There is room enough for people of any gender. The only walls that exist are ones we choose to support.

On a lighter note:

This is a great time to pull out an old photo though. Some friends and I cosplayed the Misfits, the rival band of Jem and the Holograms, at a CONvergence in 2003. I’m the one in black on the left. This was such a fun time. Thank you to libradragonmom for sharing the picture with me.

Misfits Cosplay - Jem and the Holograms