OMG. For two weeks, I was sick as a dog. All because of this fantastic new diabetes/weight loss medication. From Thursday to Sunday: vomiting, sick stomach, headaches, and all around weakness and fatigue. Thank goodness I don’t have to work a day job.

I’m seeing the endocrinologist tomorrow and I think I will ask for a lesser dose. I’m on 15 now. I can go down to 12.5 and work with that. But the good news is that I have only 4.4 lbs to go before I get on the transplant list! Left dialysis yesterday at 102. If I wasn’t so sick, I would have celebrated.

I’m afraid, though. What if I get a transplant? Then I have to look for a job. At 59 years old. No one will hire me except as a Wal-mart greeter or a bagger at Stop and Shop. I could try and freelance my editing credentials. Or social media. I think I’d love to do that.

I feel much better today after a restless sleep and I just had half an Eggo waffle. The nutritionist and nurses at dialysis gave me pointers on how to eat with it. Basically, half of what I used to eat, maybe even less; and stop eating to see if that satisfies me. That’s so tough. But from now on, no dinner meals (maybe small stuff) on Thursday and Friday because I take Mounjaro on Wednesday, and it obviously doesn’t kick in until the next day.

Now, then. As for writing? I started preparing some characters for a fantasy novel, and that’s as far as I got. I have a lot of copywriting work to do for Paper Angel and Water Dragon. We have three months to get caught up before submissions open up again. I have to do time-management organization for December today. And get caught up!

My right hand can’t hold a pen.

Seriously, I drop them all the time. I drop a lot of things. I have to use two hands to hold a mug or cup. It’s diabetic neuropathy. I can type better than I can write. So my hand-written journal will have more personal things.

I’m going to go back to 800 Words, mostly as my journal/diary. Nobody will read it anyway.

Medium is my newest place that I go for writing advice and news. Bookbub gives me new Kindle books every day. Twitter is a dumpster fire that I enjoy watching.

I already voted. So the next nine days are just noise.

I have found I can read an average of one book a week. I’m spending my free time reading, forcing myself to finish books. I’ve read a cozy mystery, a fantasy set on a different planet, a non-fiction book about castaways who return to England, and a novel of Chinese women. Also a well-written, detailed dark fantasy.

I did some writing, more for me than for publication. I guess I need to practice writing, and need to update my 800 words blog with whatever garbage I spill out every day to make myself accountable. I need to try writing every day. Planning is not the same. I’m trying to plan out my MC, and I have a couple of other characters in mind. I don’t have a plot. Just a character.

I need to “fill the well” with story ideas. That’s why I’m reading so much.

I need a new keyboard. I keep overreaching so I keep missing letters. I’m doing a lot of backspacing!

Number 4:

This book started me on the six-month Medieval phase. I read two more books by Dan Jones (The Crusaders and Summer of Blood). This guy is really good.

Number 3:

I bought Plottr, which is a really excellent plotting device, with assorted templates. This was one of them, and when I picked up the book, I realized that it was more than just how to write a romance. It’s how to write a story in general. Definitely worth the Kindle price.

Number 2:

Although this came out a while ago, I read it in advance of an interview I did with her at the beginning of the year. This was surprisingly good. (Surprise because I was also reading slush.) Vanessa takes the alien point of view and changes it a little, but still makes it applicable to our time. She also wrote “The Smugglers” and another favorite of mine, “Coke Machine.” Go here for more.

I have no excuse for February, other than putting together the podcast “Small Publishing in a Big Universe”.

March, though, I helped out my publisher who put out a submissions call for the Dragon Gems program of short stories. So many people replied (175 or so) that he needed help weeding out the good stuff from the chaff.

At first, I concentrated on the “art” of the story. Did the author tell a good story? Eventually, though, I got irritated by all the different version of “formatting” that people did. Not Comic Sans, but some were pretty dang close (single-spaced, 10 point, .rtf default). We put on our website exactly what submission guidelines were. Oh, and by the way, Scrivener can automatically do that for you in Compile. So with the second batch and from then on, the author got a letter grade taken off for bad formatting.

Some people’s writing was truly atrocious. I finally understood the whole “you tell, not show” error in a manuscript. Then I read some stuff that blew my mind and I wanted to pass it along right away to the judges with a screaming neon post-it saying “THIS ONE!”

That took me all the way through March, between reading and replying to people. Just over 50 of the 175 are in the judging phase. They went past me because either they’re great, or I was on the fence on it. Like horror and hard sci-fi ain’t my thing, but as long as the author didn’t mess up the formatting, the spelling and word choices were good, and the story kept my attention without me scrolling through, then it moved onto judging. Some of them brought a different dimension to magic that made me stop and think.

Basically, I loved being a gatekeeper (ahem, “curator”). I’d do it again in a second.

Meanwhile, what else is going on, you might wonder? Have I written anything? Not in the last two months. I attended a webinar that was “write to market” and found out that the hottest sellers are in the Romance category. Romance-anything. So I was thinking of pulling Max out of retirement and do another Brothers of the Zodiac series–this time, much longer, taking place during world history instead of American history, and explore the world a little more. Bring in the Sumerian gods? Explain what it means to be immortal in Ishtar’s service? Explore the sign itself a little more. What really happens to the immortal if he falls in love with someone?

For a fleeting fifteen seconds, I thought of a typical heterosexual romance. Then I decided I can’t do that. I know the heroines are supposed to be kickass these days, but I still like the difficulties (challenges – drink!) that M/M romance has with it.

Brothers of the Zodiac, the Next Generation. I’m starting with Aries. I’m giving myself until June 1 to get it done.

I started off with good intentions. Then, on November 7, I went into the hospital with a heart attack.

Three days in the hospital’s Cardiac Care Unit and three days of recovery afterward destroyed the possibility of me catching up to NaNoWriMo. I had to get the Small Publishing, Big Universe podcast done, listen to my audiobook to get it done by December 11. Found myself distracted by news of the day and trying to read books to finish my Goodreads challenge.

So I got the “winner’s” t-shirt, without winning. Sad on my part.

I’m waiting for the gunshot on October 31 at midnight so I can start writing. I have the characters ready to go: the casting is done, the playlist exists…now everyone’s milling around waiting for the settings, the scenes, to speak the dialogue and do the actions.

I have the beginning and the end, but the middle, not so much.

In December, on Small Publishing In a Big Universe, I am going to be interviewed for my new book Carnival Farm. Well, it’s been recorded and it just needs to be edited. Also Carnival Farm’s audio book might be out in December. And also on December 11, I will be at the author expo in Pawtuxet/Cranston, RI. It’s a dialysis day, so I’m probably going to be a wreck. I have to find a dress I can wear.

Speaking of dresses, I went through my clothes and donated the ones that don’t fit anymore, or that I’ve had for “work” and haven’t worn for the last three years. I discovered some clothes that were my favorites, but I was ruthless and tossed them in the bag to go to the Goodwill. I brought them down before I could change my mind.

I will have a special NaNoWriMo website set up which will have my work. I could, if I wanted to, submit this to The Storyteller’s Vault which allows fan-fiction of Vampire, Werewolf, and any of the other RPG’s. You need to pay for the license to get paid, though.

I’ll stick to offering it for free, raw and unedited, all 50,000 words or so. Trust me, it’ll be bad.