Heh... in which I talk in completely chaotic fashion about the overabundance of things I need to keep track of.

Well what a year it has been. Hopefully 2022 will turn out for the better. How did you end your year?

So D has returned home, but his absence was not the thing making life hard this time. Despite telling myself and other writers time and time again that hitting the mark on the ambitious end goal of nanowrimo doesn't make the reaching for it a failure, I do find it hard right now to accept that my chances to get there are slim this year. I am not as philosophical about it as I'd like to be.

I can't believe how excited I am about this news!

In which I talk about progress, not sacrificing my mental health for it, and my utter dread at having missed a deadline. And also, about my adventures as a fledgling tiktokker. (@jaztellsstories).

So, yeah. You should try anything at least once, right? On that note, I will both be diving into a co-writing project, and into a completely new genre. I enjoy reading it now and then, and absolutely adore one of the women who stood at the very beginning of the genre: Jane Austen. Meaning I'll be trying my hand at historical romance, in collaboration with Bradley who is already coaching me with Tomb of the Giant, the novel I wrote that turned out as a romance by accident. Heh. Colour me surprised.

In which I talk about good stuff, and behave a meltdown over bad stuff, and even lack the energy to lament the fact that I'm barely writing at the moment.

Apparently, after over a year of working on my novel, I had to stop being in denial about it and just accept that I'm writing a romance novel, as scary as that seems to me. And updates on the doggies of course. Later friends!

This episode will reaching you a bit late, as it not my third attempt at actually getting it to load, and I didn't realise immediately that something had even gone wrong. I originally recorded it on the 28th, the day of Henna's surgery. I needed the distraction of doing a podcast episode. It is also sort of the announcement my new podcast, and sharing a poem in honor of said podcast. Links mentioned will be added as soon as I can get my shit together in a sensible way.

Just thought I'd hope on and give a quick update for those wondering about the dilemma we were facing around the possibility of surgery for our thirteen-year-old border collie, Henna. All good. I mean, it's scary but she'll be fine.