The Ice Storm Days
I haven’t left the house in five days. For some folks, I know that can conjure feelings of claustrophobia. Feeling stuck or trapped or hemmed in. But as I sit in my home, watching the thin snow solidify into a dangerously slick pack of ice, I’m feeling grateful for this pause. If you’ve read my more recent posts, then you know 2023 was a rather trying year for us. There were a lot ups and downs, with very high highs and the lowest of lows. And I’ll be honest – this is my first year in a LONG time where I didn’t have at least a week off at the holidays. With both Christmas and New Years falling on my normal weekend, I was feeling more than a little toasty rolling into 2024. But, this arctic storm has brought a sort of relief. Five unexpected and uninterrupted days off. I’ve…
Fall Update
This post should be a Goals Summary or even the belated Monthly Recap, but I’m gonna be real honest with you – I don’t have the energy for all of that right now. Fall is here, the weather is dark and a little dour. I’ve been off my ADHD meds for about a month and I’m exhausted. What energy I do have is getting divvied up between my home, family, work, and the book. That’s it. For those things to go well I have to let the blog and Newsletter go for now. I hate that, truly, but also, the amount of relief I feel at admitting it tells me everything I need to know. Putting my online presence/activities on pause is the right call. So, what does this mean? Basically, don’t expect much regularly scheduled content on the website until December, maybe even the new year depending on how…
Revision, Again.
Revision is a complex topic. It’s a complex part of the writing process! And that process is different for every person and every story. No lie, it’s that last bit that frustrates me most. WHY does it have to be different for every story? I’ve done this before, can’t I just slap the same methods and processes on it and call it a day? No?! Now, I’ve been on this precipice before. In the Valley of Death is not my first novel. Depending on how we define “novel” it’s my 6th or 8th novel-length work. And with those earlier projects, there were other, earlier, more youthful and naive and blissfully innocent posts about revision. You can read my most recent one, about Something Sulfurous (aka Tavi) here. Or you can go way back and read this one over on the old blog. Point is, I’ve been around this particular block…
Goals Summary – Wk #36
Ok, so this title is a little bit misleading. I didn’t have any goals last week, so I won’t exactly be summarizing them. I had goals the week before that, which I could talk about, but other than managing to send out the Newsletter, not a whole lot happened this past couple of weeks. What happened was a lot of gaming, as the spousal unit and I splurged to get a PS5 so we can couch co-op Baldur’s Gate 3. Hence, no progress last week. We’ve been gaming for 3+ hours each night after dinner, and I have no regrets. So, I let myself take a little breaky break and enjoy our couch and tv and just generally having the house back to do these sorts of things. Comfortably. It’s been delightful. But, I still have a ticking clock on this novel, and I’m getting very close to finishing it.…