long covid

2023: Aliens

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In a year that was terrible for a lot of people, I’ve seen improvements and actually have some plans for next year. It’s an odd place to be, but I’m making the most of my improved health, because I don’t know how long it’ll last or what else will happen. Food still has random shortages and the government is threatening more right wing laws, so it’s not like it’s going well locally. But right now, I’m relatively safe.

 

Health

At the beginning of the year, things were stable, both the good and bad. I’d improved a lot, but still had some additional executive dysfunction issues. I’d attributed these to needing to relearn to do stuff and having an overwhelming list of things to do, but now I’m not so sure. Basically because I started taking Astragalus membranaceus and the issues pretty quickly resolved. One person can be a coincidence and all that, but it was a rather sharp and well-timed coincidence if that was the case.

I caught nothing at all. Since starting to use regular nasal spray (Viraleze) in addition to a mask, that’s stopped being a thing. This has meant there were no relapses and I could get out more with reasonable safety. I visited the local museum and saw a play.

During this time, I also got a walker (it’s purple!), so I could get out for more walks. The extra support helps me to walk better and it means I can sit down anywhere. Though I prefer the stick if I’m going inside or will need to use steps.

Towards the end of the year, the inflammation/arthritis in my joints faded completely and I was able to stop taking antihistamines (this caused some itching and sneezing, as I’ve been on them for years, but it wasn’t that bad). The knee with issues straightening has something else going on, though that’s also seen some improvements.

At this point, things are likely to be where they stay, other than possible improvements in the one knee. It’s pretty clear that my joints will remain fragile. I get headaches and motion sickness if I overdo things. But it’s all very manageable. I can get outside to fill the bird feeders and go for short walks. I can make plans and work on projects.

 

Writing

I’d initially planned to publish single short stories with notes. This didn’t happen, but for the best reason. The first I was working on was “Rewilding Nova”, which had been accepted for the Rosalind’s Siblings anthology before that fell through. As I was working on the notes, that anthology found a new home with Atthis Arts. So I was paid, the story went into the world, and I included a few highlights from the notes on the release announcement. I still think the single stories idea would be neat, but the money meant I didn’t have to rush it.

Photo of Rosalind's Siblings

Image Caption: A paperbook book on a purple cloth. The book is Rosalind’s Siblings and shows a person with short hair looking into a microscope in shades of purple. A small paintbrush and a bowl with two jammy biscuits are next to the book. These items relate to my story.

I also ended up writing a whole bunch of flash fiction. As long as nothing terrible happens, this will be out next year. It’ll be a novella-length collection of stories on the theme of really alien aliens.

I have no idea what I’ll end up working on after that, but I am writing again more regularly.

 

Art

My tale of multiple art shops starts with Zazzle. Sales were down, but it didn’t appear to be due to any of Zazzle’s recent changes. Product views were fine. People just weren’t buying as much. But they were buying enough to keep my website going, so this carried on being solid. All is not well in the POD world though, so the story doesn’t end there.

Society6 has been my backup art shop for many years. I didn’t sell much and the uploader for products was the worst I’ve ever used, but customers liked the quality of the products. Until this year, when they decided to introduce subscription fees for artists. I reduced my designs down to the ten allowed for the free plan, but this shop will most likely be removed in the future unless sales really pick up.

Threadless was one I’d looked at, but hadn’t tried until now. It has some things in its favour, including being able to donate some profits to charity and a commitment to wanting to promote marginalised creators. Unfortunately, they have a curated marketplace and only really seem to like a certain busy style that I don’t have. I wouldn’t recommend this one to anyone starting out, because if you’re not in the main search and don’t have fans, you’re unlikely to sell stuff. It’s a pity they don’t allow customers to search the extended marketplace if they want.

Inprnt needs an invite from a current artist or submission of three pictures for current artists to vote on. I submitted my rainbow cat, rainbow squid and fungi meadow. I was voted in on my first attempt, so that was great. This is mainly a site for art prints, and the shipping costs mean mainly for people in the US, but the quality looks nice. I’ll aim to add more stuff over the coming year.

Ko-fi is not really a shop. It’s a tip jar. Though it does allow some selling, they don’t handle the VAT, which is too much of a nightmare for a small creator. So this will remain as tips only.

 

Blogging

I reviewed a game, wrote a post about book covers and reopened my review requests. I set up Ko-fi so that people could tip me if they liked the content. My brain is back in the game.

My old posts on subjects tended to get death threats, but more people would read them over a longer period of time compared to reviews. The threats weren’t the only issue though, as the trouble with posting early thoughts on something is that things change, and the posts aged badly. So my focus this time is more on roundups of things that happened with a focus on my experiences.

Another possible is discussions of themes or tropes that could do with a roundup. I’ve often ended up describing these in reviews, but that could be turned into a more general article that I could then reference.

This means reviews won’t be as common as the height of my reviewing. I’m trying to find more of a balance of content. Whether people will read any of it, who knows. Blogging and long reviews went heavily out of fashion. But I hate email newsletters, so I’m still blogging for now.

 

Social Media

The positive side of social media is I found a new microblogging site that works for me. Bluesky is now my main microblogging site, where you can hear how sink spider is doing, how my knee is doing today, and whether I saw a cat when I went out.

Bluesky needs invite codes to join, which are handed out to current members. I got as many out as I could before Twitter stopped being useable. I donated a few to code handout schemes. I used Reddit and Second Life to send out more. There are still holes in the community, but the creative side is getting established over there. What it could do with are more readers and fans, who aren’t necessarily writers and artists.

It’ll be a long time before my social media recovers. I built up followers over many years and I won’t get them back quickly. I’m not famous enough for that. It’s also harder to get people to repost silly little things now, which is basically how I grew my early Twitter audience.

 

Short Version

My health is stable and I’m working on things again. I had a story out in the Rosalind’s Siblings anthology. I have new art shops on Threadless and Inprnt. You can tip me on Ko-fi and follow me on Bluesky. As long as my health holds, I hope to be blogging more and also publishing a flash fiction collection about aliens.

2022: Onwards

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Another year is done and I appear to be healing. The neurological symptoms are mainly over, though it was a process to get back to working on things. The joints remain damaged and one of my knees doesn’t straighten. I’m always going to be fragile compared to how I was, but I appear to be broadly healthy (outside of the obvious mobility problems).

I took a break in summer to just do whatever came to mind. I read several novels, did some random mesh work for Second Life (I redid my cake shop) and wrote a short story.

The most difficult thing has been that I’ve always had executive dysfunction. I’m now faced with a list of things I should have been doing over the last few years, which makes it difficult to pick things and work on them. As such, I’m making no claim of doing anything in a sensible order or to a certain deadline.

 

Writing

Book sales were down last year. I’m several years behind releasing a new project and that’s been hurting sales. Unfortunately, knowing this creates a lot of pressure, which is not the best way to actually get a big project finished. I closed my Patreon, so I don’t have that as a backup either, but that does lead on to the next thing.

Some people have asked how to throw money at me and the next novel is some time away. So, I had the idea of publishing some single short stories available for $0.99. I’d aim for longer shorts (but shorter than novelette) and include some story notes at the end. That means even though some might be available elsewhere, or will be in the future, the story notes will remain a unique feature of the singles.

It didn’t go that well when I published a novelette in the past, but I recognise that times have changed. The average price of a self-published novel has gone up, making the shorts seem less expensive in comparison. Patreon has also popularised the idea of paying a dollar per thing (which is often a dollar per short story for a writer).

Anyway, if this interests you, let me know.

 

YouTube

I took down a lot of videos, so that I could edit them and reupload. This has been a great learning experience. I even managed to get usable audio on two videos where I had to cut it completely before. This isn’t the path to success or anything like that, but I don’t have the time or strength to really go for the channel. So I’m getting my backlist of videos as strong as possible.

I did make a few new videos. Some were done using a phone to film, which is easier for me to handle. As a result of this, I also started a TikTok account, where I’ve uploaded some of the vertical videos I did for YouTube. I can’t really use TikTok as it’s not accessible, but I can upload stuff there for people who prefer it over YouTube Shorts.

 

Communication

A big issue has been the demise of Twitter. I’m not leaving anytime soon, but it’s harder to be seen and to talk to people. I’ve tried various alternatives, but ended up only really using the two I already had: Tumblr and Reddit. Neither of those is really a replacement for the casual microblogging experience.

In terms of my social life, I’m doing well with Second Life. I have friends there. I have lots of stuff to do. Given that I can’t go out and do all the stuff I used to do, I’ve ended up doing more in Second Life. I’ve taken up a breedable cat game (KittyCats), expanded my shop land a bit, and hope to get into more building things this year.

In terms of chatting to other writers and the business side of things, everyone leaving for social networks I hate is obviously a problem. I’m not sure even sure if anyone will even see this blog post. It also ended my livetweeting of the Alien / Predator films, but at least I ended on a high with Alien vs. Predator, which I really enjoyed.

 

TL;DR

My health has improved a lot, other than continuing joint issues and reduced mobility. I’m hoping to publish a few shorts to get a little more money as I work on the next big writing project. I’m polishing videos and reuploading them on YouTube and TikTok. Twitter is dying, but I’m still there for now.

2021: Recovery

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I’m well into my second year of post-COVID arthritis. The good news is that I am slowly recovering. The fatigue went away early in the year. The arthritis improved greatly after I was vaccinated. This doesn’t mean it’s completely gone. Walking is difficult. I still have to spend time managing joint function and pain. I don’t know if there will be permanent damage. But I can do a lot more than I could this time last year, so that’s a good thing.

One of the family has just retired. I knew this was coming, which is why I’ve been especially concerned about wanting to get new projects out in the last few years… and not being able to do so because of health and other disasters.

 

Art

Zazzle was my first project after I started to improve. My aim was to add 1000 products to my store, for a total of about 3000 public products. The new designs were things like basic patterns. The idea was to add generic stuff that tends to sell and worry about more creative things some other time.

I didn’t quite get to the total because Zazzle was also doing some cleaning. They removed products that weren’t selling or had been out of stock for a long time. Overall, I did add a lot of stuff, and sales were reasonable.

 

Publications

I had two stories in anthologies that were supposed to come out this year. “Busy Little Bees” was released in Common Bonds. Rosalind’s Siblings was cancelled. I didn’t sell any new stories this year.

 

Writing

Getting back into writing has been difficult. I did write two stories for Second Life hunts, though they were both ones with more random and strange structures. One was articles and journal entries and the like. The other described various species of spider. When I attempted to write things with more regular story structures, I completely failed. I have a lot of notes for a sequel to Werecockroach, but I struggled to actually write it.

Late in the year, I decided the best thing would be to write whatever worked. Random and strange worked for the short stories, so I picked something in my pending ideas which fitted that. The winner was Void Stew, which I’ve been tweeting about as the vegetable growing story. It’s all about people trapped in an endless void, who grow vegetables to survive.

There will be future issues with marketing this book. There’s some market for quieter slice-of-life stories, which this does come under. Though it’s also got random second person bits, one character with verse chapters, and a lot of stuff that can be harder to sell. I hadn’t intended to write it right now because of the potential difficulties.

But anyway, here I am. I need to finish something and I’ll just have to hope I find an audience. I’m hoping that getting something finished will mean I will be able to write the Werecockroach sequel, which I think does have an audience.

 

Other Things

I managed to post a few YouTube videos, including a brand new ASMR one with keyboard typing. I did a few of the new shorts as well, which was a nice way to ease back into it. I have no plans or schedule for my channel. I’ll just upload things as I get an urge to make a video.

I want to get back into reading now that my brain functions again. I have a few books in mind and was given a few recommendations. I don’t know if I’ll end up reviewing them or not.

 

TL;DR

My health is improving. I added a lot of basic patterns to Zazzle and started writing a book about growing vegetables in an endless void.

2020: Arthritis

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After a few bad years when I couldn’t get much done, I’d hoped for a quieter year to sort things out before Brexit hit in 2021. Instead, everyone had a bad year, and I got very little done.

In February, my family had a bad illness which we now think was COVID-19. The initial illness barely affected me, but in the weeks after, I developed severe reactive arthritis (I’ve had it mildly before after viruses, but not like this). This was also during lockdown, so it wasn’t really possible to see a doctor. I had to figure out a home treatment.

One good thing is I got to go out for my birthday, as it was before walking became difficult and before lockdown. My previous birthday was a funeral, so this was an improvement.

I spent most of the year managing the arthritis and sorting things like food orders. I couldn’t do much typing or thinking, so I mostly focused on doing stuff in Second Life and other distractions from the pain.

At the end of the year, I still have arthritis. It’s a lot better than it was and I can think clearly again, though my free time is still limited.

 

Novels / Novellas

One of the issues I’ve faced as an author is a lack of charisma. People are not going to give me money for a crowdfunded campaign. They’re not going to buy birthday presents from a wishlist. If I reach out for help, I might as well have said nothing, as nothing much happens. My value to the majority of people in the reading/writing community is only in the products I can produce.

The next issue being a run of bad years, so I have a lack of new products. This is how it had to be for my health, but it doesn’t make it a good situation.

So this year, I tried a more roundabout solution: I made my products more expensive.

Back when I started, people complained if a self-published novel was more than $0.99 and never mind novellas. My old price point of $0.99 for a novella and $2.99 for a novel was tolerable, but as high as people would go. There have been changes in the industry since then, including bigger publishers taking on more novellas and charging very high prices for them. So I went up a modest amount, taking my novella to $2.99 and the longer works to $4.99.

As well as an overall potential increase in profit, it’d mean novellas make income in their own right, rather than being sold at a loss to promote longer work… because frankly, it didn’t happen. People liked my novella Werecockroach, but it didn’t encourage most readers to try something else.

The first month I did this, sales were about the same. I sold one $4.99 book and multiple copies of Werecockroach at $2.99. I just made more money than usual. November and December weren’t as good, but I suspect sales would have been bad regardless as a lot was going on. Not as good still meant I made more money overall compared to the old prices. I tried a brief advertising campaign in November, but it didn’t get the sales of previous campaigns, so I ended it early.

I’ll continue to monitor the situation and see if sales go back up again as the year settles. If they do, this will give me a bit of space to finish something else. It’ll also mean that something else can be a novella.

 

Short Stories

Last year, I said I wanted to find more projects to submit short stories to. Most of the year was a bust, with nothing likely appearing. There are a few possible projects at the end of the year, so I’ll aim to submit a few things next year for these.

Both of the anthologies I’m involved with ended up delayed due to the pandemic. Common Bonds has now sent out backer reward copies and contributor copies. Early reviews seem to like my story. Both that anthology and Rosalind’s Siblings have been rescheduled for 2021.

In final short story stuff, I put out a temporary short story collection called Patchwork in March 2020. It’s now been removed as 2020 has ended. This had a number of my previously published stories, including ones that had only been on Patreon. It was free and was just to do something nice for people for the year. So if anyone sees a reference to it and is confused, that’s what went on. The stories will all be back again for the next proper collection.

 

Zazzle / Art

I have no complaints about Zazzle this year. They reacted quickly to pandemic sales issues by putting out face masks. I sold some of these (and got some for me). I also saw much higher sales (of everything) in the last quarter. I suspect because people were stuck at home, so those with money found fun things to buy. I continue to be glad I got all this set up as passive income.

I had issues producing art for most of the year, as my hands consisted of sausage fingers and joints that couldn’t take any pressure. I regained the ability to hold tools later in the year, so got back into it by doing Botober. The pieces were posted on this Twitter thread. I’ll likely work a few of them into Zazzle designs, but it was just good to get drawing again.

I will note that doing the art challenge didn’t get a lot of engagement in the sense of new followers or the like. It’s a thing to do for fun.

 

YouTube

I planned to produce a video a week for a year for my YouTube channel. My last video was in March. During this video, I already had early signs of arthritis in my fingers and arms, but hadn’t realised what was happening. It’s why I’m smudging charcoal with the backs of my hands, because bending the wrist too much was starting to get painful. I’d had conjunctivitis too badly the week before to use the first draft of the video, which is also a reactive arthritis symptom. Shortly afterwards, I stopped being able to lift a camera and that was that.

The bad news is it means the channel stalled before I got very far. The good news is the channel didn’t see an overall loss in subscribers and views. A few videos have seen a continual rise in views as they get picked up by the algorithm.

I know people panic about small breaks ruining their chances forever, but this wasn’t my experience. A channel is unlikely to grow during an absence, but it doesn’t mean it sinks either. It’s waiting there for when I can film again, at whatever frequency that turns out to be.

 

Reviews

I was getting sorted to start reviewing again towards the end of the year. I selected a few books, created a schedule and started reading one of them. Then I got an email from Amazon terminating my Amazon Associates account. I always knew this could happen, as Amazon is known for doing this. In theory, people can appeal, but it’s hard to appeal when you’re guessing exactly what happened. Amazon gives basic categories, but no details. The result of the appeal was just a resend of the original email.

I looked around for other larger affiliate schemes, but I didn’t see anything likely to actually make money. The only bigger one I found was Barnes and Noble, who rejected my application.

I will review a few things here and there as I feel like it, but mostly my reviewing is over. I’ve closed my review requests for the foreseeable future. I don’t think there’s a big demand for detailed text reviews anyway these days, so this was going to happen at some point even without the loss of Amazon Associates.

 

TL;DR

I’ve had reactive arthritis for most of the year, following probable exposure to COVID-19. I didn’t do a whole lot of creative stuff, but I did put out a temporary free collection, raised my book prices and started drawing again towards the end of the year. I have no firm plans for the future.