{"id":1653,"date":"2021-09-02T13:08:28","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T17:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/?p=1653"},"modified":"2021-09-02T13:08:28","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T17:08:28","slug":"welcome-back-to-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/02\/welcome-back-to-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome Back to 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Happy New Year, faces. We survived 2019. Let’s hope 2020 is a little easier.
(Either that or have it come with jetpacks. Finally.)<\/p>From Farewell, 2019<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday I turned 40. I don’t really remember turning 39 – I know I did, I know how time works, I have memories from that day both in my head and on Facebook – but like everyone else in these *CLICHE ALERT* unprecedented times, time has ceased to mean anything and everything is just one big jumble. We’re definitely not out of the woods, pandemic-wise, and to claim otherwise is foolish, but at the same time, there have been enough adjustments and space to process that I feel like… like I did in the Before Times? Maybe? Almost. Like I want<\/em> to go sit in a co-working space for a few hours, and get this backlog done. I’m not ready <\/em>to sit indoors outside the home for hours yet, but I do want to return to semi-regular working hours, and restart submitting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I gave up on submitting. Back in May, I think? The ‘rona caused a lot of backlog in the publishing world, unsurprisingly, and where I used to complain if I had to wait 60 days to get a response from a magazine, I was now waiting 150+ days to get a form rejection with no useful info, and more agents than ever were ghosting on queries. On top of that, I had AQA2 and BOO’s launch to worry about\/co-ordinate,, not to mention generating weekly content for my Patreon. It was a lot, and I chose to put subs aside for a month, and then didn’t pick them up again. But two jabs and two launches later and I am feeling more confident about my headspace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And of course it is a new year for me: 41 FFY<\/a>. September has arrived, and I am ready to get back to my Real Work. BOO is launched, the paperback of AQA2 is launched, Fletcher & Cooper<\/em> 2 awaits editing, Space Crazies awaits an updated query package and a generous submission plan. But just because submitting fell by the wayside doesn’t mean that I sat around staring at the walls. As usual, I did a lot more than I give myself credit for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n