Rockin' the Suburbs

At this point next Sunday, A and I will be preparing ourselves to head out to the airport and catch a plane to London again!  Yes, once again we're heading out to our other favorite city in the world for a few weeks to see the sights, visit friends, and hit all the pubs.  And maybe buy a bunch of books and tunage, heh.  Bur seriously, we've been looking forward to this vacation for some time now.  We've both been overly busy for the last month or so with our Day Jobs, so this will be a very welcome reprieve.  Looking forward to it!

Once again we're in Kensington near the Earls Court tube station, at a 'boutique apartment' not that far from the hotel we stayed at previously.  We do like that neighborhood as it's within walking distance of a lot of really cool museums and shops, not to mention easy access to the Underground that can get us pretty much anywhere.  Plus it's relatively quiet at night!

In the meantime, we have one more week of Day Job drudgery and getting (reasonably) caught up before handing the baton off to one of our coworkers for a few weeks.  I'm hoping I won't have a crapton of things thrown at me this week, but given the last couple of weeks, I wouldn't be surprised.  Still, not going to worry if I don't get to all of it.

I'm actually more worried about not doing any work on Meet the Lidwells for a couple of weeks!!  I'll be bringing my tablet and Nook so I can do a bit of reading of what I have so far and maybe taking notes for what I can do for revision, but that's about it.  I *might* also bring a spare notebook or two and work on Secret Next Project, though...that one's coming along a lot faster than expected so perhaps kicking off a longhand rough draft of that might be in the cards.  As for my blogs, I'll most likely be doing fly-bys in the interim, as blogging from my tablet and/or phone isn't always the easiest thing to do.

And of course we have All the Packing to do.  Which I'm sure we'll have done by Tuesday, even though we won't be flying out until Sunday afternoon. :p

There's a small bird that I think as nested on our roof that Will. Not. Shut. Up.  No specific birdsong other than a consistent 'chip....chip....chip...chip...' all day long.  It'll start up at first light, start up again in the afternoon, and once more in the evening.  Suffice it to say, I was up by 5:30 this morning and up and making coffee by just before six.

Meanwhile, it's finally dawning on both of us that we'll be heading off to London in just a few weeks for vacation!  We've both been making soft plans for places to hit -- including a possible day trip outside the city -- as well as a few definites like going to see one of the Proms at Albert Hall (we were both pleasantly surprised at the affordability of the tickets!).  I don't have that many requests of places to hit other than a few record stores and Waterstone's in Piccadilly.  I do love stopping by Sister Ray every time I'm there, as it's a fantastic shop, but this time out I'd also like to check out Rough Trade's Brick Lane shop as well, as I've heard many good things.  Other than that, I'm open for anything.  Visiting a few of our our friends there is also definitely in the cards!

Also noted: the Hugo voting is due by this Friday.  This was a rare year in which I'd already read a good portion of the titles that ended up getting nominated, so I didn't need to cram this time out.  There are definitely some strong stories that I really enjoyed that I'm hoping will win.

Writing:  I believe I've just entered Act 3 (of 3) for Meet the Lidwells, which means I'm doing pretty good.  Already having thoughts about things to fix in the revision...good things to make it better.  For a first draft it's coming along quite nicely anyway, so most of the revision work will be to make it stronger and tie it all together.  Also: the Secret Next Project has a lot more world building than I expected.  I may have to resort to some flash fiction for it just to keep it fresh in my head.  Also: trying something old again for my poetry/lyrics -- experimentalism.  I'd started it off that way so many years ago but along the way it became more introspective (and that was partly why I put it aside late last year...I had to grow back out of that).  More on that later.

Plans this weekend?  Not much, other than looking for new sneakers and grocery shopping.  I'm thinking we may have to do something outside, as it's supposed to be quite a nice couple of days!

Another sleepy Sunday arrives and I'm up with the sun as usual.  Sunday mornings I'm usually up around 6:30ish and head into the living room, check the internets, and watch some of the morning news.   And of course start the first pot of coffee.

This weekend has been less frenetic than the previous weekend, as our only plan was to go see Wonder Woman at the Alamo Drafthouse in the Mission.  And yes, it was indeed as excellent as everyone's making it out to be.  I only had one or two writing-related issues with it -- a couple of clunky bits and two underused characters -- but other than that, we loved it.  Would totally see it again and buy the DVD. ;)

Also:  the Drafthouse is indeed an awesome place to go see a film.  VERY comfy seats, really fun atmosphere, great sound and visibility, and good food that gets delivered straight to your seat during the film!  [And if you're concerned: the seats are all high-backed and the food servers are well trained in crouching, so you don't actually end up missing much of the movie at all.]  Extra points for having completely silly PSAs about safety, not talking during the movie, and so on.

This past week has been kind of an odd one in terms of productivity.  I've been dealing with some kind of allergy that's left me with an occasionally sore throat (although I think that may have been by cereal going down the wrong way last week, but that's another story entirely).  Allergies usually mean my sleeping habits get all wonky, leaving me exhausted during the day.  I did what I could to get my work done, but there were a few days where I felt I didn't get as much done as I'd wanted to.  It took enough energy for me just to get through the workday, so my word count was kind of low this past week.

I did try to turn it around, though, and I'm glad to say I did get a few thousands words across two different projects.  Yes, you heard me correctly...even though Meet the Lidwells is still my main project at the moment, I've been playing around with what will most likely be my next project after that.  It's sort of inspired by Studio Ghibli, a story about a teen growing up in a family-owned apartment complex that houses all kinds of beings -- monsters, angels, dragons, aliens, vampires, and so on.  [Yes, it was inspired by a dream I had.]  I posted a rough outtake on my Welcome to Bridgetown blog on Friday if you're interested in checking that out.  Anyhoo, I'm feeling a bit better this weekend, so I'm hoping to be back on the high horse come tomorrow.

Hope everyone's having a lovely weekend!

This past week worked out pretty well, I think.  My original intent was to take the week off from blogging at my WordPress sites just as a mini-break, but in the process I ended up doing a lot more head-clearing than I'd expected.  A new way of approaching various things in my life (or as I'd been hinting, a return to an old way of approaching said things that makes a lot more sense to me).  This past week was a trial run to see if I could actively make it a real thing instead of yet another Best Laid Plan.

All in all, it went pretty well except for Wednesday night, in which A and I are woken up at almost exactly midnight by two young local policemen (about whom A commented that they looked young enough to be our kids).  Allegedly there had been a hit-and-run in the neighborhood in which a few local cars had been sideswiped by a possible DUI and the offending person may have entered our building.  Aside from not recognizing the car (which they'd shown A via their phone), life went on, and neither of us were able to get back to sleep until about 1am.  The both of us spent most of Thursday in a sleep-deprived loopy haze and multiple cups of coffee.  Thankfully we were back on the ball on Friday!

So what *did* I do creatively this past week?  Well, I'm glad to say that I've been consistent with getting some good solid words down for Meet the Lidwells, still averaging about 500-700 a day.  This is all first draft, pre-revision and pre-editing work, of course.  I'm a little nervous that I won't hit my hopeful deadline of mid-autumn for a release, but I think if I keep this up and not overwrite (an issue with the trilogy) I should be okay.  I'm already at 13k words and probably about 1/5 of the way done...this is going to be a short novel compared to my last three!

Also, I took the time to retune all my guitars -- the weather changes have detuned them all at least a half-step -- with the intention that I will pick up and play at least one of them once a day.   This is a change from my usual default, which is to pick up my electric and play it unplugged, which is all fine except that everything else is gathering dust.  I should also probably start using my little Danelectro HoneyTone mini-amp I bought recently at Tall Toad Music.

I may have even returned to the poetry, after deciding to drop it some six or seven months ago.  That may or may not have to do with the current administration, but it's also part of the creativity reboot I've been working on this week.

One last creative thing I must kickstart again:  the art.  I really need to start doodling and sketching again.  Finishing up the Trilogy Project really took a lot of time and energy out of me and it fell by the wayside for far too long.  I even got a nice case for all my art pens and pencils so they're not all hiding in forgotten nooks of my desk.  Really must make room for that again.

Thankfully, the weather has decided to turn gorgeous here in SF, with most of the morning fog burning off rather quickly and revealing lovely blue sky and warm temperatures.  We did our grocery shopping and went for a walk earlier (filling ourselves at the Korean/Japanese fusion restaurant for lunch).  We'll be going to the Symphony tonight to listen to some Mendelssohn and Schumann, and tomorrow I believe we'll be going to see a movie at the Vogue down the street.

Other than that, it's been a nice weekend so far.  Can't complain!

Saturday morning and I've already finished my coffee, the local news is doing its nth cycle, and I've already gotten caught up with my Twitter feed.  The problem with going to sleep at a normal time on the weekends is that I still wake up around 6:30.  A. usually doesn't get out of bed until a few hours later, which means I'm usually kicking around here in the living room, half-watching TV and half-noodling around online.

Of course, the writer in me screams: You should be using this time to work on the new project!  Or new words!  Or something else!  Time's a-wasting! 

On the other hand, Real Life Me bites back:  Just chill and let me enjoy this fesking coffee, damn you.  I've earned this weekend relaxation.

Anyway.

The eye exam yesterday went well.  I'm amused that the usual tests haven't really changed all that much over the years...the progressively smaller lines of the eye charts, the 'which is clearer, A or B?', the 'can you see this? how about now?' and so on.  I'm still not a fan of putting things in my eyes (I don't mind eye drops, but I still get squidgy about it), but it's a necessary evil.  That said...it looks like my vision hasn't changed all that much since my previous exam a good four or so years ago.  My prescription is kind of weird...I'm not quite farsighted, but not quite nearsighted either, plus I have a prism issue which means that sometimes my eyes don't focus on precisely on the same object.  I can see just fine with or without glasses; I merely use them for adjustment when writing/reading/driving.  Anyhoo, other than that, my eyes are just fine.  I ordered a new pair of fancy glasses that were mostly covered by our vision insurance.

The fun part, of course, was walking back home in bright sunlight while my eyes were still dilated. :p


So...anything planned for this weekend?  Not really...heading over to the Sunset for brunch and a bit of shopping.  It might be raining tomorrow, so we'll most likely stay in and do our usual house errands then.  Yay relaxing weekend! :)

Another year, another tax season. Just did my taxes earlier this afternoon (and yes, it's an annual tradition for me to put on The Beatles' Revolver whenever I start...I managed to get them done before "Tomorrow Never Knows" this year!), and as usual we owe a bit. Apparently in California it's completely impossible to game the system and overpay on State taxes so we can get a refund. On the plus side, we paid a lot less in Federal this year (thanks, Obama!), so that's cool. And now I can cross that off my To-Do list.

So! These last few weeks have been quite exciting in terms of Big Changes. Well, not OMG excitement, but more like It's High Time We Changed Things changes. After the fesking nightmare that was dealing with AT&T, we finally got rid of them and changed to a New Kid in Town called Sonic for both our internet and landline. So far the change has been quite noticeable. The internet is a hell of a lot faster and more reliable, for one. And Sonic's customer service is MILES better. We also got new cell phones recently; after having Androids for ages, we now have Google Pixels, and we're quite happy with them as well--the quality and usability are both quite the step up.

We've also had some really nice weather this weekend so we got a lot of walking in...we had a nice long walk through Golden Gate Park on Saturday (with a side stop at 9th and Irving in the Sunset for ice cream and lunch -- in that order), and today we headed to the other end of Clement to shop at our local farmer's market. And it's supposed to be nice the rest of the week, so I'm sure I'm going to need to get off my duff after work and get outside!

Speaking of work, I've thankfully gotten past some heavy deadlines I had to deal with, so hopefully I can now take things a little less frantically. I've been meaning to adjust my writing habits as of late, so with all that stress taken away, perhaps I can finally focus on that more. Woo!

One last thing -- I'd completely forgotten that April is A to Z Blog Challenge month, so I found myself completely unprepared for it. I'm okay with that, though...I've decided to skip on the blog challenges this year and keep my options open. Take a year off and relax, take things at a normal speed. I do like doing them, I just want to keep my schedule open and easily accessible for a while. It's not often that happens!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Another week of wacky weather here in the Bay Area. All told, it's been rainy, sunny, overcast, hailing, sunny, raining, blustery, calm and rainy this morning. And it's only just past noon. [Case in point: a tiny cell of hail passed over our apartment while I was in the shower and I didn't even notice it until A. told me about it later.] After our little jaunt to the other end of Clement Street for the farmer's market and a tasty Hawaiian brunch, we're back at home where we plan to stay, where it's nice and warm.

In other news, next weekend is our visit to the East Bay (Walnut Creek in particular) for FOGcon, where I'll make my stellar debut doing a reading as well as being on a panel about post-self-publishing promotion. An auspicious and probably quiet debut at that, but hey, William Gibson's debut was a reading in an almost empty room as well, so I'm not going to worry. :p

After that, we've got the entire week off for vacation, and this time out we've decided to keep it local. A lot of sleeping in, a local show or two, visiting places we haven't been in quite some time. We're thinking we might head over to the East Bay once or twice, since we so rarely head over that way...we're thinking maybe Berkeley and/or Oakland. [And yes, I know...the media doesn't always paint those areas as fun and peaceful, but come on -- it's a big area and there are indeed some nice places over that way.]

Speaking of writing...still working at getting back into the groove of a normal schedule after ages. I've had a few superbusy Day Job days where I haven't been able to sneak any work in during breaks or on the sly, and my energy levels haven't been all that high. Still, I've been making it a point to clear my plate as much as I can so when I do have the time, I can easily slide into it without distraction. Still a few rough patches, but it's getting better.

As for the Lidwells project...well, that seems to have hit a bit of another snag, but it's nothing I can't fix. It's the way I'm approaching it...right now I'm basically transcribing what I have, and I've realized that's not working out -- the chronology is all out of whack and there are far too many plot holes that need fixing. The initial outline I created is helping a bit, but it's still not enough. I'm going to need to break out the index cards for this one to set it all straight. And then once I have the chronology straightened out, THEN I can revise and rewrite. And that will be the easier part!

And just when you thought I wasn't going to talk about the trilogy anymore...I'm planning on having some fun this month with the 20th anniversary of me starting The Phoenix Effect...the origins of what ended up being the Bridgetown Trilogy. The physical trade of The Balance of Light will come out sometime this month, for starters...I'll also be posting a lot of fun things over at Welcome to Bridgetown...notes, maps, outtakes, remembrances, footnotes, all sorts of stuff to celebrate. More on this soon!

Hope everyone's having a good (and drier) weekend!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here as I finalized the work for The Balance of Light. I took a few weeks off from blogging and doing other writing-related work so I could focus all my attention on it, and I'm glad to confirm that THIS PROJECT IS *DONE*. Well, okay, there's the reformatting for the print edition, building up advertising and promotion for the trilogy, plus creating and ordering freebie stuff like bookmarks and postcards for future use at cons, but that's all post-production. I can finally say with conviction that I can sign off on the Bridgetown Trilogy. No more pre-publishing work, no more rewriting or revising*.

Most importantly: the ebook edition of The Balance of Light drops on 10 February! You can order it here at Smashwords. :)

My feelings about this right now are kind of interesting. The sense of relief isn't all that strong, as it's overshadowed by pride that I got it done, and completely on my own. There's a stronger urge to keep my current energy and say 'OK! What's next?' This is what kept me working strong during the original writing. I'm tempering it by reminding myself that I don't need to do All the Writing at Once...I'm already working on the outline for Meet the Lidwells! but I'm also relaxing and taking time to enjoy other things. Picking up my guitars more. Working on art. Stuff like that.

I've been thinking about changing up some habits and activities, now that I have the the time and the inclination. I know I've talked about this many times before, but I think I can truly say I have time for them now, now that this major long-term project is complete. More on this at a later time.

In other personal news, I admit I stalled out on the politics on Twitter and FB. I haven't given up or become complacent, far from it...I just felt like I wasn't getting anywhere with it. In other words, adding to the noise but feeling like the only result was annoying people who read my feed. [I could be wrong about this. But I think on a personal level my words there just didn't have enough strength, or at least not at the level I was aiming for.] And on an emotional level, I was starting to exhaust myself, and that's never a good sign. I'm taking time off from that to figure out what I could do that would make a difference. More on that at a later time as well.

So now what?

Well, for this afternoon, I'm going to watch my beloved Pats beat the Falcons in the Super Bowl. And that's pretty much it. :)


*Okay, there may be some editing work done on future editions, but I'm not going to think about that right now.

Hi there! Hope everyone has had a lovely holiday weekend. I've been quite busy over the last month, both with the Day Job and the Writing Career, so I've been just a slight bit lax with the updatery here and elsewhere. Sorry about that! Things are going well...I'm very close to halfway done with the edit for The Balance of Light, which has been my main priority over the last few months, and I'm still on schedule for a January release of the e-book. The physical version might take slightly longer, but hopefully not too much of a wait.

Day Jobbery has been flat out busy, thanks to it being Q4, so it's a trick of keeping myself sane and healthy and not burning out. This is on top of trying to find time for some Writing Career Plans that I hope to kick off in the new year. More on that soon enough!

Going to keep this short as I'm writing this at the end of a very long and happy day. I'll try to update once more before the year is out!

Sunday morning and it's raining outside, which is kind of amusing in its own way, considering that our vacation to New Jersey and Massachusetts last week was hit with its own precipitation (including just a tiny bit of snow, but it didn't accumulate). Not that I mind the weather, just that high humidity usually causes my head to pound just that little bit.

Still, it was an enjoyable vacation back to the old stomping grounds. I hadn't been back to NJ since we moved out back in '05, but for the most part it's remained the same and I found my way around relatively easily (with the occasional help of A playing the role of Siri when it was needed). The drive up to MA was nice as usual, as the Merritt was lovely as always, especially since it was autumn. Many visits to friends and family and the occasional shopping spree. I even got to walk around Solomon Pond Mall for a little bit, which I hadn't been to in about ten years. The flights to and from weren't bad either, just the occasional turbulence. Managed to have an empty seat on the way home so I scooted over so I could stretch out and take a cat nap!

But yes, it's Sunday morning and now we must go and shop for groceries so we can fill our very empty cupboards. I also have a ton of emails (both personal and Day Job related) to sort through, as well as a few loads of laundry, so that should keep me busy for the rest of the day. Then it's back to the grind once more.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!