Monthly Archives: March 2018

Life suckage

I’m up to 27K words in Grimaulkin Redeemed–almost half way there! About half-way. My goal is 60K words, but with my luck, the story will end between 50K and 60K.

Life has been getting in the way recently. Suffice it to say I’ve had to scale back some things. One is the game, not because it’s a bad thing, but because I only have a finite amount of time during the week and weekends, and I’m trying to concentrate on writing and my hoarding issues here at home. I haven’t played the game in 3 weeks (one week was due to no electricity). I’m feeling guilty, but there was only one person I played with on that game. Unfortunately I haven’t seen him when I’ve checked in, either, so maybe he’s running into the same issue that I am–Life intrudes.

“Capricorn” is finished and gone through its first editing pass. The as-yet-unnamed story tie-in for Grimaulkin Redeemed also went through its first pass and was just returned. The publisher and I are not in a hurry for that one, but the novels are what I’m being pushed to deliver. Gee, wonder why? (laugh here)

I plan on trying to get a podcast out this week or next weekend, and it will be about this statement: “A bell isn’t a bell if it hasn’t been rung; a song isn’t a song if it hasn’t been sung.” This statement pisses me off.

Procrastinating

Today I’m procrastinating writing. I’m cleaning out the litter boxes, picking up my office, staring at the cats…anything but working on the blank page of Grimaulkin Redeemed.

I wrote the exciting part that had been running around in my head for the better part of a week, and now there’s nothing after that. I have to write an hour-long conversation, which I suspect will be boring on the page, but I’m not sure what to do to make it exciting. So I’m staring at sleeping cats, hoping something comes to me.

I purchased some Ernest Hemingway books for the 6 hour plane ride to San Jose in August, and I’m trying to refrain myself form reading them. That would probably help with the conversation I have to do. I’m doing research for the conversation, because Mike has to talk to an expert in something that I know very little about.

The good news is that the short story is done, though the title is still in flux. Maybe “A Family Gathering”. That is the tie-in to Grimaulkin Redeemed. Sort of. You’ll see.

Well, the cat moved out of my office. Guess it’s time to get down to business.

Maybe if I watch some Hulu…

New Short Coming Soon

For my short story tie-in for Grimaulkin Redeemed, I decided to rewrite an old story I did in November 2014 for Thanksgiving. I put it in Scrivener, took out references to City of Heroes, and reread it. However, I was reading the original. The story with the parts taken out were still in my head and I kept putting them in. The story made perfect sense to me, but it felt wrong on the page. I had my editor read it. He gave me great feedback, and explained that Mike was very angry in that story and not at all sympathetic. “Apparently, Mike (and you) were in a different place then.”

So I went back in my journals that far. Yes, I have them from 2012 and sporadically around the house since 1980. I was pissy in 2014. I had been passed over for a promotion (yet again). I was fighting to get my son diagnosed as being on the spectrum. My supports were ripped out from under me in the summer of 2014.

Now…I’m rewriting the story again from scratch. It has a good scene that I’m trying to keep, but I don’t think it’s going to work. Mike is a little less angry in this story, a lot more accepting, and things have changed. When I finish the story (title might be “Our Normal Thanksgiving”), I’ll point you to the original and you decide which one you like better.

I’ve left off in Grimaulkin Redeemed with the line, “Ribs dropped onto plates with an almost unified clatter.” I’m itching to continue it, because I know what’s going to happen next, but I know if I continue, I’ll write until I’m “stuck”. Then who knows when I’ll get back to it. So I’m doing “Thanksgiving” so it’s ready to go.

As of next week, I will officially be committed to go to WorldCon 76 in San Jose. I’m aiming to get Grimaulkin Redeemed done next month (22K words now), ready for publication in August and sale at WorldCon. I may pass War Mage on to someone else to do, because I can’t seem to get it going. Earth is mostly done. I have to wrap up Virgo and write more with Taurus.

Episode 17 is up for the Dark Mystic Quill. It’s about guns. It might be a little political, but it goes into mental health (my “woe” section of the podcast).

I’m in a real store!

I’ve just brought my book to a real bookstore and it’s on a real shelf for sale! It’s at Stillwater Books in downtown Pawtucket, across the street from Slater Mill and (hopefully) near the new Pawsox Stadium. It’s actually down the street from where Scott’s store is located.

I’m going to do a podcast about a subject near and dear to my heart: Guns. It kind of crosses the line into political, but it has to do with the “woe” part of my podcast. It should be up soon.

Grimaulkin Redeemed is up to 22K, but I’m working on the short story that will come out in conjunction with it. It’s an old story I did on my old Champions Online Stories blog, rewritten and updated.  It needs a title.

Otherwise, things are quiet.