The State Of Rachel: Post-2023
As another year starts, it’s time for me to reflect on the one that just drew to a close. Overall, I’d call it an awesome year for me, and below, I’ll tell you why.
Mental Health:
I don’t think my mental health has ever been better than it was in 2023. While I was diagnosed with ADHD in late 2022, 2023 was really a year of getting the medication’s dose sorted, regular therapy, and working hard. Don’t get me wrong, the meds help so much, but the effect of a great and consistent therapist who works with me in a meaningful way cannot be overstated. This year, I was able to focus long enough to start to do things that really matter to me and engage with the world in a way I had previously thought wasn’t possible for me.
I talked a huge amount about my mental health journey in the blog post about the ship (link here if you’d like to read it) so I won’t retread old ground. However, I will say what I told my therapist at our last appointment: I believed for so long that I’d never live to 30—I just couldn’t see myself getting older—and that terrified me. I was so scared I was going to die before I got to do the things I wanted to do. I was scared I was going to die with all my stories inside me.
Now, I’m starting to do these things. Oh, it’s slow going, sure. But it’s progress, and as a result, I’m not scared anymore.
Creative Pursuits:
As I’m sure everyone who has read my ship blog post knows, the 3D printing, building, & painting of the to-scale pirate ship was absolutely my crowning achievement of the year, but I have done so many other things, I wanted to share some of them:
Built a whole dungeon from scratch for my Pathfinder group (I can’t share all the pictures now because it will spoil some surprises)
First room of the Silver Tombs dungeon.
Finished a 16,000-word short story, “Silver Consequences” for an anthology (release date TBA!)
Conducted and posted 20 author interviews for the Tales After Tolkien blog. This included getting to interview one of my all-time favourite authors and one of the people whose work inspired me to write my own, Rachel Aaron.
You can read our latest interview here!
Researched, wrote, & presented my paper, “Do You Even Pray Though?: Examining the Worship of the Great Mother Goddess in Tamora Pierce’s Tortall Universe” at the 2023 Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo as a part of the Tales After Tolkien panel.
Also got my paper abstract approved for the 2024 Medieval Congress titled: “Critical Successes: Celebrating and Exploring the Rise of Diverse Settings Within Tabletop Role-Playing Games”
Got to be a part of Bethany Atazadeh’s beta reader team!
I really look up to her as an indie author and to be able to work with her this year was so cool
As far as my writing itself goes, I have something really cool to share. As a part of Sara Cannon’s HB90 prep (I’ll talk more about HB90 later), I calculated the approximate number of creative words I wrote in 2023 and the results blew me away.
In 2023 I wrote ~104,000 words and edited ~64,000 words. Of that 104K, ~40K of it was in the novel I’m working on. Everything else was other creative pursuits like short stories and world-building. What this did was really put where I’m spending my limited writing time into perspective. This was knowledge I took into my self-improvement work in 2023.
Speaking of…
Self-Improvement by way of Time Management:
One of the things we’ve been talking about a lot in therapy has been my time management–especially relating to picking the MOST IMPORTANT tasks over new shiny ones or things that randomly pop into my brain and begin to itch.
Beyond just working on tracking my time better, my therapist recommended working through “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown. While not written specifically for ADHD, he said it often ended up resonating with his patients. This is turning out to be true. While I have some criticisms of certain examples McKeown gives in the book, the fundamental principles remain solid. The thing that I’ve found to be missing in this book, however, is direct strategies for creative pursuits. With that in mind…
I coupled working through “Essentialism” with Sara Cannon’s HB90 course for planning creative pursuits quarter-by-quarter. I’ve looked up to Cannon for a long time for many things for a long time—but her intense level of organization when it comes to her life and creative job especially.
Between these two resources, I am now working on time management and not taking on too many things at once in a way that feels actionable.
Notable Life in General:
In August, I started volunteering with the Meewasin Valley Authority in August!
I’ve been doing river valley cleanup, beaver tree wrapping, and fence tagging. It has been a ton of fun and I’ve met some really great people through it.
In November, I also won one of their up-&-coming volunteer awards
Got promoted from “Logistics Coordinator” to “Logistics Manager” at my job.
My actual job duties didn’t change too much, but it was nice to have my work recognized for what it was.
My Favourite Things of the Year (note that this list is in no particular order):
Video Games:
Sun Haven
Harvest Moon but make it high fantasy
Three different towns and areas to explore/live in/make friends/farm magical creatures
Baldur’s Gate 3
I’m absolutely obsessed with this game, I haven’t been this into a video game since the first release of Persona 5, and it’s already officially one of my favourite games ever
Really warrants its own blog post sometime (once I finish the game, 165 hours into my first run, still not done)
I’m romancing Astarion (blame Jeaniene Frost—iykyk)
Movies:
Barbie
set & costume design was awesome
Music & acting was great
Cute story
Nimona
So sweet that it made me cry—twice
More animated movies like this, please
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Nice to see one of my favourite hobbies getting a fun (and well-done!) tie-in movie
TV Shows:
Carnival Row Season 2
You can tell they rushed halfway through the season to wrap it up when they found out they weren’t getting a third season
Despite that, it was a fun, moving season where (almost) everyone got what was coming to them—both good and bad
Some really fun twists and character arcs that made me scream in delight
World’s Toughest Prisons Season 7
Was an emotional watch for me but very worth it
Books:
“Beauty & The Demon” by Aurora Ascher
Amazing paranormal romance
“A Court This Cruel and Lovely” by Stacia Stark
This is the first book, she’s already released two more in this series—and they are all amazing
Fantasy romance that makes me so happy
“Soichi: Junji Ito Story Collection” by Junji Ito (translated and released in 2023)
Soichi is one of the only characters of Ito’s whose visual design actually freaks me out
Music:
Powerwolf’s cover of “Poison”
One of my favourite bands covering my favourite Alice Cooper song? Yes, please.
Burn the Ballroom’s “Acoustique, Vol. 1” EP
The version of “Whisper” on this EP is what I listen to when I write interactions between Garet & Ryfon
Powerwolf’s album “Interludium (Deluxe Version)”
Not only does it have some amazing new songs on it, but also the deluxe version has other bands covering their songs in those band’s styles—so awesome
Voila’s album “The Cure For Breathing”
Been on repeat while I write “His Siren”
Sleep Token’s album “Take Me Back To Eden”
Whole album makes me want to cry—10/10
Exit Eden feat. Marko Hietala’s single “Run!”
Best morning pick-me-up song
Within Temptation’s album “Bleed Out”
On repeat while I write my book, love it so much
What Does 2024 Hold?
While I don’t want to make too many predictions/promises about what I’m getting done this year, there are a few things I can say that I know to be true:
Part 5 of ‘His Siren’ will be out this Sunday, Jan 7th. I feel bad this one has taken so long to post. It’s been written for a couple of months, but something about it was bothering me, and instead of just posting it anyway, I wanted to let it sit while I revised it. I’ve finally got it figured so it’s ready to post!
I’m hoping to have my novel finished in 2024—even if that’s just finishing the first draft. I have about 40,000 words to go!
Expect more from me relating to the Tales After Tolkien Society. I’m still working on fixing up last year’s paper for posting on the TAT blog, and I can’t wait to share it with people!
Lastly, from my family to yours, I hope you had a Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
