Collage Journaling: Steampunk Sea Creatures

I decided to start a new insert in my journal on my birthday because the one I had (though it had about 10 more pages) was too cumbersome to hold open and to scan properly. So this is the inside cover.



And I did one more earlier in the month. I still have some of the images for when I do 'steampunk' as a topic for Fannish 50.

The State of the Ficcery: May 2024

Wow. It's been a month, hasn't it?

Word Count: 41,514

I know, right? I triple checked it because it seems too high but it comes from the dick_or_treat fills + my soap opera updates. So I'm, like, 20k (so a month) from the Year end goal of 150k. What?!

Writing: I did 4 fills for dick_or_treat total (for April and May) and 3 in May itself. There's a WIP I won't finish (may never finish) which I started for it, set in my BTS A/B/O tarot 'verse.

10 fills for sweetandshort 10 out of 20 and 2 for the photo prompts.
1 fill for emotions100
4 fills for vocab_drabbles including 3 poems for GYWO Yahtzee. I am 1 and 1/4 poems from finishing the Yahtzee set but it's a toss up if I will before the end of things in June.
4 updates on the soap opera
5 poems

So next up, I told myself I am not doing ANYTHING but 1. unconventional courtship (due 13 June) and then Intoabar (which I'm not doing again ever because I got...Sherlock Holmes...meets Raymond West (Miss Marple's nephew). This is why I don't do exchanges either. Other people picking my prompts always rubs my fur the wrong way.

To do unconventional courtship properly, I need to steep myself in hardboiled voice (not a hardship, I love it) but it's like doing a Bertie fic. You have to go Method Actress for a bit. So expect a lot of slumming angels to appear across the board. And my soap opera is reaching a boiling point. I want my big shock to go up on ARMY day (9 July).

Reading: I am loving Margery Allingham. I think listening to the audiobooks is part of it. I never thought of myself as a Campion fan but I am! I just finished The China Governess, I also listened to The Mind-Readers and I am impressed. So maybe I will do her oeuvre from start to finish, too, one day.

3 Bingo squares done.

I have 8 squares on the bingo left and the goal is blackout by the time school starts back at the end of August. I think I can do it. I have a great selection of books. I just need to make more time to read.

I met my goal of catching up on Fannish 50 (one post a week, I'm on 22). I won't be on Monday but I am going to celebrate until then :)

Personal: I finished the 5k relay. Not a PR but I also didn't injure myself like in November. AND I signed up for the bridge 10k in November (solo) and will start training for that in the morning!

The diet didn't happen. And I gained some weight back BUT tomorrow is another day.

13 spreads! And 7 cards! That's a lot of collage. And I haven't even done June one yet!

2 jigsaw puzzles. I have a lovely supply to keep me going until the end of the year.

Another odd monthly goal which I met was not getting a sunburn. In March, I got cooked to a crisp, shoulders, neck, and chest and it lingered, itching badly all day and night and sometimes stinging, too, for weeks and weeks, long after it peeled and healed on the surface. So I decided not to put myself through all that again. And I did it! Yay. Given how much time I spend on sidelines watching little boys play sports it's impressive.

Also, it's morbid but my mom died when she was 48 (and I was 18) and so having my 49th birthday means I've lived longer than she did. And it makes me Think.

Minor's track and soccer seasons are done. Minisculus still has soccer and swimming lessons. Last day of school is 14 June.

so, June is Pride. I'll be focusing on my 3 fics (unconventional courtship, intoabar, and soap opera) and reading and starting the 10k training. I also want to finish my other OM cross stitch but I am setting that as an end-of-summer goal.

On y va.