Date night

I spent a big chunk of my day working on fiction. No new words, but things like covers, edits, and first passes over my work.

This was filled with frequent breaks, which I find helpful when making an editing pass. If I get into the tale, I tend to just read instead of taking care of business.

I used the breaks to write a couple of things for Story Empire. I scheduled one, and am holding on to the other. Since I only appear there monthly, there is no rush and I could decide to add a few things to the holdback.

Since yesterday was payday, and the bills all went through, Old What’s Her Face and I decided to go out. We went back to Sid’s Garage. We’d gone there once before, and remembered it was amazing.

This is a place with gourmet burgers that have a country flair. I started off with a huge milkshake made with cinnamon whiskey. My wife remembered the appetizers and ordered both the candied bacon and flash fried deviled eggs.

New feature here is a bit of flair. A skinny girl brought out the bacon that hung vertically from a small chain. She fired up a blowtorch at the table and worked the bacon over. Honestly, it was wonderful.

The eggs were wonderful, too. We each ordered a burger. Mine came with more candied bacon and onion rings on top, a bit of onion jelly to round things up with.

I never knew it, but my burger was one of the flair items. It appeared in the form of a small wooden trunk. The server asked if we wanted pictures before she opened it up. My wife did. When she opened the trunk, barbecue smoke went everywhere, and the bun had been branded with the Sid’s Garage logo.

We had a great time, but maybe should stay away for a few months. Otherwise, I could be remembered as the old guy that ate that gigantic hamburger.

We shared an order of garlic Parmesan fries, and those were awesome, too. In fact, Old What’s Her Face brought those home with us.

Tomorrow is all about checking in with Mom, other family things, and I might start reading a new book.

Chapter issues… Again

Today wound up being a great day. I started with about five pages on my current chapter. I’ve always been pretty good about keeping them in the neighborhood of ten pages.

For some reason, about the time my chapter felt like it had wrapped, I’d hit sixteen pages. I know there are no hard and fast rules, but I don’t want someone to feel like they have to stop mid-chapter to do something else.

I reread everything I had and watched for a breaking point. Wound up making a lot of corrections as I did it.

It didn’t make for a perfect ten pages, but doesn’t have to. I just don’t want to go sixteen or more for one chapter. I added the break and kept about five pages as the start of a new chapter. It works this way, and I’m glad I didn’t put too much into making everything perfect.

Word count feels really good. I have more I want to say in the story, but my old brain needs a break.

I also need to work on something for Story Empire. My next post is scheduled for Monday, so I’m good there. I have what feels like a good idea and want to rough out something while it’s all fresh in my mind. If it doesn’t post until my April slot, I can live with that.

I might get a little more time this afternoon, and while Sundays aren’t great days for writing, I can usually manage something.

Old What’s Her Face and I are talking about date night tonight. We get paid three times this month and can probably swing a decent night out.

Writing is wonderful, but sometimes we have to step out into the real world. Honestly, I’m looking forward to going out.

What are you guys doing this weekend? Are you sequestered in the writing cabin, or are you up to something more social?

Two day weekends are for the birds

I should have updated yesterday, but I’m here now. It was a good writing day, but the word count was off.

I was at one of those places where a bunch of things have to come together so I can advance the plot. There were a lot of things, and I had to refer to notes more than once to do it, but I got what I needed out of it.

I started today by checking in with Mom. We talked for about an hour or so, then Old What’s Her Face and I had breakfast. Sundays are never my best days, but I can usually get something accomplished.

Actually, the pixels flew today. I never tracked any word counts, but it feels pretty good.

I don’t want to stop, but have to. I left my story at an exciting place, and that’s always a good thing to do. If I had another day, I know I could really move this one ahead.

Now that we’re back to full weeks, with the end of the holidays, this is how it’s going to be for a while. I don’t like it, but have to accept it.

We watched Dune last night. I went to the first version back in the 80s or so and thought it was lousy, and a lame attempt to compete with Star Wars at the time.

This new movie was pretty good. It could have benefited from a good edit and losing about 30 minutes, but it wasn’t bad. Since there is a new one coming out, we both figured it was time.

Have we been so inundated with bad material that my perspective is off? That idea coursed through my mind, but we both enjoyed it, and I respect my wife’s perspective.

Did you do anything fun this weekend? I enjoy writing, but between paydays writing is about all I can afford. Good thing I enjoy it so much.

Quick check in

There aren’t a ton of interesting things going on around here. Our weatherman has been preaching Armageddon for about a week now. We got a skiff last night that you can sweep away with a broom. They’re still warning of the same thing to come.

The local news stories are all about how to handle yourself around snowplows, and what it takes to close a school. All for a tiny skiff.

They say we’re still going to get it, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

I did some writing today, but that seems like all I ever talk about around here. It was productive and I like what I produced.

The kraut is still bubbling and smells like kraut, but it isn’t ready yet. The house is colder in winter and I’ve always made this in the summer until this round. I’m sure I’ll be having a kielbasa or something soon with it, but not this weekend.

Old What’s Her Face has the television on and is exploring Diners, Drive-Inns, and Dives. They keep playing some pharmaceutical advertisement. I have no idea what they’re selling, but they always say, “A tiny little prick.” Who edits these things, anyway?

Things are stepping up for the trial of the Moscow Murderer, and the judge is going to be Judge Judge. I find this humorous and hope he looks like Leslie Nielsen.

That’s about it around here. Had some medical appointments last week. Results are all decent, and we’ll keep monitoring.

Wrote and scheduled my next Story Empire post. It’s more of a fun one, so don’t expect to learn a lot. However, fun is always appropriate.

Other than that, I play my phone game once in a while. We’re between paydays, so I limit myself to daily chores. If there’s something fun going on next weekend I might dump $20.

Later tonight we’ll probably watch Monarch. See if Godzilla wants to stomp something flat.

That’s it around here. Kind of mundane, routine stuff. Hope all of you are having a great weekend.

A wasted opportunity

It all started last Saturday. I awoke with the worst sinus headache and some fever conditions. I spent the day in bed. I felt better on Sunday, but that isn’t the same as feeling good.

I had things scheduled at work, and when it involves over seventy students, I don’t reschedule. Fortunately, it was a Zoom classroom so I could keep my phlegm mostly to myself.

I fought through the fog all week. Everyone under my roof has this right now, and I got the lightest dose of it.

Today I crawled from bed at 8:00 and even that was reluctantly. I have one good day to do some writing, because Sundays are usually filled with other things.

I’m like most people in that I have a game on my phone. Today, they had a new game-within-a-game. I played it from coffee until about 2:00 this afternoon. It was a ton of fun, but didn’t put new words on the page.

I’ve used up all my in-game resources and have no new words to show for it. Didn’t even get the big prize in the game.

But… life isn’t all aliens, dwarves, and witchcraft. We’re all still feeling under the weather. Today was about mindless games, humidifiers, cough drops, and throwing the Nylabone for Frankie, (who is uber happy.)

I might weasel an hour or two tomorrow, but I might not. Somehow, I’m not worried about it. I work like a dog on my fiction, but nobody is picketing in my yard for the next publication. It will come, but I also want it to be a certain quality. The brain fog won’t last forever, and I’ll return to my projects.

I’m guessing this happens to everyone. Hope you’re all having a great weekend whatever you decide to do.

Different kind of day

It started off like most Saturdays. Old What’s Her Face is off today, and I let her sleep in when the dogs got me up. I kept everything silent and did some reading until she started stirring.

I wound up in the other room with my noise cancelling headphones on. Writing went pretty well. I set up the next mystery box, but didn’t quite get to it. Word count wasn’t high, but I feel like it was good stuff. (At least I hope I won’t bore people in this transition phase.)

I quit early because I had something scheduled. With a tiny bit of time to spare I read one more chapter until my phone sent me a warning.

I logged into the first ever online meeting of the Story Empire group. Honestly, it was a lot of fun. We had a working agenda, but I’d never actually spoken to some of these folks before.

Quite a few of us had interacted on the Voice of Indie Podcasts over the years. https://freshinkgroup.com/podcasts/

This wasn’t a Zoom meeting and we had a time limit with this format. We were still all having a good time when the clock ran out.

We have so many friends in the blog world that we’ll never get to actually meet. I’ve never spoken to many of my friends outside of email or WordPress comments. I recommend it if you get the chance.

How about you? Have you gotten the chance to meet or speak with any of your online friends?

What to do…

I took today off in hopes of doing some writing, but that’s going to fall by the way. I’ve been doing this to gain four-day weekends when the opportunity arises.

This change today is prompted by guests. My brother and mother will show up some time this morning, and I couldn’t be more excited. I haven’t seen either of them for a while, and even though we talk on the phone it isn’t the same.

I can dabble with getting some promotional posts ready for next week. All of those have been well received so far. There are a few that look behind the scenes of my writing habits and they always seem to do well.

Once I get something scheduled, I think I’ll return to a craft book I’ve been reading. It’s a long one, so it’s taking me some time to get through.

Early reviews for Goodbye Old Paint are wonderful. Amazon hasn’t let them through yet, but there are a couple on Goodreads and BookBub if you haunt those places. As any author will tell you, those reviews are everything.

I’m still overloaded with Asian pears. Once the sun comes up I’m going outside to select one for breakfast.

With the book release, and a bit of promo, not writing new fiction for a weekend is almost a relief. It forces me to focus on other things, and family should be at the top of that list.

Old What’s Her Face is otherwise engaged tonight, so I might take the family out for some vampire tacos. There’s a wonderful beer place a couple of blocks from home and their food is great. I’ll probably check out their pumpkin beers to wash it all down with.

A wrap to my holiday weekend

I got an early start and added 2000 words to my MS. This is still part where three different groups go on individual missions. I’m nearly finished with it. All I have to do is the short scene for plants and payoffs, then I can move to the next section.

Sunday, I wrote a couple of pieces to promote Goodbye Old Paint. I’m excited for this one to come out during the Halloween season.

I mixed things up with a couple of television shows and don’t feel bad about it at all. Sometimes these give me fresh inspirations.

Also, pumpkin beer is upon us, and I cracked open my first one of the season. This can also provide inspiration.

I can ponder what to do when I move the crew to the next location as I commute back and forth to work. I need to do some serious world building for that site.

The good news is that I’ll have two weeks to ponder it. Family is coming to visit next weekend and I’m kind of excited about that. I haven’t seen them for a long time. We’ll probably go out to eat or something calm, but it will be nice to just visit.

I hope everyone out there had a great weekend. Whether you wrote, went somewhere, or just hung out with friends, I hope it was wonderful.

Done… kind of

It took most of the day, but I finished this editing pass on all three books. I got kind of excited when I finished Mari’s swamp adventure around noon.

Percy the Space Chip took a little longer, but here we are at 4:00 and it’s finished, too.

There will be another pass of all three, but this is worthy of celebration. The next pass will be to read them all like a regular person would.

I need to be thinking about cover art, and figure one at a time is the best here. Once Upon a Time in the Swamp will be first. Hopefully, Lizzie and the hat will be around Halloween. I’ll hold the SF trilogy until they’re all finished and edited.

I’ve mentioned before this is my least favorite part, but it’s necessary. I’m chipping away at it and it will all get done eventually. With luck, I might start drafting the next volume of the SF trilogy by next month.

Somewhere in there, a couple of friends have published new books and I really want to read those. I’m not hurting for drafts right now, so slowing down for a bit of reading is a worthy break.

Back to the paycheck job tomorrow. I hope all of you enjoyed your weekends.

Low productivity

Sean Harrington delivered some graphics about a week ago. My only real plan was to insert them into the Midnight Rambler manuscript. It’s important to keep this one moving ahead for an October promotion.

We started off by going to the farmer’s market downtown. It’s been years since we went, and they’ve kind of split it between locations. For some reason, it just wasn’t as good as past years. Old What’s Her Face still found some things to buy, like lemon cucumbers.

I kept my eye open for the breakfast burrito lady, but she was absent. Maybe she’s gone to the other location, or maybe she’s bagged it like so many others during the Covid era.

We still managed to go to lunch downtown, then swung by Whole Foods. This is another location we haven’t visited since pre-Covid.

For myself, keeping my goals small seems like a good idea. I managed to insert my silly graphics into The Midnight Rambler, and that might be it for this weekend.

I’d like to work on one of my current projects, but Sundays aren’t really good writing days. The other distraction is television. We have about four years of The Boys to catch up on, and that takes time. It’s a worthy project, and I’ll probably nudge that ahead to some degree.

I sent Sean back an email for two Lisa Burton posters. Honestly, her promos tend to draw more attention than my own. Something about her image seems to get clicks.

Promotion isn’t really one of my favorite gigs, but I’m toying with a new idea. After so many volumes of The Hat Series, I have a lot of old Lisa Burton posters. I could pick a time and do a Lisa-only tour for the series, recycling the posters since most have only been used one time. It isn’t hard to write as Lisa. Add a poster, maybe a 99¢ sale here and there, it could work.

Now it’s time to decide whether I read a friend’s book, read Midnight Rambler for a final pass, or just surrender to the television.