This has been a an interesting month. And by interesting, I mean mostly exhausting. I’ve had to deal with both transphobia and sexual harassment in my work life in the past few weeks. The work with my union has entered a weird phase that I’m not really able to talk about in public. Just in time for my 30th birthday, I’ve started experiencing daily pain in my back and right foot. (Yay, adulthood?) Then the SCOTUS rulings this week…
(Sidenote about marriage equality: I’m excited, though my excitement is tempered with a lot of other feelings. Others are writing with a lot more clarity than I could probably achieve at this point. Maybe I’ll write a curriculum list, or a link round-up.)
I also hit $100 a month with Patreon, which is HUGE! I’d like to celebrate that in some way–not least by making a new chapbook. This is also a reminder to folks that I’m welcoming short writing prompts. Email them to me at nanoonino [at] gmail.com, or hit me up on Twitter (@ninocipri) or on Facebook.
Then last night, I realized someone broke into my house and stole my laptop. (Also my phone charger and jar of spare change.)
Here’s the current tally of what I’ve lost with this laptop:
- about 6000 words off my novel – most of what I wrote this month.
- half a draft of a short story about a giant squid, Freddie Mercury, and the nature of love.
- 20k of a novel I’d given up on, but had decided to mine for parts for a new project
- Seven or eight chunks of essays that I’d written
- all the poetry I never published
- so many bits of fanfic that I never finished
- unabridged interviews for some of the audio work i’ve done
Anything that I finished and have submitted in the past few years has been saved in email or on Gdocs. I have an old laptop that should have all of my writing from before 2013. Most of my photos have been backed up on icloud, I think, or are already on facebook or flickr or my phone. And I luckily emailed drafts of the next two chapters of The Noctambulists to my editor, so those are safe.
I’m most bummed about the novel and the short story. Everything else is either not really worth shedding tears over, or it’s easily reproducible. But losing an entire month of work on that novel…it’s like making it two-thirds the way up a mountain and then sliding back so you’re halfway. My goal was to have 50,000 words of it done by my birthday on August 2. It’s just so discouraging. ARGH.
Not to mention that getting a new laptop might set me back a few hundred bucks. I’m lucky that I can afford it right now (THANKS SPECULATIVE LITERATURE FOUNDATION FOR THAT VERY TIMELY GRANT LAST MONTH), and that apparently we have renters’ insurance, but ugh. UGHHHHH.
I would appreciate it if you all joined me in wishing giant, painful boils on the ass of whoever broke into my house and stole my laptop.
But let’s end this update on a high note, yeah? I’m about to head off to Vermont and New England for some well-deserved R&R. I’ll be visiting family, roadtripping, camping, catching up on my reading and writing, and relishing not being in a city for a bit. I’ll also be at Readercon on Friday and Saturday. If you’re there, let me know! Or just come up and introduce yourself.
It’s been a rollercoaster of a month, but I’m trying to feel grateful that I made it through, mostly intact, mostly healthy. Right? Right.
Nino Cipri 