Waaaay back in the day, I used to write this blog called Apples and Porsches (holla if you remember!). I equate it to my adolescence in blogging – not a newb, but not skilled enough to be a pro. To my great surprise, the posts that got the most attention were the “here’s what what happened in my life last month” ones. Since downshifting this blog from OMG SRS BZNZ to laid-back and groovy, I thought it might be time to restart the practice. I want to form better connections with you guys (hi!), it seems like a fun way to do that.
And so! Without further ado, the State of the Ellie address.
When I sat down to write this, I was all like, “Eh, whatever. February sucked.” But then I realized it didn’t.
Writing: OMG INKCHANGER WAS RELEASED. I’m not very good at celebrating or being proud of myself, but I managed small amounts of both this time. And the response has been awesome: six Amazon reviews and 50+ sales in three weeks. Not bad for a first novel! But you guys know me – I can’t just rest on my laurels. After telling a friend I would probably never write another novel like Inkchanger, I promptly got an idea for one. This still-untitled work in progress is a classic she-ro’s journey, using quarterlife crisis and a trip to the underworld to prompt the heroine to find her destiny. Like what would happen if MirrorMask had a baby with What Dreams May Come. AND. I had a great idea while cleaning the litter box for a book about a group of four teens in the 70s who are total nerds who make up their own language and love Tolkien and have to solve a murder or something. Based on true stories from my parents’ high school days. AND AND. My sweet friend Kyeli and I will be collaborating on a magical realism project of hers that’s been waiting to be written for three years. I can’t talk more about that until we finalize the details, but it’s going to rock the house. Lots of good creative writing things came through!
Financial: This is always on my mind. I try not to talk about money lot here because I feel very first-world problem-y. Which is part of why I want to be more open about it – there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Anyway. The big money-thing that happened last month is that Lino’s official raise came through. Huzzah! I also had a(nother) breakdown about hating my dayjob. After a series of discussions, we decided that it would be okay for him to take over my bills, eating up the entire raise amount, so I could stop freaking out and just write books already. I had a few days of gut-twisting anxiety about it, but then I realized that feeling bad was defeating the purpose of the change in the first place – to make my life better. So fuck it, right? It’s the first time I’ve ever been able to “just cheer up” about anything. But, money is tight, and we’re having to make some depressing decisions, like figuring out if we’ll be able to travel at all or if we should buy chicken in bulk now while it’s on sale. We have a wee bit of savings, and we’re doing a bit of shuffling to make everybody comfortable.
Relationship: It’s been just over five months since Lino and I had our marriage meltdown, and things have steadily gotten better since then. We’ve certainly had some epic blow-outs, don’t get me wrong, but we’re working on it and that’s what counts. The biggest hurdle we’ve had to face this year is his work asking him to travel to Cleveland for a week at a time. February saw him home for 10 of 28 days. Fucking brutal. While we did spend a lot of time apart when we were dating long-distance, living together four years has made it hard to be separated for so long. The constant exits and re-entries (hurrr) are difficult and make intimacy of all varieties strained. But – with me no longer working a day job, I’ve found reserves of affection and attention that I’d thought were lost or evaporated a long time ago. I’m so much more interested in kissing, which sounds weird to a lot of people, but it’s not an activity I’m much into after the honeymoon phase is over. Unfortunately, though, March is scheduled to have him home 15 days out of 31. I like my space, but this is getting to be far too much, and we’re both hoping it’ll be over come April so we can re-establish our normal relationship.
Health: There’s a bit of a hold on this section for the time being. I’m waiting on some rather significant news to come in from my doctor’s office regarding an appointment. I have so much to say about the context of that appointment, but I want to wait until I have all the details before I start sharing. I should know sometime in March, but it could be as late as April. I promise I’ll tell you everything once I know.
Goals: A new section to this report. I have a few life lists that I’m working on, and I thought it would be good to keep you updated on my progress here. I do intend to make some entries about the ones I’ve crossed off, but you know – books to write. Here’s a little list of all the things I’ve done so far: published a book, wrote and sent valentines, chose a signature scent, made tiramisu from scratch, set up a real office.
That’s all for the February recap, y’all! It looks like March is going to be me, two manuscripts, and a lot of alone time, so hopefully, you’ll be seeing more exciting writing news next month. In the meantime, if you’d like to follow along, you can always stalk me on Twitter and Facebook, where I whine about writing being hard, share snippets of works in progress, and Instagram my cats.
What did you do with your February?
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I'm really glad the State of the Ellie posts are back. I think it's awesome to share what's going on for yourself, and it reminds me to do a bit of self-reflection as well. I'm so constantly focused on "what's next" and trying to make progress that I forget to assess how things are actually going. The main events of February for me were starting our podcast (this makes me exceptionally happy), freaking out a little bit because I wasn't earning any money, closing the old yoga studio, and branching out to a lot of new yoga teaching opportunities.
I approve of this post. (You know, not that you needed approval. Rather, let's just say, I think philosophy behind this blog topic is frickin' awesome.)
Mirrormask is MY FAVORITE MOVIE. So I am way stoked about this new writing project you're working on.
My February was a whole bunch of introverted hiding out. I have just recently come out of my shell. But so far March is coming up roses.
so much love for this blog and for all of us.
february was a really long month. my car died. my relationship ended and transformed. i got a satisfactory work revue. i did secret missions, before i was even calling them that. i had a super challenging and healing retreat day. i did a brave, hard thing that liberated me. i sunbathed a lot. i got the best massage yet. i had a lot of physical pain, and i handled it ok. i did a lot of shavasana.
goodbye, february