knitting

Where Do You See This Going?

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

I started this year with goals, not trying anything too lofty because *gestures all around* and one of them is monthly posts. SO HERE I AM.

My Monthly Goals for January were to 1) Replace rear turn light (done) 2) start revisions on Familiar (…) and 3) Starting Watching TG: RE (>…<)

Ever set the bar so low and then trip over it?

In my defense, I did watch Blown Away (competitive glass blowing) and start WandaVision, which my friends were watching, and my watching buddy for TG: RE didn’t watch either, so….Not my fault.

I didn’t start Familiar revisions because I started the month trying to write new stuff and finished it doing revisions for a friend.

Speaking of trying to write…I didn’t hit my 10K goal this month. I wrote 4,500 words, including revisions that I did for the above project (is that cheating? I don’t care). I’m not upset about this because I was trying to write and it was grueling (fighting for the time, through the anxiety and depression, and spending the energy on making) and I decided I need to step back and let myself really rest on the creative front. So no new words are mandatory (but I’ll still track them).

Instead, I’m going to focus on revisions. My goals for February are: 1) Start Familiar revisions (huh, that sounds familiar). 2) Be more physically active. 3) Do what makes me happy.

The last one is because I wanted to give myself permission to do what I really enjoy. Because life is short, and if you don’t enjoy it, what’s the point?

Finally, as a wrap up, I finally finished my second 10-Stitch Blanket: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKrGTcXgoY5/

My mother had voiced interest in the blanket, so I gifted it to her. Hopefully it will brighten her winter. /sappy

The Ugly Blanket

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This blanket was a recent knitting project….that took about a year to complete because it wasn’t my only project, just the one I worked on when I wanted to. It’s a 10-stitch blanket that uses this pattern.

In some ways it’s really easy, because you start from the center, and the rectangle grows with each row. This allows you to stop at any time, when you run out of yarn, time, or patience. Or if you just want a table cover or a cup holder, I guess! So it’s adaptable, and you can use it to fit your needs.

The pattern itself is super simple, which might turn some people off, but it’s great for working on while watching TV, and because the rows are all ten stitches long, it’s easy to always end on a finished row, if that’s the sort of person you are.

As you can likely tell by the assault of color (and this shot is darker than it appears in real life!), I didn’t use all one color yarn – I scrounged through my partial skeins from old projects (that were roughly the same yarn weight) and knitted them all together into…this. It’s ugly as sin, and I love it. Because seeing it also reminds me of all the other knitting projects I’ve worked on. The colors also feel whimsical and old, calling back to a different time and place and person as I lie under it’s warmth.

And it is warm! Most of the yarns are worsted weight (one is heavier, a few are lighter), which isn’t the thickest yarn, but this makes a cozy blanket. It’s also smallish – I can fold it in half and drape it over my lap easily while writing a blog post about a blanket. I could have made it larger, of course, but I’m happy with the size, which covers my legs still (I was also running out of extra yarn that would work and the patience to work on it).

My point? Just because your project isn’t as pretty as other projects, doesn’t mean it’s not beautiful, useful, and special in its own way.

A Progress Report: April

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A progress report! (And an aside to say I had a couple post ideas to do this month and somehow failed to do any of them.)

WIP: In the month of April, I wrote 13K on my hot motorcycle boyfriend with tattoos story (…which needs a title) and finished it off on the first morning of my vacation (before my devices all decided to NOT recognize the hotel internet). It comes in at 62K and I hope readers will find it as sweet, funny and sometimes emotional as I did writing it. (WARNING: PUNS)

Also, check out the sweet setup I do most of my quick morning writing on (using Google Docs): iPad with a keyboard case. Works best with tiny hands, but is better than booting my laptop in the morning before a busy day.

Revision: I still have ONE scene to write to finish out the revisions on my trans cowboy story (totally not writing this post to delay doing that, I swear….). I’m definitely going to need another beta read, because it went from 26K to 40K. Which the story definitely needed, and hopefully it satisfied all the issues the beta found (and a shout-out to my beta for this, who was awesome and pointed out some weak points).

Knitting: I’ve also sorta started knitting for profit, but it’s not really a venture, so much as when I can’t decided on my next project I’ll start knitting a pride scarf and make them available for purchase. I started with asexual pride, because I’m biased (and aces don’t get nearly enough merch love!). I have three for sale (one with vertical stripes like pictured, two with varying thickness of horizontal stripes). But the pictured one has a “defect” that might not be noticeable but makes me feel guilty. I’ll either keep it or sell it for less than the others.

Publishing: Nothing at the moment. One story I’m still brewing on publisher comments (and is with another reader for some more thoughts). One is still in a pub’s submission pile (no word back yet). Have a few stories that might be ready soon to go out, but will probably be making a call for beta readers too.

Elsewhere: I also went to a small anime convention in Lancaster, PA, this past weekend (see the above comment about trying to sell scarves), which was a good time with friends, although exhausting as always. I was smart and took Monday off though, which is rocking.

Now I just wrapped up a WIP, will be wrapping up a revision WIP, and finished a knitting WIP. So I’m a little lost right now! (And I have plenty of new projects/currently projects I need to get back to, so no worries there….but I’m floating at the moment.)

Finally, if you want to see more random pictures from my life, be sure to follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alextherate/. Mostly pictures of food and horses, with some proof of me writing/revising, and a game of Where’s Alex Now.

January Update!

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Wow, the first half of the month has flown by! Partly because it’s winter and I want to hide in my bed…

But I have still be doing a fairly good job of writing (nerdy biker, mmm) and I finished my first pair of full mittens!

I also did a final read (after some beta comments) of BAW and submitted it *frets*

I’m taking part in a 1920s NYC Vampire: the Masquerade tabletop game.

I’m doing a beta read for someone.

The last week my brain was very buzzy and unable to focus so I ended up watching all of Season 1 of M*A*S*H.

So I’ve been pretty busy (or at least unable to focus) but nothing particularly interesting. Unless you want to hear about my vampire shooting ghouls in the head (and chest, and biting them…). That was fun 🙂

When Winter Comes a Knockin’

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I get a hidin’.

Or so it may seem. It’s actually just general malaise from the short, dark days (I think 75% of December has been overcast or raining), cold making it hard to move, and trying to be part of three tabletop RPGs, ride horses, and get ready for the holidays. But I think I’ve done it.

Point one: I’m ready for the holidays. All my presents are purchased, I’m just waiting for one to come in and only two need to be wrapped yet. Now, I’m only buying for eleven people, so it’s not that many.

I also knitted this scarf, since every Christmas my 4-H club goes around Christmas caroling on horseback. There’s a chance it’s going to be cancelled due to weather this year, but I’m ready! And festive. We always don our gay apparel, and generally go overboard, decking the horses in garland, antlers, and red and green until your eyes bleed.

My plan this year was to be more classy (black wool hunt coat, my scarf, and maybe a festive saddle pad with some red ribbons for the horse). The horse I plan on taking has been through this a lot, so I’m not too concerned, although with all the jingle jangle of bells, it gets loud!

But she knows what she’s doing. Of course, I rode her two weeks ago, but haven’t ridden her since. Last week the weather was terrible, and the ring a swamp, so I didn’t bother bringing her from the fields (it’s a ten-minute walk).

This week she had a cough, so wasn’t really fit to be ridden hard, but should be okay for an easy ride out caroling.

Here’s hoping!

A fair chunk of my time has been lighting a fire under my butt to finishing a big knitting project (it’s a baby blanket, but on small needles with a not-thick yarn). It was knit in the round (and around and around), and I want to give it to my friends for their newborn’s first Christmas. It’s taken a little longer than I expected it to (and I expected it to take a while!) but I’m NEARLY there. Just adding the outward black lines, then filling in the center, and then I’ll be done!

And then back to writing 😉

Food and knitting is all I think about.

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Eating healthy and exercising is hard, guys. Just wanted you to know. Because you didn’t. Obviously. It’s absolutely a secret.

This is my current knitting project (one of three…*cough*). Because I have to count the stitches, it’s progressing a bit more slowly than I’d like. (Not at all because I’m working on three projects.) I imagine it’s going to be for the baby’s first birthday rather than when he’s born. Oops. I still think it’s coming along well, and I even screwed up the stitches and was able to fix the count so I’m back on track!

But seriously, it’s hard to count stitches and read subtitles at the same time. My brain just can’t do it anymore.

The “focus on one writing project at a time” thing is going fairly well. I’ve even been trying to sneak in a half hour or hour of writing in the morning some days during the week so my writing days aren’t limited to two. It won’t happen all the time, but I’m making better progress this month on my word count than I was! Every 500 words counts, right?

I’m going to go absolutely not think about cooking another grilled cheese sandwich…

Not going to think about food at all.

Nope.

On Writing and What’s Next

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I was talking to a writer friend and ze mentioned that ze only writes one story at a time and needs to finish that story before starting any others, and that keeps zir from having a string of unfinished stories.

I thought that sounded like a good–great–idea, so I started making a list of all the stories I’m working on. It’s, uh, a long list. I mean, I always had a spreadsheet (that should have been a sign), but I have a lot of stories started and never finished. So now I’m making a list. And I will go down that list as best I can. Obviously I’m going to have to work out some kinks from the system, because I have some stories I more recently started that may need to be finished before my big Scruples project, but we’ll see.

After the current thing I’m rewriting (for something else not related), I plan on moving on to my rehabilitating rockstar OR my super queer shifters. I’m going to poke and whichever one reacts is going to get priority.

But first I need to finish my mini-project, and also work on revisions for my fantasy bear shift novella.

While knitting a Spider Man blanket for my friends’ future baby. Because I didn’t have a knitting project on hand and my friend is having a baby and I’ve made blankets for all the other babies in my life, so I felt bad.

And then I did a search for geeky knitted things and found this (which was within my skill level…I hope) and couldn’t resist.

Hopefully it turns out okay. Or the baby immediately vomits on it and it can be burned and I don’t have to worry.

Here’s to multitasking!

My Tattoo and other things.

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If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve likely seen my tattoo or heard me squealing. The picture I posted originally was from immediately after, so here’s a newer shot. (Warning, my skin has not been happy about things like constant lotion and no good hard scrubbings.) It’s been almost a month, and while it seems mostly healed, I feel like it’s not 100% healed yet. It’s supposed to be healed, but I may be a slow tattoo healer. I dunno. But it’s lovely either way.

I’ve also been knitting. This is just the beginning.

I’m going to be working on that one for a while. But thankfully I have all of Free! Eternal Summer to watch with dubs so I can multitask. Though, I must say, knitting is not nearly as much fun in the warmer temperatures than it is when it’s cool out!

Updates, Panicking, and Knitting

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First off, Sharing a Pond has now been out a week. You can find it on Less than Three Press’s website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, All Romance ebooks, etc, etc.

You can also find a short side story on Joyfully Jay. This isn’t in the main story, it’s just a fun little side bit. And there’s a giveaway, so check it out!

Okay, enough PR BS 🙂

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you know I’ve been working on a short story, which isn’t my usual stuff. It mostly came about because I said, “Hey, I want to write a short story.” I checked out what pubs had what calls for anthologies, found one I liked, then whipped up 7K to go with it.

I love writing novels, but sometimes the immensity of it makes it difficult. For my writing group, it’s hard for them to see the larger pictures and work with me on plot, pacing, and climactic moments when they’re only seeing 1K at a time. While they aren’t going to see this in its entirety before I send it out (because I picked one with a Jan 1 deadline, because ME), I can easily read through this story and nitpick it (and fix it, hopefully). So it’s not only working muscles I haven’t used in a while, but it’s also a good exercise for getting my brain to look at the plot and fix it.

I’m also not expecting AMAZING THINGS out of the story. It’s not meant to be great literature or high-brow fiction. It’s supposed to be fun and cute and sweet. (Which is the shit I LOVE, so you’d think I’d write more of it 😛 )

So the 7K is written. Now I just need to sit on it a week (while I do the developmental edits that came in that I’m not panicking about at all. Nope. Not at all. Not panicking. Not even a little.) And then I’ll read through and see if it’s utter shit and if it’s not then I guess do self-edits because I’m guessing I won’t get a beta reader.

Oh, and did you know the holidays are coming up? I survived Thanksgiving, so that just means Christmas and New Years. And Amy Lane keeps posting fun knitting patterns that I want to try. AND I’m trying to use up all my extra yarn from the Christmas stocking I made, by making a Christmas shawl.

Oh, and I have 3 beta feedbacks in (with one more coming, not to mention the R&R that’s been sitting around for a year or so…). I may have put too much on my plate. But I wouldn’t be Alex if I didn’t!

10,600

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That’s how many words I wrote in the month of September. My monthly goal is 5K, so that’s double (does that mean I get to take October off?). And I’m excited about it because I’m enjoying both stories I’m working on, PLUS I wrote that much while riding, having a horse show, having a life (Hey, don’t laugh!), and working full-time.

And yes, I’m sure other people manage all those things AND 50K a month, but that’s not me.

Speaking of which…No, I won’t be participating in NaNo this year. But maybe I’ll try to hit 10K again. We’ll see. That’s a month away.

For now, it’s writing rehabbing rock stars, dorky asexual college students, and knitting a Christmas stocking for my parents.

Because that’s how cool people spend their Saturday nights.