Updates! Read All About It!

Hello.  It’s been awhile.  This feels strange, and yet, it’s also familiar.   I want to thank everyone who has told me that s/he misses my blogging.  I appreciate it more than you know.  I have missed blogging.  Obviously, not enough to do it again.  At least, not here.

Newest news:  I’m blogging over at Angry Black Lady’s place.  Here is one of her posts that she cross-post over at Balloon Juice.  This is my intro post, but not my actual first post.  I was ridiculously nervous after posting my first post that I couldn’t sleep.  I asked myself why.  I mean, I blog here about very intimate, difficult, and personal things.  However, I’m not likely to offend anyone by what I write here (except for my lifestyle choices).  In the world of political blogging, if I am not offending someone, then I am doing it wrong.

My fears were for naught.  I was welcomed warmly into the fold, and I’m having a blast.  ABL also asked Emily Hauser (ee) to cross-post as well.  Here is her intro post.  Notice the difference.  As I have been joking, ABL is the sassy one; Emily is the classy one; I am the brassy one.  ABL is hilariously funny and spot-on in her rantings.  Emily is a warm, delightful, thoughtful blogger who always makes me think, whether I want to or not.  She is also funny.  Me?  Well, you all know I’m rude, raucous, and long-winded.  But, I’m also funny as hell and good with a phrase or two.  And, I have deep complex thoughts at times.  However, blogging over there is very different from blogging here (like I have to get the facts straight.  I am NOT FOX News), and I’m still finding my groove.   The biggest thing is that I’m trying valiantly to cut down on my word count, and I’m succeeding somewhat.
So, kiss kiss to ABL for asking me to blog at her place and for being a very gracious hostess.  She was there to tell me to “SIMMER DOWN, LADY!” when I was freaking out over my first post, and she’s just aces with me.

Next up.  I’m working on editing my NaNoWriMo novel.  I have been corresponding with someone who knows the process of getting an agent (in the mystery genre, no less), and she has been more than kind and generous with her time and sage advice.  She has read some of my writing, and she has heartened me immeasurably by saying that I’m not as unmarketable as I think I am.  It feels pretty good to hear that because I had a hard time seeing a niche for me in the fiction world.

Thirdly, I have been researching different neighborhoods in the cities.  Currently, I live in a suburb just north of St. Paul–the one in which I grew up.  It’s nice enough, but it’s not a good fit for me.  I want to live in a culturally-diverse area with lots of things to do within walking distance, and I want art and culture in my neighborhood.  With those criteria in mind, I found this.  The Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.   My Taiji studio is in the neighborhood, and so is one of my favorite coops.  The housing is really cheap because of the housing bubble bursting, and there are some really nice houses for rock-bottom prices.

These changes are all good, obviously.  However, I have had a hard time adjusting to them because all change freaks me out–it’s part of having PTSD.  I imagine the worst that can happen, and that often is enough to stop me from even trying.  However, I am trying the new strategy of imagining what is realistically the worst thing that can happen, and that helps put things in some perspective.

For example.  Posting at ABL’s blog.  I was freaking out about expressing my political views outside the safe confine of the circle that contains my friends.  Oh my god!  People will hate me and cyber-stalk me and kill my hypothetical bunny!  Uh, no.  Realistically, the worst thing that could happen is that a bunch of people call me names; I get my feelings hurt; I decide to quit.  Not pleasant, true, but hardly disastrous.  The other tactic I use is, “Worry and panic, and then do what you need to do, anyway.”  Both tactics are working with some success.

Now that I’m working on my fiction in a productive way and I’m blogging politically (it’s actually a relief not to be the owner of the political blog), I am considering what to do with my own blog.  Stay tuned.