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The main place I am right now is Australia. Western Australia is open to Christmas being a thing you can travel to for the first time since COVID lockdowns began, so we are here to see family and pick up the pieces that distance, death, grief, and social isolation have left laying about.
There are a lot of pieces to pick up.
We were here, oddly enough, just as lockdowns began, skating him just as the door closed on the world. It is full of strange feelings here, especially since I myself had covid for the second time over Thanksgiving, and this appears to be the bout that’s given me long covid in a big way. I am not well, I am not recovered, I am not my right self.
What a great time for social media to implode. I’ve only been using it as my main coping mechanism since I was 20.
I still feel like I can’t fully quit Twitter despite it being just a horrible car crash right now. If everyone decent leaves, it’s like we all gave up and handed the public square to a bunch of fucking gelatinous cubes and chittering beholders. But I don’t really feel comfortable there anymore either, not even as a publicity venue. SO THAT’S JUST GREAT.
But I still have to tell people when I do stuff as part of my job, so I’m listing a few here.
These are some things I have been and places I have done around the internet lately.
The best short story I’ve ever written (probably): The Difference Between Love and Time
The only deeply sincere WWE wrestling science fiction vs. fantasy short story I’m ever likely to write: A Fall Counts Anywhere
A whole entire brand-new Deathless story unavailable anywhere else: The Girl Who Kept Time In a Samovar
A new essay about ADHD and the writing process on Patreon: LITERARY CHORE CHARTS MF'R, DO YOU SPEAK THEM? Writing Preparation, ADHD, and Becoming a More Effective Mess
My very first ever published comic, as part of Tori Amos’s (!) Little Earthquakes 30th Anniversary Graphic Album: Precious Things
Live Reading in Perth, Western Australia with Stefen’s Books: January 3rd at 6pm, Dirty Nellie’s Pub, Shafto Lane
The birds on the power lines in Perth are pink and grey parrots or green parrots and it’s always been just the most magical thing. I hope this virus lets me go soon. I’ve had enough.
Oh, the Places You'll Be
I am so happy that you are finally able to go back to Australia and visit. I loved the picture of Bastien at the shore. I am a bit of a water baby myself. I lived your short story "The Difference between Love and Time" - I wept while I was reading it. It was so beautiful.
I haven't left Twitter yet, either - I feel the same way about leaving a public space and letting not good people take it over.
I have had chronic fatigue since around 2014 - I am not sure of the reasons, although it is probably a combination of factors. I do find that a drug called modafinil (Provigil) keeps me awake, but I want to get to doctors and continue with more tests. If your ADHD drugs are stimulants, they will help with fatigue, but not any underlying oxygen uptake issues (which I guess researchers are looking at).
I hope you and your extended family in Australia have a wonderful December holiday - I guess it is not really winter there.
sending love to you on the other side of the world, on the other side of feel