The month (or maybe year) of the edits

I haven't gotten too much new writing done this month. I've been working, mostly, on the final edits of the last two Dark Staff books. #7 is already at the publisher. I am about half way through #8. After that, I'll do a quick run through Silky, and then a much harder work through the sequel to Silky.

But, you know -- it's been very satisfying work. I know I have a number of novels I need to do final edits on and get them out the door. I've been too busy to dedicate myself to the work -- or at least that's the excuse I use. Maybe I've only been too lazy.

This month reacquainted me with the fun of doing edits. I have been so busy (maybe) that I just hadn't applied myself to the work for far too long. Years? Nah, can't be that long. But I have not submitted much the last couple years, and I intend for that to stop. Vision, FM, DAZ and all the rest is fun -- but I am an author, and it's time to turn at least some of my focus back where it belongs.

I am going to have serious problems sending any packages out, of course. Russ has not been home since January 1. He should be home for one day this weekend, and then there is no telling when he will be able to get back again. The post office is too far away to walk to in either the very cold or the very hot weather -- and we don't get much of the 'comfortable' weather between.

So maybe I should turn back to my real, first love -- ebook publication. Ebook and small press -- there are a number of small press places on the web these days and who take electronic submissions. It may be time to stop hoarding novels and set them free!

Ugh. Sounds like a lot of work.

I did mention the possibility of lazy, right?

It has also been an incredibly cold winter. I have found that I don't do well in the cold. Once the temp drops below 15f, I have to go crawl into somewhere warm. I have been writing on my HP IPAQ that way, and really enjoying it, too.

And since the temperature right now is -2f, that's what I'm going to go do. I am nearly done with one short story, so that should work quite nicely tonight. Tomorrow it will be warmer (if you can call 20f warmer, but really -- yeah, it is.) I hope to get more done then.

If my brain unthaws.

Hello everyone!

Yes, it has been a while again. I have been going through a lot of changes, as you can imagine, and dealing with far too many bouts of 'does it really matter' bad attitudes. I hope that I'll have less of those now that things are starting to look better. We are far closer to being caught up on our debts. Russ should be home next weekend for a couple days. It will have been six weeks since he was last home, so I am looking forward to seeing him.

We need to restock, but not nearly as badly as it looked a week ago. About that time we found that we can get two different places to deliver groceries to the door, just as soon as we get a little bit more worked out with the funds. That takes a good amount of pressure off of both of us. While supplies are low right now, I know that even if Russ can't make it back soon, it's all right. Even in winter.

I do wish spring would come soon, though. I know I'm wishing for it too early. After all there's often snow storms on my birthday (March). But still, at least temps up in the 20's would be nice! I don't like cold!

Writing?

Not nearly as much as I should be doing. I hope that I can get back into the swing of that soon, too. I've discovered something interesting -- my brain shuts down when it gets too cold. I just cannot work, and unfortunately we have had a very cold winter this year. (It's down to 5f tonight with wind chills going to drop down to -20 or so. I'll be heading to bed soon.)

There are two things I have been working on. The first is a short story called Trouble at the Three Fae Café. I had no idea where this story was going to go when I had my hero walk into a café along the border (The best food you can imagine! No zombies, ghouls or vampires served!). He and the few people there are now under siege. It is not a great story, but I've had fun writing it. And I've been writing most of it in bed, using the little note screen on my HP Pocket computer where I can actually handwrite the material. This has been all kinds of fun, to be honest. I can do it in bed with the covers pulled all the way up and stay nice and warm. And I haven't even minded retyping the stuff later.

The other material I'm working on is notes for Draw the Line. This is a very extensive, detailed new universe and the work for it has already been going on (not continuously!) for six months. I have more notes to type into my SuperNotecard program and I might do some of that tonight again.

I've also been editing books, which I should count as writing, of course. They're going well and I'll have new stuff coming out very soon, I think. I'm happy with all of it, and I now have the last of the Dark Staff books in hand so that series is going to be completed! Yay!

The work on the DAZ newsletter is getting easier, most of the time. That's also good and cuts back on the stress levels.

Actually, a lot of stuff has cut back on the stress levels. The first few weeks after Russ had left were pretty horrible, stress-wise. Holidays alone, house problems, etc. just wore me down. I'm finally past a lot of that initial gut-clinching worry about being so far from Russ for so long. It wasn't that I didn't think I could handle it on my own, it was just that there was so much going wrong all at once. It's calmer now all the way around. I hope it stays this way.

I also hope Russ finds a job in the area soon. He's not very happy either, of course. And seeing him only a couple days every six weeks is not going to be good, either. I keep hoping that something changes soon. I know enough to be grateful for the job that got us out of serious trouble, but I am still going to hope for better soon.

So, things are not horrible. I hope for some good changes soon. In the mean time, I'm trying to focus back on writing once more and stop messing around. It's time to get serious again!

Background work on the new novel

Did I mention that I finished the Devlin novel that wasn't quite done at the end of the year? Glad to have it done and still a little bothered that I didn't get it before January 1, but in a few more weeks I won't even consider that part, so it can't be that big of a problem, right?

The new novel is Draw the Line and it is a science fiction story in a new universe from what I've written before. I am not close to writing it yet. The background material on it is growing quite nicely, and I'm very happy with the alien cultural stuff that I'm getting. I can't tell how much of it will end up in the book, but that's all right. I can keep experimenting and spreading outward to see what I come up with.

I like my main character. And I like the person who is his worst enemy and former lover because she's got a lot of problems to deal with, and she's going to have to get over some of them the hard way. I also have an alien built space station that no one really understands. The station itself takes actions that help and hinder the others. It's huge. Much of it is closed off and no one can get in. But out along the edge, at the docks, there are four groups -- humans and three sets of aliens. There might be others in other sections that are less human-like and can't share the same environment. (Oh, just had a thought! Must open SuperNotecard and get it written in!)
I really love SuperNotecard because of how easy it is to add things, move them around, and even duplicate some stuff if you want to reference it for two or more different reasons. You can also use reference links and do all kinds of fancy stuff that I don't usually mess with.

I have over 6,000 words written in notes for this book so far, and I have a lot more that I haven't added in yet. And I still don't have anything but the basics on a lot of sections, including that odd little thing called a plot. I can see parts of it, but the overall pattern isn't there yet.

Oh, thought of something that's been bothering me for a while. This may be part of the answer. (Runs off to do more notes.)
There. That will help a little. It's funny how answers can come at the oddest times, and when you have stopped looking for them.

This is the major project right now. I hope to start writing in March, but I'm not sure that I'll be ready yet!

I want more time!

There has to be a way to get more time. I want to have time to write and do art, and I really don't think that's asking for too much. Okay, and read. And do more photography.

Lately, though, I've barely been getting 1000 words a day in writing, and I'm lucky if I get anywhere near a graphic program. I have been keeping up my picture a day blog, but if it wasn't for cats and teddy bears -- both always in reach -- I would be in real trouble there. (Or cats and teddy bears, as the picture today proves. That's Zaphod and friend, and yes the bear is sitting on his shoulders.)

I'm working on many things and trying to get them caught up/finished so I can move on to other many things. It seems like there ought to be some kind of break there. I have also discovered, the last couple days, that I need to find some way to break up my days so that they are not all so much alike. The first step, as soon as I can figure out how to arrange it, is to buy an Alphasmart Dana (http://www.alphasmart.com/danastore/dana-w_features.html) (not the wireless version -- I specifically DO NOT want to connect to the Internet with it), so that I can move away from this desk where I have been living far too much of my life lately. I even have the money right at this moment -- a miracle all its own, but things are starting to look a little better now. Alphasmart, unfortunately, doesn't appear to take PayPal. I've checked Ebay, and I don't like what they have to offer -- all used, none of them with the programs -- and I think I would rather go with a new one and feel safe.

As some of you know, I have an HP Pocket Computer, which I use on the road and read and take notes in bed -- but it is not a good 'writing' device in the way that I need one. I have a keyboard for it, and it's a nice keyboard, but it's not easy to set up and keep aligned.

I think the Dana looks like something I could use. Get out of the office, just write without dealing with Internet stuff for a little while during the day. It sounds like heaven right now. Or, at the very least, a change.

Other than that? Not much. Had a little snow today and looks like we'll have more tonight. I fell on the ice last week, then had the flu, and I'm still feeling miserable. I have something almost ready for submission somewhere, but I don't think it's really what the editor is looking for. I'm sending it anyway. It's far too easy to talk yourself out of submitting rather than following through.

I would really, really like to get back to writing more, though. Now that I have the current group set up for the 2YN class, I think I have a better chance. I did well yesterday, but I haven't even started today. It's time to start focusing again!

And on into 2008!

Hello all!

Yes, I am still alive. I've survived the holidays -- Christmas by myself, but Russ was home for the last couple days of the month and then he went back to New York on the January 1. It was, as always, good to have him here for a while. However, we really don't get to spend much time just relaxing. We rush all over trying to get me restocked for the next month, since there's no telling how long it will be before he can come back again. We did take the time to do our annual New Years Eve television watching. It sounds odd, but for probably a decade or more, we sit down on New Years Eve and we each pick shows we want to see and alternate between them. This year we stayed with DVD stuff -- not intentional, but it worked out that way.

I've been very busy for the last few weeks, and crazed for the last few days. Not only did I have Vision to get finished and posted, but I also had the DAZ newsletter (which developed a last minute problem), getting ready for the new 2YN group, and setting things up for some of the ten year anniversary stuff at Forward Motion. I'm still not really done. My writing has suffered a bit for it. I've only been doing 1- to 2k days so far, and I am having a hard time focusing on anything at all, but it'll come back soon. I hope! I've started a new Devlin novel, which is always fun to write!

I did get some good news from a publisher in England who is interested in a nonfiction book from me. We'd discussed it last year, but then things slipped away for a while. I just got another email and should know more in a couple weeks when the publisher is back from Europe. I'm going to pull the outline back out and get to work on it again, so that I'm working steadily on it and won't feel rushed.

And the last Dark Staff book is done and off to the copyeditor! Yay! It appears that Book 7 has some kind of curse attached to it -- the copyeditor lost the nearly completed edit and had to go back to an earlier, partially completed copy -- but she's determined to get it and the last one done.

So that's my news for the moment. I kind of hope to get things settled in over the next few days and have more time to do some more writing!