Happy December!

…Or at least that’s what I’m striving for. At the beginning of the month, I considered pledging to do an advent calendar-style thing–a post about something happy every day. I decided to unofficially/internally aim for that, but not promise anything formally. I am very glad I didn’t promise it because I’d’ve already failed–I didn’t post anything yesterday.

The reason I didn’t is because I know myself, and I know if I’d’ve put that much pressure on, I’d’ve spent the entire month stressing about it. So instead, I’m just gonna do my best to pop something nice in here as often as I have time and brain-health to do it.

Today’s bit of happy is something my mom sent me, which made her very grumpy. It snowed in Wisconsin! This is my parents’ backyard as of this morning:

I admit to being a little homesick now. It’s so beautiful!

We also got some proper snow last night in Edmonton (finally!) so I got to trudge through it on my way to work this morning through the -16 (but feels like -27) degree (Celsius) weather. Many people would not enjoy this (my mom, for one!), but at this time of year, it just feels right to me. I don’t know exactly when I became a winter-lover, but I’m glad it hit before I moved here to the frozen north. I’m really enjoying the season so far. (Check back with me about that in April…)

If you do want something that’s fun and advent-calendarey, I highly recommend Radio Free Skaro‘s Advent Calendar of Fluid Links. They answer one listener-submitted Doctor Who question every day. There are sleigh bells and it is delightful.

You may have noticed I’m posting more short posts rather than fewer longer ones. Giving myself permission to keep things short and fun has made me feel freer and better about writing. I’m hoping the flavor of this blog will change over the next few months so I can make it more accurately reflect me as a person (and keep me writing more often). Not that anything I’ve posted so far is a misrepresentation of who I am, but I’m not a person who only thinks deeply and carefully about things. Sometimes I just like to have fun. I think my Twitter feed illustrates that nicely, but sometimes 140 characters just isn’t enough.

I make no promises, but I’ll be doing my best to post about (mostly) happy things throughout December–little posts for the most part, working my way up to the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, when I’m going to try to pump out several of the patron-inspired posts people have been waiting (so patiently!) on for so long.

So happy December everyone! (Even you, Mom. Embrace the snow!)

Post-crastination

There’s a patron-inspired post I’ve been putting off writing. For a long time. A very long time. Why? Because it terrifies me. Okay, “terrifies” is a strong word. Maybe it just intimidates me. Yeah. That’s it.*

Brandee is one of my favorite people in the world. Like several other of my favorite people in the world, she’s a librarian, and when she started supporting me on Patreon, she requested a post on libraries or librarians. I love libraries. And librarians. So, in a way, it’s a match made in heaven. However, I’m far from the first person to write a blog post about the glory/importance of libraries.

That’s what’s so intimidating. Knowing what I write is following (and thus, may be compared to) the likes of Neil Gaiman, The Bloggess, John Scalzi, and many many others? That gives me the impostor-syndrome shakes.** Which, I suppose, makes this post a bit of a two-in-one for me.

New Year’s Meh-solutions

I’m fairly lukewarm on the idea of New Year’s resolutions. They don’t really work for me. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think about the year gone by and what I’d like to be different or better in the new one. I’ll work towards those things. But I know that my brain doesn’t like it when I promise things–even to myself. Yes, I suppose it means I’m not holding myself accountable for the things I don’t achieve, but it also means I’m not beating myself up for failing. And I know which is more likely to happen when it comes to my mind.

In fact, forgiving myself and letting go is at the top of my list for 2016. I tend to get obsessive about things like media. If I’ve subscribed to a podcast, I feel like I have to listen to all the episodes. I got a bit better about that last year, and I want to improve more this year. In fact, I just deleted a podcast ep I was only halfway through. It was a Doctor Who podcast, and while I was taking some schadenfreudeical delight in hearing cranky old fans moan about how “Hell Bent” was “a waste of Gallifrey”, there’s only so much of that kind of negativity I can consume without it affecting my mental health. It’s okay to beg off when that starts to happen. I’ve never actually done it before today, and I do feel a little guilty about it, but I’m trying to let that go.

Speaking of podcasts,

I’m in Another Book!

That’s right! When it rains, it pours, apparently, and it’s pouring Doctor Who goodness at the moment. The excitement of seeing my name (and words I wrote!) in print in Companion Piece hasn’t even worn off yet, and here’s another opportunity to experience that thrill.

You and Who: Contact Has Been Made – Volume 2 has just been released. It’s the second volume in a series that looks at Doctor Who story-by-story. I can almost hear you saying “another book about Doctor Who?” Well first of all, I’m not sure there is such a thing as too many books about Doctor Who. There are as many interesting things to be said about the show as there are people to say them. And that is precisely why I’m so thrilled to be a part of this particular book.

I’m in a BOOK!

You guys! I’m in a BOOK! And yes the capital letters there make it look like I’m yelling. THAT’S BECAUSE I AM!

I AM IN A REAL-LIFE MADE-FROM-PAPER WITH-WORDS-ON-THE-PAGES BOOK!

Ahem. Sorry. I’ll try to control myself. But did you hear? I’m in a BOOK!

Ok, it’s seriously (mostly) out of my system now. You have to understand, I have been a voracious reader for most of my life. When I was a kid, we’d go to the library as a family, and each of us would take out a huge stack of books. It was a point of pride that I read every Doctor Who Target novelization from the Muskego Public Library—as well as everything in the young adult section. And then I moved on to the grown-up science fiction section before I was even in High School. I am a Reader.* It’s part of my basic makeup. In a way, I see books as magical, sacred objects. So much of my upbringing centered around them, it’s hard to imagine my life without books.

Anyway, that might give you an idea why the thought of being in one is so mind-boggling to me. It’s kind of like when

Paralyzed by Success

Last week I explained a bit about why I’ve been absent of late. But a busy schedule isn’t the whole story. To get at that, we have to do the unthinkable (actually, more like the over-thinkable) and delve into my head. Scary, I know. But when it comes down to it, my biggest obstacle has always been my own brain. And this time I’m not talking about my struggle with depression and anxiety (though they do play a role). No, this time I’m talking about how I manage to be my own worst enemy, even when (perhaps especially when) I’m successful.

The Good

Last year at this time, I launched a Patreon site. The idea was people might actually be interested in reading what I wrote (they were!), and that would motivate me to write more (it did!). Also, money coming as a direct result of writing was no small incentive (it was!). As the parentheticals imply this worked! In 2014, I posted fully three times more than I did in 2013. In that respect, Patreon has been a resounding success. (And let me take a moment to once again thank all my spectacular patrons. You all rock my socks off. Legit.)

The Bad

On the flip side, it also backfired.

Patreon–Your Chance to Patronize Me

tl;dr: No, I am not charging for my blog nor expecting you give me money. That said, if you want to, I’m certainly not going to discourage it!

Have you heard of Patreon*? I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t, but I encourage you to check it out. It’s a really neat idea—a way for content/media-lovers to become patrons of the creators who make that content/media. Creative types who do things like songwriting, blogging, podcasting, video-creation, etc. can create an easy conduit for fans** to support their work.

I discovered Patreon while researching possible revenue streams for Verity! You see, podcasting is significantly less-than-free. For now, we’d like to avoid adding commercials to the ‘cast, and we’re NOT going to charge for the podcast*** so we’ve thought about trying something like this. It’s totally optional and not in-your-face. That’s much more the kind of thing we’re going for.

So I’m my own guinea pig! I signed up to test this thing out. Kick its tires. Take it for a spin. Other car-related metaphors.

New Purpose? Or New Chance to Fail Slackily?

Hey all! Remember that post back in…*goes to check* HOLY CRAP THAT WAS APRIL. I was thinking it was a couple of months ago, like Octoberish. Oy vey. Anyway, you still don’t know which post I’m talking about. It’s this one, in which I postulate this blog might become more like an online journal, where I’ll actually post from time to time about random observations rather than waiting for something big that I spend hours on. I really want to make that happen. I feel like my writing skillz are in danger of rusting. I cobble together a post for each week’s Verity!, but perhaps that’s not enough.

To that end, I’m going to make a real effort to slap more stuff up here more often. In fact, this morning a random observation struck me. It was something fairly brief, but interesting enough that I found myself wanting to share it. It was the perfect kind of thing to cover here.

Goddamn I wish I could remember what it was.

Anyway, now that I’ve stated my intent, perhaps the next time something interesting strikes me (and takes more than 140 characters to cover), I’ll jot the bloody thing down so I remember it when I have time to really write.

Wish me luck folks. I think I’ll need it.