May 2026
First: The Theme
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Yes that’s the theme. I’m only sort of joking.
So this month has been a lot. Every time I accept that at my children’s ages and with all he stuff that I’m doing that this is simply the busiest season of my life, something else hits and really reminds me of just how busy. April was full of a lot of activities, both planned and unplanned, and the first few days of May were no different, which is why I’m once again several days later than I intended to be. I do seem to recall saying that I was changing things up so that the newsletter no longer goes out automatically on the first of the month but rather when I’ve finally had a chance to sit down and write it, but I can’t remember if I actually did say it or if I just wrote it in my ADHD brain and then merrily moved on with my day.
Regardless, I’m saying it now. So, having said that, let’s move on!
Second: The Work
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Wow it’s really a theme this time, isn’t it? My writing on Broken Vessels stalled out this past month, in particular the last several days, due to an unexpected plot snag that I had to sit down and untangle. I’ms till working on it, and am definitely making progress, but the drawback is that it’s, well, slowing the rest of the writing down. I have never been able to jump around much in books. I have to write things in the order that they are shown to the reader, which isn’t always the same as chronologically. I’m not sure what the exact craft term is for this, but it’s how I write. Accordingly when I get stuck I can’t move on and write around it. I have to fix the problem or my ADHD brain will get hyper fixated on it and the spiraling will begin. Thankfully no spiraling has happened so far this time, but that’s because I’ve been trusting my process and slowly working through the issue. I think I’m nearly past it, but we’ll see. I’m not behind schedule yet.
The other main thing on my list at the moment is a book I just got back from my wonderful agent Laura. It’s a high fantasy, one that I wrote over the first two years of the Pandemic as a form of catharsis and working my fear out. The good news is that the book is good! It has a place we can imagine it going and it has a purpose we both understand. The bad news is it needs more words. Like 50-thousand more. That’s not something I am used to hearing, as I normally breath in ten-thousand word increments and can get quite long-winded. I guess it’s not strictly bad news as I do like writing and I like writing in that universe in particular, but still. Whuff. In practical news there’s some more art that I’m getting commissioned, and we now have these cool bookmarks with QR codes on the back! Aren’t they cool?
At A Good Book in Sumner WA
I’ll have these at Con-Carolinas later this month. Which, if I haven’t mentioned, I will be at! May 29th-31st in Charlotte NC! I will be with my publisher, Falstaff books, doing panels, hanging out with the Author’s and Dragons crew, and there will be a reunion game featuring the main cast from Chronicles of Calamity! It’ll be fun to step into Bjorg’s head again, and to see my friends, and to meet those of you who are able to make it out. Which is to say, come see me!
Okay, neeeeeeext!
Third: On Craft
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
I promise that’s not my reaction to literally everything right now, but man is it close. Between the plot snarl and the returned book I’ve been in a very naval-gaze-y mood for the last week or so, and it’s had me taking on some new habits that have definitely helped with my overall mental health and productivity in general. It’s started with weaning myself off my phone. Between talking to my therapist and dealing with some other stuff in my life I came to the conclusion that basically my phone is responsible for a good chunk of the stress elevation in my day to day life, as well as my ability to focus on important tasks, and accordingly I needed to cut down on my use of it. This does tie into craft, I promise.
How did I do this? Let’s talk about it:
1st: I decided to shift all my text and social media communication over to my laptop. A lot of my addiction stems from a desire to be connected to people since I spend a good chunk of most of my days home alone while the kids are in school and my wife is at work. This ensures I can still do these things, but having to use an analogue keyboard and stand in front of my desk means it’s just hard enough to do that it puts a little barrier in the path of what on my phone is as simple as tapping a touch-screen.
2nd: I put my phone on a table across the room and I don’t pick it up again unless it rings. Texts? I check them on my laptop. Messenger? Laptop. Social media? Laptop. I also mute the thing so I only hear it if it buzzes. This was hard at first, but the ability to still do the things I wanted to do albeit in a less convenient way made it easier to sustain.
The overall results have been promising. Day one was tricky, but after about a week I’ve stopped noticing when I don’t use my phone for a long period of time. My battery life is definitely better, and I’m not wearing headphones and stimming myself nonstop. My writing has also gotten better and more consistent since I instituted this change, even with the plot snarl that’s slowed me down. I’m keeping up with household tasks better as well, and just overall functioning on a higher level than I was before. The sense of accomplishment is also pretty nice.
How does this tie into craft? The former sentence kinda gives away the point: in order to keep working at the level I needed to, I had to make distractions less convenient to indulge in. Having alternate hobbies and things that aren’t work is important for creative careers, but scrolling endlessly and being on-call for every message and notification is not a hobby, or if it is you need new ones. And more broadly than just the phone, if something important is distracting you, make the distractions less convenient to answer. Often it’s convenience that draws us away from getting stuff done, as much as the distraction itself.
Anyway that’s my win on this, and the advice that flows from it. Moving on…
Fourth: What I’m Doing
1st: media being consumed in bullet point form.
-Watching: My Dress-up Darling, the Ghibli movie collection I have (Nausicaä of the Valley of of the Wind is still one of my all time favs), and probably an unhealthy number of Warhammer 40k streams.
-Playing: Rogue Trader, which is a wonderfully immersive game by Owlcat that really nails the 40k universe, and is my first BG3-like. I’m enjoying the hell out of it, even though I can only play it if I have at least an hour to kill since every dialogue might as well be a Dostoyevsky novel.
-Reading: Ravenor, Ascendance of a Bookworm, Blacktop Wasteland, and the first book of the Expanse, which I finally decided to try. Old and new, all very good.
-Listening: Arirang (the newest BTS album for the handful of you who might not know), Mamamoo’s discography, the Rogue Trader soundtrack, and a bunch of other stuff. It’s been a good month for music to be frank.
2nd: here’s all the other stuff I’m doing.
My family and I attended Norwescon this past month, and boy was it weird to go to a convention that I’ve always attended as a pro as just an ordinary guest. I caught up with some friends, though, and got to attend some fun panels and have lunch with colleagues. No Karaoke this year, alas. Probably for the best, though, given how tired I was. Less than a day after the con ended my family and I went to San-Diego to visit Legoland for two days, and we had a blast. The kids, who are still in the age range where that sort of thing is peak fun, ran themselves ragged, the accommodations were great, and even though we missed some of the things we wanted to hit, it was worth doing and 10/10 will be doing it again.
The next big event was Independent Bookstore day, which we spent visiting local indies in the Puget Sound area as part of an annual book crawl that they collaborate to put on. I brought Glassblade bookmarks with me, and—with permission—left them in several stores. So if you hit an indie bookstore in the south Puget Sound region, you might find one of these fun things. The art—once again by the excellent Data2048—is fantastic, and they came out really nice!
Oh, and my daughter broke her arm, which has put a bit of a damper on some activities. It wasn’t severe, and she’s recovering very well, but it was definitely a stressor for everyone that was neither expected nor prepared for. On the cool side, did you know that casts today are mostly waterproof and come in a bunch of different colors? I didn’t. She’s thrilled and has covered it in her friends signatures.
In Conclusion, or What’s Next?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Chapter 10 of Glassblade dropped this past Monday for early access subscribers, and will go out to general audiences on 5/11/26, which also happens to my 41st Birthday, which is kinda neat. There was a time in my life when I didn’t expect to make it that far, so I’m grateful. Work proceeds apace on Broken Vessels, and I am getting ready to add the other book to my work-load, which will have to be done gently and slowly so as to not overload my nervous system. Still, these are all great problems to have. I hope that you are fortunate as well, and that you’re all healthy and safe and as fulfilled as you can be, in these times.
Stay healthy, stay friendly, stay curious.
-Joe