I’ve become boring

Things have slowed down on the fiction front for me. I’ve hit a metaphorical wall on the weekends. It got so bad last weekend, that I counted on Jan Sikes to carry the load around here, and her post performed like gangbusters. Thank you all for supporting her.

Some of it involves work. There is simply too much to do inside of eight hours, and I’ve been pushing myself. That takes a toll on my brain. In a way it still counts as thousands of new words written, but isn’t nearly as entertaining as fiction.

Some of it is taxes. We owe again this year, but this time don’t have the money to pay them all. We covered the state, and put the federal on a credit card which we can now pay off for the next 20 years.

This caused me to update my W-4. We were already both declaring zero dependents. I will never understand how we can come up short by using the charts they provide. From now on, I’m taking extra cash from each paycheck to put aside for federal and state taxes. There could be a lot more beans around here in 2024.

I started a savings stash for things like cover art, but it isn’t even close to paying the taxes for us. I decided to keep my stash and add to it sporadically.

I’m also behind on reading. It seems like all of my friends published at once. I intend to read them, but have to shoehorn them all into the time I have. Maybe it’s payback. People used to tell me I publish so frequently they can’t keep up.

To keep this from becoming a total pity party, I took this picture for you.

There are only a small handful of them, but they’re peach blossoms. Looks like the old tree made it through another winter. I wonder if the tree looks back and thinks, “Looks like Boyack made it through another winter.”

I’m going to hit it hard for one more week, then I’m using some leave. My brain needs the rest, and maybe I can make some progress on one of my projects.

Think about looking at my sidebar. There are some cool books over there, and I have a credit card bill to cover. (That’s supposed to be funny.) Happy Easter, everyone.

Sometimes you just have to update

It’s Wednesday, and there isn’t anything real sexy to talk about. I’ve been working, and trying to read a chapter of Grinders here and there. This phase always convinces me what a hack I am.

I know some other authors who feel the same way, so it isn’t just me. It was all so cool when I was creating this world, and now I’m questioning everything. This isn’t my first book, and I won’t let it stop me.

I got my W-2, so yay for the Internal Revenue Service.

Otto is a mess right now. Nothing too Earth shattering with him, just a lot of little things. The fold on his face is inflamed, and we’re putting cream on it. That usually clears everything up. He’s also had an ear problem. We have drops for that, and it usually clears that issue up.

His feet are driving him crazy, and this time the little wipies aren’t doing anything for him. Today, when Old What’s Her Face came home from work, there was blood all over the place.

The blood is from his tail, and there’s a big welt there. Otto’s never had a tail problem before, but his sister has. We have some stuff we can try. It looks more like a wound than something that got infected. There is a hell of a welt there, though. Something might have bit him while we were at work. (Looks at Frankie.)

I decided it was time for an Epsom Salts soak, at least for his feet. While I kept his feet soaking, my wife used a rag and soaked his little tail.

There really doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with him, and he played ball like a madman tonight. When everything dries, we have a steroid powder they gave us when Frankie had a tail infection. We’ll add some of that before bed time.

Still a good boy

In book news, I’m going to miss my first deadline of the year. I really wanted to release Grinders sometime around Chinese New Year. It probably won’t matter to the book buying public, but I’m year of the rat. This year will be year of the rat. Also there is a scene in the book that involves the parade in San Francisco, where it is also year of the rat. Aside from that, there are rats who play a pivotal role in the story.

All sounded good, except the new year doesn’t start in February this time. It’s next weekend. Those darned lunar calendars.

I still have to finish my final pass, get the MS to my formatter, and I don’t have my Lisa Burton posters yet. I did get a cover just the other day. It looks like I can salvage a cover-reveal kind of post for Chinese New Year. I can talk about the story a bit, and some friends offered to host me if I take it that far.

As the work week ends, we’ll be keeping an eye on Otto. He may have to go see the vet this time. I’ll work on my final pass for Grinders, and probably write something for the cover-reveal. There ought to be enough time to add a few words to HMS Lanternfish, too.

At least that’s how I’m approaching the weekend. Sometimes the best laid plans of rats and men oft go astray. Bring on the weekend.

Strange day off

I had an errand to run that ate up a chunk of my day off. It was a contentious point under my roof. It's time to drop off our taxes with the accountant. I tried to talk my wife into dropping them off after she got off work, and apparently, this was a ridiculous idea. The accountant is one block from where she works. As a result, I drove fifteen miles through traffic, spent 30 seconds dropping off the package, and another fifteen miles through traffic to get back home. I don't get it, but it ate up a chunk of my day and tainted my attitude.

I did some reading when I got back, then decided I had to do something progressive.

I uploaded a Lisa picture to Facebook to promote The Cock of the South to a couple of groups I joined. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that. I created a different one for Twitter that doesn't feature Lisa. Scratch off the fact that I accomplished something.

I spent a limited amount of time researching items for the stories currently underway. I avoided the Sirens this time. When I find time to write again, I have a better idea of what I need to include.

I decided to take a visual break and surfed for my next background. I downloaded four or five, because it's a struggle to get one to fit on the narrow edges of this blog. Images need to be free, and they need a strong vertical element to work best. Even then, I have to crop them to get the vertical element to the sides. With that many images, one should work well.

March arrives next Tuesday, and that's when my critique group meets again. I sent my submission out days ago, and could have worked on their submissions today. I just didn't. I'll probably get to it sometime this weekend. My next rotating day off is Monday, and that might be a good time.

This evening will bring more reading. If I need a break, I may work on a short story briefly. This one involves a return to Bergamot Holler, the key area in Will O' the Wisp. I have some fun ideas for it, and am excited to see where it goes.

Sales have been strange lately, and I'm getting a lot more pages read than actual sales. That doesn't bother me at all. I'm happy to have action. If you joined Amazon Prime, and want to check out my stories for free, please do. I have no idea why this happens. I haven't done much promotion lately other than Twitter, and the new Facebook stuff. I'm sure more promotion would net more results, but I can only do so much.

Right now, I'm stressed for writing time. I can post a Tweet with some decent hashtags and get it online in seconds. Writing guest posts takes a bit of time, and blog tours require monitoring. I'll be doing that soon enough, but it isn't in the cards right now.

It won't be long before I hear back from the beta readers. I'm anxious to see what they thought about The Playground. Working on that book will take priority at that time. Then I'll have to move toward launch, and get all the guest posts written. I already have a couple of them, but need to keep pecking away at them.

Somewhere in the middle of this, I have a fun new idea for this blog. I'm not ready to announce it just yet, but it's going to require some hours too. I'm looking forward to it though, and am chomping at the bit to get started on it. It will all happen in time, so I'm better suited to clear some other things off my plate right now.

Back to the plate clearing.

Crisis of faith

This post could probably use a photograph, but since I don't have the real one, I'm not looking for a free one online.

Most of you guys are writers, and you'll understand. I've been beating myself up for a couple of days now. This stems from the preparation of tax documents and what they reveal about my writing career.

It probably goes without saying that I spent more than I made in 2015. Something tells me I'm not the only one, and I don't expect you to chime in. I actually expected this, and planned for it to happen. Then when it happened I got myself all worked up.

I actually made four times what I made last year. This should be a good thing, right? It is, but it took me a circuitous, mopey route to get there.

First I had to look up other writers and count reviews. Turns out, I'm not doing bad on that front either. I still don't have a book with the magical 20 reviews, but a couple of them are close. I think it's reasonable that one of them will hit that mark in 2016.

I'm going to completely deviate to tell you another story. Stay with me here. I grew up in Nevada's Great Basin… A loooong time ago. This was the era of DDT and other pesticides. As these things got banned and things recovered, we had a few bald eagles show up. The first time I saw one was magical.

I lived in tents for two whole summers, and my family camped more weekends than not. This includes frost, snow, and mud. I'm pretty close to the Earth and the wild things.

Every time I've ever seen a bald eagle, I wound up accomplishing my goals. This includes some pretty tough goals, but if an eagle showed up it worked out every time. It doesn't work with golden eagles, which are common.

Tonight, on my way home from work, a huge bald eagle soared over my truck. He was fully mature and looked stunning against a clear blue sky. I would have pulled over and watched him, but you just don't do that during the commute.

I really don't have a detailed goal right now. That worries me a little bit. My goal for writing is to have fun, and eventually make something at it. I have been having fun, but a little more success would be nice.

I'm sure the eagle is a sign of something good. I just don't know what. I'm glad he showed up, I kind of needed him about now. I don't have a detailed goal, but I feel something good in the air.

I was going to skip posting tonight, because I have a guest tomorrow. She's awesome and will carry the banner for Entertaining Stories for a day. Then the eagle showed up and I decided to share. Make sure you come back and support my guest tomorrow.

Writing my little black heart out

I spent a large part of the day writing promotional posts for Will O' the Wisp. I want them all ready before hiring the blog tour organizer. I have six finished, but would like to have about ten. I only intend to try a one week push, but it's nice to have a spare. I still haven't written a character bio, or a Muse interview. Those should be pretty easy.

I sent out individual emails to everyone that got an advanced reading copy of the book. All the feedback I've received so far has been encouraging, and this was just a heads up that I intend to push the publish button next weekend. This way if they are going to post a review they have time to write it. My intention was to be as polite as possible to those who helped me. I sent these emails one at a time, because I never share email addresses without permission.

Note to self: send them the link where they can post a review after the book goes live. Make it easy for them.

The rest of the time was spent at my son's house. He smoked a tri-tip and invited us to dinner. The food and company were wonderful. He even bought me a nice Alaskan smoked Porter to wash it down with. My daughter-in-law made a wonderful apple dumpling dessert too.

I feel like I should have gotten more accomplished. It's just too hard to give up family time, and I won't do it. We even made plans to go fishing the next time he gets time off. I probably won't accomplish much then either. Spending time with them is important. It's good for me too.

When we got home, I downloaded Turbo Tax. It's going to be ugly, but I have to get it done sooner or later. It's in the other room, snarling at me on my Mac.

Tomorrow is all about calling my parents first thing. I may manage some more promotional posts. My critique group work has to get done too. I also have fruit trees to prune. My son already hit me up for the branches. They are good in his smoker.

If it all goes really well, I may start a short story about a biplane. Somehow, I doubt I'll get that far.