Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Woohoo! I'm finally DONE with the remastering work for A Division of Souls (that is until I do one last reread, heh), so now I can shift all my creative focus back on Theadia! I'm looking forward to starting in on it again, especially now that I have a clearer head and a few really good ideas on how to rework it into the style I want. I've given myself until late 2026 to finish it, so I've got a year and change to make it happen. I'm pretty sure I can do it, considering these days the first drafts of my novels take maybe a few months at most. [It's still kind of weird to say that. Each book in the original trilogy took about a year, while In My Blue World took three months.] 

Whether or not this one will expand into a duology or just be a very long single volume, we shall see...

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!

It seems our weekend entertainment usually falls on Saturdays, leaving Sunday to be the Errand Day.  In this case, we went to see Alita: Battle Angel at the Alamo Drafthouse in the Mission last night.  Having been a fan of the original 90s manga, I'm quite happy to say they did a fine job of remaining close to it (I read later that it's based on the first four tankobon of the original series) and that they kept the theme that it's most definitely NOT a male-gazey female-cyborg story.  I would totally go see it again, and yes, I will definitely get the blu-ray for it when it comes out.

Today's errand excitement was a walk to the farmer's market down the other end of Clement, then a drive down to Fort Mason to drop off book donations at the SF Library store and clothing donations at the Goodwill up the street.  (Why do I drive down there when I could easily use the Goodwill up the way on Clement? Parking, you see. As in There Ain't None Close By On Clement. Heh.)  I usually use that as my excuse to get out of the house and the neighborhood. Sometimes when I'm down there I'll also stop at the Flax Art Supply store and pick up some things -- I bought a smallish sketch book down there that I desperately need to start filling in.

I'm slowly cleaning everything up here in Spare Oom so I go ahead and buy a replacement for the loveseat that's in here. It's old and lumpy (it was A's and dates back to the late 90s by her reckoning) and desperately needs to go. We're planning on ordering from the same place we bought our living room couch (which came in two big boxes as a build-it-yourself thing). I'm sort of playing a long game here, planning out each step with the final goal of getting my papers, books, music and personal effects in order in this room.  Getting a new mini-couch in here is one of the biggest steps and will make things a lot easier once it's purchased and installed. 

Anyhoo!  Good news on the writing front!  IN MY BLUE WORLD IS OUT NEXT SATURDAY!!!  Woohoo!  It'll be available as an e-book at Smashwords if you follow this here link:  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/925076

It's a long time coming, but I'm quite proud of this one.  I took a lot of chances with this story...it's definitely different from the other novels I've written over the years and heading more in a direction I want and need to go in with my writing. I'm seeing it as the first of a new path for my writing, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it'll lead.


Hope everyone has a lovely week! 

This week is going by ridiculously quick for some reason. Could be that I've been insanely busy at the Day Job during the day and completing a full chapter of revision for In My Blue World at the end of the day, with other smaller things in between.  I don't feel too physically or mentally exhausted, but I think I should probably lighten the load for a few days just to make sure.

I'm a little less pissed off than I was on Sunday, which is a good thing as well.  I'm purposely ignoring social media for a few hours each day to maintain sanity.

Speaking of Day Job and things related, I believe I've finally finished touching up my resume for the time being.  I've left a few things purposely vague and/or blank so I can adjust them as necessary.  It occurred to me that with a few positions I'm thinking of trying for, I can revise some of the sections of my resume to reflect what they're looking for.  I do so many different things at the Day Job that listing them all would be too much, but listing the ones pertinent to what the posting is looking for makes more sense.  I'm planning on sending them out this week.  The long term plan is to try to get a position before the current Day Job demands I move back to the office; it's not so much out of spite as it just makes more sense to avoid the extra headache.  We shall see.

Man, 2018 has been one hell of a busy year, hasn't it...?


Hope everyone has a good (and more relaxing) rest of the week! 

There will be no Weekend or Midweek Update next week, as we will be on vacation, visiting friends and family back east!  I'll be afk and basically filling up on Dunkies, maple-flavored things, and taking a bajillion pictures of the foliage.  Yay!

Not too much to report here at the moment...the Day Job is what it is, so I'll just keep it at that for now.

As for writing: coming along fine with the revision work for In My Blue World, slowly but surely.  I've already deleted a scene and inserted a new one, I've cleaned up a lot of the prose in the first few scenes, and doing what I can to fix up the continuity.  There's a lot of fiddly bits that need straightening out (using the correct POV pronouns, for instance), but thankfully I have them all flagged in my notes.

As for the personal end of things, I'm still not entirely sure if I've lost any weight yet, given that I haven't bothered to weigh myself in ages, but I *think* there's a bit of an improvement going on.  This process is so slow people usually don't notice right away.  I feel healthier, though -- despite my lower back giving me a twinge earlier this week.  I haven't done any heavy lifting or overexertion lately, so I'm pretty sure that's due to me possibly doing my crunch exercises incorrectly at some point, or that I slouch like a champ when I'm at my desk.  Still... I'm getting there.  Soon enough.


Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

I've been horrible this weekend by not doing any exercising.  Shame shame!  [Okay, that's not entirely true.  We did do a good amount of walking these last few days to make up for it.]  I am happy to say that otherwise I've been doing good at staying on top of it.  It's only been a week and I'm still figuring out which exercises will benefit me the most, but I've been staying with it so far.  My main aim here is to get rid of the excess weight, especially in the belly area.  I've had multiple doctors tell me that I should be at least 30 to 50 pounds lighter -- I'm not obese, but there's definitely a lot of excess there that I shouldn't have.  I'm also making it a point to get to the gym at least three days a week after work.  I've also figured out that the best time for me to work out is in fact first thing in the morning, before breakfast, so I'll burn the calories I have on hand rather than the ones I've just put in me.  So instead of wasting time online, I'll do a few reps of various exercises until it's time for me to log on at work.  

It's only been one week, but I think I can definitely see and feel a difference.  I'm more awake and aware, I feel much more positive, and I think I might even have already lost a pound or two.  Win!

As for the More Productive, I'm still going strong on the Apartment Complex story, I"m on the last quarter of making revision notes for In My Blue World, and I'm even sneaking in some other personal creative things as well!  So yeah, I can't complain.

I will say that the last few weeks have been a bit of an eye-opener on quite a few levels, and I think I have an idea of what I might want to do regarding personal and day job things.  Again I'm being purposely vague, but it's something I'm taking quite seriously and patiently.  I'm not sure how any of it will pan out, but it's worth all of this extra work and exertion.  I'm hoping it all comes to fruition soon enough! :)

Hope everyone has a good week!
 

 Oof.  It's been one of those weeks at the Day Job, where I'm either going all out, or there are long stretches of not much going on, and very rarely a happy medium.  Fun fun!

I'm managing to keep up with the things that need doing, though I should probably take a break soon so I'm not overdoing it.  And of course being a writer, I hate taking a break because it feels like I'm just slacking off and getting nothing done.  Eesh!  Still, I need to reorganize my priorities this weekend for the upcoming month.  I have some plans I need to act upon and need to start carving out a bit of time for them.  Not sure how I'll pull this off, but we shall see.

In My Blue World is coming along, slowly but surely.  I'm still worried that I won't make my deadline, but I'm still working on it.  I just have to put more time into it than I am.  [This isn't to say that I'm working myself ragged on it -- more like I know that I'm slacking off elsewhere and using up time that I could dedicate to it.]  

The Apartment Complex story, on the other hand, is hurtling fast toward its Act III Defining Event and I'm eagerly looking forward to writing it.  The scene has been in my head probably since sometime last year and I've only made notes for it, but never written it out as prose.  I've also been thinking a bit about the title, or at least what it's supposed to mean.  The main theme here is bonds -- of friendship, community, love, and so on -- so at least I have a general idea of where to go with it!  It's funny how out of all my projects, this is the only one that's had title problems!  Heh.


Okay, back to work!  Hope everyone has a good rest of the week!

Seriously, I've been up since 6am London Time, took a ten-hour flight home (which included a monster marathon of reading and making revising notes for both In My Blue World and Apartment Complex) and it's currently 5:30 Pacific Time (12:30am London Time).  So I've been up about eighteen hours and have been on a plane for most of them, and the time change has made me loopy.  I'm not tired, just not running on all cylinders at the moment.

And tomorrow is the first of four (possibly five) days of driving down to San Jose for Worldcon.  I'm hoping I'll be awake and conscious for most of it!

The IMBW revision is currently about a third of the way In (I think?) and while there are moments where it desperately needs more work, there are other moments where they're just fine and the only work needed is prose-tightening.  I'm still a bit annoyed that this one's not nearly as up to snuff as I'd like, but I'm getting over it.  It's not horrible, it's just not up to a level I'm happy with yet. 

As for AC, I'm happy to say that one has definitely exceeded all expectations.  I'm quite proud of this one, really.  A few gaps I'll need to fill in, but aside from that, it's coming out just amazing.  I can't wait to share this one once it's done.

Other than that, I'm doing okay.  I'll probably pass out later tonight, have a good deep sleep, and be ready to go tomorrow.  Hopefully!


Hope everyone's having a good week!

Not too much to report this weekend...keeping busy with All the Writing, as always. 

One thing I'm quite happy with is that I ordered the postcards for In My Blue World.  Since it's only one cover and not three, I created a smaller 5x7 card (the trilogy card is a half-page).  I also deliberately didn't put the entire book information on it, such as the release date or the ISBN -- which I don't have yet anyway -- so I can slap a 'coming soon' sticker on it.  [And when I *do* get that info, I can put a label with that info on it then, and update the template for when I want to reorder.]  They look really nice and I'm looking forward to handing them out at Worldcon!

Other writing news: coming up with new ideas and notes for a possible new Mendaihu Universe story!  It's kind of funny, really...while writing some of these notes I actually had to stop and look up some planet names mentioned in the original trilogy that I couldn't remember!  It's a good thing I'm a packrat and keep detailed notes!  One thing that's surfacing with these sessions is that I think the story might expand to the other worlds that are part of the history but didn't get much stage presence in the original trilogy.  [Another thing that's surfacing is that I seem to be creating another trilogy, where originally I was going to write a standalone, but this does not surprise me in the least.]

Anyhoo!  Not much else going on today... going to head to the farmer's market, maybe do a bit of cleaning, and then get started on the coming week's blog entries.

Hope everyone has a nice week! :)

Yesterday was a search for sunlight.  It's been overcast/foggy here in the city, and A. requested we go on a road trip somewhere where it was warm and clear.  So!  We drove down to Fry's in Palo Alto (I picked up a new lens for my nice camera that was a lot cheaper than I'd expected!) and drove back up via El Camino Real.  Quite a nice drive, and it was nice to be out where it was a warm 80 degrees instead of an overly humid 65.

Also yesterday, instead of working on any writing, I spent a good three or so hours making the template for the postcards for In My Blue World.  This took a little longer than expected, but I'm really happy with the result, especially since I chose to purchase another Shutterstock photo for the back instead of having it white with text and a smaller cover image.  Interestingly it took the same amount of time for me to come up with the blurb text on the back as it did to tweak the picture!  But it's done, so now I just need to give it one last once-over and then order a pack of them that I can use for future cons and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, this afternoon we'll be heading over to the Castro to see Yellow Submarine at the Castro Theater.  I've been wanting to go there for ages and now I have a good reason! Yay!  This will make the third time I've seen that movie on the big screen... I saw it at the Brattle in Cambridge back in 1999 when they released a major remaster of it, and the other was around the corner at the 4 Star a few years back (not sure of the reason for that one -- I think it was another format release?).  This one will be for the 50th anniversary.  Looking forward to it!

Then it's back to normal at the Day Job, and squeaking in as much writing work as I can...!


Hope everyone has a good week!