2020 Fatigue

Honestly, today was a great day for writing. It was my flex day and I had the house all to myself.

Somewhere along the way it just didn’t work out. I have a million things on my mind, and none of them are good. Honestly, it was a better day for daydreaming about future projects.

Me, being me, I gritted my teeth and wrote anyway. I started off with a critique chapter for Lanternfish. I spent some time making changes, and have it in a presentable fashion right now.

Then I opened The Hat story and put down some new words. This part was all about a supporting character. It didn’t exactly flow, but the concept is solid.

The sad part is it only came to 1000 words. A whole day and I frittered most of it away.

This character is a fun one, but I still need to figure out how to tie his story to Lizzie’s finale. I also need him to walk into the next story in the series.

I have faith that I’ll figure it all out, but not this week.

2020 brought a lot to everyone’s table, so why should I be an exception. I have 1000 words I didn’t have yesterday, even if I probably have to edit half of them out.

Under the circumstances, I think I’ll take it.

Not a writing day

Otto let me sleep in until 6:00. It felt good after a week at 4:00. Today is my flex day, but Old What’s Her Face is off today too. I fed the dogs and they went back to bed with my wife.

She likes to sleep in, so I took my chance, it just wasn’t my day for it. I weaved through social media, then backed up a chapter and made a few adjustments so I could forge ahead.

That’s when my wife and the dogs woke up for real. I know when to admit defeat, and I’ll have the house to myself tomorrow.

I picked these a few moments ago.

There are probably another hundred basket-fulls still on the tree. I may take a basket to the office if I remember to pick them Sunday night. My wife wants to take some to the hospital too.

The birds are starting to get to some of them, but the tree produces enough for everyone. I just glean through mine to make sure they haven’t been sampled.

These went in the refrigerator to chill for a while. Then I’m going to eat them as presented. I might dig out some salsa or a daiquiri recipe. Maybe I’ll make a cobbler, but I’m leaning more toward some waffles covered with peaches instead.

It wasn’t much of a writing day, but my chances were low anyway. Besides, the battle for the rope toy is going on under my chair.

It’s been a loooong work week for me. It might not be a bad thing to kick back for a day and eat peaches.

Road Trip!

I have a million things to do today (I always have a million things to do.) We decided to goof off and drive over to Twin Falls. We met my parents there, and went sight seeing. It's about the same distance for them, only we get freeway all the way.

I've talked about the Bonneville Flood on this blog before. It's an ancient event that carved the Snake River Canyon across the western USA. (Pardon the cell phone shadow. I couldn't move the sun.) The attraction today was created by that event. It's called Shoshone Falls.

When you first approach, the humidity is visible, as demonstrated by this rainbow. It wasn't the only rainbow present.

This is the same bit of canyon that Evil Knievel tried to jump and failed. Yeah, yeah, some guy recently did it, but who cares about him. He isn't Evil Knievel.

There is a huge home just above the falls to give it a bit of perspective. These things are huge, and with the runoff from our massive winter, there's a lot of water flowing by.

Oh, and the bulldog ambassador to the world must have made over a hundred new friends today.

I swear, I'm going to buy Old What's Her Face a tee shirt that says, “Pet the bulldog, $2.00.”

So not much work got done today. I need to catch up on blog reading, and may work through my critique, but that's it until tomorrow. Hope all of you had a great day, even if you were goofing off.

PS: I posted a short video clip of the falls over on my Facebook Page, if you're interested.

Monsters and Saviors

I go to work in the dark almost year round. This time of year, there’s a little bit of dawn before I walk in the office, but the days are getting shorter now. It will soon be dark for the whole commute. The point is, I have no idea what goes on in my back yard while I’m away.

Today is my rotating day off. It was glorious to get a couple more hours of sleep. My awakening was not how I wanted to start the day. There were monsters in my back yard.

They make a shrill twittering noise at first. This is the sound of a solo invader. He’s soon joined by others and the sound grows. It’s never loud. Not so loud as to rouse the unaware from slumber. I am not unaware.

I bolted from my bed and shoved a cold cup of coffee in the microwave. While it heated, I downed my blood pressure medication. This encounter would surely test my blood pressure. I even recorded the sound on my iPhone with every intention of sharing with you. I couldn’t figure out how to get it on my blog to prove I’m not crazy.

The monsters fled at the sight of me. They’re only about two inches tall. They aren’t here for me, they only come to steal away my happiness. They did a lot of damage, but I managed to salvage a bit for myself.

It's flat peach season

The dirty buggers start their harvest early. I want a fully ripened peach. The winged monsters don’t wait that long. Peaches ripen a bit at a time. The monsters eat that one perfect bit and move on, leaving the unripened portion to rot. Where they move on to, is the next nearest peach. One tiny little beast will ruin five beautiful peaches to fill its microscopic belly.

My tree overproduced last year, despite my thinning like a madman. It was certain this year would be puny by comparison. It’s not enough to deal with a tiny granddaughter who discovered a baby pumpkin tree. That part I can laugh off. (And it was pretty funny.) These peach eating demons are just wasteful.

I grabbed some small baskets and filled my refrigerator with peaches. There are some green edges on a few of them, but they are mouth wateringly good. I need to scrub them down before eating even though I’m not a big pesticide user. You just never know what the monsters left behind.

Life’s funny sometimes. After salvaging some of my tree’s fruit for myself I heated up another cup of coffee and checked my email. I discovered I had apps to update.

Pinnic updated their cork board app to include index cards. They now offer everything I want in a storyboard app. I emailed them a month or so ago and mentioned this to them. They assured me that index cards would be in the next update. The heavens parted and the angels sang. I think I’m going to recreate my four outlines today in Pinnic. As I do it, I’ll be downing microwave coffee and eating the most perfect flat peaches ever.

Either that, or I’m going to go stand under my tree and eat peaches until the juice runs down my beard. All the while watching the monsters weep from my neighbor’s yard. I haven’t decided yet.

Somebody stop me!

Today is my rotating day off. I got to the writing cabin early this morning. Lisa* had the coffee on, and a fire in my office fireplace. She had on her racing jacket, a short skirt, and heels.

I fired up my computer, and started re-reading my last chapter. I start every writing session this way. It was time for the good guys to recover the mcguffin.

But first… I ought to check WordPress. My service was sporadic, annoyingly so. It was almost like a sine wave of service. Catch it on the peak, and pages loaded – catch it in the valley, and everything stalled. It was so annoying, I started writing.

Lisa went about her chores and left me in peace.

Lisa loves the Will O' the Wisp

I must be past the dreaded middle. I started off with a trip across the city to recover the mcguffin. Once those characters recovered it, I changed to another character.

This character learned about mojo hands, dumped a gun barrel in the Mississippi, and went after the mcguffin himself.

When they met up it devolved into fisticuffs. Well, one punch, but the fist was the size of a milk jug.

Things got a little strange trying to stay in one perspective. I had to use *** breaks to explain what each character was doing as they got to their automobiles.

I wrote my first car chase scene. It was kind of short, but sometimes I think Hollywood carries things too far. At some point the police would show up.

Lisa came to check on me. “Are you about ready for a break?”

“Not right now, I’m on a roll.” I turned back to my writing.

She refreshed my cold coffee and left.

There were a couple of near misses in the car chase, then I destroyed one of the cars. A character died. A dog got scared. (Hey, he’s a character too.)

“I think the beer horns are about ready for beer time,” Lisa said.

“Not now, I need to get this idea down. I’ll be done in a minute.”

I got my survivors to the hospital. “Lisa! I need you to put on a suit and read some lines.” I heard her thunder upstairs.

She returned in her brown suit. “Ready. What am I this time.”

“An attorney.” I handed her my iPad. “Read this.”

She repeated the lines.

“No, no, no. That’s too cheerful. Try to be a little more forceful, bitchier even.”

She tried once more, and postured during the forceful points.

“Better, I need to change it.” I went back to writing.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You seem a little bit crazy today.”

I managed a maniacal laugh, and kept typing. My antihero spent some time in a roadside cafe, and managed to put two and two together. He’s been working for the bad guy all along. This isn’t going to end well for someone.

Lisa rattled around in the hallway. “Go on in there. You guys can be a little bit early today.” The enchanted beer horns ran into my office blasting their baritone notes in my ears.

“Wait, I need my heroine to feel bad now. She has to take responsibility for what happened.”

Lisa held up a growler of nice brown ale. “Look, beer. Mmmm. You like beer.”

“Yeah but.”

“Don’t you have Rafflecopter prizes to deliver?”

“But emotions. My heroine has to feel bad.”

She filled the horns with beer. “Oooh! It’s so cold and frothy. I’ll bet it’s good too.”

“But the internet sucks right now.”

“Okay, I’ll boost your signal. Come on, you can feed your plants some sardines. You always like it when they snap thing up.”

I picked up one of the beers and drank deeply. “Okay. I guess I can stop for the day. I managed 6500 words, and could have gotten more.”

“I know you could, but you’re getting weird. It’s time to walk away for the day.”

*Lisa is the main character in Wild Concept. She’s a robot and helps me around the writing cabin these days.

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.

The Muse at Work

Today is a holiday in the USA. I had a hard time deciding what to work on. I need to edit Wild Concept, and I want to write new words on Will ‘O the Wisp.

I can edit with distractions, but writing is best in solitude. Today was perfect for writing, so I headed for the writing cabin.

Lisa* was waiting on the porch with Bunny as I made a safety pass over the runway. I know she wants me to edit her story, and publish it, but I decided to write.

Lisa was a good sport about it, and wore one of her Stevie Nicks outfits. I went into the new writing room and threw the switch. The bone chandelier sparked and gave the room a soft glow.

Doubt** was still in the other writing room, and I decided to leave him there. Lisa let Bunny play on the floor, and hung a pot of chicken and dumplings in the fireplace. She opened the bell jar and let the Will ‘O the Wisp loose to bounce around the room.

My Muse never showed herself, but I knew she was there. My new story moved forward by leaps and bounds. It was even better than I had planned.

At one time, I needed my main character, Patty, to go through a storage room. I plowed through the cabinets Lisa filled with decorations in this mad science, alchemy, witchcraft writing office for inspiration. It worked, and I wrote about Patty finding some interesting stuff. I thought I was pretty clever how it all worked out too.

Patty doesn’t know how it will all work out, but I have a pretty good idea. There was a character I never outlined that made an appearance. I’ve never written a ghost before, but it fit the story well. I left her in place, and expanded her role. I even managed to hint at a bit of backstory without being intrusive. I may clue Patty in at the end, but I’m a long ways from there.

I’m pretty happy with myself, but my battery and my brain are telling me to stop. So far this weekend my word count is up to 41,563. That’s 3500 words, and I took a vacation day tomorrow too.

I moved over to the chair, and dragged the ottoman under my feet. “Do you have any more of that spooky bubbling coffee?”

“Are you finished?” Lisa asked, and filled my mug.

“Just with this part,” I said. “You and I still have work to do on your story.”

“Do you mean it? Are you just going to shift gears like that?” she asked.

“Why not? The more I work on your story, the more I’m into it. It’s a good story, and the only way we’re going to get it out there is to work on it. Are you up for it today?”

She made a sound something like ‘squee’, and ran for the door. “Drink your coffee. I have to change. I want to be more like my story while we work on it.” She sped up her talking as she headed into the hall. “WatchBunnyforme,I’lltrytohurry.I’msoexcited,berightback.”

I reached over and rubbed Bunny behind his floppy ears. A moment of peace and quiet.

Lisa’s voice came over the phone. I didn’t know this room even had a phone. It was some kind of black plastic cone that sat vertically on the sideboard. “Your lunch is ready, but you have to dish it up yourself. I’m going to fix my hair while you eat. Oh, and can you give Bunny some beet tops from the refrigerator?”

I looked around for a button, but settled for a switch on the side. “Um sure. We’ll be ready before you are.”

* Lisa is the main character in Wild Concept. She is a robot, and works as my assistant at the cabin. (Bunny is her giant pet rabbit)

** Doubt is a raven. He was a gift from my Muse.

One Glorious Day Off

My Wednesday day off came around once more on the work schedule. What to do, what to do?

I texted Lisa* and told her I was coming out to the writing cabin tomorrow. In the mean time, I’m going to review the last 5000 words I wrote tonight. I can even stay up late, because I’m off tomorrow.

She texted back and asked me to bring some fresh greens for Bunny, her pet rabbit. Then she said I should bring something for Doubt, the raven so he doesn’t feel left out. She sure has a lot of feelings for a robot.

*Lisa is a character from a previous story. She works as my assistant, and is a robot.