Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Whew!

2024-11-18T03:34:18Z

Well, no wonder I'm finally feeling the effects of the Day Job! Today was the sixth day in a row, as Head Bookkeeper is taking his own vacation at the moment. I'll be doing the 5:30am opens all week, though I do in fact have Monday and Tuesday off. Knowing me, I'll be waking up at 6am regardless, as I do plan on spending the next two days catching up on writing, playing with the cats, and so on. (And laundry. Always with the laundry.)

Speaking of writing, I'm finally getting further along with Theadia, which is a good thing. I've also been thinking about various artists I might want to commission to do the cover. Pretty sure it'll be a good chunk of change for it, but it'll be worth it. [I'm still thinking about doing a new cover for Diwa & Kaffi as well in the new year. We shall see.] And as for MU4...well, as much as I'm itching to get started on writing it, I'm deliberately waiting until I'm done with Theadia first because I really want to put all my focus on it. Plus, the secondary project I'll be doing in tandem will be the trilogy remaster (so to speak) so I'll be focused on the same universe. I'm definitely looking forward to it!

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Weekend gardening and other shings

2024-10-27T23:33:53Z

Today was garden clean-up party day, so A and I headed over and spent a couple of hours weeding, cleaning, replanting, laying down woodchips, and exhausting ourselves. We were also able to get a new board nailed to the side of our shared bed, as one of them was quite rotten and already broken into many pieces. We are now back home and chilling and not doing much of anything else. At this point I have just enough energy to do the laundry and give the kitties occasional attention!

Meanwhile, I have jury duty stand-by all week this week, so I'll need to call in at the end of the day to see if I need to go in. If I were going to the civil court near City Hall I wouldn't mind as much, but this is the criminal court over in SoMa that's a pain in the butt to get to and not easy to find parking for. [Not to mention the building and the neighborhood is kind of dumpy.] We shall see...

Writing: am I actually doing some? Yes! I'm forcing myself back into a daily session again: no major word count to beat or a specific length of time, I just need to get SOMETHING done on a daily basis again. Once I'm back into that groove again, everything else should go back to normal. On Friday morning I somehow managed to FINALLY figure out how to end Theadia in a way I'd be satisfied with, so that should give me a much clearer idea of where to go once I'm caught up with this particular revision. Now if I can maintain this excitement for when I start MU4...

OH! I forgot to add the neat recent thing about the day job! I'd mentioned in my previous entry that I'd spent the entire Wednesday shift cleaning and rearranging the dairy walk-in cooler...so on Saturday, one of the managers walked up to me and thanked me again for doing such a great job as it made the inventory session that much easier...and then followed up by saying "...I've been talking with (Head Boss) about assigning you dairy more often because whenever you do it, things get done." I'm quite tickled about that, to be honest! I really appreciate that this was an honest "thanks for a great job, let's follow up on this" and not a scripted "thank you for all you do, EnterEmployeeNameHere!" Definitely a difference from the Former Day Job in a lot of ways!

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Oh wait, it's Wednesday?

2024-10-17T02:36:12Z

This is the one problem when my Monday starts on a Tuesday, my sense of time goes a bit lopsided. Thankfully my Day Job hours this week, apart from yesterday's, are relatively normal, so I won't be out of sorts AND exhausted at the same time.

I'm finally getting back to revising Theadia, partly because I was getting annoyed with myself for being a bit too lazy over the past week. I could have put in an hour's work here and there but chose not to. Not beating myself up over it, though, just happy to be back at it. Part of it is that I really want to finish it and get it out there already so I can start focusing on MU4 and the Trilogy Remasters! [I talk a little bit about the remaster project here at my writing blog.]

...and that's pretty much all I have to report for now. Maybe more soon, when I'm not rush-writing this a few minutes before I crawl into bed?

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Weekend update

2023-07-16T22:15:55Z

Woo, I had today off! I've had to work Sundays for the last couple of weeks due to people being out and while I'm not actually doing extra hours, it is kind of screwing with my personal time. Thankfully that person is now back from their vacation and things are sort of back to normal. [Unfortunately a different coworker seems to have fractured their ankle via an episode of inebriation, so my hours are still a tiny bit wonky. Not as frustrating, but just a bit off.]

Meanwhile, the new PC is up and running at top speed, which means I really should get back to my writing work. I've been very bad at following through lately, but now there's no real reason not to jump back in. I'm still up in the air:
--Do I finish off and revise the Queen Ophelia project? It's about 95% done but needs a lot of work.
--Do I finish off and revise Theadia? It too is about 95% done and also needs a lot of work.
--Do I outline and start the sequel to In My Blue World? It's my best seller and I'm sure readers will enjoy another episode of Meeks Sisters Adventures.
--Do I outline and start the romcom idea I've had in my head for the last year or so? I have a rough outline but it needs a lot of work, plus I need to work at getting my brain back into that style.
All this is while I'll be working on MU4 project, which I know will be a long-term one that may not see the light of day until sometime next year. I'm taking my time on that one.
What I'm doing now is reading what I have of all of them so far, to see what resonates with me the most. We shall see soon enough.

In the meantime, we've just gotten back from a five-mile walk around the neighborhood and I now have to do the laundry, so I'm going to relax a bit before I decide on anything!

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Midweek day off

2023-07-06T19:27:22Z

OOF. The last three days were tough at work. Two mid-shifts (including on the 4th, which was surprisingly not busy) and a closure last night that took a hell of a lot out of me. I may not have been in the best of moods for the first half of that shift, mainly due to Thwarted Plans (needing to finish open-ended bookkeeping, trying to keep the front end in line, and going to a super late lunch break on time) and Irritations (vocal interruptions by others which if you know me annoys the piss out of me) plus being hangry. By the time 8pm rolled around it was finally much more sedate and I chose to eff it and roll with the punches instead. Suffice it to say I slept like crap last night as my brain was still in ARRRRGH mode and I ended up dreaming that I'd been fired for a really stupid reason.

ANYWAY. Today's my day off and I've done little except update my blogs and do the laundry, and I have no problems with that. Maybe if I have the inclination I'll finally get off my butt and do some work on MU4 again, and maybe think about what my tandem novel project will be.

Here's to hoping that next week's schedule is nowhere near as stressful. Thankfully my next two days at work are easy opens!

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Chill time

2023-06-14T21:57:56Z

After three straight days of weird work hours (short afternoon shift followed by midshift to 8pm followed by morning open till 1), I'm glad to have tomorrow off to relax a little bit before I do my Friday-Saturday early opens. Other than doing the grocery shopping, I don't have too much else planned. I'd like to spend a good couple of hours on MU4 as I have a few ideas I want to try out, but that's about it.

Meanwhile, I had to waste an hour or so this afternoon due to a Windows update that somehow made Chrome inoperable. Apparently it has to do with an add-on that's causing it to crash when Malwarebytes is running? Either way, I reversed the update and it's working just fine. I figure I can wait on the updates a bit until they have a patch put in. We shall see.

Other than that, it's been a busy but productive week, so I can't complain. :)

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Reading and Writing

2023-06-08T16:21:53Z

Whoof -- finally finished the Expanded Edition of Mark Lewisohn's Beatles book Tune In, and it only took me THREE FLIPPING MONTHS to do it! Very dense and ridiculously detailed but fascinating, especially if you're a huge Beatle nerd like I am. It was like 1700 pages over two hardcovers. Really eye-opening on how the band formed and evolved even before they made their first single (which takes place in the last third of the book), what life was like in Liverpool at the time, and especially how old-school (in a negative way) the music business was then.

The downside is that my GoodReads numbers are atrocious right now, and I need to read 35 more books to get back on track and make my goal of 100 by the end of the year! Pretty sure I can do it, though. And yes, I am counting manga and the occasional reread!

On the writing end of things...as I'd mentioned on my blog recently, my work on MU4 has been good but has been lacking tension and it's bothering me. Call it conflict avoidance, call it having my brain still stuck in hopepunk territory after writing Diwa & Kaffi, whatever it is -- it's annoying as hell and I need to break myself out of it. And it occurred to me a few days ago that I think the only way I'll successfully do so is to pull a 180: You want tension? I'll give you some f***ing tension. And I started a new chapter that...well, let's just say that it's definitely an oh shit moment, and it did the trick. Now I'm very curious as to where it will go!

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Midweek updatery

2023-05-31T17:18:50Z

The renovation guys are up on the roof this morning again, and though I'm not entirely sure what they're up to, I'm thinking that it might be that they're redoing the drainage on the southern side of the building as it would always pool and not drain properly. I would not be surprised if there was a bit of water damage up there.

Meanwhile, I haven't heard anything about new rear windows as of yet, but I have confirmed with the landlady that we are getting them! All I ask is that they let us know ahead of time when they're going to do ours, so we can corral the cats and keep them from escaping. Oh, and move things out of the way, heh.

In writing news, I hit 1108 words on MU4 yesterday! Yay! That's the most I've done in one sitting for this particular project, and I'm quite happy about it. This is what happens when I have a day off and not distract myself with the internets! Heh.

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jon_chaisson @ 2023-05-28T09:40:00

2023-05-28T16:40:54Z

My work schedule has been kind of weird these last few weeks due to one of the floor managers being on vacation, so I am once again working on a Sunday. Bleh! The plus side is that I have Monday and Tuesday off, which is cool by me. I didn't expect to get Memorial Day off, so I'm not going to complain! I mean, other than the fact that today is a 12-8 shift and those always leave me exhausted at the end of the day.

Meanwhile in the writing sphere, I've been stuck on this current chapter and frustrated that it wasn't going anywhere, and decided a complete restart of it was in order. By chance I happened to have one of those "say...what if A and B's backstory were actually...entwined?" moments and LO! Suddenly I had a new subplot I could sink my teeth into! I decided these two characters have a similar background and actually knew each other at the time, but it's something they haven't revealed to anyone else for Important Reasons. Thankfully this has sparked some really interesting ideas going forward, so I'm quite happy about that.

Not too much else going on personally worth mentioning just yet, but all is well here in Spare Oom!

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Spare Oom status and other things

2023-04-13T20:25:25Z

The PC continues to behave for the most part, with very few things that still need ironing out. I need to adjust the settings on the Plex server to ensure that it doesn't cause our internet to crash (which it did a couple of times, though I'm not entirely sure why), but other than that I haven't had any problems.

Which means I'm back to writing again! Yay! I'm still only squeezing maybe a couple hundred words a day which is a bit frustrating, but it's something I can work on. I know part of it has been due to squeezing said writing into a short block of time at the start or end of the day, and I can better adjust it going forward. I think what I need is a good day or afternoon off where I can get a good three-hour session in, and that should inspire me to give it all a closer focus.

Meanwhile, if you're not connected to the Discord me and my (mostly) east coast friends have, the Big News is that our downstairs neighbor has FINALLY moved out! She was definitely a piece of work. Not exactly a hateful or spiteful person, just someone who had no concept of Other People Also Live In This Building. Classics such as a line of terrible boyfriends, occasional loud partying until 1am, having a party on the roof when no one's supposed to be up there, yelling at her dog whenever it barked, and so on. I'm pretty sure she hated A and I for calling her out on her bullshit every now and again (and rightfully so: who the fuck does drunken karaoke at 11pm on a weeknight in an apartment building??), which made it all that much funnier that we are definitely the favorites of our landlady. Heh.

Anyway! Today's my day off before I start another wave of weird schedules at the Day Job. Our head bookkeeper is going on a two-week vacation which means I'll be opening at 5:30am five days a week during that time (Wednesday through Sunday). This unfortunately means waking up at 4:15 so I can shower and have breakfast, but on the plus side it means I'm out by early afternoon, just like the YC days. This will definitely give me writing time!

On that note...going to make the most of today by prepping the blogs, hitting the 750Words and working on MU4!

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Back up to speed

2023-03-28T22:05:57Z

The last couple of work weeks have been odd schedule wise, splitting between opens and midshifts and the occasional almost-close, so my 'weekends' have been shifted around a little. I had yesterday and today off, and chose to utilize them as Getting Stuff Done At Home days. Yesterday was the house stuff, doing laundry and replacing a few things around the apartment, and today has been all about catching up with bills (and taxes) as well as catching up creatively.

I've gotten some personal writing and art done already today, and I'm giving myself a good amount of time to work on MU4 soon. And how is that project going?

Glad you asked. Some days I'll get a few hundred words out, other days I'll get a few dozen. Either way, I'm being patient with this project on purpose: I'm returning to an older writing process that I haven't used in several years, and I don't want to rush it. It's a process that worked, and worked wonderfully, and the aim here is to use it again, not to 'relive' it. The only thing I do want to work on is the frequency of it. There have been days when I haven't written, whether by distraction or avoidance or simply no time, and that's something I can adjust. Not force but adjust, because forcing it will only ruin what I'm trying to do. Adjust, like having a quick writing session before those midshifts, or using the laptop (which I haven't done in a while).

Whatever works, as long as it's going in the right direction, yeah?

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Post-illness bounceback

2023-03-20T00:12:29Z

Thankfully my cough and congestion lasted a mere couple of days and I was back to work on Friday. Speaking of which, my hours have been cut back a few per week and I'm only doing about 30 - 32 rather than the 35-38, and I have it on good authority that it's basically just that time of the year when it quiets down a little bit. There aren't any major holidays coming up until Easter and Memorial Day that would affect a grocery store. Which is fine with me as I'm still getting over thirty hours, they're glad to have me there, and our store is actually one of the better ones in terms of sales!

Also in the day job universe, glass cases have now been installed on sections of two aisles. One is the biggest improvement: the hard liquor that wasn't already locked up. [The usual cast of idiots would always hit our vodka, whiskey and tequila but rarely anything else.] The other, as you will probably have already guessed, is the toiletries such as meds, detergents and cleaners. It's kind of sad that so many stores have had to do this, even despite getting security as we have, but we're doing out best to make the wait as minimal as possible. We still get so many customers coming in saying how much they love our store, and I've even gotten personal thanks from a few who thought we did an ace job helping them.

Meanwhile...I'm still working on the social media detox. It's gotten to the point on the phone where I uninstalled one of the web browsers and removed one from the screen. I do find that the Out of Sight Out of Mind Method of avoiding distraction works pretty well for me, so let's see if this works. It's another thing entirely here in Spare Oom, but I'll figure out something. There's also the issue of Avoidance here at the PC -- I know I need to work on the MU4 project, like, NOW, but hey maybe I should blog first or wait time for dinner hmm I should probably clear out my emails oh damn it all it's 8pm already too late to start anything.

Time to remind myself: just shut the f*** up and DO it already!

Anyhoo...hope everyone has a good week ahead!

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Another Short Weekend

2023-02-19T23:14:10Z

Well, shortish at any rate. I've been working Saturday mornings at the shop (part of my bookkeeping duties) but it gets me out at 1pm so I still have the rest of the day to do whatever, even if it's doing errands and whatnot. And considering that our building's washing machine is still not working correctly (it should be fixed this Thursday, last I heard), I spent part of this morning kicking back at the laundromat to do our laundry while A stayed at home to make apple sauce and wait for a package from IKEA. Which alas contained broken items, but they should hopefully be sending replacements soon.

What about the writing, though? Yeah, I've been kind of distracted by other things this past week and hardly got anything done other than some cutting and pasting, but I'm hoping I can rectify that this coming week. Granted, part of last week's schedule contained three midday shifts that didn't provide all that much time for me to work on MU4, but this week's is much better, with only one midday shift and the rest all mornings.

Still, I need to get my butt in gear, because this novel ain't going anywhere without me putting in the work!

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jon_chaisson @ 2023-02-15T11:07:00

2023-02-15T19:07:43Z

I really need to get to new words again...but first I need to get past this MU4 chapter retooling! After a few days of contemplation, I've revised AGAIN by reverting to the first couple of chapters from Version 3 from a year or so ago and using that as a jumping-off point for everything else. Long story short, that version provides a lot more tension and also sets the long-game arc.

ANYWAY! I've got a weird work schedule today and won't get any further writing done today, so.

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Weekending

2023-02-06T03:34:11Z

So this week I got a 'workiversary' cake at the shop, celebrating one year since my hire date. It's a simple petite white cake with white frosting and very tasty. Our bakery makes some really good cakes, y'know. So much so that I'm amazed I'm not putting on weight from the occasional slice-buying for lunch. Still...has it been a year already?? I started mid-March of 2022, but apparently my hire date was late February -- I do remember my boss saying he'd been backlogged with eight bazillion different things going on, and I've since learned that he does appreciate the occasional reminder when needed. Anyway, we are having cake for our dessert these last few days and I am happy for it.

In other news, we went to Japantown today and finally stopped at the bullet-train sushi bar across the street from the Japantown Mall, and we were not let down! We both realized that this was definitely a place to bring visiting friends and family that enjoy sushi! We did of course stop at Kinokuniya so I could pick up my manga stash, which I shall start reading soon enough.

Oh -- did I mention we got new pillows? We finally came to the conclusion that our cheap and deflated BedBath&Beyond-bought pillows have just about had it and it was time to admit that maybe we should spend a bit of money to get something that's comfortable and supportive. I seem to have slept very soundly last night, so that's definitely a good sign.

Writingwise I'm a few days behind on MU4 and 750Words due to work and other IRL things, but I'm not going to let that bother me. In fact the days off have given me time to think about a few important character-related things that I shall implement very soon. Looking forward to working on them!

Hope everyone has a good (and much warmer) week!

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Back on schedule

2023-02-01T17:15:29Z

Ah, that's better. Spent most of January focusing most all of my creative juices on starting up MU4 and maintaining a consistent and balanced schedule for it, and while the Words So Far are in dire need of revision, I am NOT going to hyperfocus on them or even fix them just yet. The whole point of this month-long exercise was merely to get in the right headspace for this project. By this I mean that I wanted to re-immerse myself into this created universe for the right reasons -- not merely because It Might Be Fun or Let's Relive the Past but because I want to be here, back in Bridgetown, telling more stories about psychic energies and supernatural connections and maybe some metaphorical stuff as well.

I also mean that I wanted to create a healthy balance between creative time and IRL time. Over the last couple of years I've noticed that sometimes I'd hyperfocus on whatever project I'm working on to the detriment of everything else going on and it wasn't all that healthy. I needed to realign a lot of that before I could move forward. I spent most of January focusing on writing MU4 creatively, but also reconnecting with the world outside (in a healthy way, of course). There are still a few bumps in the road, but I'm going in the right direction!

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Slightly off schedule...

2023-01-13T23:31:23Z

...but otherwise still writing! I've made it official that the Mendaihu Universe book 4 was started on Wednesday the 11th and I've been spending the last couple of days focusing solely on that, skipping a few blog entries and 750 Words exercises while I solidify a writing habit here. It's a small price to pay, yeah?

I don't expect everything in my life to suddenly switch to something new on Day One, because that isn't how it works. I have to work at it, remind myself on the daily that I have certain goals, and just thinking about them and making plans for them isn't enough. I'll have an off day now and again, whether it's an extremely exhausting shift at the Day Job or alternate plans or whatever, I'm allowed to fall down now and again.

Same with Life. I have to work at these goals to make them happen.

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First week of 2023...

2023-01-09T01:03:56Z

...has been interesting so far. The Bay Area has been getting hit with multiple weird storm fronts these last few days so there's been hella rain (as they say in the local parlance) and hella wind to go along with it. We're fine here at home, safe on the top floor with a non-leaking roof above us and no sub-basement levels (our garage is on ground level), but we've seen some trees and branches down and a bit of flooding and washouts in the neighborhood. The first hit us late Tuesday night and apparently after I left work at 1:30 there was a mad rush of panic buying that lasted for about six hours, followed by a few days of rather quiet retail work. On a side note, the cats are fine but a tad confused by all the noise going on outside, especially all that pitterpat on the bathroom skylights.

I've been rereading A Division of Souls these last couple of days in preparation for writing MU4 as well as making a few mental notes for the Great Trilogy Remastering as well. I think it still holds up amazingly well, not to mention I'm still a bit blown away at the level of detail I put into it, and I think most of the Remastering will end up being a general fix-up of formatting errors, making a few better word choices and a bit of grammatical spot-cleaning. I'm also having fun revisiting a few of my favorite scenes! I'm really looking forward to both the Remaster and the new project!

Hope everyone's having a great new year so far!

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Day One

2023-01-02T00:22:43Z

The new year is here!

A few resolutions I have in mind:

--Make a concerted effort to minimize my social media habits. More to the point, to do a Twitter deep clean. I've been decent enough about minimizing my use of it, but I can do better...unfollow users I don't pay attention to, immediate-block trolls and rude users I don't know, and try to avoid the Trending tab as often as possible. And most importantly, to stop using it so much during my breaks at work!

--Related to the last point above: better utilize my downtime at work with creative things -- read an ebook on my phone, write notes for the MU4 project, write poetry and lyrics, that sort of thing. This is mainly for MU4, however...I want to dedicate as much time as I can to it.

--Related to work: considering the shop is eight blocks from our apartment, there's really no reason for me not to walk to work. Okay, there are a few: bad weather, super early or super late hours, and the fact that it's at the top of a hill...but I've been a bit lazy about it. I'll either take the bus (which drops me right out front but costs me $2.50) or drive up (which is really just a waste unless I'm doing some major shopping after shift. Working retail has definitely gotten me in much better shape, so why not continue that with a walk to and from work? It only takes ten minutes, so I see no reason why not.

--I'd said over at Welcome to Bridgetown the other day: on a personal note, I want 2023 to be a time for exploration and expansion. I spent the last two years cleaning out the emotional and personal detritus and building a better foundation, so it's time for me to figure out what's to go in its place. I have a few ideas, of course...more on that at a later time.

I don't have many resolutions to work on this time out, but they're all major ones, and I'm looking forward to making them a reality!

Hope you all have a wonderful and positive 2023!

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Wait what

2022-12-19T03:05:31Z

Tomorrow will be seven days in a row that I'm opening the shop at 6am, six of which I had to actually be there at 5:30, and oh yeah also there's a heating unit problem there so the store has been a brisk 45 degrees the entire time, so yeah I am a bit loopy and overtired right now, why do you ask?

Anyhoo -- things are going as normal for the last couple weeks of the year. I'm taking it easy and not pushing myself with the writing other than with the blogs. I am, of course, thinking about how I'm going to approach the new year with the various projects I have in mind. If you've been reading my latest entries at Welcome to Bridgetown, then you'll have heard that my main project for 2023 will be the fourth Mendaihu Universe book, along with doing some 'remastering' of the original trilogy (more on that at a later time). I'm really looking forward to returning to this particular world again!

Other than that...not much to report other than that I REALLY need sleep right now...

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Sunday Evening Update

2021-11-08T03:09:11Z

Whoops! Almost forgot to update here two weekends in a row! I gave myself a pass last weekend considering we'd spent the entire time in Golden Gate Park for Outside Lands. All told I think we hit about a dozen or so bands and walked about thirteen miles, and then took Monday off to rest and recuperate. It was fun, but it was EXHAUSTING. And, as I'd said last week on my music blog, I think we're calling it done with music festivals for now. We still enjoyed OL, but we felt it's kind of at the point where it's kind of huge now -- not yet Coachella-sized, thankfully, and I don't think our neighborhoods would want that -- and it's just getting too tiring and maybe even irritating.

In other news: I have now made Novel Projects A, B and C public! Per my WtBT post from the other day:

The one I’ve been referring to as Project A is currently entitled Queen Ophelia. It’s a story about a man who, upon his father’s death, finds that his estranged mother is not the human he was told she’d been: she is in fact a part-demon part-fae queen of a world filled with magic and war. He learns that he has not only inherited her magical blood but must help her defeat an unexpected enemy. During his adventures and travels, he learns more about the demon and fae world than he’d ever expected. This one’s theme is all about finding comfort and acceptance in others, and accepting oneself. This one was inspired by a dream I’d had in May, wrote out the entire outline that next morning, and have been writing on the 750 Words site since September. [Surprisingly, this one does not have a playlist. I may need to rectify that.]

Project B, meanwhile, is currently entitled Theadia, and it’s a story that popped into my head during my last days at the Former Day Job. It’s about two young women coders living on a space waystation who become embroiled in a border war, useless upper management and terrible engineering. As I’d said yesterday on my Twitter feed: “the source of conflict isn’t just an antagonistic world threat. It also includes the conflict of active avoidance: the ‘not my job’, the ‘it has to be this way because reasons’ and ‘it’s too expensive to make better’. [The main characters] refuse to fall into that avoidance trap. Winning because they stepped up, not because they’re superpowered or invincible.” It’s super geeky fun and doesn’t take itself entirely seriously, but it’s right up there with IMBW as one of the most enjoyable stories I’ve written. Oh, and this is the one that features the Maine coon cat, Grizelda!

[There is indeed a Project C, and it’s what I’ve been referring to as MU4, aka the fourth book in the Mendaihu Universe. I’m taking my own sweet time with this one because there’s a ton to do. Suffice it to say, the story takes place in Bridgetown seventy years after the trilogy, and focuses on how belief systems change and evolve, for better or for worse, and how different they become the further they get from their creators’ original plans and intentions. And yes, a few Trilogy characters do show up!]

[Huh. Had no idea I could insert different fonts here. Cool!]

Anyway...other than that, things are flowing normally, not much to report. Keeping busy is all.

Hope everyone has a lovely week!

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Birthdays, Changes, and Whatnot

2021-01-18T01:16:24Z

I'd mentioned on my two WP blogs that I was taking this coming week off, mainly for my birthday on the 22nd and also because of Inauguration Day. Fair enough, yeah? And A has tomorrow off (MLK Day) as well as Friday (personal day), so we'll most likely be doing what we're usually doing these last few months in pandemic season: walking around the neighborhood, doing some errands and shopping, and watching British documentaries. Not complaining, as it's actually quite relaxing and enjoyable.

I may be hitting the Big Five-Oh this coming Friday, but I'm not really putting too much thought into it. It's another number, whatevs. The only celebration is that A ordered me a Boston Cream Pie from the Parker Hotel in Boston -- the originators of said pie-that's-really-a-cake -- which should get here by Thursday. Other than that, I have no big plans. Maybe trade in some of my cds and dvds at Amoeba during the week. Do some writing. Nothing big.

Okay, maybe a few things. Just utilizing the day to kick off some personal plans, is all.

Speaking of writing...I've changed up my writing process once more, which surprises no one, heh. I'm putting aside the 750 Words again for now, if only because it currently feels more like a distraction than a help right now. More to the point, my approach to handling MU4 and Theadia is becoming clearer to me. I suppose one could say it's that they've finally connected with me on a personal level as a writer; I'm beginning to understand the characters better, and I also have a better grasp on the stories they (and I) need to tell. It's kind of funny, really...sometimes I'll connect with a character almost immediately (like I did with most of the gang in In My Blue World), and sometimes it takes ages.

I discovered that with Theadia, the mood of both the story and the characters is Constant But Steady Acceleration. Sort of like the B-Town trilogy in a way. They live in a world where Everything Is Constantly Moving so I need to place the story in that setting. That's not to say that I've given the story strict boundaries, of course. And with MU4, I know one of the running themes for that one is "escape from rigid social conformity" in its various forms: established religions, social connection, career expectation, and so on. Both of them are about outsiders, in a way. I'm very curious to see where these go.

Hope everyone has a lovely week!

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Weekend Chill

2020-12-21T01:13:29Z

Well, I did manage to get some work done last week, so I don't feel too bad about that. I've been using the 750 Words to play around with some outtakes for Theadia, and that's helping me get a bit closer to the story. This one's turning out to be quite unlike anything I've written before, so it's taking me some time to figure it all out. And this is why I'm working on multiple projects at once. I've a feeling Theadia is going to take a lot of time, so in the meantime I'll be trying my hand at the fourth Mendaihu Universe book (aka MU4). That one is still a little twitchy, but I'm gaining more ground on that one.

Meanwhile, it's now Christmas week and this is the first time since my school days where I've had the end of the year off. I'm just going to roll with it and enjoy it, because come January I've got some major things I want to embark on. We've got all our gift packages out and it seems the only two that haven't gotten to their destination is my family and one of our friends, but we're okay with that...as long as they get there in one piece! And yes, we have now embarked on the holiday movies, documentaries and whatnot. Yay!

Hope everyone has a lovely holiday!

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Starting Again

2020-06-25T17:03:37Z

I know it's going to take a few false starts. It always does. I'm terrible at beginnings of novels. I flail for about three chapters until I finally nail the sucker down and find the right groove.

But I'm starting a new novel project.

It's about damn time.

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