(I like to rhyme.)
Hi, folks! Whew, we’re into year three of the pandemic, and so far I have not caught the virus because of my clever approach of “having absolutely no life outside my home and what is even time anymore and I think my medical support people are now my only real friends.”
It’s been a real ride. Thankfully, my husband and I are on this journey together and lately have found solace in the real funny reboot of DC Hero Supergirls. I might have claimed Batgirl as an ND peer, too. We like to watch it after the The Ten Minutes of Crap, which is the nightly news. Laughter is so vital to our survival, I swear. We’re even rewatching Modern Family.
I have also deep-dived into LEGO building and am proud to say I completed 24 days of Star Wars Advent calendar mini-builds, which I hung up on my Christmas tree (that’s what you’re supposed to do, right). I also completed an almost 600-piece built of Boba Fett’s starship. That was relaxing to do a bit over a few days.
As for work stuff? I did submit Season One: Iris and the Crew Tear Through Space to Renaissance late in 2021. Will keep you posted about that! I also received word that a short space opera poem of mine has been accepted into a publication. Stay tunes for details on that, too! And I have been working really hard with Talia on the Nothing Without Us Too anthology. Deadline for that is January 31, 2022!
Oh, and I drew my first cover art for Jamieson Wolf’s novella: Captain Maven and the Shadow Man. He will be putting that out this year, I believe! There’s a preview of it on jamiesonwolf.com!
I’m not sure what I am going to focus on with new writing this year. It’ll be a surprise, I guess! I have a few ideas on my whiteboard. I kind of would like to self-pub a thing, to be honest. We’ll see how the year goes.
But yeah, this pandemic is a pain in my backside. Eugenics reign supreme, money is put before people’s lives, and I just can’t figure out how people are travelling right now on vacations. It seems to me that the more than people do to claim their “freedoms,” the more disabled folks like myself are stuck indoors. Doesn’t feel very freeing to me, living inside my house. All I can say is that I am very privileged to have a home, a supportive partner, creativity, too many LEGO kits, and maybe a frightening amount of gluten-free flour.
I don’t really do new year’s resolutions, but I will take this action in 2022: to yeet out negative folks/orgs who/that weigh me down. I just don’t have the spoons to be a part of communities where there’s an atmosphere of combativeness or harm. That toxicity is not welcome in my life. Instead, I want to continue to focus on community building with the wonderful authors I have met through the Spoonie Authors Network and through other opportunities I have to connect with disabled/ND/Blind/Deaf humans. Writers need to support each other, not lord their status/accolades/experience over each other. We can all help each other, regardless of how long we’ve been at our craft. And anyone who is toxic can fly into the sun, please and thank you. I am more impressed by someone’s character than how famous they are. Who needs people like that anyway? I’ll not pander to trolls but thrive with the awesome folks who are kind and fun.
In any case, I wish every awesome human reading this a happy new year. I hope great things happen to you and that you’re in loving and supportive circles.
Cheers!
Cait Gordon is a Canadian autistic, disabled, and queer author of speculative fiction that celebrates diversity. She also co-edited Nothing Without Us with Talia C. Johnson, a 2020 Prix Aurora Award finalist for Best Related Work that has thrice been part of a disability studies syllabus at Trent University. (The submission window for Nothing Without Us Too is currently open until Jan 31, 2022!) When not fine-tuning manuscripts, Cait advocates for disability representation and is the founder of the Spoonie Authors Network.
Cait Gordon—author and editor 