Circuits & Slippers is on Goodreads!

Circuits & Slippers anthology, coming this September, can now be added to your Goodreads bookshelf!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31279648-circuits-slippers


(this is the part where I shamelessly tell you to send that link to family, friends, coworkers, and your dog walker)

Our tentative release date is September 29th. (this is the part where you mark your calendars)

So in two months, I'm going to be a published author and that blows my mind so much that I'm having trouble putting it into words. Wow. (this is the part where I haven't stopped smiling for the last three hours)

　

And, in it's-a-small-world news, one of the other featured authors lives in the next town over from me, so we're trying to get a book reading set up at a local store or maybe the library.

My life is officially the opposite of what it was this time last year. I'm happy, productive, getting published, being confident... If you asked me a year ago to even consider doing a book reading, I'd probably have started crying from the sheer anxiety of it all.

Aaaah!

So, spread the word about the anthology! I can't wait to read it for myself!

Notes from the Editing Room - Chapters 14, 15, and 16

This is it. I've berated myself through the whole dang book. Now I have to go back and actually fix the stuff I've been mocking. Yay?

• Battle strategy? Oh, please. You stole that from the Final Fantasy 7 strategy guide
• And your knowledge of caves comes entirely from video games as well. Don't think I don't know you're just describing levels from Spyro the Dragon here
• "The spacious torture cavern"? Is that what you're calling it? Because it sounds like you're a real estate agent from Despicable Me or something.

 

• Billie scares me. She's like if Helena and Alison from Orphan Black had a baby who looked like Rose Tyler. But with knives.
• So let me get this straight. He sees a reflection in the knife blade of the hologram and recognizes the exact color of light - which exists nowhere else in the universe - and remembers seeing it in a bunker ten years ago? And this is a major plot point? You might as well have him say "See that piece of glitter? I remember seeing that specific piece of glitter on a birthday card my aunt gave me when I was seven, so I know exactly where the bad guys are." Seriously. Fix this.
• "[describe running?]" You couldn't describe a rock if you said "it was a rock that looked like a rock."
• You don't know anything about war. Why do you write about war?
• Lookit you, asking existential questions about the elasticity of our personalities and how we know who we truly are. It's almost like you've realized your silly little spaceship story has a theme or something.

 

• This is the second time this chapter you've mentioned fireflies and I really don't understand what the purpose of that is.
• "[sensible clothes of some fashion]." It's only the most important scene in the book. Why would you do research?
• You called water "liquid life". Don't... just don't do things like that.
• I think you have scenes that go "HEY LOOK, STARS. ISN'T SPACE AWESOME?" more often than you use birds to symbolize different birds.

I Went to a Thing (and I Liked it)

I'm an incredibly anxious person. Social events make me extremely uncomfortable, I'm too busy staying "out of the way" and being anxious to enjoy anything, and it's not unheard of for me to leave in tears.
　
So the perfect way for me to spend a Sunday night is obviously reading, writing, and watching TV, right? Maybe. But I went to a loud and crowded bar to play Doctor Who trivia with strangers!

I still don't know what possessed me to do it. I didn't expect to enjoy it, and only went because I thought I might be good at it (which, in itself, is a major leap in confidence that I'm still trying to explain). But I had a blast. We did leave early, but in this case "early" was after 2+ hours, and it was just because I was tired and the last round wasn't anything I was good at.
　
I went with my mother, who has no interest in the show, and it turned out it was a team event. I got absorbed into a team that ended up being me and four other people. I should have been nervous about that. I have never felt comfortable and accepted at a social event, but I did there. They were my kind of people, and within a few minutes I was laughing and talking with complete strangers and feeling like I belonged.
　
And I helped with questions! Sometimes just confirming things they weren't sure of, but there were some where I was the only one who knew the answer. At some point the guys wandered away, pointing to me and another girl and saying something along the lines of "these two have it covered." I can't put into words how amazing it felt to matter.
　
We came within a point and a half of winning the first round. They laughed at my jokes and there was some degree of banter involved. It was a good night. Even when I messed up I didn't hate myself for it and still felt... Accepted? I literally don't have a word for what I felt because I don't think I've ever felt it before.

Like, I'm always wondering if people really like me and if they're just letting me do things to be nice. But I didn't even consider that as a possibility. I didn't feel like my wheelchair was in the way or affecting the way people treated me in the least. I was just one of the team. Just another person, not a pity project or a spectacle or a burden. Equal.
　
I didn't even know my depressed and anxious and awkward brain was capable of feeling that way. It may have changed my life.

I spend every second in public pretending. Pretending that I'm someone else, that I know what to say and when to make a funny comment, that I'm not that weird nerd who names her pets after scientists and can recite the periodic table backwards and knows how many "New"s there are in the name of New New York (15). I don't know how I tricked myself into believing that it's impossible for people to like the real me. All I know is it isn't true, and maybe they didn't actually forget to install the ability to feel confidence and happiness in my brain.

Notes from the Editing Room - Chapters 11, 12, and 13

Only three chapters left, and then I have to start fixing all the things I've been making fun of. Yay?　

• Of course Jack had to take his shirt off. What kind of dashing space captain would he be if he didn't?
• But seriously. Stop having crushes on your own characters. It's weird.
• What exactly is your fascination with the word "jagged"?
• "I hadn't had a single thought of the future since [Diantha became Darth Vader]." No, this isn't like Star Wars at all, why do you ask?
• Oh my god. You just used a bird to symbolize a different bird. Again.
• While stupid beyond belief, "[a punch to the feels]" is a really good description of this scene.

• "[something went "pew!"]" is possibly the best line in any action scene you've ever written
• You seriously based a major plot point and a whole lot of intricate mathematics and timing on a line from American Pie? Fine, but we're changing the measurements to metric so no one catches on that your floating city is 8 miles high and falling fast. It's now 12.87475 kilometers high. And descending in a rapid manner.
• HEY LOOK, EXTREMELY SUBTLE FORESHADOWING!
• No. Unicorn farts cannot be used as fuel. Think of something real.
• Oh my god seriously. I appreciate the attempt at literary technique, but stop using birds to symbolize birds. It isn't as clever as you think it is.

 

• I think this is where it gets stupid for a minute
• OH WAIT, I ACTUALLY FORGOT THAT PART. THAT PART WAS GOOD.
• The story was sounding too much like Star Wars, so your solution was basically freezing someone in carbonite? Allow me a moment to grieve for your problem solving skills.

Notes from the Editing Room - Chapters 8, 9, and 10

Someday my book will be published and I'll be famous and people will say nice things about me, and then they'll read these posts and say "Oh dear god, we've made a terrible mistake. She's not good at writing; she just pushes random buttons and gets lucky sometimes." And I'll just laugh.

• HEY LOOK - SOCIAL COMMENTARY
• "[buildings made of worldbuilding]" You put so much thought into your books.
• The town represents the dying carnival because you actually are capable of using literary devices such as metaphor and symbolism! Either that or you got really lucky with your random town you made up. I can't remember.
• Forget the freak show performers saving the universe; I want to read about the people who breed show poodles in space!
• The ambiguous "she" in that sentence is hilarious now that I know the ending.

• I actually like this scene and I'm finding less to complain about in each chapter?
• There's your chance to describe the Sargeant Pepper uniforms you want the army to wear.
• Hey, I see what you did there! It's foreshadowing!
• Why in the name of pomegranates does the man need a grenade launcher? I mean, he is technically a soldier but he's mostly the guy who checks things on a clipboard.　

• Pay attention here, doofus. Jack is cut by a flying knife and his last name is not Bauer, so make sure he isn't magically cured next commercial break.
• "[floor guts]"? Because it was too difficult to look up what is between the floor and ceiling of a multilevel building?
• Oh, great. This scene is making me feel feelings.
• I honestly don't know if that's how gravity works. Go research how gravity works.