March comes with me now being a proud parent of three banana pups. Yes, they are called that!

More on the banana babies in the gardening area of the newsletter…

In general update news… got my echocardiogram results.

I do NOT have LVH! Yay! I do however have mild heart valve regurgitation. This is common amongst bio ladies.

While it is not bad enough to result in chemical blood pressure meds, my doctor told me that I still have to monitor my stress levels and take herbal supplements that help reduce blood pressure. Especially when I’m stressed out.

I also have to be more cognizant of high blood pressure symptoms, like the fluttering sound in my ears, hypertension headaches, palpitations, etc. High blood pressure runs in my family, so it’s not something to take lightly.

The best part is that garlic is apparently good for blood pressure. So she said to eat more garlic. I love garlic! So that was kinda good news.

I’m glad it’s not something more serious. I’m also glad that it’s just something to monitor for now, and I won’t have to drastically change my life.

In non-health news, something super awesome happened just this past week!

I applied to the SFWA mentorship program–as I’ve been doing for the last three years. And guess what!!

I FINALLY GOT PAIRED.

So far I’ve only had one meeting with my mentor. She was matched with me due to our overlapping interests in self-publishing. And even just one meeting with her was incredibly enlightening.

We talked about where I am in my writing path, and what she thinks I need to do to step up. Mostly it’s business and strategy, plans and pathways. I’ve got the craft part cobbled together. Now it’s what comes next.

She’s given me a bit of homework for our next meeting.

1. Research the information she gave me.

2. Develop and commit to a writing routine.

   1. I’m thinking 3 mornings per week, as I write best in the morning.

3. Think about branding and business (logos, cover designs).

4. Figure out a production schedule for my first book.

I have my tentative production schedule I put together in December. It’s definitely a start, as I’m still struggling to fit into it and manage it with my other projects. But we’re getting there, I think.

I suppose it’s just that my day job has been so demanding lately. I’m sincerely hoping that it calms down soon. I really do.

Or else I’ll have to force it to calm down!

Aside from that, I have a few other things going on:

• I’m playing D&D with some new friends on a regular basis, and it’s such a fun and chill time. They’re all great folks, and I look forward to hanging out with them every week!

• Attended a course through Women in Animation featuring Agora Studio, which cultivates a fantastic animation community on Discord that I immediately joined. It’s called the Agora Community (shocker lol). So stoked to snoop around and reach out to them.

• I’ve been doing some work with the Ubergroup writing workshop on creating an audio webcourse to supplement their workshop, and also working on a video with them to help a bookstore get a printing press and start a very cool indie author resource. I’ve even requested time off work to help them out since I do get things called “Good Citizen Days.” It’s essentially extra PTO I can use to volunteer.

Focus Time!

Munikiniverse Outlines

Not much change here still. But this is about to change! With my SFWA mentor bolstering me, I’m getting ready to dive into these for the month of April and start working hard.

vTubing

I didn’t get my extra video done this month. But I did get one done! I shared that in my last newsletter.

So that’s good enough for me. Will aim for two videos in April and polishing up the others. Fingers crossed!!

Author Website

The landing/front page is mostly complete. Next is the landing page for the books themselves. Looking forward to playing with this now that I know how to access data!

Gardening

I am in the process of creating a banana circle in the yard. I sometimes call it my banana hole, because I’m gathering yard waste and compost in preparation for the permanent planing of the banana babies. And I dug a hole in which to toss all that.

The theory goes that you plant the bananas around a hole that you fill with logs, yard waste, compost, manure, and all the things plants love. Then you cover the hole up and let the bananas feast.

As the bananas grow, the hole will continue to give the soil nutrients, and you can continue to toss yard waste into the hole to feed the bananas. Eventually, the bananas will provide you with scrumptious children plants to eat.

My other plants are doing…. okay.

I realized that:

1. I did not start with good soil, which gave them all a disadvantage. I have since tried to amend the soil, and I think that helped. But it has set me back a bit. I’ll be grateful to get any sort of yield from this current planting.

2. Despite being aware that overwatering is a common error, I still made it. It really, really is hard to tell when you are watering too much, especially when you don’t know what to look for. But I also live in a very humid place, so the water hangs out for longer than I expected.

3. I’ve been pricing out more raised beds for the rest of the yard and struggling with the expense. Considering snooping around for free pallets to use. But I also need to get good soil to fill the beds, and that is also not cheap. The soil in my yard is basically dust, and has barely enough nutrients in it to sustain weeds. I definitely haven’t made enough compost myself to fill all the beds. So there’s an expense there too. Sigh!

My next goal is to get a couple beds set up in my side yard, and possibly a couple potato beds. Those can come later since potatoes are good for summer in my area.

I also need to get rid of the outhouse-looking shed in my backyard and get some dirt to help with the erosion issue I talked about last summer. Needs to get done before hurricane season.

So many things!!

For now, here are some updated pics of the garden things:

Storyboarding Schoolism Class

No progress here. Job was stressful, health was stressful, and I donated my time this March to help others. But hopefully soon I can pick this back up.

Bujo Check In~

Hourly Tracker

Welp… I blacked out a lot in March. Simply because work was crushing. Here’s hoping April is better.

Faretheewell

And that’s all we got for this newsletter! Stay safe out there.

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