When I took a break from Critical Futures near the end of last year, I had intended to begin with the new year with renewed energy and vigor, but when the new year rolled around, I found myself somewhat lacking in vigor. So I've waited, and I kept waiting. And now, its the end of January, and I still haven't restarted, and I think it'll be good to talk for a moment about that.
A big part of this is the fact that holiday vacations (such as they are post school) are never quite as long as you ever expect them to be. So I didn't get that massive fiction writing binge that I was expecting and hoping for. And I also didn't get that website redesign binge that I was hoping for. Alas. So I've needed more time, if not to do things, then to let projects breath. So my one or two week vacation turned into a month or more.
Secondly, my "write more resolution" (such as it is) that I talked about in this post, is a practice that's a little more than a week old at this point. that's not a problem, but preparing content for posting when I'm not actively writing on a project very much feels draining. Also, I'm aware that my "supply" of fiction is going to run out, well. Sooner than I'll be ready to resupply it, particularly since the novel I'm working on now, isn't really a Critical Futures project. Well, it is, kind of.
So with that in mind, what lies in wait for Critical Futures?
Well...
Recently I've started working more on the ending to Station Keeping's second "season" I'm not keeping a special eye on it, but I'm probably half way done with the second season (which is all new). That's helped my morale a good deal. Also, I'm beginning to see some real progress on the new novel project (yay for being less stuck), which is a help. While it's a long way off still, knowing that this is going to end up as a podcast (and that this podcast will be a part of Critical Futures) that's been inspiring for my feelings of writerliness. Putting my "job" as a writer above my "job" as an editor/publisher was something that I really had to do in order to make it worthwhile.
So the plan? I'm going to post fiction less regularly. The pieces might be slightly longer (but probably not much). I'll probably alternate Tuesday/Thursday weeks with Monday/Wednesday weeks. When the podcast starts, I'll probably do a pod-cast episode and a piece of fiction a week. I'm not going to change the design of the site, much, but I think some tweaks are in order, and I need to add/update some of the static pages on the site.
If anyone has suggestions, quirky science fiction that they'd like to submit to Critical Futures, or wants to help out (with designs or the like), I'd love to hear from you.
Onward and Upward!