Living in Survival Mode

I feel like I’ve been living in survival mode lately. 😫

I’m busy with Shiraki Press of course, but we also have a toddler who’s on the cusp of turning three and is in his “dismantle the entire house every single day” phase; plus we have our two older boys for the summer—my wife’s kids, my step-kids—both of whom have autism and one of whom is medically complex; and on top of that we’re starting to seriously consider selling our house and moving somewhere less expensive to maintain, which brings with it a whole laundry list of projects, not to mention the time spent evaluating new listings and figuring out finances. My time and attention are relentlessly fragmented, and I’m struggling to do anything that takes longer than maybe fifteen minutes of focus.

So far, so depressing, but when I reflect on what we’ve accomplished with Shiraki Press even just recently, the picture changes. A year ago I felt like we had very little to talk about, but now we’re overflowing with news, we have seven books announced, an eighth acquired, but not yet revealed, we’re selling wide and doing markets, we even have merch now (currently available exclusively at our public market appearances), and holy shit it’s so much!

In just the last six weeks, we have:

• Launched The Color of Time, which I talked about previously here.
• Revealed the cover for Light & Earth & Marrow.
• Announced acquisitions for The Most Terrible & Wicked Evil Dark Lord Accidentally Invents the Public Library and A Planet for Reluctant Revolutionaries, both of which are now available for preorder!
• Done our first three markets as vendors: Bremerton by the Book, the Bookish Bazaar at Old Stove Gardens, and the Northwest Book Fair & Media Fest.
• Done an AMA on r/fantasy with the authors of Accelerated Growth Environment, Wine for Roses, and The Color of Time.

I’m still struggling mightily with my own creative projects—there just doesn’t seem to be enough time, energy, or focus available in the day—but I can’t be mad about this much progress on the press!

Things that have brought me joy this month:

• I started reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. It’s so weird, and I’m not even that far in and I feel like an entire novel’s worth of shit has happened already… but I’m kind of loving it.
• FarmRPG got me! It’s a perfect “background” game that’s easy to fit into my time-confettied daily schedule. (If you also play and want to friend up, I’m Ruta Bega on there.)
• This impassioned reel made me very happy: Not every opt-out button is hard to find
• This Mastodon thread is a window into the world we’re fighting for: Your first photos as a woman

Things that have brought me hope:

• I have an outline for a novella that I’m feeling pretty good about. I don’t know when I’m going to be able to write the damn thing, but it’s something promising on the horizon. I still believe the day will come again when I can sit down and do this thing!
• Welsh researchers are creating biodegradable plastic from seaweed!
• Amnesty International calls for AI prohibition on human rights grounds!

Things that have brought me angst:

• I am very worried about the broad financial impact of the ill-advised and frankly corrupt-looking SpaceX IPO, due in part to the odd last-minute rule changes made for its direct benefit. It feels like every pension, 401k, and IRA in the country is directly threatened by this.
• It’s been two full years since I left Bungie, and this week’s layoffs still make me see red. These cuts are so, so deep. Destiny is effectively dead, and I’m not sure Bungie is far behind; I can’t see how Marathon alone pulls them out of this self-inflicted vortex of failure. And the worst part is: none of this needed to happen! Specific people did this, and many of those people are rich now, while hundreds of brilliant devs’ careers were just interrupted, stalled, or outright ended in service to that greed.
• The Wikimedia Foundation is union busting. I don’t even want to imagine the world in which we lose Wikipedia to fascist capital, but this isn’t a good sign.
• I feel like I’ve neglected, and am sorely missing, my writer’s group, but shit just keeps happening and forcing me to miss the monthly meetings. I love and miss you all! 😭

Upcoming events:

• SmallPitch is coming up again in July, and we’ll be on the lookout for more acquisitions for our 2027 and 2028 slates!
• We’ll be vending at Stanwood BookFest on Saturday, August 8
• We’ll also be at Puget Sound Book Festival on Sunday, August 9
• We’re vending at LAConV August 27-31, and may also have more news coming soon on that front
• We’re vending at the Edmonds Night Market in September and again in December
• We’ll be at the PNBA Fall Tradeshow in Portland in September
• We’re vending at World Fantasy Con in October, and may also have more news coming soon on that front

This month’s closing thought: