Ripples in Speculative Fiction

You know, I kinda hate/love this time of year and I think I forget that every year. Every January/February there’s an extra layer of stress on top everything and I find myself pulling my hair out in exasperation through these two months. Why? Performance reviews are due at work, taxes are due, and inventory is due at work as well. All are very tedious, unpleasant tasks.

But then, it’s also ski season! This year I went to Crested Butte & Telluride for my solo trip (pics below) for 3 days at Crested Butte and 4 days at Telluride. It was incredible and I am very, very relieved it went so well.

We went on a family trip to Whistler the week before Christmas, but we got a bad roll of the dice and had 40 degrees and raining almost the entire time we were there. It wasn’t as bad once you got up past mid-station, but much of the mountain was closed and the snow was very wet and heavy. My leg got fatigued on the very first run on the very first day and I was pretty despondent about it. I was only able to ski 3-5 runs a day. I was so upset that I came close to canceling the Crested Butte/Telluride trip and calling skiing done in my life, chalked up to a casualty of MS.

I am so very, very happy I didn’t! I’m learning snow conditions and trail length make a big difference for my leg and skiing experience. Crested Butte and Telluride were amazing. Crested Butte had shorter trails that were better for my leg and I had two days of fresh powder at Telluride, which is nothing short of magical.

The icing on the cake was that I was able to know out the performance review for my team, finish edits on MK1, and participated in Codex’s Weekend Warrior contest both weekends (write a 750 flash piece in a weekend for 5 weekends in a row). The contest is a great idea/story generator and I’ve gone on to sell three of the five stories I wrote for it last time. I think I should be able to sell some this time (fingers crossed). I also finished inventory before I left, and almost done with taxes. So, all those unpleasant tasks are almost over.

I’m now getting back to editing act 1 of MK2 with an eye to then turn around and write some short stories from other characters POVs to help fill in some details for myself. There’s a lot going on off camera in MK2 and as a discovery writer it’s hard for me to know what that is until I write it. They could end up as chapters in MK2, short stories in expanded world collection, or forever sit on my hard drive. The final product isn’t what’s so important here, but the journey of story discovery along the way.

My goal for February is to clean up the Weekend Warrior stories, get them out on submission, and put a solid dent in editing MK2.

Pictures from Crested Butte. The trail is Rambo, the steepest in North America! Pictures do not do it justice (I did not go down it). I wanted to look down it from the top, but it can only be accessed by extreme terrain, which with my leg I will not attempt.

Pictures of Telluride. Absolutely gorgeous. Fresh powder! And the trees are the type of skiing I love to do.