Six months down....

And no end in sight, as far as Russ and I can tell. I'm talking about his job in New York, of course. He left the day after Thanksgiving. He came back this weekend for the first time in three months. We had a fun time, and he hopes to make it back for our anniversary next month, but it's doubtful. Flight prices have gone way up. What a shock.

We are still digging our way out of debt, but we're a lot closer. It's amazing, because as debt goes, we have never had much. We don't do credit cards, we don't have car payments, we don't have kids. We have the second house which is $500 a month plus another $150 for utilities, plus this house which has no payment, but about $250 in utilities. Car insurance, of course, though the car spends most of the time sitting in Omaha these days. Russ has his expenses in New York -- a place to stay, of course, and all the extras of getting around there. He's thinking about trying to buy a cheap car out there for work, which would help in some ways. Yes, let's see -- two people with three housing locations and three cars. (The van is pretty much dead, though. He thinks he'll see if someone will just drag it off for us.)

Life is odd.

I wish he could get a job closer and maybe spend a weekend or two a month at home. I manage fine on my own, but you know -- I married Russ for a reason, and it wasn't to just talk to him on the phone now and then and exchange emails. Next month will be our 29th anniversary.

I will not be moving over to the other house for the summer like I thought I might. It turns out that despite draining all the pipes, one of them did freeze and break this winter, and it is at the worst spot to try and fix. Ugh. That house has central air. It appealed to me. Actually, if the weather gets too hot, I'll just go over there and work for a while anyway. We didn't get a chance to put the AC unit in the window here, so if the weather suddenly heats up, it's going to be pretty miserable. This house is fine until late afternoon.
I do have a good fan, though, so I'll survive it. I just don't much like heat. We've been lucky in our weather this year, especially compared to some of the other areas. I hope it stays that way.

So, okay. Time to get focused back on writing. I can do this, right?

(Starts pulling out notes and wondering what some of them might really mean....)

Happy guy

Hello!

So, what have I been doing?

Pretty much the same as I always do, but lately with a lot of moans and gasps. I hurt my back. I'm coming out of it now, but it as been a horrid week as I stumbled through the house. I couldn't even make most of the food I have since it has to be baked and I couldn't lean over.

But I have survived it so far. It's better today.

Even sitting at the computer has been difficult, so my writing took a hit. I need to concentrate on it again, but I'm still not quite up to it.

Russ is supposed to come home over Memorial Day weekend. I hope he makes it this time. He hasn't been back since February, and three months is just a bit too long. Neither of us are happy about it. He hopes he can start making it once a month after this, but we'll see.

I did write four short stories at the start of the month. I have a fifth one started, but haven't been able to get back to it. The time on the computer has been limited to what absolutely has to get done in most cases. I'm getting past that, though! I have been a bit more active over at ArtZone lately -- it was kind of distracting, to be honest, and I needed that. I admit that I've been doing more art than I probably should -- but it's been a great way to take my mind off of everything. Writing does that too, of course -- but the art stuff works better sometimes because I have to learn how some things work. That takes more attention for longer periods of time. It helps.

My major writing work, other than the short stories, was a complete rewrite of No Beast So Fierce, which took it from somewhere around 23,000 words down to 7500 words. Not to say that I tend to be wordy or anything, but it turned into a nice little short story. I have a specific market in mind for it, so after I go over it one more time, off it goes.

I'm also working a little bit on the notes and worldbuilding for Draw the Line. I need to get the rest of my notes typed in (maybe tonight), and see where I need to go from here. It's looking like a very complex story, and I really can't wait to work on it -- though I am going to try and work out everything I can ahead of time. At the rate I'm going, this may turn out to be the NaNo novel this year.

So that's what has been happening with me. Not enough to really blog more often. I lead a boring life!

Silky -- Coming Soon

Oh. Just saw that I used this picture the last time, too. Well, I'm exicited about it, okay?

"Exciting, complex and richly textured, with a world you'll believe and a
protagonist you have to cheer for -- Silky is wonderful." Holly
Lisle (Quote from original 1998 Embiid Publishing release.)

Captured as a child and sold into heartless slavery has robbed Silky of his magical abilities and left him with no expectations of a better life -- until his own act of bravery delivers him into the hands of a powerful Lord of the Land.

His troubles are far from over, however, since Lord Reed is out of favor with the King, and danger threatens at any mischance. Working with Lord Reed starts him along a path that will lead to power, danger and heartbreak, and a future the young slave boy could never have imagined.

***

Yes, the new edition of Silky should be out soon! I'm really happy to see it going back into print. I suspect the second book in the series will follow before the end of the year, which will be really wonderful.

That's my big news for the day/week/month. Russ has not been home since February. We thought he would make it last weekend, but it didn't work. Then we thought he might have a chance at two weekends in a row in early May, but the company decided to send him to Detroit rather than Davenport -- if he had been in Davenport, he could have driven home for a couple days on both ends of his week there.

He says he will be home for the Memorial Day weekend. I really don't believe it, to be honest, because something has gone wrong for every weekend he meant to come home.

But at least the snow is gone.

Now I have to start worrying about thunderstorms. And grass. Do you know how many years it has been since I mowed grass? Well, not quite as long since I had scooped snow, but still....

I want a puppy. A very small, not going to grow into anything big, puppy. I'm not sure why. I think I just want something to change things around a bit here. Maybe I should consider something a little less traumatic for the cats?

Ah. Here's another picture for you. The Boys on their second birthday.

There. That's better.

Silky is off to Holly. Again. It's been off to her at least once before, and then I realized I had to make some changes, and then....
I've had a problem lately with letting go. I don't know why. However, I have been lingering over edits of books and art work. It's not even real work -- just messing around with things. But Silky is now out of my hands and I told Holly not to give it back to me unless I really have to correct something.

So, the new version of Silky is done. Book 2 is going along very well, and I'll be getting back to Book 3 as soon as I get some other things cleared away. I have a few outline notes for it, too -- just to make certain I keep moving along on it. I like the story so far. I'm up to almost 17,000 words on it.

I have a couple questions into the British publisher for the nonfiction book, mostly having to do with the contract. I am working on the book, though, and it's moving forward -- just not very quickly. I need to be able to focus on it, and that hasn't really happened yet.
But I am still getting work done, so I can't complain. It may be a bit slower than usual, but it's still going along pretty well. Since I often go through slow downs, I'm not too surprised. Things will pick back up again soon. I can feel little ideas starting to work their way back into my brain, and I'm starting to sort through story notes again. There are two novels I would really like to get to -- Draw the Line and In the Shadow of Giants -- but both require considerable background work. I'll probably be doing more of that over the next few months.

I would also like to do more short story writing. May is the Story-A-Day dare at FM, so I should really try to focus on the idea of writing some material for it this year. Maybe if I think about it enough before hand, I'll be ready to leap in this time!

Oh yes, I can feel that urge to start writing lots of things again.

I think I better go rest before it takes me over. (laughs)