NaNo is almost upon us!

I have plenty of plot bunnies ready, as you can see. I even have an outline. What I don't have is time, of course, but I'm leaping in anyway.

I'm going to be updating the Forward Motion site in a few minutes. That's one thing I can get done and off the list. Vision is nearly there, as well.

Some personal stuff fell by the side, as usual, but I don't care. I'll get to it.

As of this morning, I had sent out 1047 copies of the NaNo Book. Plus, I know a few people have downloaded it from my site (http://lazette.net), and a few others said they were passing it on to others. So... I guess quite a few copies of it are out there now.

The things I still need to get done:

Update FM site

Finish Vision 36

Finish PDF of Vision 35 and 36

Fix Excel outline sheets

Print outlines

That's really not too bad of a list. I have about 10.5 hours to do it. I'm sure I'm forgetting things, like the music stuff I wanted to do, and getting some pictures lined up for my regular journal, but I don't care.

In fact, I'm going to go take a nice, relaxing bath before I do any more. Oh, and take blood pressure meds before I forget. (grin)

 

A picture from the zoo

I love this shot. What a wonderful look on the little one's face!

It's going to be a while before I get all of those zoo pictures sorted out. I'm now three trips behind on my zoo blog, which really annoys me. But I just don't have the time.

Which brings me to something Russ and I discussed tonight.

He thinks I need to step back from some of the things I'm trying to get done. He thinks I should go do NaNo and enjoy myself, and not worry that I don't have the 2YNY2 book done. He thinks, in fact, that I'm driving myself crazy trying to get all the things done.

I think he's right. I'll get the 2YNY2 book done. Just not right now. I'm over half way through it. There are problems that I didn't expect, some of them just with my inability to focus on the book for long. Part of that is a stress issue. The more I worry over it, the harder it is to get done.

So I am going to go into NaNo without worrying. I'll get Vision done. I'll have the FM site updated. I'll do whatever else absolutely has to be done. But I'm also going to start working in more time for myself again. That means zoo blog pictures, Daz/Bryce pictures, and writing stuff just because I want to write.

I never intended to be a nonfiction writer and I don't think I have the real mentality for it. So constantly working on nonficition this year has really added a stress level that I hadn't really considered until I was talking with Russ.

I need to have more fun again, especially with writing -- or else everything else I do, from DTF to the 2YN classes to Vision to even Forward Motion starts looking like more trouble than they are worth to me. When I'm in a bad mood, even stuff I nominally like can start looking like trouble.

So, more fun. More writing and editing (because, yeah, I like editing), more pictures and more 3d art.

I plan to start a story blog in December. I am going to be blogging a set of holiday stories over the next year -- The Don't Go Home for the Holidays anthology that I had offered as a free book for a short while. It features too sisters who thought they were working for a division of NATO and found out they were actually working for aliens. It's a fun set of stories, and I'm looking forward to it.

Don't Go Home for the Holidays: A Story of Spies, Aliens and Really Bad Timing

This should be fun! 

Well, yes, of course I've been busy

It's the last week before NaNo. It's the last week before Vision is due out. Between the two and various real-life dramas, I'm kind of feeling overwhelmved here. I at least have part of Vision done already, so I think things will go all right there. And I have outlines for NaNo.

I've been sending out copies of NaNo for the New and the Insane and that's gone well, at least. Oh, and I have been working on the 2YNY2 book and it's moving quite nicely, though still not fast enough.

Part of me would like to just abandon everything and write for a while. Just write. So I guess that it's a good thing NaNo is coming soon. That will be my chance.

If I get enough of the other work done, of course.

I think I am going to the zoo tomorrow. It will be my last chance this month, and even though it's supposed to rain, it still looks like the best hope for a nice day. I thnk a few hours away from the computer and the house will be nice, too.

Why couldn't it have been today, when the weather was still not bad? It's turning already, though. Clouded up and looks like rain. At least they're not saying snow instead, which was what they were saying a few days ago.

Snarl.

Time to get back to work. 

Still working....

The outline for The Servant Girl is finally coming together. This is a wonderful relief because I really, really didn't think I could come up with another full novel this late in the game.

I've been getting some work done on 2YNY2 as well, though not as much as I should. But still... I'm happy to find it moving as well.

I have a great deal of work done on the next Vision issue, though there are two big problems that I'm not sure how I'm going to cover... but we'll see.

I was going to go to the zoo tomorrow while Russ taught a class.. but it snowed today, and it's just going to be even colder tomorrow morning. I am sniffing now. My ear hurts. It just doesn't sound like a good plan. Russ says he'll get me to the zoo yet this month, and he does have one more class. I'm getting antsy. I'd really like to go tomorrow, but it is just not a good plan.

But other things...

I have two free downloads at my site now. One is a science fiction story called PSI and the other is a free book for people who are either doing NaNoWriMo this year or who might be interested in doing it. You can find them both on http://lazette.net .

I've been having strange thoughts about the huge accumulation of material that I have. I think quite a bit of it is going to end up as free downloads over the next few years -- but only because I have so much stuff. I'm still going to be sending a few choice pieces out to publishers, though, of course. But I figure something on my site every few months won't hurt.

We'll see how I do. I still haven't gotten to the edits of Touched by the Wild, though it will likely be one of the pieces. I just need more time.

Like that's going to happen.

I've been very busy the last few weeks, but now that the outline is falling together, I don't feel quite as much stress. I still have a horrible amount of work to get done on all kinds of things... but I'll get there.

And at some point I'll get to go to the zoo as well. 

Am I getting caught up?

Well, you'd think -- given the amount of work I've done in the last couple days -- that I'd be caught up on something. It doesn't really look that way from my side, but maybe I'm just annoyed.

Okay, I have two weeks to finish up everything and do the outline for NaNo before the madness begins. I'm looking forward to NaNo. I could use that 'vacation from reality' about now. I don't think I'll be as ready for it as I want, but that's life. I'll manage.

I hope to go to the zoo on Thursady. It might not work out because Russ has some things going on that may mean it would be impossible to do. But it would be nice. (Goes to check weather.) Ah... except possibly for that snow the day before. Well, if it warms back up (say 50 or above), I'll be happy.

What else?

Nothing. Really. I'm working on the 2YNY2 book. I'm trying to add bits and pieces to my outline. I'm starting to look at putting the next Vision together, which means contracts should go out tomorrow.

Oh! And I will be a guest at SoonerCon next June! Yay! I have every intention of going, too. Life has to be better than it has been this year!

Okay, off to open something I should be doing rather than complaining here! 

No Zoo

It was just too cold to go today. Cold and damp, and with an hour and a half wait outside until they opened, it didn't seem like a good idea. Russ says he'll get me down there on one of his days off . (He has those?)

I really wanted to go today. I need out of the house and to have some fun, and the zoo is the best idea because it doesn't cost me anything. I might ride with Russ up to his teaching job on Thursday, though, just for the ride.

I am looking at lists of things to get done again, and starting to get the feeling that I'm not going to make it. Especially on days like today when one of the things I want to work on isn't anywhere to be found. I need to hunt down some back up disks from some time ago (like 1999) and see if I can find the story.

I told myself that since I wasn't going to be home today that I ought to just do fun stuff. Somehow it's not going that way yet.

Okay, off to hunt down a missing story.... (Like I don't have enough others that I can find!) 

So the list....

I wrote it up. I printed it out. Then, on the second day, I turned it over and used it for scratch paper.

No, it didn't quite work well.

The second 2YN book is not going to be done before December. I just can't get it all and stay sane. Or sane as I am already. I'm going to back up, work on it a little more slowly, and see if I can't get it done in a reasonable amount of time. I am not, as I thought I might, skip NaNo to do it. I'm already annoyed enough with life. Skipping NaNo would not be a good plan this year, even if I'm not ready for it.

And I'm going to the zoo tomorrow. So there.

I had to sit back and apply some of my own 'words of wisdom ' to my work. I tell people not to worry, if things don't get done in time (at FM for instance) that no one is going to die of it. Don't drive yourself crazy over this stuff. And when you are already under stress, don't add to it. I've not been paying attention to my own words, and I've been driving myself crazy this last year. Sure, a lot of things have not gone right on a personal level, but it's all right. We're getting there. And as long as I don't go pounding my head against the wall much, I think I'll be fine.

Besides, I get to go to the zoo tomorrow. Sure, it's going to be cold. (But not as cold as Wednesday, when we are apparently going to get snow!), and I'll have to sit outside the zoo or about an hour or so before it opens... but I don't care! I'm going to go and have a good time.

But right now... well, better get some work done! 

Not Catching up

This is bad. I seem to be falling farther behind rather than catching up. So, I've made up a chart with odd lists of numbers (1,2, 3 in one list, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in a couple of others). They represent what I want to get done on certain projects each day. They go back to first of this month, and a couple will be filled in late, but I will get them.

The projects are 2YNY2, NaNo outline, ADW pics, Paid in Gold and Blood.

I do well with lists like this where I can see where I stand, and where I want to mark something off. So, let's hope that it works well for me this month, or else I'm in a lot of trouble.

Okay, I'm already in a lot of trouble. Let's hope this brings me out of it.

Part of the problem is that I want the second 2YN book to be longer, and it just isn't there. I realize a lot of the first book was worldbuilding, and there is no equivalent material for the second book -- just as well, probably. I think I need to stop worrying about the length and just work on getting it done to the best of my ability. If it's shorter, so what? As long as it has what it needs.

Yes, that's the attitude I need. Let's see how long I can hold on to it.

Okay, I've printed out my little sheet of paper with all the names and numbers to cross off. Time, I think, to get to work! 

Edmond is funny

We noticed this the other day. Edmund twists in odd ways sometimes.

Tonight the NaNo boards kicked off for the 2006 season. For some reason this kind of got me fired up . I even feel better than I have all day.

It also helps that Russ is home. He had a horrible five days away, too, poor guy. Missed a flight in Omaha and had to drive to Kansas City in order to get a plane to get to New York on time. Then sat on the runway for two and a half hours tonight, which meant he was way late getting home -- with a long drive from Kansas City to here.

But he's home... for a few more hours. Tomorrow he goes 70 miles north to teach math again.

I've been working on the 2YNy2 book, and I think I'm finally getting a breakthrough there. It won't be as long as the first book, but then the first one had a huge section of worldbuilding. I think it will be about 90 to 100k, which ought to be long enough, after all. And if that's so, then I'm about 20-25k from being done.

That looks far more mangeable.

The novel I thought I would be doing for NaNo -- the one I NEED to do -- is not coming together in the outline. The Servant Girl outline, which I wrote just before Labor of Love at FM is looking better and better. I've been adding a few sections and filling it out. I think it might be my main novel this year.

Part of me just wants to run with something this year like I did for the last book of NaNo last year. It is a useless book, filled with characters from a dozen other stories, all of them pulled together in one unifying situation. It was fun to write! Maybe I'll pull them all together for a second book this year. There's a thought....

But right now I think I want to get some rest. 

October

I realized I had a ton of stuff to get done for the boards for October, so that took most of my day. And now Edmond is watching the screen where the letters appear here, and that' can't be good at all....

There, I distracted him a little. Claws in the flatscreen... probably not a good idea.

Russ will be home about 6 pm tonight. Good. I feel better, at least. I hate being ill and being alone.

I'm tired, of course. It's been a rough few days. I haven't gotten hardly anything done, too. Well, except that I did get the stuff set up for Forward Motion today, so that's good. My own site? No. I have two books out that need to be put on the main page, and I haven't gotten any closer to it.

The new NaNoWriMo.org boards should be opening up sometime today. I don't think I'm going to stay up and watch for them. A few hours sleep sounds like a much better idea.

I need to make myself a little schedule list for the next month. Otherwise, NaNo or not, I'm going to be in real trouble

But right now... not feeling so well. I'm heading for bed.