(day 17:) recognition

I've had the most awesome news today! Dying Wishes is now a finalist in the 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in the Speculative Fiction category.

I heard this news from the lovely folks at Kobo, who've sent me a sticker to use on the book cover!

Ta-ta-da-ta-daaaaaa .....

Isn't this the most awesome thing ever? 😀

I'm so happy and thrilled with this news, and I am incredibly grateful to be on the shortlist. But oh, I'm also dreaming of winning, and how badly I want all the adulation and the publicity, the praise and the awards!

But I reckon I've wisened up to the fact that in this artistic journey of mine, longing and gratitude will often co-exist. So even as I yearn to win, I'm also filled with gratitude and joy for having made it to the shortlist in the first place.

Thank you, Universe! 💕

I woke up this morning with the worst headache ever, quite hungover from yesterday's mad get-together with friends although there was no alcohol involved. I reckon it's the several sleepless nights of last week all taking their toll on me now.

So it was a largely a day of half-sleeping and puttering about the house. I folded three piles of laundry. And I mostly read Thirst No. 4 in between dropping off D at school in the morning and picking him up in the late afternoon.

Some days are like this. Very little gets done.

There was a time when I wished to eliminate such days from my life. I had deemed them an utter waste of time.

But the truth is that such days are unavoidable. There are more of them than I'd like; sometimes, I can push through such days, but at other times, it's impossible.

So now I know what to do. Let them be, and let them pass. Tomorrow is another day to get up and try.

Perhaps this is what long-term thinking is all about. To not get caught in the daily details but to keep at what one does, to simply come back to the doing day after day after day.