Drunken Owls and Other Delights

I really shouldn't feel this tired today, but between two super busy midshifts at work followed by a morning shift, and the high humidity due to a coming rainstorm, my body and brain called it on me this morning and I cut today's shift short. I am now here in Spare Oom listening to tunes and trying to get some of my energy back.

In the meantime, i have probably about sixty pages left to go through on the spot-check for Queen Ophelia's War. Most of it has worked out pretty well though I think I still need to fix the closing lines a bit, as they feel rushed. I should be able to get those pages done in the next couple of days, followed by maybe a few days of looking for a good book cover. And THEN I can finally start working on Theadia...!

I had to work today (Sunday) to fill in for the head bookkeeper who'd requested the day off, so I basically did one midshift and four opens in a row, just a few days after the time change. So yeah, my head's kind of a mush at the moment. Thankfully I have Monday off which means I can sleep in and chill! I'm hoping that I can catch up on rest this week, as it's been quite an exhausting one these past few days... I usually don't have too many plans on my days off other than catching up on small things like emails and short errands. I'm probably not going to do much other than laundry!

Meanwhile, I've FINALLY finished with the spot-check reread of Queen Ophelia's War the other night, so this basically means that I can get started on fixing the minor details! I think I have like six or seven notepad pages to work with, and most of them are 'reword this' (I did the smart thing and reworded them ahead of time in the notes) and things like that. Working on those won't take more than a few days at most, so between tomorrow and Thursday, my other day off this week, I can probably get everything complete and start doing the self-publishing prep! Woo!

Okay, so I really need to stop re-re-re-rereading my WIPs at night, because my Mount Read Me pile isn't budging. I'm thinking I should put my e-reader here in Spare Oom so I'm forced to read what I have before it gets any worse. I'd rather not have a repeat of last year where I basically read like ten books because I was so distracted by my writing and lost interest in everything else. I need to get back into reading new things again!!

[Oh, and I finally recently read Pride and Prejudice, and it is indeed a brilliant and shockingly funny book. The Lizzie/Catherine DeBourg face-off remains one of my all-time favorite literary moments.]

Meanwhile, I did manage to get a bit of writing work done at the Day Job today in the form of writing a few thoughts about what to do with my space opera Theadia. I'm on the cusp of thinking that this may end up going the same route as The Phoenix Effect and being completely rewritten as a multi-book project, probably a trilogy if not a duology. As much as I'm proud of what I have so far -- and that's saying a lot considering that I've never written in that genre before -- I think the story should be allowed to breathe a lot more. I'm intrigued by what's going on offscreen a lot of the time and I think it's worth expanding to make this universe another large-scale, large-cast story like the Bridgetown Trilogy. 

I haven't decided yet either way, but I'm intrigued by this, so if I can get Queen Ophelia's War done soon, then I can do a deep dive and give it a shot?

I have just heard from Lenovo's repair shop and they have (hopefully) fixed my PC and have sent it on its merry way back to me, with an expected arrival of 12/21. Yay, Christmas is saved! Year-end mixtape creation is saved! Plex server is saved! Huzzah!

For the record, I would not be surprised if it was a Microsoft update that got all wonky and crashed it. I'm not sure if they switched out the motherboard or managed to get it running again, but I'm thankful that the turnaround was quick and it wasn't anything too major. [If this crash happens in the future I will make one last attempt at opening it up in safe mode if it will let me. While I might not have the biggest PC knowledge out there, I at least know enough not to do anything stupid like deleting an extremely important bit of software.]

As for writing, I think I'm going to do another soft restart of Queen Ophelia's War. I say 'soft restart' because it won't be a complete revision but just starting over and replacing everything that I still have issues with with my original ideas that I think in retrospect work a lot better. I'm going to focus more on it in the new year. Also in 2024 I think I'll finally get started on my new project Sheila Take a Bow. I wrote an outtake this morning on 750Words just to see how it would work, and work it did! More on that one in the future...

And as for health, Something had me congested over the last couple of days and I think it's probably something at or near work. My store is right at the edge of a golf course, which means there's a good chance I get a pollen allergy every time they cut the grass or do any tree trimming up there. It goes away temporarily when I head into the break room (which is enclosed with no direct outside connection) and when I get home. It's just when I'm working the front end. A Sudafed last night seems to have helped a bit, and I'm hoping it won't return.


Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Surprisingly, I've got today off instead of Thursday, which had been the norm for ages, but I'm not going to complain. It's part of a conversation I had with a few of the managers last week regarding the Front End Manager position. As much as I'm capable and willing to work that weird 11:30am to 8pm shift to watch over the front end (as it says on the tin), it can also be super exhausting and frustrating, especially if I have two of those shifts one right after the other. (I really don't know how the lead FEM does it. They have more patience than I.) I offered a compromise: I'll keep one of those shifts, and the other Adult In The Room -- the one who finally came back from LOA -- can take the other. That way I can focus more on what needs doing without feeling overwhelmed or exhausted by the end of it.

Meanwhile, I've been tempted to return to the blogging these last couple of weeks, but I don't think I'm quite ready for it yet. I'm doing well with revision on Queen Ophelia's War and getting my daily words don, and even doing another reread of Theadia as the follow-up revision project, but I'm also thinking that Busy Time At The Day Job is coming up quick and I may not have the spoons for it just yet. So instead of jumping back in with the themed posts I'd been working on, perhaps I'll wait until December and do the Year End Review entries. Doing them twice a week like the usual schedule or just once a week to save my sanity, I'm not sure, but we'll see.

On that note, I'm going to spend the rest of today just enjoying the time writing and doing other things I've been wanting to do!

A and I are back from our trip back from the east coast and all is well as can be, considering that our flight back landed at 9:30pm, we got home by 10:30 and asleep by 11...just in time for me to wake up at 5am for a 6-2.30 shift. Oooof yeah, I was a bit loopy through most of it. I pretty much passed out at 9pm last night and caught up on sleep, though now I have that sleep headache, heh. Thankfully I have today off so I can relax. I only need to do the laundry and the food shopping and I plan on doing those this morning, leaving me with the rest of the day to relax and write.

And yes, I did in fact get a lot done on Queen Ophelia's War during our trip! This is one of the reasons I like flying: it gives me an extended writing session. I spent the flight out reading all 35 pages so far of the current draft, and for the most part it's sounding really great. Just a few tiny fixes here and there, but otherwise it's going exactly how I want it. Which means that I shouldn't be having too much problem with the other edits coming up, as I've made it past the 'terrible opening' stage, heh.

Hope everyone has a good week!

I've been doing a lot of rereading of Queen Ophelia's War these days. When I get in to the 'constantly rereading my WIP' segment of a novel project, that means that I'm relatively okay with the draft I'm currently working with, and this is the one I can use as a master to work on overdubs, edits and additional vocals. Which is a good thing, because I've been hoping to get this one out sometime early next year.

Thing is, what I haven't been doing is actually working on the damn thing. Part of it is because I've been distracting myself with blogging and other things. I haven't necessarily been putting it off as I haven't really made all that much effort to try and get somewhere with it. I've just decided to go on a blog hiatus for at least a month in the hopes that I'll get off my arse and get moving on that right away. [I'll still work on the daily 750 as that doesn't take all that long for me and I kind of see it as a warm-up before the actual work. And besides, I'm still writing and not doing something else like playing games or futzing around with my mp3s, right?]

I haven't been reading all that much this year either. I've mentioned much earlier that I think reading that Big Honking Two Volume Beatles Book exhausted me mentally, but come on -- it's been a good number of months so there's got to be another reason why I'm just not resonating with any books these days. I did distract myself recently by reading the full run of the Gunsmith Cats manga on hoopla (as mentioned, I'd forgotten how horny that one could be at times, heh), and the occasional manga catch-up, but that's it. I've got Karen Lord's latest next to my bed with two of her previous books in the same universe to reread, and I'm hoping that might break me out of this slump. We shall see.

Anyway, it's far past time for me to get work done again.

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!

Dreamwidth is so weird sometimes. I can't seem to tell if it likes or hates my VPN software. Sometimes I'll log in with no problem (like today) and sometimes I'll get a 404 error instead (yesterday). And I don't like leaving the VPN off for too long because I'll forget to turn it back on sometimes.

Anyhoo! It's Friday and I'm listening to KEXP as usual while preparing for another day of writing work and new music releases. It's been kind of an odd couple of days recently because I've stopped writing on the 750Words site (albeit temporarily) while I put Queen Ophelia aside for a few weeks. This has given me some open time which I've been using to completely focus on Theadia, and to remind myself that it's okay to take a bit of time to, y'know, enjoy some silly things like playing a few rounds of FreeCell or reading a few pages of that wrist-breakingly heavy Paul McCartney Lyrics book. I don't necessarily NEED to be productive every single moment of my waking day, yeah?

Thinking lately about the character interaction in Theadia, actually. One of the things that make this book is the importance and necessity of interpersonal relationships, and I'm having fun exploring what I can do with that. Two of the characters (not the title characters) are Space Force co-pilots and bffs, and I decided it would be fun to create something where that kind of close friendship is not just accepted but expected and promoted in that field. Dani and Lee aren't connected romantically in any way, but their connection is just as deep. They're fine with showing emotion and giving and accepting comfort when needed. Unlike Althea and Claudia, who are two besties and utterly in love in that 'already married' way, Dani and Lee's relationship is such that they've set it up so they can wholly trust and depend on each other when it matters most.

Oh, and to make it official here: In my brain I still pronounce it as thee-YAY-dee-a (as Lee likes to say it), but you can pronounce it however you like. THEE-yah DEE-ah is fine, as is thee-YAH-dee-ah. The point is that this is Thea and Dia's universe, and we're all just drawn into it. :)

I've been wavering on the WordPress blogs lately. I still want to write them, but I've been a bit lacking in ideas lately. In the past, I'd have pushed through and eventually come up with something, but that can be really exhausting and time-consuming. And because of that, I've been leaning more towards just doing a fly-by or just skipping it entirely for a week or two. I don't feel too guilty about it because quite a few of the webcomic artists I follow have been doing the same as of late. Between creative work and real life stuff, especially this time of year, it's kind of par for the course to take a month or so of a hiatus to recharge, refuel, and catch up.

I've also been focusing almost all my creative juices on finishing Queen Ophelia and the Theadia rewrite. I'm getting really good vibes from both of them, which makes me very happy. I'm hoping that once they're done and cleaned up and ready to go, they'll be the best work I've done so far.

Which, by the way...whatever happened to Diwa & Kaffi? Good question. I think I need to revisit it. Not because I'm not happy with it -- I certainly am -- but I've been away from it long enough that I think giving it another once-over might help me decide what to do with it. I'm definitely going to sell it as a Young Adult/New Adult (NA = juniors/seniors/college kids) so if it needs just that little bit more work, then I'll know what to do.

Meanwhile...another wave of job searching coming through again. And yes, I have even looked into local grocery stores. Whatever works and gets extra money in our accounts, yeah?