Maija's new adventures

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Yep, still stuck in Finland. unfortunately. This winter has been very harsh, resulting in a lot of houseboundness, for most of the last three months. Aas if living in Finland wasn't already traumatizing enough without being a prisoner in your own home. Luckily the winter seems to be mostly over now, and even with a few risky forays into cold weather for short periods I did not get gastroparesis once this winter. I really hope to be able to move soon, for this nightmare to be over. And I know I simply cannot tolerate another winter here, so I will have to go somewhere before the end of the year, whether I have a place to go to or not.

I'll turn 26 on Saturday. Still a bit hard to believe I've made it so far (well, considering how badly I've been doing I'm still not fully convinced I will see my 26th birthday, but at this point it is fairly likely). I haven't really slept for weeks, thanks to hypopituitarism. Currently my body thinks 5 AM is the optimal time to get up. As I'm severely hypoglycemic most of the time and often also severely dehydrated (both also due to deficiencies of pituitary hormones), my body is deprived of pretty much everything it needs, and it's hinting more and more strongly about impending resignation. :-P

I've mostly finished my novel #6, Marian ilmestyskirja or Maria's Book of Revelations and it should be off to the publishers next week. It is about otherness, both caused by disability and other things, experienced by a girl who is in wheelchair because of a chronic illness.  I am just worried that the theme is too offbeat - luckily I don't have to query agents nor do any elevator pitches, I can actually send a whole manuscript (this is how it works in Finland), but it doesn't guarantee it will be read, let alone bought.

I just checked the edited version of my CFS/ME/fibromyalgia treatment book today and it should be in the hands of typesetting/layout department later this week. However, I am still waiting for the foreword, which is a month late by now. Professors are very busy, but I hope he will finish it in time so that it can be included in the book. My Twitter book has been selling quite nicely and the first print run has almost sold out.

I haven't done any Twitter trainings since January and I've been underworked, but then again I've been very busy with these book projects. I haven't had any translation work for a while, but I got accepted into a British translation agency, so hopefully that will soon change. At the end of April I will be speaking at the low dose naltrexone conference in Glasgow, Scotland. I'm quite excited, as you can guess. I will probably also visit Aberdeen on this trip, so if you live in or nearby Glasgow or Aberdeen and want to meet, please get in touch!

As for other new projects, I've launched my food blog Vegventures, which ambitiously aims to cook vegan food from pretty much all cuisines of the world - not just the better-known ones like Mexican, Thai or Ethiopian. So far there have been dishes from e.g. Belize, Austria and Uruguay. I've also amassed loads of ideas for short stories, mostly scifi and mostly drabbles, but also some other stuff, which I'll be writing as soon as I get some other stuff underway. I recently submitted probably my best scifi drabble so far to a writing contest, the results will be out in a few weeks.

...Damn, that was the most boring and most boringly written journal entry ever, but will have to do.

Current works

Works in progress
several ASCII pictures
plans for novel #7
a scifi short story
a drabble
a horror short story
four haiku
some other poems
my sociomedical essay series

Works finished but not yet submitted
a scifi short story
two scifi drabbles
55-word fiction
five ASCII pictures
some fractals
an acrylic painting
a digital painting
a whole bunch of photos

Works I wish to start in the near future
several poems
several short stories
some crafts
henna tattooing
molding clay sculpture

Non-art/DA TODO (inconclusive)
an article for a Finnish fitness magazine
a book proposal
a grant application
some guest blog posts
music reviews
promoting my Finnish CFS/ME/fibromyalgia book
Finnish translation of a language textbook
blog posts for my Twitter book's website
studying Dutch
some query letters and pitches
articles for several different websites and online publications
content for my Finnish CFS/ME site
some stuff for my website

My preliminary schedule for the following months
18th May publication date of my Finnish CFS/ME/FM book
19th May work deadline
21st May my book release party
22nd May Finnish social media meeting/conference
24th May magazine photoshoot
25th May meeting with my publicist
26th May meeting with a TV producer
27th May work deadline
28th May a graduation party
29th-30th May World Village festival
29th May theatre visit
30th May meeting with TV producers
31st May writing contest deadline
1st June work deadline
4th June work deadline
5th June forest party
6th June writing contest deadline
6th June shooting my cooking show
8th June work deadline
12nd June Reclaim The Streets
12nd June friend's birthday party
15th June work deadline
19th June party at friend's
30th June Altmag deadline
30th June social media meeting
3rd July Helsinki pride
9th July-8th August summer holiday
10th July friends' wedding
6th August work deadline
15th August writing contest deadline
20th August doctor appointment

I was interviewed by , read the interview in <a  href="radicalpuppy4.deviantart.com/j…">his journal.

wrote a poem dedicated to my ASCII art. It's quite good too!

I've set up a discussion thread for my sociomedical essay series on my forum, please read it and contribute if you have any  opinions.

My stock diamondie-stock
Member of critiqueme fi
Supporting photo-class suture onewordatatime Lit-Source poeticks Reporters Activists ArtistsForCharity fotoFRIDAY WordCount LineCount litNEWS DisabilityArt fm-me-club

Website My CFS/ME/FM book Flickr YouTube Wishlist Articles on Suite 101 My novel: The Atlas Moth Vegventures food blog