Life
This month… hmm… well it’s been the kind of month where at the end of it you don’t quite remember what happened this month versus the month before. Some things (maybe even important ones) are slipping my mind right now, and I’ll manage to leave them out of this post. Suffice to say that it’s been a busy month and a tiring one. There’s never been a shortage of things to get done, and while I’m the sort of person who likes to keep busy this month definitely pushed me closer to my limit than I would have liked.
First off, the baby. For those of you who are parents, you might remember that the first 4 months of a child’s life are some of the hardest (at least until they reach toddlerhood). For those who aren’t parents (or have blocked this part of your memory), there is a period in the first few months of life when babies do what is called “purple crying”. Put simply, they cry a lot and for no reason. They aren’t hungry. They aren’t hurt. They don’t need their diaper changed. They just cry. You can be holding them, playing with them, doing all the things that usually will calm them down, and they’ll cry anyway. It makes you feel like a terrible parent, and during this phase of their lives, they’ll often do it for hours at a time. It’s a normal phase of development, usually tapering off completely by four months, but peaking at around the 2-month mark.
Well, this month Malachi turned 2 months old. I am hoping desperately that the peak is passed, but regardless, the phase made this month’s other stresses all the greater.
I had my mid-terms this week for school, which went pretty well. Lots of studying to do, but I managed it. I’ve also been spending a lot of time working through all the pre-enrollment documentation for the professional program I am starting in June. I’m sure it’s not actually true, but part of me thinks they’ve made these pre-enrollment hoops even harder than actually being accepted to the program itself. Perhaps another way to weed out those who aren’t dedicated enough to make it through? I’m kidding, of course.
We reorganized my office this month as well, adding a decent sized whiteboard to help me stay organized. Largely it’s being used as a giant to-do list, but there’s enough space on it to use for freeform outlining and similar writing-related exercises.
Writing
With the reorganization of my office, I’ve managed to push forward on a few writing-adjacent goals this month. I got a few virtual book tours scheduled for this summer, which will hopefully be both fun and a great way to start growing my audience. I’m new to this sort of thing, so I’m a bit nervous, but I know it’s an important step forward for my writing career as a whole.
In addition to this, I was put on the shelves of my first local bookstore this month, which for me was a very special and exciting experience. I’ve still got lots of work to do to broaden my potential readership in the local area, but this was, once again, an important step for me overall.
As far as actual writing goes, my progress has been… underwhelming. I’ve managed a couple hundred words here and there, but no crazy days and no meaningful consistency. But, as I’ve said before, my schedule required no writing to get done during the first four months of Malachi’s life, and we’re still squarely within that window. I would still like to finish my novella before the four months are over, but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I can’t beat myself up about it, especially when doing so threatens the morale that I’ll need to get back into the groove when the four months are over.
So that’s pretty much it. Another month of staying the course, with a few exciting tidbits sprinkled in. Hopefully next month’s report will have a little more flair to it, but for now, I’m happy with how things are going.
Thank you all for reading.
Sincerely,
L.A. Morton-Yates