Hello darlings, hope you’ve been hanging in there during these unprecedented times. This will be a bit of a smaller update, but I disapprove of all the months between most of my letters. So, grab your favourite beverage and get cozy. Let’s catch up.
This May will mark eight months of unemployment thus far. I’ve been looking through the vast jungles of the internet, and I’m seeing similar plights all across the country. There is some comfort in that fact, if a bit morbid. I’ve had three interviews since November, and all of them have advised that someone more qualified got the position. The last one seemed incredulous that I hadn’t been working for so long, and asked me why. How do I professionally tell them it’s a dumpster fire out here? How do I tell them I don’t know what’s wrong with me, if something is wrong?
I will say though, having this much “free” time on my hands has been both a blessing and a curse. I’ve been able to work on some of my personal projects in the last couple months. I got involved with March Hotel, which introduced me to new people and lightning art studies – it was nice having a fun reason to flex the rust off the art muscles. With April came NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month), and with a little less than a week left of the month, I’d say it did me good to retreat to poetry once more. I most certainly went all over the road this year between trying to narrate a story via poetry, practising different types of poetry, and the things that just come to mind towards the end of this all.
Next month is Mermay, where every day you draw a mermaid with a prompt (human created, not that genAI slop). Maybe I really should add an art section to the newsletter? Email me back if you think it’s a fun idea!
In good news, I’ve been able to focus on writing more WOTE, which has been lovely for my soul. WOTE is entering its tenth year as a WIP, and I truly don’t know how to feel about it. I’m trying not to think about all the time I didn’t work on it as a “waste of time”, because the author in me says it was. But the reality is that life is pretty real too, so to avoid beating myself up, I’ve been drooling over character art while going through beta reader feedback for rewrites. So far so good.
Veins of Pluto revisions are going slow but well. I’m taking out a lot of things that just don’t fit with the overall theme, even though the “theme” was a collection of poetry. I’ve also got stickers in the works for the art store.
I started using Ellipsus instead of Google Docs and Notion to write WOTE, do world-building, and so far it has been incredible. The biggest draw is that there is zero AI in this program. It has a website and an app, and they are rolling out updates consistently – I’m a member of their Discord server for the updates, and they’ve been extremely communicative and open with the road map and ideas so far. I would heavily suggest writers of any variety look into it, especially if you’re utilising Google Docs. They’ve recently (within the last month or so) added the ability to import Google Docs into Ellipsus – that was the final game changer for me! Also, the themes they have are very pretty.
Audio Delights
Dogstar’s Joy has been living rent free in our house, as well as STARSET’s ECHO, The Line by Twenty One Pilots, and RAYE’s WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!.
READING PLEASURES
Mostly the news, and even that has been a bit more scant. I’ve been replacing reading with random doodles, to keep the habit up, so perhaps I’ll start including those in the future. This section may become the “Creative Pleasures”!
MAGIC MUSINGS
I’ve been researching small ways to bring health, wealth, and get rid of whatever funk is hanging on to me. This weekend I’ll be trying a black candle in water with salt and pepper, then burning it until the water seals it up. Hoping it will help loosen something up.
And as a little plug, my joint Discord server, the Mildly Feral Creative’s Haven is welcome to all types of creatives – writers, artists, crafters, crocheters, etc. The website is currently going through an overhaul, but there will be a spot on my About page in the very near feature with an eternal invite for any who wish to join. Please note the server does not allow minors.
If you’ve read this far, thank you my friend. I hope the world is kind to you. Stay soft, stay feral.
Seren J.H. Wolfe 
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