Hi.
I’m sorry this is so late. These past two weeks have completely smashed my routines into little, shiny fragments. And without my routines, things like accountability posts tend to fall by the wayside. You’ll also notice that, again, there’s no Outings! post this week. Yeah. I’ll get into the reason for that in a bit.
But first, let’s look at some goals.
Last Week
- Write 3x
- Keep reading
- Tidy up office (for realsies this time)
How'd I Do?
Write 3x- Yep! It wasn’t all on the novel, but my butt was in the chair three times last week!
- Keep reading
- Yep!
- Tidy up office (for realsies this time)
- Hahahahahahahahaha *sobs*
Weekly Word Count: 5,309
Okay, so if all the writing wasn’t on the novel, what was I working on? Well, there was a big chunk of words spent on an emotional support chapter of fanfic. And then another chunk of words on a new short story. Normally I don’t like to double dip projects. I’m more of a pick one and get it done kinda girl. But, this short story isn’t the sort to be written quickly. Scenes are trickling in, and I’ve started jotting them down as they arrive. For the first time in a long time, it feels like a story only I could write. It’s coming from a space deep inside me that doesn’t open its doors too often.
So, sorry novel, I’m taking this call.
That said, I still wrote over 1,500 words on the novel last week! Things are coming along nicely and we’re approaching the mad dash, avalanche portion of book, where everything landslides to some semblance of an ending. I’m hopeful for an April completion date.
But… that kinda sorta depends on what happens next with our house. You see, the faulty pipe has led to a lot more issues. We caught it early, turned the water off, had the plumber out to repair it. We did everything right. But it was the line from the hot water heater (and our house has notoriously hot water – even my Starbucks numbed hands can’t stand it at full throttle), and it sprayed insanely hot water into our crawl space. It was a sauna under our house.
So now there’s water damage to repair and mold to abate. There’s moisture damage to the floors and some of the walls. And in order to repair it, our kitchen has to be gutted, our master bath might too. And because we have laminate flooring that isn’t simple to patch piecemeal, they might have to pull the WHOLE FLOOR.
Add to it the news that Trev’s car was deemed a total loss after a collision back in January and, uhhhhhh, it’s been a very stressful week.
So, that’s why I’m late to post and why I feel all sorts of out of wack. And I’m willing to bet it’s only going to get worse before it gets better…
Before we move on to the next set of goals, here’s the list of stories I read this week for #StoryADay:
- “The Wreck of the Medusa” by Jordan Kurella, from Apex Magazine 2/21/23
- “Yinying—Shadow” by Ai Jiang, from Uncanny Magazine Issue Fifty-One
- “His Guns Could Not Protect Him” by Sam J. Miller, from Lightspeed Magazine (bonus story because I love Sam J. Miller and couldn’t wait to read it)
- “Lovecraft vs. the Big-Mouth Musky of Lake Miskatonic” by Lena Ng, from LOLcraft: A Compendium of Eldritch Humor
- “Mother Trucker” by Wailana Kamala, from PseudoPod 12.16.22
- “Mrs. Gamp” by A.J. Brown, from Flash Fiction Online February 2023
- “Of Porridge, Untethered Things & Rabbits” by Somto Ihezue, from Flash Fiction Online February 2023
So, What's Next?
- Write 3x this week
- Read a #StoryADay
- Get outside
- Read a book
This week is about salvaging the routines I can and taking care of my emotional, physical, and mental health. I need to start moving again – yoga, walks, hikes, SOMETHING. And I need to finish reading something. I’m currently on The Fire Opal Mechanism, and while I like it, it is about book banning so it’s a little too close for comfort at the moment. It’s slow going for me right now.
Don’t count on my being on the blog again until next week’s Goals Summary. I’m hopeful that there will be an Outings! post next week, but we’re playing things by ear at the moment. Give me some grace, okay (I say this more to myself than anything else…).
Until then, Blogland.
BZ
