Drunken Owls and Other Delights

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!

Note to self: ordering the chilaquiles dish at Richmond Republic is a great idea...if I want to feel ridiculously full for the rest of the afternoon. What's essentially a small skillet piled with breakfast nachos is indeed hangover food. The brewpub itself was full of Bay to Breakers leftovers, including a group of Gilligan's Island cosplayers (Gilligan, Skipper and Mary Ann) having nothing but mimosas the entire time. The walk home did help wear down some of the spinny from the two ales I had (one oatmeal stout and one coffee vanilla lager, both from local breweries).

Taking a break from cleaning the two apartment bathrooms for the moment to catch my breath (I need to give the shower a good scrub-down next). And once that's done, then I can do what I wanted to do this weekend, and that's catch up with my writing!

I'm doing pretty good with having a backlog for my Walk in Silence posts but I'd like to create a few more so I'm at least a few entries ahead at all times, which would make that at least two weeks ahead. I'd also like to create more backlogged Welcome to Bridgetown posts as well. Using the scheduler on my WordPress blogs has decreased my stress levels considerably, as I don't have to worry about cramming all my writing into one evening and thus getting little editing done.

Speaking of editing...oof. The Balance of Light is coming along, but slowly. I'm nearly done with this chapter, and it's miles better than the original opening, though I've already proven to myself that this book's gonna get at least two, maybe three revisions before I release it by the end of the year. There's a LOT left to go, and I need to ensure that I dedicate the time to it; I can't let it fall by the wayside or get distracted by the blog entries or other things.

In short, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my writing over the last few weeks. Yes, I know...I tend to do that on a daily basis anyway, but this has to deal with multiple things: my output, time dedicated to it, and the level of dedication I give to it. I spent years working on the Trilogy, and donating a crapton of time to it at that. It's hard to describe, but writing the trilogy, while fun, did feel like I was trying to Create A Perfect Work of Art, if you get my meaning. There's a level of ultraseriousness to it that, while it worked for the creation and writing in this universe, I don't believe I need to reach quite so high for my other projects. In fact, I think that's why some of my other projects stalled in the past: I was trying way too hard to recreate that level of perfection. Us writers are our own worst enemies when it comes to that. So once the Trilogy is out and away, you're going to see a change of mindset and habit on my next projects. I'll still be professional, but I doubt I'm going to try to aim for Best Book in the Universe anymore.

I have more thoughts on this, of course, but I'll save it for another day.

Meanwhile, back to cleaning!

Every time I choose to do a bit of book purging, I find myself a bit fascinated by my decisions. It was another major 'will I ever read this/will I ever reread this' process, and this time I included not only my fiction but my music and my writing books as well.

What's this, you say? Getting rid of writing books??? *GASP!* Well, most of these were from the Writer's Digest Book Club (or whatever it was called then) where I'd ordered a handful of 'learn how to write' books. I used a handful of them, but for the most part, they've been getting more use as dust traps, so it was high time for them to go. And the good thing is that we've been donating all our books to the Friends of the SF Public Library, who run a twice-a-year Giant Book Sale down in Fort Mason, so they get to be bought and used by others who can get more use out of them. And the best part is that opened up a spot on the bookshelf near the window for Jonc's Officially Published Works. Which for now contains two titles and those two ZYZZYVA issues I was in, but hey, at least I know it'll expand over time!

As for the music books...many of these were bought between 2010 and 2012 when I started thinking about writing Walk in Silence. I did get some use out of them, but with a good handful of them, I doubt I'll pick them up again, so they too can go. Quite a few of those will probably be 'read and get rid of' as well.

But that's not all! The Spring Cleaning Bug seems to have bit hard, as I now have decided it's high time to get rid of some other things as well. I still have some old PC and laptop stuff from the last six or so years, and when I have the time, I will donate those to the local electronics recycling place down in SoMa that I usually go to. [They not only recycle the parts but for a fee will run the hard drives through the woodchipper (or whatever it is they use) to make sure they're completely destroyed.] I may have a few other things to get rid of in the next few months as well. Just one of those things where you just want to let go of things you don't need anymore and start fresh.

The downside to the book purge is that Spare Oom is once again getting a bit crowded with boxes. I'll try not to keep them here for months on end this time, though.


As for writing...new month, new writing schedule. I'd given myself most of April to relax and do some fun short-term projects (like the A to Z Challenge meme and build up a backlog of Walk in Silence entries), and so starting today and going forward, I'd like to get back to work on stuff I need to do. Primarily, starting the Epic Revision of The Balance of Light. I'm going to take my own time with this one, really...it needs a lot of work so I'd like to make sure it gets all the TLC it needs. I don't have a set date for the release of that one either...just a rough guess of late autumn.

I'd also like to return to the small exercises again as well, just to keep my writing muscles moving. Nothing big yet, just the usual 750 during the day, and also posting at the two WP blogs. I should (hopefully) have time to put up some short 500-700 words a few times a week. I still have the weekends open for catch-up and whatnot. Once Book 3 is out, I'll have much more time to spend on new projects. Speaking of which, I told a friend earlier that I'm curious as to what my turnaround time will be for my new projects...I'm not going to hazard a guess, considering I don't know what scale these new projects will be.

However, I do have some interesting writing-based plans in the works that I'm looking forward to...can't reveal them just yet, but hopefully soon!

WELP. So much for doing the laundry downstairs. Looks like the washer shit the bed again. Which means I'm going to have to head over to Rainbow Wash again. I'm not complaining, though...I'd gotten so used to heading over there the last few months that it doesn't bother me. In fact, I kind of look forward to it in a weird way. I get to do some serious longhand work while I wait for the cycles to finish. And I can get snacks from across the way and coffee next door if need be.

In other news, I finally have a phone again! Yay! I'd brought it to the Sprint store down in the Mission, where even the store manager could not figure out what the hell happened to it (it was stuck in a power-up loop, and the only way to stop it was to take out the battery), so they gave me a replacement for no charge. I've decided I'm going to continue with curbing my dependency on it. I've added a few apps on it so far (Twitter, Instagram and Dropbox, three that I know I'd be using with any regularity), but I'm trying to keep it as spartan as possible. I'd like to depend on it more for its intended purpose -- communication -- rather than distraction.

In writing news, I'm a little less than 140 pages left in the final line edit of The Persistence of Memories. Thanks to the few of you who commented on the previous entry for the cover! I kind of like the cityscape one better myself. It's more colorful and retains the skyline imagery. I'll have to tweak it some, or see if I can use a similar picture, but we shall see. I'll probably be working on that tomorrow or maybe next weekend. Also, the soft date for release, I've decided, will be 2/15. It might be earlier or later, depending on if I can get it finished on time. I'll let y'all know.

As for WiS...I'm still a bit nervous about that one. I still have the soft date of late April for that one, but I'm not sure if I'll be finished in time. That one may not be done until summer instead. If that's the case, the release may end up being in autumn instead, and that means it'll end up switching places with The Balance of Light in terms of release date. The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards that schedule. Even though TBoL needs some serious editing, I can at least have that one ready by summer the latest. Again, we shall see...


Hmm. This Seatle/Carolina game is really one-sided. If this keeps up, I may end up heading over to the laundromat now instead of after the games...!

Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend!