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A Weird Summer

It’s been a weird summer.

Since coming back from Scotland in April, I’ve been returning to the office three days a week. It’s been good, but the office has been very quiet. (Sometimes eerily so.) Plus, my routine changed so much over the pandemic. It’s been interesting to step outside the habits I formed working from home for a few years and realigning myself to working outside of my home office. Re-engaging with a post-pandemic world would have been weird enough, but a lot more has happened.

In July, for Kari-Lise and my anniversary, I somehow convinced her to climb Mailbox Peak in the Cascades. It was a great hike, but I badly rolled my right ankle on the way down. Still six miles from the trailhead and way too big for Kari-Lise to carry, I had to hobble back. (Thank God for my walking stick.) Adrenaline kicked in about three miles later, and I thought I was doing well, and my sprain was mild. But when I got home and took off my shoes, my ankle swelled up to the size of a large grapefruit and turned black and blue. So, yeah. Not mild.

The following week, both Kari-Lise and I came down with COVID. We’re still not quite sure where we got it. She was hit a little harder than me, but our cases were mild overall. I would have thought it was minor allergies if I hadn’t tested. So we sequestered ourselves at home, watched trash television, and waited until we tested negative. Thankfully neither of us has had any lingering effects.

We were over COVID in a week. But it took nearly a month for my ankle to recover. I wasn’t moving much for the first two weeks and returned to working from home since walking (and therefore commuting) was painful. July was a wash workout-wise. I didn’t get back to my daily walks until August. But I slowly recovered, and I’m happy to report that I am fully back into my workout routine and down a few more pounds.

Writing in the summer has never been the easiest for me. Seattle only gets three solid months of sunny weather, and it’s not uncommon for Seattlites to go a little manic and fill up our social calendars. It makes finding the time to write a little more complicated. With the changes that summer brings and my return to the office, I’ve found my writing time shaken up a bit. Lately been trying to force myself to at least try and write, even if I don’t feel like it—kind of how I made my workouts a habit. It’s been good to adjust to that mindset, and I think it’s working. Words have been appearing on pages. It’s not a lot, but it’s momentum. Finally.

With autumn on the way and life returning to routine, I hope to get back to blogging. I’ve been quiet for the last year, and I’ve missed posting here. I always found this space freeing and less oppressive than the obnoxiousness that propagates social media. There’s less pressure to comment on every little dumb topic du jour, and I can ramble on the stuff that matters to me, like my weird summer.

So expect more from me going forward. Buy my books. Let me know what you think of them. Tell your friends, and be sure to check out my Reader Resources. Some fun stuff is happening there, with more to come.

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I Lost 50 Pounds

Since the beginning of 2022, I’ve lost fifty pounds.

It’s been a process. One I started in January. On the first of the year, as millions of others do, I weighed myself and was the heaviest I’ve ever been. That was depressing. So, I moped around for the rest of the weekend, and then on Monday the 3rd, frustrated with myself and my health, I decided it was time for a lifestyle change. I put on my shoes, went outside, and went for a walk. And I didn’t stop.

My Apple Fitness Tracker Results for the first half of 2022.

For those unfamiliar with Apple’s fitness stuff, the three rings every day are Move (Red), Exercise (Green), Stand (Blue), and the little green dot represents a recorded workout. (Workout here being almost exclusively an outdoor walk.) I allowed myself down days when my body was tired. But I kept it up—rain, shine, cold, snow, or sun. The first month’s walks were slow and short. But I gradually became more and more confident taking on new challenges (stairs and hills and lots of ’em.) By the end of June, I had walked over five hundred miles, and you can see the miles in the soles of my shoes.

Old shoes on the left, new on the right—they’re Adidas Terrex Free Hikers, and I heartily recommend them.

I also began to count calories and track my weight regularly. I didn’t make any significant changes to my diet, but I did find myself cutting back. I kept eating what I wanted to eat as long as it fit within my daily caloric requirements. Even on “cheat” days, I counted my calories. Naturally, I gravitated to more whole foods since I could eat more of those, but I didn’t remove anything altogether—life is no fun without good food.

I faced challenges as anyone would expect. I was injured a few times, but I exercised through those and came out feeling better and stronger. Though some days were excruciating. I plateaued, which was frustrating, but I kept up my routine until the plateau broke. I fell into old habits and found myself climbing out of a hole several times, but I refocused on my goals and kept at it.

And it was successful. Fifty pounds are gone, and I feel incredible. My clothes fit better. I have loads more energy. I no longer fear hills. My overall mood has improved. My sleep has been better. I’m excited to get back into the mountains. And as a nice bonus, a lot of annoying minor health stuff has cleared up.

This wasn’t a “diet” for me. I’m not planning on returning to the same patterns I lived before this change. For me, I’ve approached this as a shift in lifestyle. Refocusing on what I wanted in life with my body and health. Every body is different, and every person has different goals and desires. What works for one might not work for another. But, I’m happy I found a routine that fits my life and has given me my hoped-for results.

I’m not planning on stopping. I still have more goals ahead. Don’t expect this to become a boring diet blog. But this was the first major milestone, and it’s good to celebrate those, and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Now, on to the next one.

A middle-aged Octavia E. Butler looking off into the distance.
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Octavia E. Butler’s Notes to Self

Today happens to be the birthday of Octavia E. Butler, one of the greatest sci-fi authors of all time (and one who deserves to be named as an SWFA Grand Master). I often share quotes from authors here, but since it’s Butler’s birthday I’m going to go a different direction and share some images of the colorful and inspirational messages Butler left to herself in her private notebooks. They’re a fantastic glimpse into her mind, and perhaps these can serve as an inspiration for our own creative work.

One of Octavia E. Butler's Notes to herself, it reads "I shall be a bestselling writer. After Imago, each of my books will be on the bestseller lists of LAT, NYT, PW, WP, etc. My novels will go onto the above lists whether publishers push them hard or not, whether I’m paid a high advance or not, whether I ever win another award or not. This is my life. I write bestselling novels. My novels go onto the bestseller lists on or shortly after publication. My novels each travel up to the top of the bestseller lists and they reach the top and they stay on top for months. Each of my novels does this. So be it! I will find the way to do this. See to it! So be it! See to it! My books will be read by millions of people! I will buy a beautiful home in an excellent neighborhood I will send poor black youngsters to Clarion or other writer’s workshops I will help poor black youngsters broaden their horizons I will help poor black youngsters go to college I will get the best of health care for my mother and myself I will hire a car whenever I want or need to. I will travel whenever and wherever in the world that I choose My books will be read by millions of people! So be it! See to it!"
One of Octavia E. Butler's Notes to herself, it reads "Tell stories Filled with Facts. Make People Touch and Taste and KNOW. Make People Feel! Feel! Feel!
One of Octavia E. Butler's notes to herself, it reads "No entertainment on earth can match a good story compellingly told."
One of Octavia E. Butler's notes to herself, it reads: "Use Detail to build suspense to regulate pacing to create mood and tone. Build a world with selected detail."
One of Octavia E. Butler's notes to herself, it reads: "Emotional Drive. Strive Always—In All ways at all times—always for Intensity. Cold or hot, hard or soft, gut-wrenching or deeping stilling. Utter Intensity."

This is just a handful of notes left by Butler. Upon her death, she bequeathed her extensive archives to the Huntington Library, which is where the images above are taken. They have loads more, with Butler’s notes on specific work as well. It’s worth checking out.

If you haven’t read any of her work you should fix that! I’d recommend starting with Kindred which remains a poignant time travel tale, or consider the Xenogenesis trilogy starting with Dawn. It’s unlike any science fiction tale I’ve read before. I’ve also heard great things about The Parable series, the first of which is The Parable of the Sower, and while I own both books, they’re still on my TBR pile. I’m hoping to get to the first a little later this summer.

Yeah, It's Still Weird
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Yeah, It’s Still Weird

Lately, I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like. Like everyone else, this shelter-in-place/stay-at-home/stay-indoors/quarantine/pick-your-homebound-term life has disrupted a lot of my normal flow. Creative work still haunts me, but it’s easy to find myself distracted and not doing the stuff I want to be doing. I know I’m not alone. A lot of my fellow creators are feeling it as well. That being said, it’s odd—in all honesty, the day-to-day in the Alexander household hasn’t changed all that much. We’re both fortunate we can work from home, and work has certainly continued. Recently I’ve gotten a few questions from readers, so in the vein of John Scalzi, I’m going to answer those questions through a self-interview.

So hey, where’s Gleam Upon the Waves?

Hmmm, right off the bat, eh? I figured this question would come, and I have an answer for it. Work has continued in fits and starts, despite me feeling weirdly oppressed by the world right now. It’s sitting at 106k words—which means it’s grown a little (sidebar says it was near 100k when it was “done”) as I’ve clarified or added bits and pieces to the whole. It feels like it’s in a pretty good place now. The initial goal was to try a launch in 2020. But, like everything else in the world, I’m playing that by ear now—we’ll have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I’ve also started working on some short stories set in the universe as well, and I’ll be releasing those for free. So stick around. Follow along, we’ll be back to the Territories before you know it.

What about map stuff?

I haven’t completely abandoned my mapping projects. But they’ve taken a backseat to other creative work after finishing my goal last year. I’ve found a few wonderful sources that I feel will be great additions to the set as a whole, and I’ll keep plugging away with the intent to release more sets. In the meantime, if you’ve used my brushes in your maps, please shoot me a message and let me see ’em! I love seeing how they get used.

Also, over on Twitter, John Hornor Jacobs asked if I had any brushes to help people map out dungeons. I don’t, but the request got me thinking. I could see some benefits and uses in floorplan-style brushes. As with my other sets, I’ll want to make sure they’re historically accurate and rooted in antiquity. So, we’ll see how I do finding sources.

 Anything new around here?

Yeah, actually. I have a few new posts in the works, and I still have more Raunch Reviews coming. I have a Trip Report queued, but I haven’t launched it yet. It documents our trip to Portland we took back in January for Kari-Lise’s birthday. It was a blast and mostly filled with loads of eating. But, it feels kinda odd looking back now, with the world in so much turmoil January was like a lifetime ago. So I keep hemming and hawing over releasing it or not—I will eventually—but it makes me miss restaurants, people, and normal life.

There’s also a plan in the works where soon I’ll begin interviewing my writer friends. They’re good people, and they write good books, and—since I don’t have anything fresh right now—I decided I should step out of my own book world and promote them. So stay tuned!

So, like… how are you feeling?

Fine, and yet weird. Kari-Lise and I are both healthy. I’ve been dealing with some allergy issues, but they’ve mostly subsided. We’ve been at home for three weeks now, and as I said, our day-to-day hasn’t changed all that much. I’ve got some low-key anxiety these days, which isn’t something I’ve really experienced before—mostly me worried about the health and livelihood of friends and family.

I know a lot of freelancers, artists, and small business owners, and the economic downturn has been particularly rough on all of them. So please keep them in mind when we emerge from this. Those books, movies, music, poetry, art, and so on—those things keeping us sane as we’re all at home—yeah, artists made those. Art is essential, especially in times like these, let’s remember that on the other side.

Hopefully, that answers some questions. If you have anything else, you want to ask me, feel free to shoot me an email or leave a comment below. Life in my household has settled into a bit of a rhythm. We’re looking into making our own masks for the times we need to get out of the house. We avoid social media these days. Seattle remains on lockdown for the foreseeable future—at least through May 4th, but I think it’ll be extended. I honestly don’t see how any of this changes until widespread testing is available for everyone. Until then, we’ll all be living in a perpetual state of what-if and rolling the dice with the health of friends and family, and it’s hard to operate in a society where that is happening.

I’m very grateful for our governor and the local officials handling the virus here in Washington State. The response has been phenomenal, and I feel very proud to be a Washingtonian. They made hard decisions early, and it’s made a big difference. Seattle was once the hotspot for this outbreak, and every day we fall further down the list. Staying home saves lives and it shows.

I know I’m not alone in feeling grateful for the doctors and nurses who face this daily. Those people are heroes, and they deserve our utmost admiration and honor. I’m also thankful for the people still making sure we have power and internet and running water. I’m grateful for the folks who make deliveries, carry the mail, pick up the garbage, and work in the grocery stores. They’re also heroes. It’s been encouraging to see validation that “low skill” workers are, in fact, critical to our society. They should be compensated accordingly for their labor and service—I just wish it didn’t take a pandemic to open some people’s eyes. My hope is we’ll see a change when this is all over.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Wash your hands.

Love in the Time of COVID
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Love in the Time of COVID

With everything happening around the world today, it feels like a strange time to write a blog post—yet, here I am. As many of you know, I live in Seattle, Washington. One of the United State’s hotbeds during our outbreak of COVID-19—the novel coronavirus currently wreaking havoc across… well, everything.

As it stands, Kari-Lise and I are currently doing our part to social distance ourselves away from others, and we’re lucky that we’re both able to work from home. Not everyone can, and that adds a lot of extra stress into people’s day-to-day. Since last Wednesday, I’ve really only left my house to get groceries.

It’s been surreal watching this roll across daily life. People have lost their jobs. Events have been canceled. Much of the city is on lockdown—schools, restaurants, bars, churches, gyms, theaters, etc. are closed. Businesses have reduced their hours, some have closed completely, a few permanently. Nothing here is normal. Everything feels slightly off and a little uncertain. Time stretches past in long intervals. It’s easy to get distracted reading and re-reading the same gibberish over and over. There’s an odd pall hanging over everything you do and a mild panic bubbling beneath the surface. I have a few friends both here and abroad who suspect they might have contracted COVID and knowing that gets your mind spinning. Thankfully, all are staying home, resting up, and all seem to be on the mend.

At the time of me writing this, Washington State has passed a thousand confirmed cases of COVID-19—hopefully, with the city shut down and the stay-at-home measures in place, we’ll start to see a slowdown sooner rather than later. I’d love for all of this to be over in a few weeks, but honestly, I don’t see that happening. I don’t know how this is sustainable. It boggles my mind that corporate America isn’t demanding comprehensive and expansive testing. We’d be able to properly quarantine and care for the sick and wouldn’t have to shut down entire swaths of a city based on assumptions.

Regardless of the next two weeks, it’s becoming more and more clear to me that this pandemic will have a profound impact on the economy, our society, and ultimately our culture. It’s important to reflect on this. The world as we knew it won’t ever go back to the way it was, it never does, it can’t—it’ll emerge different, changed by what we’re experiencing now, hopefully for the better.

I’m not sure if a post like this is helpful or not to the grand dialog as a whole, but it’s useful to me. I’m usually not as open on here about the day-to-day of life, but perhaps I should be—being vulnerable in times like this is how we can come together and build empathy for our varied experiences. Humans are stronger together, and one way or another, I’m sure we’ll get through this. Until then…

Be kind to everyone. Give grace. Don’t horde. Help where you can. Love each other.

The image above comes from the cover of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s El amor en los tiempos del cólera, or as we know it in English: Love in the Time of Cholera—of which I shamelessly stole as a title for this post.

Have questions for me? Leave a comment below or shoot me an email.