P-C, I think it's great you want to write again -- when we first met, you were still writing those stories. But write because you have a story to tell, not to "be diversity" in SFF, you know? A mission is the quickest way to write falsely.

Write the story you want to tell, and write it as well as you can. That's the first step.

(I realize I may sound like a huge downer, but setting goals too high is the easiest way to break your own heart. I'm not saying don't dream it -- dream it! do it! -- but don't put a timeline on it.)

I knew I could count on you for a reality check! I just know that the only way anything is going to happen is if I just go for it, and I will find the stories I want to tell; I actually have an idea for a book for the first time ever. And I have always needed some sort of goal to strive for, some glimmer of hope in the distance to spur me on, and I think this is a space where Things Can Happen for Me. My first project is submitting to this anthology, which I was going to do to break my fiction drought anyway, but I hope to keep that momentum going and just keep writing stuff.

I am pretty terrified, but I figured if I tell everyone I'm doing this I will hold myself more accountable for following through and not just being lazy.

Yeah, letting people know you're doing it is a good motivator. And submitting to an anthology (or a contest, or something else with a deadline) is a great way to kickstart yourself. I wrote the first novel I ever actually finished for a contest. Didn't win, but after that I knew I could a) finish a book, and b) make a deadline.

Goals are excellent! Just don't say, "On Sept. 12, 2014 I will looking at my first book in a store!" Because that's unrealistic for a whole lot of reasons.

When Deena started Drollerie, I told myself, "Self, this is it. We trust her to tell us if the work sucks, she won't publish you because we're friends, and you trust her. Put up the words or shut up." And that resulted in strangers paying for my words and putting up glowing reviews of stuff I'd done. I never cashed the royalty checks, they're hanging on my wall over my computer, where I can beam at them.

Goals are excellent! Just don't say, "On Sept. 12, 2014 I will looking at my first book in a store!" Because that's unrealistic for a whole lot of reasons.

Oh hell no! I mean published in an anthology or a magazine or SOMETHING that makes me feel like a Real Writer. (Even if I'm not actually published, if I've actually written things, that'll be good enough. But I figured I'd set a sexier goal for this announcement.)

"Written things" is a good goal. Even submitting to anthologies or magazines, or having a solid project to start shopping to agents. Just give yourself time!

Absolutely! I know it'll take some time. Better to start now than never start, though.

Do it now, P-C. I always thought I'd write books, but now I'm afraid I'm running out of time. I have some nonfiction books in mind, and I'm wondering if I could do something like put up a blog or tumbler and start posting pieces as I write them. The pieces would be write-ups of interviews and the like, which probably wouldn't end up in that exact form in the book.

I've also always wanted to write for The Smithsonian and The New York. I'd also like a pony.

I'm wondering if I could do something like put up a blog or tumbler and start posting pieces as I write them.

Do it! *enables*

I'd also like a pony.

The pony can be your editor.

DO IT, GINGER.

And I will send you a pony!