Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Not too much to report here, as I've been taking it easy this weekend. I wanted to Read What I Have So Far for the two big writing projects and did that instead of getting any new words done. I often do this near the start of every project for a few reasons: one, to see if any of it holds up and holds my attention (which yes, both do, yay!), and two, to get a firm grasp on the story and its many moving parts. This second reason is the more important of the two, as it's my way of establishing continuity.

And let me tell you, my novels ALWAYS start off with the shittiest continuity ever. This is mainly due to me trying things out just to see where they go. This includes character traits and personalities, extended family and friends, time of day, whatever. I used to say I was 'flailing' at this point, but I don't think that's a good word for it. More like 'feeling my way', honestly. After maybe four or so chapters, I'll do a Read What I Have So Far and see what works and what needs work. 

That said...Project A is going in an unexpected but fun direction and I'm quite happy about that, but I definitely need to straighten out the continuity. Project B, on the other hand, is going a bit slow but the continuity is just fine. So all in all, I think I'm happy enough with both that I can start moving forward starting tomorrow. Woo!

I figured this would happen. Our two-week vacation to London and Paris was excellent and full of fun events (and meeting up with local friends!), and somehow we thought that capping off the vacation by going to Outside Lands would be just dandy. We're doing fine, but we're really starting to feel the effects of jetlag from the return flight and the effects of second-hand smoke (cigarette, vape, and pot) from the festival. We're contemplating skipping out on Day 3 due to exhaustion...there are many good bands playing, but we're both okay with not making it.

Besides, I got to see Duran Duran last night, and that's a band I've been wanting to see practically since Rio came out. And I get to see both Air and Radiohead tonight, two bands I've loved since their beginnings.

On the plus side, this gives us Sunday to catch up on sleep, clean out our work emails, and do a crapton of laundry that we haven't been able to start yet!


Normal life will start over once more come Monday. I'm hoping to get back into the groove of twice-weekly blog writing on both my sites, continue with the TBoL edit, and ease myself further towards the new writing-related projects I have on deck. Many good things coming soon!

Also trying to ease myself back into healthier habits once more, both physical and mental. Drink more tea and less soda. Log off social media more often. Get rid of more of the distraction habits. Get over to the YMCA more often. And focus a hell of a lot more on said writing plans.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

I don't know what the heck was blooming in our neighborhood the last few days, but my eyes have been hella twitchy. Not exactly burning, just irritated by something in the air. It also may have been that I was exhausted from a very long work week (not stupidly busy, just consistent enough that I had very little downtime to take a breather). But it's Saturday, the air is clear, and I got to sleep in until around 8am (that's two extra hours for me, woo!), so I'm awake and rested.

I didn't mention it here, but the renovation on the apartment is pretty much finally DONE at this point. Yay! No more clonking, banging, crashing, tearing, hammering and sawing. At this point I believe they're just doing some final minor things like painting touch-up and fixing the intercom system. It looks so much different than previous:

The original facade, picture snagged from Google.  Note the faux stone facade and the boring industrial beige color that most of our older neighborhood apartment buildings have:


...and after, taken by me from across the street:


The end result of four months' work:  new color, new facade, new garage doors, new front door, new tile in the entryway and lobby, new paint and wallpaper in the entryway, updated pipes, earthquake retrofit, new drywall in the garage (surprisingly very little water damage anywhere!) and new front facing windows!  Yeah, we really like the new windows...no longer leaky, double-paned so it's warmer in the apartment, plus a lot easier to open.


So yeah, in other news, I've started over on the Balance of Light edit.  Yes, I know...but it's got to be done.  I reinstated the Chapter 1 that I'd deleted a few weeks ago, when it became very clear that the opening was worse without it.  I drove over to OfficeMax last weekend and picked up a box of printer paper and a three-ring binder and printed the whole thing out; I realized the only way I could tame this beast was to do a galley edit, one where I had a little more control as to what I could delete and how I could shuffle things around as necessary.  I'm just a few pages in so far, but already I can tell that this was the right way to go with it.  Which means of course that the release is definitely going to be early next year instead, and I may or may not get to hit any new projects right away (depending on how busy I am).  I'm keeping the schedule open in that respect.

Other than that, we have not much else planned this weekend...some food shopping later today, and heading down to Union Square to see a play tomorrow, but other than that, everything's groovy.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

So yeah...come to find out that the answer to wishing I could go back to the days when I wasn't beholden to the Great Internet for hours at a time and got All The Writing done (read: late 90s, early 00s) is rather simple.

Close the damn browsers.

The hard part was breaking the habit. I realized it wasn't the sites I was addicted to, it was their payoff -- the dumpster fire of politics, the indignation of injustices, and so on. I was actively searching for this stuff to get the emotional response, just like the Yankee Candle and HMV days when I'd look forward to my breaks so I could light up a smoke.* The funny thing is that I understood this back in those days too, because I'd purposely stopped watching TV and gotten myself into the habit of hitting the PC at 7pm every night without fail. The payoff there was hitting a thousand words or more a night.

So what's different this time?

I think this time it's because I let the habits run their course. I saw the futility in futzing around online, hopping from one site to another like I was crossing off a shopping list. Check email, read web comics, Twitter, Facebook, news, political websites, YouTube, rinse lather repeat. Did I really need to be doing this all day long? Was I really seeing anything different? It just seemed so futile and wasteful after awhile.

Granted, I think there's also better time management going on, especially now that I understand the ups and downs of self-publishing more. I don't have time to waste watching silly videos or social media dumpster fires when I have things I need to get done. [I wish I'd have taken this tack during my school years, I'd have been a much better student.]

In the process, I've given myself new habits. Some of them are kind of silly and lightweight, but they're helping me keep this new life setting. Reverting to the old FreeCell habit instead of hitting Twitter (as I'd said elsewhere, a five minute game is better than a half hour wasted refreshing a feed). Resizing the document I have open so I can see the wallpaper behind it (it's a view of a sunset that I shot out Spare Oom window). Getting up from the desk and noodling on my guitar for a few minutes, just to stretch my legs and clear my head. Drinking less soda and more water.

And the best one so far: closing the browser. Sure, I'll pop on now and again to see what's going on, or to post on one of my blogs, or to look something up. But once I'm done with that, then I'll close it. I'll even minimize everything that remains open (mainly MS Word, Media Monkey, and/or whatever web station I happen to be listening to). Clean screen, clear mind.

Happy to say, it's working just fine so far. :)


* - There's actually a TED talk out there (yes, I do watch some of them for fun) that touches on this exact thing, worth checking out.

One of those weekends where I choose to make it relaxing instead of trying to pack it with too many things. Saturday was nice and relaxing, as we were both able to sleep in until 8:30 (that's actually kind of late for me), did our grocery shopping, and then hung out until we met up with A's parents for dinner and the symphony. I didn't get any actual writing or art done -- I skipped the daily 750 and the Inktober meme basically to remind myself that it's okay to miss a day. [More on that in a moment.] Slept like crap for some reason last night, but we have no real plans today other than stopping by the farmer's market, so it looks like today will be more relaxation with a bit of football thrown in.

I get tomorrow off as it's a bank holiday, so I'm thinking another trip to the dollar bins at Amoeba is in order. As is a fly-by to the guitar store on Haight to pick up a decent capo (my current one is a dinky little contraption I've had for so long it's starting to rust), as is a fly-by to Japantown to pick up the last Naruto tankobon volume. There may also be some Halloween candy purchasing, but I'll try to be good and not pick up too much.

The writing is coming along quite nicely, thanks to adjustments in my schedule following through more consistently. Most of the major work is still line editing right now, so having an outlet for fresh words keeps me on my toes. Much needed and a good thing. I'm still attempting a more consistent blogging schedule, but as long as I hit both WiS and WtBT at least once a week, I'm happy.

So what was that about missing a day? Well, the issue was that, just a few days into Inktober (as well as doing the 750), I started to realize that I was paying more attention on trying to continue an unbroken daily streak than I was on the writing or the art itself. Day 5 and I was thinking, I need to get something done today, but I don't have anything to write about or draw! O NOES! And that's when I had to remind myself that's NOT what these exercises are for. And more importantly, on the whole I write a LOT more than I think I do. So yeah...if I miss a day, even on purpose, THAT'S OKAY. It's not the end of the world.

That said, it's not as if I didn't completely avoid any writing-related things. I actually spent a half hour or so in the back room digging through my files to find all the Walk in Silence and related notes and outtakes. [It's a good thing I did that major purge-and-sort sometime back, because I found everything quite easily.] I wasn't planning on officially starting the final run of that project just yet, but it didn't hurt to get myself prepared for it. The files are now in a single shoebox in a specific area. I should probably do the same with the straight-to-computer outtakes as well, do some printouts and get everything together. Oh, and yes, I am planning on using my nice camera to take local pictures during our trip back to MA next week, for reference as well as for possible cover art.

EEP! That's right, our vacation is next week! How did that come about so quickly?? I still need to make final plans to meet up with our western MA friends (and still have time to hang with the family). It's just a week, but it'll be great to see everyone again!


Hope y'all are having a good weekend! :)