Field Notes

Howdy!

Welcome to this here Dreamwidth blog! This is where I can be completely not a professional at all and just journal about my day, writing, fandom thoughts, whatever. I write publicly/professionally elsewhere, but I really love the pseudo-anonymity of Dreamwidth. I also really don't want to talk too much about work in a way that folks from my real life could find me on here to protect some of that anonymity. Oh, being a semi-public person on the internet!

Basic info about me: 

Pronouns and Gender Identity: I'm non-binary! I am fairly femme so I use she/they pronouns.

Sexuality: QUEER. Just really queer.

Relationship Status: Married - when I talk about Anais in posts, I'm referring to my spouse (who is also non-binary).

Why follow me?: I post a lot of everyday stuff, but I like to think my life is interesting. I'm a witch, I work from home. I'm also a writer - I write both fiction and non-fiction about occult stuff. I love researching folklore and will likely share some of that here as well. I'm active in the Magnus Archives fandom and the Harry Potter fandom (love Drarry, fuck JKR). Fandom tends to be an escape for me when life is difficult. I'm also chronically ill - I have fibromyalgia. I do also have chronic mental illness (anxiety, depression, in recovery from an eating disorder), though I'm feeling pretty well supported around my mental illnesses recently.

Here's my current policy on what is access-listed and what is a public entry: 

Anything that talks about personal details, especially personal health or relationship details, is behind an access filter. Anything that would identify me or where I live is behind an access-only filter. I like that Dreamwidth is a semi-anonymous space, especially because I run an online business and host a podcast. 

To break it down more specifically: 

Fandom posts are all public. When I post a link to a fic, or other fannish thoughts, those are public.

Reading + Writing updates are all public! When I post a writing log, or talk about the books I'm reading, those are all public.

Generic daily blogs are all public. This is kind of hard to explain, but basically those daily blogs that aren't about anything terribly serious or about anything that I'm struggling with internally are public.

Writing about personal identity stuff and/or deep relationship things are all private. For example: if I'm writing my way through something that is going on in my relationship, or there is a health crisis, or I'm working through something I'm not ready to "come out" about (like sexuality and identity stuff), those will all be access-locked.

Anything that could connect DW readers to my IRL business, or podcast, or public online persona will be access-locked. Obviously I can't avoid those things - they're such a big part of my life - but I want to be able to talk to stuff frankly here and not "spill the beans" in other aspects of my life. 

Generally speaking, I don't give access to just anyone. I want to follow you for a while, get to know you a bit before opening up about those things. I still post a LOT of public posts, so you'll still have the chance to get to know me a bit before I give you access. If you decide to follow me, drop me a line! I like meeting new people online.

 SO much has changed since the last time I was active on this account. 

Here's a quick run-down of things you need to know:

1. The dream job that I got? Yeah it was terrible and my coworkers were extremely abusive and I left it and the field of public policy entirely.
1.5. I'm back in the Twin Cities
2. I am now a full time witch, making money through tarot readings + teaching classes. Money is hard, but the work is good.
3. I now live with my partner. I refer to our home as "The Rookery," since we're both corvid enthusiasts.
4. Chronic pain got really, really bad this year. Had to leave my job as a housecleaner. Still workin on chronic pain stuff.
5. Just went through treatment for my eating disorder. Will probably talk a lot about living in ED recovery here, but don't worry - it'll be under a trigger warning/cut.
6. I'm also back here because I'm getting more and more into fanfic and miss fandom community. I'm mostly in the Harry Potter fandom, but want to expand a bit into Game of Thrones. 

That's kind of what you need to know? I think it is. Yes. 

I've been wanting to journal for a long time, but it doesn't work super well. I think it's because, when I had the most reliable journal, it was my Livejournal. I still keep a Book of Shadows, and plenty of notebooks, but a diary? Well. I guess this format is the best for me. 

One thing my therapist has recommended is keeping a gratitude journal. Not just things that I'm grateful for, but specifically things about my body that I'm grateful for. I've struggled to actually do that, largely because I want a gratitude journal to be ... more ephemeral? I don't know. This feels like a better format for that. And posting here is weirdly a different kind of accountability. It's easy to forget about a journal - but I'm online all the time. 

I've also been getting into fandom again. Unapologetically. Now that my "day job" is witchy shit, I need a hobby that takes me away from that entirely. Reading fiction has been a wonderful balm, and when I'm going through a rough time mental health wise, fanfiction is a lovely comfort. I actually started writing a fic this spring - it's Drarry, and it's been rolling around in my head for a year. I do a lot of writing for work, but no writing of fiction. Those feel like totally different thinking processes.

But yes, I WILL post my fic here, as well as on AO3. My username there is shopwitch , and I locked down the shopwitch journal here. I'll probably use that as the main spot to POST fic, but crosspost to here. So give that one a follow? There's nothing going on over there at the moment because I'm not quite ready to post. 

ANYWAY. That's a lot of business type stuff for this morning. It's a weekday morning and I am going to go take a nice long soak, because my workday technically doesn't start until later. 

Chat soon, y'all!