A different kind of week

I spent the first two days of it sick. This means sick enough to stay home from work. It’s one of those typical sinus things I seem to get about every other winter. This one came with fever and deep coughing. It’s worse when I sleep, so I haven’t been getting much of that.

Wednesday, I got up and assessed how I felt. I decided I could return to the office. I tried to hit it hard in the morning, and got a lot accomplished. I probably should have stopped at noon. The shivering returned, but I had aspirin with me. After a couple of those it settled down. I think the fever broke for good near quitting time.

I probably wasn’t firing on all cylinders either day, but I managed to get more accomplished than I could have from home.

Today was my flex day and I looked forward to some writing. When I left Lanternfish, they’d landed in Giapon and stumbled into a dangerous situation. Today was the day to flesh out that situation.

It wound up being a section of dialog, and I felt pretty good about it. This exchange is supposed to take place over several days, and my goal is to have it come across like a verbal chess match with a very powerful man.

I’d like to break this up with some other goings on that involve the crew. This shouldn’t be too hard, but I’m going to try minimizing the root monsters. They had a pretty active role in the last part, and readers can get too much of a good thing.

All told, I was happy with today’s progress until I checked my word count. 676 words! That’s all I managed. I know low output days are part of the gig, but that’s pretty minuscule by my standards.

There are several reasons for this, one of which could be my cold. It may be that I’ve truly reached the middle slog, like happens on every book. It could also simply be one of those off days that happens to all of us.

Old What’s Her Face has to go in at midnight, then pull a double shift tomorrow. In theory, I should be able to accomplish a bit more then. However, I agreed to stay up until she goes to work. My coughing all night isn’t going to help her get a little sleep. I also need to get a haircut, but could do that any time tomorrow.

My goals are to nudge Lanternfish ahead in the morning, get the haircut in the afternoon, then my wife is alluding to date night in the evening. I don’t have faith that she’ll want to go out after that shift, but will stay open to the idea.

Secrets, colds, date night, and new words

I took vacation from Wednesday through Monday. This time, I didn’t tell anyone, including my wife. This is because the last time I tried to get some writing time it got pirated away. I lose the vacation hours either way, and my employer doesn’t qualify whether I was content or not.

While everyone was reading my group post about hosts willing to promote our work, I was working on new fiction.

Old What’s Her Face was off Friday, and we both woke up with colds. No idea what that was about, but we were phlegmy and both had headaches. She got over it before I did, but by mid-afternoon we both felt fine. Fine enough to go to Old Chicago for pizza and craft beer.

I slung quite a few words today, but didn’t keep score. My tale moved from a transition scene into an action scene, and those move quite a bit faster.

I’d have to consider this vacation a success already. Tomorrow I dedicate some of my morning to calling my parents, so I don’t expect much else to happen. My story is at a point where I have to think about it, and hopefully the Muse will show up for me.

I’m also off Monday, but so is my wife. This isn’t necessarily a deal killer for new fiction, but it’s usually much less than when I’m alone.

If I were to wish for anything, it would have been a couple of guests for Lisa Burton Radio. I didn’t get any takers, and don’t quite understand why. I’ll probably do a promo again, but the risk is to get over a hundred at once like the last time. (At one per week, that’s two years of applicants to get through.)

I could have done without the cold, but it’s been a pretty good vacation so far and I have two days left. Maybe I should look for some December wallpaper.

An actual day off

Holy cow! It’s cold here. I’m writing this at 4:00 PM and it’s a sweltering 18 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

I’ve been following a blog from New York State, and she has five feet of snow in her yard. They have another two feet predicted. I guess I’ll quit complaining. I had to shovel my father’s roof for him years ago to keep the house from collapsing. (My own roof was steeper and shed the snow.) When I finished I actually walked off the roof without the aid of a ladder. The roof snow plus the ground snow was high enough.

I suppose I’ll quit complaining about my weather, but snow and temperature are not the same thing. On the plus side, I have a beer mug outside that I keep hitting with a mist bottle. Frosted beer mug for me tonight.

Today was a day of bouncing. I have a top secret project I’m writing something for, so I centered my time around that. I write for a bit, then read two chapters of a book I’m engrossed in. I’ll probably make one more lap through both before calling it quits today. This way both things are getting done.

I spent a little time on positive daydreaming. I have a plot issue to sort out, and this is actually my method. No notes, lots of daydreaming, and exchange emails with my writing buddy. I’m almost there, but it might take another week. Then I have to modify my outline/storyboard.

Things are getting accomplished in bits and pieces. When payday comes around I need to pay an invoice for cover art. When I get around to editing it, Will ‘O the Wisp is going to have an awesome cover.

It sounds like a lot, but it’s all fun. If I had my way this is what I’d be doing for a living. Alas, I still need a paycheck job and all the benefits that come with it. Tomorrow is another work day.

With all this inclement weather it’s time to curl up with a good book. That’s what I’m doing on lap two tonight. If you need a book, I could make a suggestion or two.