Quick Sips 02/25/2022

I do kind of apologize that in some ways these weekly updates are place holders. By that I mean that I do like to keep readers up to date on what’s going on with me, but I also feel bad that I haven’t quite figured out what to do in this space yet. For over seven years Quick Sip Reviews has been a large part of my day, of my life. Not just because it took a great deal of time and effort, but because I also needed it, needed the money I earned from it through Patreon and the other paid work I could get writing nonfiction, doing online classes, etc. It was regular, mostly consistent money in a time when more than anything that’s what I needed. And now…I’m not sure what to do.

It’s a good problem to have, really. Certainly it beats the alternative. Graduating in 2008 with an English degree, jobs weren’t exactly easy to come by. Trying to support my partner through some incredibly difficult times didn’t make matters much easier. It almost feels weird that I have the same job I got when I was still a senior in college, over a decade ago now. Starting at $9/hr and slowly getting more, though it would take some union arbitration on my behalf to actually get me on the right pay scale. Add the stress and stalking that Matt and I have been through, the difficulties with him finding work, going back to school, seeing to his own neglected and necessary healthcare, and…well, for a long time now it’s been just about all we could do to pay the mortgage and make sure we ate.

Quick Sips 02/18/2022

There’s a lot going on here despite not feeling like I have a lot to show for it. Which, I mean, is kind of my life in a nutshell a lot of the time. My work as a reviewer keeps right on moving along, and I’m about ready to turn in my third column for Locus Magazine. As I settle into my rhythm on the team I’m starting to figure out timing and everything. Though I cover less than I used to, it’s still a lot to get to, and timing can sometimes be an issue with a mix of releases that I get in advance and some that I get when they’re released publicly. I’m working on getting a schedule that works for me, but am still definitely settling in.

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of other things that I’m excited about and working on. I did see the preliminary cover for the second We’re Here and wow, it’s another absolutely stunning piece of original artwork. Definitely becoming one of my favorite parts of this because fuck yes art! I can’t give you a preview but it’s so good. You all will just have to bask in my reflected excitement.

Quick Sips 02/11/2022

Hello again! Welcome to Tired Town, population: me. Though, I mean, in some ways I’m doing pretty good. Just…waiting for the tiredness to pass. It’s so strange, taking these steps to try and maintain a healthy relationship with my reviewing work, with work in general. Healthy in the haha like capitalism allows for a healthy relationship with work but still, it’s a work in progress. I can at least report some updates, some successes, some excitements.

I have turned over a longlist to by co-editor (the phenomenal L.D. Lewis) for We’re Here. The longlist represents a large part of my editorial work for the series, because I’m supposed to be the one canvassing the field and finding as many queer stories as I can, and then reviewing the submissions we get through the portal and then refining that down. This year, my second doing it, was complicated by all the other things I was doing: trying to wrap up QSR, trying to hit deadlines for Locus, participating in the Locus Recommended Reading List, and a few other projects thrown in for good measure (that the Hugos were so late in the year and took a rather hard emotional toll were icing on that cake I guess). You’ll be able to read a bit more about the process and my thoughts on the field in this year’s editorial, so do look for that when the book drops later in the year.

Quick Sips 02/04/2022

Sooooooo...now what? It’s strange to think that after seven years of running this blog, that things will be changing so much, but that’s also exactly what I’ve planned, exactly what I need. So...here we are. Even as I say that, though, it will probably take me a few weeks, maybe even a few months, to really figure out what the new Quick Sip Reviews is really going to look like. Part of that is because at the moment I am waist-deep in reading for We’re Here, the Best Of reprint anthology that this year I’m co-editing with L.D. Lewis. So I’m reading. A lot. But also reading a lot of stuff from last year, so notes on what I’ve been reading from this year outside my Locus reviewing will be slowly trickling in as I catch up.

Which, I mean, we could start there. My first ever Locus column is currently available in the February 2022 issue! My second column, to appear in March, has been turned in as well. The three main short fiction reviewers for the publication (Karen Burnham, Paula Guran, and now myself) have had the conversation about who is covering what. And let me tell you, after years of doing as much as I could myself, the idea that someone else is covering a publication that I’ve been reading and reviewing for so long is foreign, but a bit welcome. I still plan to read very widely, but I suspect I will enjoy having a more defined and limited set of reviewing resposibilities. And I can still talk about other stories I come across that I enjoy, either here or through my Sip of Week on Patreon.