Howdy, howdy, squiders. My coffee shop is so full that we’ve had to sit outside, even though it’s only 40 degrees out. Adventures!
Historically the week between Christmas and New Year’s has been a weird, liminal time, where the old year is mostly dead yet it’s not the new year, and days tend to run together. Where calories don’t matter and time means nothing.
Except…I’m not feeling it this year. Days and time have meaning. Days have purpose. The liminality has not come.
Weird. But productive, I guess.
Yesterday I cleaned my areas of the office. My space includes a 4×5 IKEA Kallax shelving unit (it’s a 4×4 on top of a 1×4), half of a long desk up against a bay window, and then half the bay window.
In theory the bay window is lovely, but in reality, since the tornado killed the large ash tree outside the front of the house, it’s too bright. Sun right in the eyes. So mostly the blinds stay closed. And since the computer monitors mostly hide the bay window, it has become a depository for stuff, mostly things that need to be dealt with but don’t fit on the desk.
(Which, ironically, means they get lost and not dealt with. Out of sight, out of mind.)
I do go through the bay window piles periodically (though I found some mail which was over a year old, so, uh, whoops) but apparently I’ve never gone through the Kallax before.
(We built this set-up at the beginning of 2020, as documented here.)
A lot of old kid stuff, from when the kids were much younger. Flashcards and sight words and whatnot. (My youngest is 10, so I suspect these are left over from when we had to do home school during COVID.) Eight things of lotion, four things of hand sanitizer, six things of lip balm, two roll-on aromatherapy sticks. A 2020/2021 planner that I used not at all. Art supplies everywhere which I have mostly consolidated.
Productive! And they say an organized space makes for an organized mind, or something along those lines, though I recently read something by a poet that says you should never trust a creative with a clean space.
(And, to be fair, I didn’t go through everything. But I did hit 50% of the sections and it is much better. And the bay window is 90% better and there are no papers back there to get lost at the moment.)
I also did my Christmas puzzle. Typically I pick out the most fiendish 1000-piece puzzle I can find, but I bought myself this puzzle earlier in the year because it was cute and didn’t have edges, and it was very satisfying but also too easy so I may do a second puzzle here.
I spent some time over the weekend pondering my writing goals for this upcoming year. They…lack focus. Like, for the past few years I’ve specifically been working on the Trilogy, because it’s my dream to get it traditionally published and out into the world. But I finished the revision in late 2024, and I’ve been submitting it all 2025, so there’s nothing specific to do there. And at some point I have to move on. Like, what would my goal be if it that dream comes true?
And I’m not really sure.
Other years I’ve picked a broader goal. Education, or practice, or something. My education year I tried to read a writing book each month, but there does come a point where you can only absorb so much theory, and everyone’s writing process is different anyway, so half the time the book is useless. My practice year I picked three random Pinterest prompts (one each from my character, scenery, and writing prompt boards) and wrote a short story each month. Not sure I got anything good out of that, but it was fun.
I do get anxious about hoarding prompts and not using them, so it does help with that.
And so I could do another broader goal, but I’m not feeling it. 2025 was not a good year, in terms of actually finishing, well, anything. So focusing on just making stuff with no clear end goal is not appealing.
I’m also feeling a little disconnected, community wise. With Turtleduck Press I had regular deadlines I needed to hit, and I was getting stories published on a routine basis. And all my writing forums are essentially dead. I could use some place active, with regular challenges or anthologies or something, to keep me connected and meeting small goals. So I guess if you know of any, point me in the write right direction.
So I think we may piecemeal things for a bit until a bigger picture comes along. Finalizing focus and order on those here. Waiting to hear on whether I got a mentorship. Stuff along those lines. I’ll let you know when I know.
Anyway, squiders, enjoy the last few days of 2025, and I’ll see you in the new year!
