Keely's Way: 9/16/2024

So! Much! Writing!!!!

Blast from the Internet Past

If you’ve wondered how long I’ve been at this website thing, well, we’re sneaking up on 27 years now! This is a screenshot of my website from 2001, which represented a major overhaul in design from the versions that came before it:

I don’t know when I first set up with my own domain name (since lost, when I could not afford to renew registration in 2003), but I think it was about 1997. I’m kinda glad those really early versions were not captured by the Wayback Machine because ouch, I know they were ugly. But then again, my biggest competitors in design fail back then were AOL and Geocities…

Weekly Roundup

It’s a lot this week!

• The Shape of Books explores the actual format of what we call “books” from a history of text technology perspective. I wanted to give authors a chance to look past the normal constraints of what they can write, which are usually based on formats that were created hundreds of years ago. Level up!

• Escape from Ice Mountain, episode 4 is up! “Sleep, Interrupted” is where Astra gets wake up call from the past!

• AtWT episode 49! While I don’t actually appear in the latest episode of the Around the Writer’s Table podcast, I had a blast doing the processing on it because it is a fascinating interview of one of my fave local authors, Pat Spears! She and Gina really dive into a lot of topics, including writing process, writing about trauma, and writing from multiple POVs!

• An update at Patience & Fortitude on my next book: This is my “off-side” blog focused on grief and mourning as an adult orphan. In this post I talk about the next book in the Patience & Fortitude saga, The Empty Bowl, which is a memoir about my parents, before and after their deaths.

• Believe it or not, I have a personal website! It’s more a holding tank for various stuff that isn’t related to my job/life/business as an author, but it was the original home for Keely’s Way. Anyway, I offer a recap of a busy year to catch folks up who don’t follow me anywhere else.

• The Bastards of Yumeng continues with Chapter 18! This fanfiction is a WIP and is in the 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) / 魔道祖师-墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù fandom. The Bastards of Yunmeng is all about the three kids of the Yunmeng Jiang martial arts sect after they get thrown out into the streets as children. Its tropes include: found family, friends-to-lovers, canon-divergence, and sentient Burial Mounds!

THROWBACK!

“Books & Horses & A.I.” was written wayyyyyy back in January, 2024, when the A.I. discourse had not become quite as toxic as it is now. I think it is a good, objective look at what it means to think of books as products of mass production.

Writing

I’ve made some progress on Transmigrated Teri, along with all the blog post I’ve done this week (see above!). I’ve also been digging down into writing, re-writing, and editing Out from Fanfic, which suffers from the problem of “being too close to the subject.” Sometimes it’s easy to figure out a process, sometimes…it’s not.

One of the main hurdles I’ve had in life and still have now as a writer is to trust the process. For me, it has less to do with not trusting my intuition than it does a strong sense of shame about writing for my id—I preach strongly about “write what you love” but in practice, it is difficult for me. It’s easier with fanfic because that already doesn’t count, so to speak. But in writing my own work I’m haunted by the idea that it’s not important enough, it’s not deep enough. The irony that I’ve never wanted to write important, deep fiction is sometimes lost on me. *sigh*

It’s a Keely-Boo World

Keely still going strong! Also still in diapers, which I don’t see changing soon, if ever. But for a dog of around 17 years old, she’s doing very well. A bit more opinionated than she was when younger; she woke me up at 2am demanding a treat, something she’s never done before. Was she confused about the time? Is this the onset of dementia? Or is she just now realizing how whipped I am? LOL!

Here she is using her oversized dog bed as intended.

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Thanks for reading Keely’s Way!

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