What I've Been Up To
(Updated: October 17, 2025 from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA)
- I've recently started querying my sci-fi novel, Yore. This process is new to me, as I've always self-published my books in the past (querying is where you submit your book to agents who, if one of them is interested, will work with you to get it ready to submit to publishers). It's a complex and sluggish process, but it's interesting, and I'm hoping the time and energy I've invested pays off (either way, I'm learning a lot).
- I've got a really wonderful routine going, where I wake up, drink a cup of black coffee, then either go for a run or walk over to the gym (on alternating days, doing mostly core and upper-body stuff at the gym). On Saturday mornings I have ballet class, and some weeks I'll take a day off, if I'm feeling especially sore (or have something else going on that early in the morning). We'll see how well the running part holds up when it starts to get really cold (I love running around the neighborhood, but find running on a treadmill just mind-crushingly boring).
- The reponse to my Truly Simple Tools apps has been really wonderful. I built these apps after finishing up a beta reader-ready Yore draft and setting it aside, so I could come back to it fresh two months later, with fresh eyes and beta reader feedback in hand. I filled those two months with app-building, which activates a very different part of the brain, and I think I'll do the same (including updating/upgrading those existing apps) when I've got a beta reader-ready version of the new book I'm working on, Methuselahs, as well.
- By far my favorite recent acquisitions: a tofu press and fuzzy-logic rice maker. Don't know why it took me so long to get these things, but my household's rice bowl game is now even stronger than before.