My autism blog series has come to an end (at least, for now), and for this week’s post, I’ve got some exciting news to share on the writing front! If you’re a longtime reader of my blog, you might remember that I applied for an art grant back in April of 2024. Well, I’m delighted to announce that I got my grant!

I am officially a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board! My funds come from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and they will enable me to hire an editor to help polish up my Wilderlands manuscript before starting the querying process and also pay for the majority of my writing-related expenses in 2025, which will hugely reduce the financial burden these activities usually place on me, making it that much more doable.

It all feels very official and important (and somewhat overwhelming), but it’s so exciting. I feel like I’m moving forward on my writing for the first time in a long time.

The best part is that I found an editor based out of Minnesota herself, who seems like such an amazing match for my manuscript and myself. Our initial conversations have been great and have really inspired me. I probably say this every time I have an interaction like this, but I forgot how nice it was to talk to someone as passionate about storytelling and literature as I am.

The grant also has me pushing outside of my comfort zone to fulfill the requirements of engaging Minnesotans through my art. I struggle a lot in social situations, especially those where I’m the center of attention, but the most fitting way to engage Minnesotans with this project is to do a community ed class on editing, using my own work as an example.

So, I’ve been chatting with the wonderful team at my local school district to get things worked out for that. And, as nervous as the very idea of getting up in front of a crowd of people to present a class makes me, I’m equal parts excited. I really enjoy teaching (though more on a one-to-one basis), so I’m having a lot of fun putting together materials for this class. I’m even finding myself contemplating what I might do for other courses—before I’ve even gotten through the first one! I have no real idea if I will be able to handle teaching community ed classes, but I’m intrigued by the idea, and I enjoy the process so much that I’m seriously considering making it a regular thing.

No matter what I do, I will likely post the content of my class here as a blog post because I will always believe in democratizing access to information.

As excited as I am, and as much as it has me daydreaming about possible future projects, I’m trying to pace myself and take things one step at a time. I know I could easily become overwhelmed by all of this, and I want to avoid it as much as possible.

I’m also very worried, thanks to the current federal administration and everything that’s happening on a national level, that somehow my funds just won’t come through. See, the grant I got, the “Creative Individuals” grant, is the only arm of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that pulls from federal funding rather than state funding. And while my grant shouldn’t be affected by this since it was budgeted for last year, we all know that nothing is guaranteed in our current world.

Still, I’m hopeful. Hopeful that all of this will pass and that we will be able to start picking up the pieces sooner rather than later, and hopeful that this grant is the start of an exciting new chapter for me and my work personally.