As many of you know, I’m a knitter. Around 2002/2003, I took up knitting as a way to express myself and my creative side. I was following a few Japan bloggers at the time, and one of them, my friend Kat, was a knitter, and I thought, “Hey, that’s something I could do, too.”
Over the years since, I have knitted a lot of items. I have knitted blankets, hats, scarves, gloves, mittens, sweaters, socks, leg warmers, shawls… A huge variety of things. And I learned along the way which items I enjoyed knitting and which ones I would wear after I was done. After more than a decade of knitting, I settled on blankets and shawls as my go-to knits of choice. They are practical and fun, with varying shapes, patterns, colors, and techniques, and they don’t have to fit me (looking at you, sweaters I will no longer be able to wear) or be a certain size. I can be free to choose what I like, enjoy the process, and then relish in the final product.
Now, let’s turn to writing. It also took me a while to settle on the kinds of stories I like to tell and the ways in which I tell them. There were times when I thought I would write contemporary romance or thrillers, but they never panned out. My brain always goes back to science fiction or mysteries (with a healthy dose of romance).
Before I became a novelist, I was writing screenplays, and I thought that my future was in Hollywood, writing for TV or film. I even hoped I’d be a director someday. So, for this year, I thought, why not double-down on all the new video tools that have come out so that you can finally get your chance at creating the movies in your head?
You know what I realized by late January? I don’t actually like making videos. I don’t like recording videos. I don’t like being on video. I do it for teaching on zoom or for other methods of communicating, but that’s it. I stopped doing the One Second Everyday videos because remembering to do them every day was difficult and I always put off making the videos until the very last moment. I just don’t enjoy it.
The things I love making are my books, audio versions of my books, and images to go along with my books. But I don’t love video. Sigh. This will teach me to not make big commitments before understanding and knowing what I’m getting myself into.
This is all to say that I’m still working on finishing up The Blender’s Bargain on YouTube. It’s a slow process because I’m not enjoying the work at all. It’s a struggle to get through it. I enjoyed the writing and editing. I even enjoy the audio editing. Then I have to make images, put them in the video in an interesting way, export it, upload it, etc. Sigh. I’m getting to it. I promise. I’m just really slow.
So, in the future, you can expect from me: audiobooks (via a podcast), posts on my blog with images that go with my books, and more stories. My YouTube channel will continue to house other random things once I’m done posting The Blender’s Bargain.
