This is mirrored on my Patreon page, which has a lot more info on it!

A bit belatedly, I realized I’ve entered the third year of keeping my Patreon. Thank you to my supporters, especially those who have been here from the start. Your presence here is immensely helpful. This format is working well because it gives me incentive and structure that I had lost on my old regular blog. I’m planning ahead better and reflecting on my own process more. Thank you! I hope it’s been useful for you as well! I especially love talking about writing hacks and doing long-form overly analytical reviews. (When my family saw The Lion King back in the day, I walked out of the theater gushing about how it was basically Hamlet, and my brother yelled at me, “Stop it! You’re ruining it!” I shouted back, “No, I’m making it BETTER!”)

This month’s lesson:  Note taking! Organizing! There’s no “one size fits all” on the issue of how to collect and use all the information and notes you gather. I can talk a little about what I do, and other organizing methods I’ve come across.

Meanwhile, it’s spring! The ospreys are back. So are the killdeers and meadowlarks. Waiting for warblers, wrens and swallows, and all the rest of the migrators.

A big chunk of the U.S. will experience a total solar eclipse on Monday. Yes, I have a plan, that involves friends and a road trip. We’ll see how that goes! If you’re in the path of totality, do you have a plan? I experienced the 2017 eclipse that happened just a few hours drive from my house, and it was astonishing and wonderful enough that I want to do it again.

Writing work is progressing slowly, but it is progressing. I should have a cover for The Naturalist Society to show off soon. The unexpected novel is at 50,000 words. I’ve signed up for a workshop in May, which means I need to actually write a short story to take. I’ve got two outlined.

This is turning into a year of Crafting Challenges. I’m liking it because some of this stuff is outside my wheelhouse. It’s a nice distraction, and I’m feeling productive.

Challenge One:  I entered the Masquerade at Costume Con 42 with my Hieronymus Bosch bird creature. The con was here in Denver so it was a low bar for me to get my ass there and do the thing. It was a good experience, I learned some things. There’s a very high level of costuming here – this is the one convention that has more Master level entries than Novice or Journeyman. (I enter at Journeyman – I haven’t done much competing, but my twenty years of experience mean I’m not exactly a beginner, so…) There are people who’ve been doing this for decades and it shows. So much creativity and skill on display!

Here’s my costume on stage:

(The creature is from Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Temptations of St. Anthony.” Bird Guy is in the lower left corner.)

I’m a dilettante by comparison. And I think that’s okay.  My mastery comes in other areas.  I can do a thing without being the best at a thing, as long as I’m having fun. I need to remember that.

But then…why show off? Attention. I’ll be forever grateful to Ada Calhoun for saying the quiet part out loud – anyone who puts their art out there is, at least partly, doing it for attention. And that’s also okay. From Also a Poet:  “A part of me is writing this because I want people to know more about Frank O’Hara. But maybe, if I’m honest, what I also really want is for people to know about me, so I can feel like I left some mark on the world, however slight.”

What I’m watching/reading/etc. A scattering of stuff. I’m bouncing around between a few different shows. I enjoyed the new Percy Jackson on Disney. I’ve watched the first couple of episodes of Constellation on Apple TV and Three Body Problem on Netflix and jury’s still out, we’ll see if I can actually finish them. I’m curious that we now have a couple of shows messing with time, space, reality and disorientation. (I might stick Monarch, which I loved for many reasons, in there as well. Also Bodies, the time traveling murder mystery from last year.) I need to see where they end up to decide what they’re trying to say. I like Three Body Problem, because it’s setting up some delightful twists and turns and I want to see how they turn out – and see if my guesses are right. I also really love seeing Rosalind Chao in a meatier role than she ever got to do as long-suffering Keiko on Star Trek.

No spoilers please! No, I haven’t read the novel, but I kind of want to now.

Onward, to April!