In my last post, I made reference to the old aphorism about God laughing every time we think we have plans figured out. During 2017, I forgot that advice even as my life settled into a rhythm and pattern that I expected to last for quite a while, possibly even all the way to retirement age. It didn’t take long for me to realize my mistake, though, as between 2018 and 2023, my life went through a number of changes: I got married; I changed day jobs (twice!); I moved from my condo to a house; and I began practicing my faith again.
If you’d told me in mid-2017 where I would be by mid-2023, I would have laughed out loud. But there I was: I’d transitioned from a direct client-facing role to a subject matter expert role, I was involved with a parish, and living as part of a family. In the middle of all of this, my husband and I had discovered the Signum University SPACE creative writing sector and both of us had begun writing more than we had in the past — a lot more.
And then a strange thing started to happen: I began writing creative non-fiction alongside my creative fiction, usually about my long-established trifecta of topics: employee benefits, Catholicism, and fandom. At first it was ad-hoc responses to various social media posts, but eventually, I found myself itching to start blogging again. By now, I’d switched to using a different domain name, and my perspectives and goals had matured alongside me.
I attempted to re-start the blog in mid-2023, with the intent to make posts about only creative writing in general, Catholicism, and benefits. But the world had changed, too; discussions of fandom and fan fiction were no longer taboo. That was also where most of my online energy was going. It was hard to keep up with the blog while not including these topics, and my posting frequency quickly fell off until I realized that several months had gone by without posting.
At the time, I thought it might be a sign as to whether blogging was a good idea, but the urge has never quite gone away. One afternoon, just to see if I could, I brainstormed post topics, and to my surprise the list grew to fifty items within half an hour. The next day I found myself writing a post. As it turns out, I still have quite a bit to say, after all, and I quickly built up a small library of “evergreen” posts that I can pull out and update during those times when I may, for whatever reason, have not had the time to write fresh content.
If all goes well, that will address my tendency not to post on a regular basis.
This, then, is what Novenas & Novellas is all about: employee benefits, Catholicism, and creative writing; but I’m now also going to include fandom and fan fiction. I believe that most of the people reading the blog right now are actually coming from that community, as the end of the taboo has meant that I’m able to be more open about being involved in those activities. I’ve continued to use my pen name of Cat Lady Firebird to actually write it, but now I do it for the sake of longevity and recognition. I don’t need to hide behind it anymore.
While the majority of these posts will be about those topics, I also reserve the right to post about other topics that might catch my attention, rather than trying to force myself to strictly stay within a particular niche.
For those who might only want to read posts about a particular topic, category-specific feeds are available and will be posted as they’re built out. A general feed will also be available.
At the moment, I’m still building up the blog’s content, so that is where I am focusing. However, in the future I do plan to be more interactive with readers, including asking them for comments and suggestions about what they would like to see. I may also eventually pitch guest posts to other blogs, and/or entertain guest posts here. But all of that will come in its time, if it’s supposed to.
Right now, I am trying to maintain a twice-a-week schedule of posts. All of them will be written in first person, in the style others have described as “easy and personable, but still informative and thought-provoking. I’m not trying to establish myself as the premier expert in any one of my topics of interest, nor is my intended audience made up of those experts (although I certainly wouldn’t mind if they did comment). Rather, my focus right now is just on creating a place to talk about the things I enjoy talking about, and have some fun along the way.
Let’s do this thing!