Tag: important

State of the Blog 2019

Hello everyone!

Thank you all so much for being such awesome followers, and a special thanks to those of you who filled out my feedback survey at the end of last year. It was very helpful and encouraging, and it helped me make some decisions about how the blog will look in 2019. So, without further ado, here’s a look at what to expect on the blog this year!

WHAT’S STAYING:

  • Recommendation Day: I really enjoyed Recommendation Day as a feature, and I’d love to keep it going this year. Everyone’s suggestions were truly fantastic, and it will be a great way to keep me reading for fun in the midst of reading for my Qualifying Exams (more on that later).
  • Monthly Wrap-Ups: I’ll still make posts about what I’ve read every month, though I might change the format to leave out the book covers, because I feel like that probably clogs up people’s dashes too much (and it’s time consuming).
  • Top Five Wednesdays: I’ll try to be more consistent about Top 5 Wednesdays because it’s pretty simple and a lot of people enjoy it!
  • Book Reviews: I’ll still be doing book reviews as usual! However, I’ll also be adding a special kind of review, but I’ll talk more about that later!
  • First Friday Fairy Tales: I love these, and I’m keeping them. lol
  • Iridia Content: You’ll still see Iridia content pop up from time to time, even though publication is currently put off indefinitely. I’ll try to be a bit more diligent about updating when I’m working on it and how the publishing journey is going.

WHAT’S GOING:

  • TBR Lists: I ultimately found these too stressful because I already have plenty of due dates for school, so it doesn’t feel good to try to tell myself to read certain books in a month.
  • The Diverse Reading Challenge: I gave it a go, but in the end, I don’t think I can keep it running for a second year. I really appreciate those who did participate, but since it’s not something I need for myself anymore, I don’t want to add the pressure to read specific books at a specific time this year. That said, if you still want to talk about diverse books, please come chat with me about them! I’ll continue to boost them as I read them.
  • Quote Graphics: These were a new thing I tried out later in the year, and while they were kind of fun, my heart wasn’t really in them. Maybe I’ll still do one from time to time, but otherwise I’ll stick to graphics about Iridia.

WHAT’S NEW:

  • Fairy Tale Retelling Reviews: In 2019, I’ll be reading for my Qualifying Exams in Comparative Literature and Folklore for my Dual Ph.D. I plan to take them early 2020, but I’ll start reading this coming year. One of my lists is fairy tale retellings, so I thought it would be fun to do a different sort of comparative review as I read them (there are like, 25+ on my list). These might coincide with FFFT, but most likely not. I figure I’ll be reading and reviewing these books anyway, so I thought I might put a little twist on them which will also be a helpful study guide for my exams! Depending on how spring semester goes, this might not start up until late spring, but we’ll see!
  • Cat Photos: I have posted an occasional picture of my cats, Milo and Millie, but tbh I take so many pictures I don’t know what to do with them, so I’ll put those on here more! 😉
  • Me Stuff: I got away from doing it this year because I was trying to gear the blog in a particular direction prior to the publication of UNROOTED (which is no longer happening). So, I figure I can go back to being a little bit more personable on the blog. I’ve kind of missed it.

Thank you all so much again for being so great. I hope to meet and interact with more of you this year, and as new ideas and new things come up, I’ll be sure to let you know. Happy New Year to everyone!

Advertisement

Life Update

Hello, everyone!

I’m sure you’ll have noticed that it’s been a bit quiet on the blog lately. Or at least, I feel like it has been. Either way, I’ve been struggling feeling motivated to keep up a lot of what I do on this blog, in part because I’m halfway through grad school and in part because I’m dealing with some significant health issues, which is mostly what this post is about.

About a month ago, I started shaking. It started in my hands, then sometimes it would be in my head. If the hand that was shaking was occupied, the other hand would shake, and so on. This happened the entire time I was at Sirens, and it hasn’t stopped since. I’ve also been experiencing short term memory loss, waves of intense fatigue, and also difficulty standing up or even walking straight. Sometimes I shuffle around like Igor or something. I’ve started carrying a walking stick with me just in case my legs want to give out on me while I’m waiting in line at Panera. 

Unfortunately, I have a suspicion of what it might be, and while I’ve talked about it on Twitter, I don’t want to do so here yet until I get some kind of diagnosis. I will say that it’s neurological, but nothing more specific than that for the time being. I’ll be getting an MRI within the next few weeks and I have an appointment with a neurologist in January at the latest (he might see me sooner if the MRI comes back abnormal). The sooner I get a diagnosis, the sooner I can get treatment or, at the very least, get some professional advice on how to manage my symptoms.

The mental fog and exhaustion that has come along with this has made it really challenging to keep up with my hobbies in addition to my day job. Whenever I sit down to write a post or a review, it honestly feels like a battle. I sometimes entirely forget to put things together for my regular series. And I’ll be honest, the lack of interaction I get on most of my posts is discouraging. I often feel like I’m shouting into the void, and it makes me just want to give up half of my features. I don’t mean to guilt anybody, sincerely, but I miss the days when I actually had conversations with people on here. Maybe my features don’t lend themselves to engagement, I don’t know, but I’m getting so tired trying to figure out how to get activity up on here again. I don’t want to leave entirely, but I put countless hours of work into this blog this year and I just don’t think I can do that anymore, especially not if this health condition turns out to be chronic. 

I want to focus on what’s important. I’m still working out what I want to do on this blog that will be both fun for followers and sustainable for me. Since I’ll have to read between 25-30 fairy tale retellings for my qualifying exams, I may do something with analyzing them alongside my reviews. I haven’t decided. It would be very helpful to me if those of you who see this would fill out my Follower Feedback Survey so that I know what of most interest to you so that I can figure this out more, I’d really appreciate it. If I don’t get many responses, I’ll have to just cut things out because I won’t know if people want them to stay or not. 

I’m not leaving in 2019. But I need to make some changes if I’m going to deal with this real-life challenges, and I’d appreciate your understanding and help as I do so. 

❤

Sarah V

Sarah Viehmann Follower Feedback

Due to some life changes, including significant challenges in my personal health (more information here), I’m going to need to make some adjustments to my blog in 2019. I’d love to hear from my followers about what they most value so that I can take that into consideration as I’m planning ahead for 2019! 

Please fill out the survey and share! I’ll reblog periodically so people don’t miss it.

Sarah Viehmann Follower Feedback

dykespeare:

boydyke:

chloeniccole:

feelboss:

marsdidthething:

gentle reminder in this cold-n-flu season to not take mucinex if you’re also taking an SSRI (antidepressant)

always google “drug interactions [insert drug names]” to make sure that combining meds won’t make you more sick

mucinex DM specifically

the dextromethorphan reacts badly with the serotonin and can cause really bad anxiety and insomnia. it can also cause something called serotonin syndrome, or serotonin poisoning.

regular mucinex is ok, but you should always double check medication reactions!

dextromethorphan also reacts with bupropion (wellbutrin) which is not an ssri (like lexapro or zoloft) and is used to treat anxiety and eating disorders in addition to depression! even if you aren’t on an ssri for depression, double check the interactions of your specific anxiety and depression meds (and other mental illness medications) just to be safe

Here’s a good resource for checking drug interactions!

quetiapine (seroquel) is an antipsychotic and can also have reactions with dextromethorphan! a lot of cold medicines have dextromethorphan in them but mucinex dm has about twice as much which is why you have to watch out for that specifically

UNROOTED Update

Hello, everyone.

I have some unfortunate news, but it is the sort of news that will bring more positive in the future.

I have terminated my publishing contract, and Unrooted will no longer be published in 2019. 

I won’t go in to the reasons because it is better to be professional, but I ultimately determined that the publisher I had signed with was not the best long-term fit for Unrooted or The Iridia Series overall. This is disappointing of course, both for me and for those of you who have been so patient and excited for the book’s publication. However, I believe in this project and I am confident that it will find a new and better home where it can truly thrive and reach a wide audience. 

What does this mean?

It simply means that I am jumping back in the timeline a bit. Over the past year and a half, I have learned to understand this project even better, and I will be aiming to get an agent and go for the traditional publishing route. I will be querying the novel as adult fantasy (as that is what it is), and I have already compiled a list of agents. 

It does mean that I no longer know when Unrooted will be published. Maybe this round of querying will go well and I won’t be in limbo very long. But in the publishing industry, there are no guarantees. I am very sorry to those of you who have been eagerly waiting, but I promise that this is the best choice for the series.

In the meantime …

I will continue to post behind-the-scenes snippets on my Patreon, and the Writing Workshop next year will be focused on the querying/publishing process.

Further, Unrooted will not be removed from Goodreads to my knowledge, so you can still add it to your TBR there.

I will continue to update on the progress here and I would still love to receives asks and interact with you about the project. Your encouragement has brought me so far and I couldn’t be more grateful. 

Once again, I’m so sorry I have to deliver this bad news, but I am optimistic for the future of Unrooted and I will keep you informed as the process continues! 

Exciting Announcement!

I’m Going to BookNetFest!

This September 7-8, I will be at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, FL at BookNetFest as a panelist! 

If you haven’t already, you can register for BookNetFest here. It’s an exciting event for members of the bookish community, from book bloggers to booktubers to bookstagrammers to authors! We’ll get together for panels and sessions and networking, getting a chance to connect with other book lovers from across the internet. 

If you register, you’ll have a chance to also sign up for a Meet-and-Greet with me and the other panelists. 

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

If you’re at BookNetFest, you might get a chance to receive exclusive access to materials from Unrooted, coming Winter 2018! This might even include ARCs! 

If you can’t attend BookNetFest this year but would still like to help support this totally non-profit event, you can donate to the Kickstarter here. You could get a chance to win something from the First Friday Fairy Tales store! 

I’m very excited to be attending and participating in BookNetFest for the second year! I hope to see some of you there, and stay tuned for live updates from the event here and on Twitter! 

Good Morning, Everyone!

Happy June! This not only marks the start of Pride Month, but it also means that we’re only two seasons away from the release of Unrooted! To celebrate publication getting closer, I’m very excited to launch my professional website and reveal a new blog theme to match! While it’s been fun seasonally changing my color scheme for a few years now, I’ve decided to pick something that will stick. I’ve got a new header and new colors, plus some updated information here and there. A lot is familiar, but it’s a “fresh coat of paint,” if you will.

CHECK OUT MY NEW WEBSITE HERE!!!

This month also marks the beginning of some new features, both here and on my Patreon. on Monday, you’ll find a post with all the exciting Iridia Bonus Content that will be appearing on my Patreon for the next several months (some free, some restricted to tiers). There will also be some content that appears here on the blog from time to time. Book Reviews, Recommendation Day, the Diverse Reading Challenge, and First Friday Fairy Tales will all continue! In short, much will stay the same in the way of blog activity, but I now have a stable, professional website to go along with the blog. 

I’ve been putting in a lot of work over the past couple of weeks to get so many things prepped and planned. If you like the changes, feel free to pop on over to my Ko-Fi and let me know! 

Today, enjoy First Friday Fairy Tales, and this weekend we’ll wrap up May’s Diverse Reading Challenge and get a sneak peek at what’s coming up later this year. Thank you again to those of you who follow me and send me asks and are getting excited for Unrooted. We’re only 6-8 months away! 

Love,

Sarah Viehmann

skyakafreckles:

samthe-onion-nigga:

freewillandphysics:

teal-deer:

witchyroses:

art–felt:

I remember first learning that you can cry from any emotion, that emotions are chemical levels in your brain and your body is constantly trying to maintain equilibrium. so if one emotion sky rockets, that chemical becomes flagged and signals the tear duct to open as an exit to release that emotion packaged neatly within a tear. Everything made sense after learning that. That sudden stability of your emotions after crying. How crying is often accompanied by the inability to feel any other emotion in that precise moment. And it is especially beautiful knowing that it is even possible to experience so much beauty or love or happiness that your body literally can’t hold on to all of it. So what I’ve learned is that crying signifies that you are feeling as much as humanely possible and that is living to the fullest extent. So keep feeling and cry often and as much as needed

SHIT WHAT

Also let yourself cry. It really is a biochemical release valve to dump out all the chemicals that make you feel stuff.

I honestly think one reason men in western culture have so many problems is that we don’t let them cry, and literally their brains get stuffed with all this crap that doesn’t have a release valve. Men, please cry. You’ll feel better. It’s ok. You are not lesser for taking care of your health.

This is why tears from different emotions look different under an electron microscope. They’re literally made up of different things. 

Happy tears are structurally different than sad tears than angry tears than overwhelmed tears etc.

I looked it up, cuz that tidbit was dope to me and..

Never would have known

A New Home for My Fic

IMPORTANT NEWS!!!

Since this blog has changed significantly in the past year, I have decided to clean house a bit. This involved relocating my fanfiction to a sideblog so that the traffic on my main blog is directed primarily to Unrooted, my other original work, and my book blogging. 

DO NOT PANIC. THE FIC IS NOT DELETED. IT IS SIMPLY RELOCATED.

You can still read it over there any time you please, and it may in fact be easier because I reblogged it in an order that’s simpler to navigate. If you try to search for my fics on the main blog, you will no longer find them. If you click the “Projects” links on the sidebar of my blog, it will redirect you to the sideblog. 

I also have kept everything I want to preserve on Ao3, so you can read and download my fics there. I have changed my username. You can now find it under sv_you_know_who_i_am.

I want to be clear–I didn’t do this because I’m embarrassed of my fics or anything of the kind. It’s just better business practice to keep the two kinds of writing separate. I am immensely grateful to all of you who followed me for the fanfiction and have continued to stick around. I’m very excited to share Unrooted with all of you, and I will continue to be very active on this blog. If you want to send me asks about the fics, it’s better to send them to my main, because I don’t plan to check messages sent to the sideblog. 

Once again, thank you so much to all of you who made my time writing fanfiction such a joy. I’m just moving on to different things now. Here’s to a bright future! 

-Sarah

A New Home for My Fic