After I finish the novel, I'll finish editing the audiobook version of Children of Doro. What a kind note was waiting for me, out of the blue, this evening about the work!

May all who create do so in the presence of such generous people.

Still writing - around two chapters to go tonight! - but every now and then I feel a huge bout of gratitude coming on, which is *much* less uncomfortable than a bout of gas, but just about as difficult to hold in, so--

Love you, you weirdos. 💛

Keep being good to your messy, rotten, wonderful selves.

Popping out for a walk with two chapters finished, and another four to go today. That'll bring me... very close to the end, and then I get to go back and compulsively revise before sending it out to my beta reader, ideally so that I can send the whole thing to my agent in early January.

But this was a lovely wee read from a writer with the same agent. Hurley talks about how strange these years have been for we #writers - and the gift of still being in the fray at all.

https://kameron.substack.com/p/history-is-full-of-those-who-just

Morning, folks. ☕

On to round two for me: a beautiful stretch of peace and quiet in which to get the novel finished before New Year's.

Hope you're having a beautiful Limbo Week yourselves.

Stage 2: 🍃

Stage 1. :)

Ended a gratitude fast on day 5 - but the gratitude will keep on going.

*So* thankful for you folks.

You do so many hard things every day.

You give me courage to do hard things, too. 💛

(And I'm *just* opening a bottle, so I promise, this isn't inebriated ML talking. Inebriated ML might talk to you later! 😘)

This song has been in my head all day, so now it can also be in yours.

"Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man, well
It surely means that I don't know" 💛

#CoSoMusic
https://youtu.be/P5ZJui3aPoQ

All right, loves. Showtime. 🕵️

Have a good one, and spread love* where you can!

*You know the kind I mean. 🙃

This isn't true for all genderqueer folk, so don't take my preference as an excuse to stop honouring others' stated pronouns, but I personally do not give a hoot if someone uses she/her for me, so long as they show care for me as a person, and care for other people suffering in our terribly cruel world, too.

Yes, hearing my pronouns makes me feel affirmed, but... not all the time. Not when used by people who defend people spreading hate. 🙃

For this reason, my site of activism is different. 👍

One quick note before I pop into my v-chat, then dive into writing for the day.

I don't mind folks using whatever pronouns they do for me, in part because the multilingual dimension is tricky, and in part because of folks like this friend.

He uses my preferred pronouns. He also loves to bring up "gender critical" pundits credulously, in a you-gotta-admit-that-both-sides-be-crazy sort of way. The two can coexist, because it's easy to tolerate "quirks" without meaningfully changing worldview. /x

Me, warming up for a videochat with a conservative friend* today.

*A decades-old friend, who's going through a lot of socioeconomic precarity right now. The aim is to steer clear of topics that will drive me nuts, and focus on reminding him that he matters as a human being irrespective of the rough time he's been having. 🤞

I'm gradually tucking away topics for a year-end two-parter, reviewing the news for this year and the major issues for the next... but I keep coming across items and thinking "Wait, that was THIS year? Really?!"

It's been another long, long year, mi gente - and I don't feel at all like the same person who entered it. I feel irreparably changed, and I have a sneaking suspicion the same is true for many of you.

Take good care of your well-travelled hearts, eh? Who knows what 2024 has in store.

Fireworks every hour or so. Colombian Christmas is always just a little bit extra.

Day 4:

Today, an older fellow with limb difference was out begging, when streets are near-empty. I got him soft foods (he has more gum than teeth), then sat with him so he could give me the prayer that means so much for some folks in poverty.

But *his* prayer involves a line that breaks my heart every time I hear it from him; he recites to himself often that he knows he's less important than everyone else.

This isn't true--but it gives him comfort, explains why he suffers. My heart, my heart.

I don't know who else cries at Die Hard, but I definitely cry at Die Hard.

Every time I watch it, there's so much to appreciate in the plot structure, the dialogue, the acting (and the casting!), the establishment of setting, the story elements that speak so perfectly to anxieties of the era...

Plus, I think deep down inside, all of us feel a little like John McClane sometimes, no?

May we all have our own Als, Argyles, and Hollys along for life's weary, messy ride. ❤️

And now, because I am large and contain multitudes, I'm going offline to watch Die Hard.

🎄🌆😘