Greetings From Babyland

The coolest baby gift of all time: a Cthulhu puppet! You can stick your fingers into the tentacles and make them move. 

Yep, still alive, though it's been awhile since I had the energy to write a blog post. The Babe is finally sleeping for more than a few hours at a time, which means I'm no longer in survival mode. (You know Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? There's a reason why sleep is one of the essentials.) We're settling into a routine and I'm trying to get an hour of writing time a day, because I'm getting that antsy feeling that happens when I go for too long without it. Apart from the constant freakouts about keeping the baby alive (Is she still breathing? She's isn't sleeping? OMG, is she sick?/She's STILL sleeping? Now she must be sick! What does whooping cough sound like? Is baby poop supposed to be green?) this stay-at-home-mom gig isn't too bad: lots of Netflix marathons and reading in addition to feeding the baby and changing diapers. 

And what about writing? Well, I didn't get much done over the summer, mostly because my focus was on the baby and I was pretty tired towards the end. I did enter a few stories in the Nova competition, but they didn't make the cut. (I'm not surprised, they weren't my best work, not original enough.) The story I wrote for the Portti competition is still in the rough draft stage, so I didn't enter this year at all. For Writers of the Future, I missed the June deadline, but I managed to edit the story I was supposed to enter then for the last quarter. Oh, and I got the certificate for the Silver Honourable Mention in the mail from a previous quarter, yay!  

The English Cosmos Pen issue  turned out really nice and came out at Worldcon, and the Varjojen lumo anthology is also out. I learned a lot from the editing process and really enjoyed participating in this project.

The online writing courses I was supposed to participate in during the summer also fell by the wayside. I was just too tired. But maybe it's better to know your limits rather than try to do too much. There will be other courses, and I can always go back and watch the lectures if I have the energy. On the other hand I participated in a one-day writing course in Tampere in the spring, and I'm happy I got to do that. 

Even if this year turns out to be a dry spell writing-wise, life's pretty great right now. Long walks in the crisp autumn air with The Babe sleeping in her stroller, a new Blade Runner movie and the new season of Stranger Things to look forwards to, and artisanal breads from the very hipster-y new bakery that opened just around the corner from where I live, what's not to love? And I'm no longer pregnant. I can have brie again. And sushi, and a gin and tonic once in a while. And Finnish salt liquorice, salmiakki. Oh salmiakki, I missed you most of all!

The blog will probably be a bit quiet, but I'll try to check in once in a while. 

Okay, The Babe is making her pooping face again, and I have to go change her. See you guys later!