Nan’s Notebook

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Dream State novel, Novel, The Clerk and the Ink Drinker Nancy Swett Dream State novel, Novel, The Clerk and the Ink Drinker Nancy Swett

Novel cover reveal

Nan is surprised to find she hasn't mentioned her novel much on her blog, though she's been working on it almost a decade. Ready or not, it's coming out soon, and we need to get caught up here. Let's start with the cover reveal for “The Clerk and the Ink Drinker in the Outer Lands Mission” by N. G. Swett. November 2025

“The Clerk and the Ink Drinker in the Outer Lands Mission” by N.G. Swett

It surprises me to find that I haven't said much here on this blog about my biggest, longest running project: my novel! I've been working quietly on it for nearly a decade. It's coming out now, ready or not.

Let's begin with the cover reveal! That's what authors do, right?!

Thank you to friends and family who helped with this, it made a HUGE difference.

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Nan Prancin’: “Let Her Cook” (feat. Glorilla)

Why I made the video, the process I went through to make it, where I posted it, and what feedback I got.

 

First, here is the video as posted on YouTube and then I’ll tell you more about it below:

 

Why?

The reason I made it?

It was inspired by Glorilla’s fierce performance on Saturday Night Live recently (view here). Their strength and stagecraft — wow! I just felt the spirit come over me. Let her cook, I looked up, means to let someone do their thing. Dance is what so many of us need right now. It’s physical, it’s rebellious, and it’s creative. I would even say joyous.

 

How I did mine

I dusted off videos of myself prancin’ around in short skirt, blue sequin top and red boots.

(I made them originally for my video Riot Act about online security. The dance videos are broken into steps that I can mix around as desired and set to different songs and messages. I intended to get some mileage out of these dance videos!)

To make my “Let Her Cook” video, here’s what I did:

  1. opened Canva, where I have all the video steps uploaded already, and started a new video project

  2. selected some steps and placed them into some initial order on project pages

  3. removed the original backgrounds (drapes in my living room) of the dance steps and added in pink graphic videos of Canva’s behind me, like a stage. I even added fog/smoke in front of me for one shot

  4. arranged the steps in a choreographed sequence for the song, listening to the song over and over and over again

  5. fussed and fussed and fussed until it was as good as I was gonna get it without taking too darn long. At one point, it’s just pencils down. Or the moment would pass, and I’d miss it by being a blame-nabbit perfectionist.

  6. downloaded the video — with no sound — onto my laptop, then uploaded it to the cloud

  7. downloaded the video onto my cell phone

  8. from my cell phone, uploaded it to several platforms, picking the song up on each platform where available: YouTube, Instagram (& Facebook). I found that the original song wasn’t available on TikTok, so I used a lousy substitute at first. Then I just downloaded the YouTube version of my video with YouTube logo and uploaded it to TikTok. On Threads and BlueSky I shared a link to the YouTube video.

 

Well, how did it do?

For me, it did pretty darn well! Let’s face it, I’m no influencer, but I am delusional enough to think that someone might see it and appreciate it. Maybe even a bunch of someones.

As of right now, the video is approaching 600 views and several likes on YouTube shorts. I got a fun comment, too, someone offering to give granny his broomstick anytime.

I posted it on Instagram (and Facebook), but it’s not on Instagram today. Why? I don’t know. Maybe it was taken down? The last I knew it had over 200 views there and many likes.

On Facebook, I got a lot of love and “You Go Girl” energy from friends!

On TikTok, it didn’t go very far, inching toward 150 views.

On BlueSky and Threads, no one sees anything I say or do.

But now, when asked that hard question for some of us to answer, what I “do,” I can and do say that I dance on the internet.

Also, my mother saw the video and asked about the dance outfit…

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