my short story writing is going well. next month, i believe (no later than october i am sure) i will have a short story in the bellevue literary review. and i have two other stories making the rounds now. i don't submit too many different things at once anymore; it makes me feel uncomfortable to court the possibility of publishing more than three stories in a year. now, i am where i like to be.
i've got a couple of mostly-jelled pieces that i want to work on in the morning, but i wonder if i will. the stories can wait, but i HAVE to harvest and dye one more time with indigo this season, before it starts to go to seed.
dyeing things blue isn't writing, but it feels just as vital. tarot, textiles, printing, writing -- all just different ways of organizing information, all similarly important.
sometimes i think my simultaneous projects WOULD be very harmonious and even symbiotic if there were just a few fewer of them.
sometimes i think i am getting them down to a manageable level and then i can't remember why i wanted to do any such thing. i think it has something to do with then having time to start new things. well, isn't "time for starting new things" exactly what i keep giving myself, with the result of... many things going at once?
sometimes i get thinking the answer is simply not adding any new projects. but that's really no good either. because when you just can't stop yourself from working on some new idea -- whether in writing or knitting or spinning or whatever -- that's when it feels the best. i'm not going stop myself from working on things that really get my blood pumping just because it makes life more "manageable."
i have been thinking for some years that it is a full-time job to be me. now i think i need an intern to be me along with me.
in addition to all this, we are making settlement on our first house in two weeks. we will have an actual "printing room" (rather than just a printing press in our living room) and a sort of spinning/stash room (i am not much of a stasher, but the spinning stuff seems to be growing. and i really want a drum carder.) we will be painting a lot at the new place. pulling up carpets in a few rooms. flan, gib and hillel are all pleased to hear that they can each have their own bedroom now, and a lot more room to spread their disgusting hairs and spores in a thin and diabolical film over our possessions. but they can't help much with the painting.
i think the next few months are going to seem preternaturally busy and strange. in addition to getting the house ready and moving into it in october or so, we are working on one "little book" project with the handpress that we hope to finish before the holidays. so much is happening at once. things that normally would be the most exciting thing that happened all week, now sometimes happen two in a day. the mantids all have little wings now.
i want to start doing lace.