Being Good

So I went to Target to get some chamomile tea to help my son sleep. When I walk in the store, I have to walk past a little in-store Pizza Hut they have on premises. That's where I almost got in trouble.

I am gluten sensitive, which means that things made with wheat tend to make me sluggish, sleepy, and stupid. It also doesn't do wonders for my writing production. So cool things like hamburgers, chili dogs, submarine sandwiches, and Italian food just don't exist in my world. I have gone a long way towards striking them from my mind and not seeing them when I chance upon them.

Today, that didn't work so well.

I was walking past that little in-store pizzaria, when I became aware of pizza. And I mean AWARE of pizza. Suddenly, the joys of melted mozzarella acting as a luscious bed for spicy pepperoni came crowding back into my mind in memories enhanced by long forgotten sensations of taste. I stopped at the door, and literally had to fight not to drool at the sight of their little pizza display. I wanted that pizza. I needed that pizza. My mind started negotiating with my wavering willpower for that pizza. It made promises of "only once," and "a little won't hurt anything," and "at the worst you go two or three days without writing...at the worst."

Not since I quit smoking six years ago, have I ever had a crisis of will like I did then.

And I prevailed.

Yes, dear reader, I struggled and fought with my inner oregano-fortified demons and managed to slowly turn away from that den of temptation...ever so slowly, like a zombie from a Romero flick...and shamble away. It was a very emotional moment, for it was a victory that tasted of ashes...when defeat would have tasted of glorious pizza. After getting the tea, I left by the far exit of the store to avoid walking past the place again,  and took the long walk to my car in the parking lot.

I was bloodied, but the battle had been won. Tomorrow the hearts of men may fail, but it wasn't on this day. Not this one.

Oh well, back to writing.

Another Milestone

Whoop! I have passed the 60,000 word mark on Argiope. I think that puts me at about sixty percent done, at the rate this book is going. It's going to be a little longer than my first novel, but that's okay. I just want to try and get that first draft done by January 1.

Today, I worked mostly on a conversation between protagonists. It's actually sort of a silly one, but one of the talkers has an agenda. The main thing I realized while writing it is that I'm going to have to go back to earlier conversations in the book and expand on them a little. They're kind of abrupt in style compared to the later ones. That's okay, this book is evolving as I write it, and it's a real learning experience. It's my "B-movie in a book" but I'm taking it seriously. It still needs to be the best quality I can make it.

My cough is still with me, and I'm hacking up junk, but other than that I'm feeling fine. The only drawback is that it wakes me up at night sometimes. I guess it will pass too. It seems to be the only symptom left.

I'm also enjoying the Fifty Great Ghost story book, and I hope to have a review of it up by next Monday. It's giving me a lot to think about. It had some sister books out back when I was a kid, so I think I'll look them up as well. It makes a great resource for certain writing purposes. I'm going to have to decide upon a reviewing criteria. I want any review I write to be useful to the reader.

Oh well, I'll think on these things later. For now, it's time to make sure I'm ready for the kids in the morning. Adios!

Maintaining Momentum

I reached Fifty-nine thousand words on Argiope today.

I wasn't sure about a scene, but I chose to write it out and include it simply to keep my momentum going in writing this book. I may very well elect to come back and remove, or at least alter, this scene later. It's basically a small scene designed as a break between scenes involving the main character and his allies. In this scene a kid out hunting encounters one of the antagonists, and has a brief conversation/confrontation with her. The effect is to add a little depth to a what has been a rather effective, but two dimensional, character.

The problem is that at this point in the story, I may prefer to keep her two dimensional. At this time she has a certain impact when she appears, and I don't think I want to dilute that. But I needed to keep writing, so for the moment the scene is in the book. It's just one of those decisions that will have to revisited after the first draft is finished. Right now, I just want to get a first draft done before the end of the year. While putting out short stories and novelettes has made me feel kind of productive, I need to get another novel out there.

So I need to get about ten thousand a week written between now and New Years. It's doable, but a tad fast for me. It will definitely cut into my promotion time while sipping mocha's at Starbucks. Sigh! The sacrifices a writer must make!

On another front, Sheridan did well in his test at Cub Scouts and will be getting his Bobcat badge this weekend at the campout. I'm very proud of him. I'm hoping he gets to do a lot of things in scouts, and we'll try to make sure our schedules allow him to be as involved as possible.

Now it's time to make the put the old nose to the grindstone, which sounds to me like an rather bloody and unproductive approach to getting work done but I don't make these metaphors.

Hacking and Wheezing into Monday

Writer's Night Out was cancelled last night, due to illness on Cherri's part. It sounds like she has the same thing I do, but is about three or four days behind me. I've gotten past the fever and chills, but I'm still hacking and wheezing like an asthmatic. So naturally, I went out to Denny's anyways by myself so I could do some reading and writing outside the house.

Sometimes it's just good to get away for a few hours. My Cowboys let me down again today, so there was no joy in the Mudville of my Heart.. (hey, that's catchy!) They have apparently decided to see if they can lose each football game in a fashion more stupid than the one before. So far, they are doing a swell job of it. Needless to say, I didn't get much stress relief watching my team.

On the brighter side, I did get fifteen hundred more words written on Argiope. I'm not even sure I will keep the scene, but at least it's written. It adds a tiny bit of depth, not a lot, to a rather unsympathetic character. I don't know yet if I want to do that, but it's better to have something written and available. At least I'm producing. So I'll continue this focus on Argiope for now.

Tonight is Sheridan's Cub Scout Meeting. His mother has been drilling him on his Cub Scout homework, so he should be ready. I think Cub Scouts will be good for him. It's just hard for poor Karla to find time away from her work schedule to help make things possible. She's really trying though, and doing great. We won't be able to attend the whole campout this coming weekend, but we'll try and at least drop by during the day.

Ah well, Happy Monday everybody!

Weekend Update 2

So we decided not to do Renfest this weekend. I'm still under the weather and we didn't feel like taking the risk of making it worse after all this time. So we'll settle for taking the kids to a nearby park, and then the mall. After that, we'll just come back home and watch the football games.

I'm actually working on the next scene in Argiope so that's coming along. I think deciding to focus on finishing it, as opposed to splitting my attention between projects, is the right move. I have had too many irons in the fire lately, and not getting anything done. Considering I'm at the halfway point on Argiope, it only made sense to go ahead and finish that one. Besides, I wasn't really happy with the work I have gotten done on the Khrem stories...and since those are currently my signature fantasy stories, I'm not going to settle for just anything there.

Gotta keep those standards high!

I also need to get back to reading. Ever since I have started writing, my reading has simply stopped. I hardly read anything but the occasional internet article anymore. So now I've found a book that made a big impression on me when I was a teenager...about thirty years ago. It's called 50 Great Ghost Stories, edited by John Canning. I even found one with the old graveyard and ghost cover like the one of yore. So I bought it used off  the internet and I'm starting to read my way through it again. It kind of puts me back in my grandmothers house, reading on the front porch while visiting her that summer so long ago. I think it will be my first book review on Goodreads.

Anyways, it's nice to be reading again and I hope it fuels my own imagination as well. I think my muse has been running on fumes lately. Here's hoping this perks the little booger back up...before I have to get rough with the little guy.

The Weekend is Upon Us

It's the weekend, so I slept in.

Anyways, I'm thinking of taking the kids to the Renaissance Festival tomorrow. The weather looks good for it, and that will get it out of the way early this year. I've always wanted to go to the last day of it in December, but every time I have tried it hasn't worked out and I ended up missing the festival for the year. So my strategy this year is go ahead and take the family as soon as I can, then try and catch it myself later. Sounds like a workable plan to me.

Now if I can just shake this nasty cough. Oh well, I can cough at Renfest just as good as I can cough at home. So, no excuses.

Got another scene finished on Argiope, now I need to come up with a scene to cut away too in order to break the flow a little. Oh well, at least a little writing is getting done.

The only other thing to report is that the Two Ends of the Pen  reviewed The Ways of Khrem. It got four out five stars, so I'm more than happy with it. Anything that is three out of five or above is a win in my book. I have a lot of confidence in the book, but I do enjoy it when other's like it too.

Anyways, I need to set a goal. So my new goal is to finish Argiope by the end of the year. It's already halfway through October, and I'm a lot further along at 57,000 words with Argiope than I am on anything else. So, lets see if I can have a working first draft by sometime in December, then the year will be salvaged. 

It's Friday

Okay, It's Friday...the end of a rather futile and mostly unproductive week. Writing wise, I got a little work done on Argiope but little else. I'm reconsidering the story I'm working on for the Khrem sequel, as I may have just put the wrong story into the wrong setting. The current story doesn't require the setting it's in...the sunless canals...but I have a possible idea for a story that might make better use of them.

I'm also a little unsure of the current story in that it's more of a pure mystery, without as much action that usually shows up in Cargills tales. Basically a simple whodunit in a taven/inn with a bit of politics and a gloomy Cargill on the side. I started recognizing the tone would be completely different than the rest of the Khrem stories so far, and stopped to reconsider it.

This cough that I've been having the past three or four weeks has started getting wet, which brings it's own fun and sunshine into the world. At least the fever and chills are gone. Just my luck, the cough didn't go with them. Grrr....

Been doing a little promotion work, mainly on kindleboards. I know kindleboards work because that's where I promote my short stories and they are selling. Kindleboards only provide a trickle though. I know some people advise using Facebook, but I've tried it and don't recommend it. I have never seen facebook work for anybody, so I just use it mainly for social stuff.  I think friends get tired of friends promoting PDQ anyways. It's too much like preaching to the choir.

I would .like to see another review at a book blog come in. That one three star review this month caused a small spike in sales....I would be curious to see if the phenomenon repeats itself. I'm hoping that if enough people buy my book over the next couple of months, it will start showing up at Goodreads. That would be helpful.

Oh well, that's it for now. I hope everybody enjoys their weekend!

Realistic Goals

I ain't what I used to be.

Part of my problem is that I'm trying to live up to goals that only a couple of years ago may have been realistic, but no longer are. I'm still wanting to churn out one publishable novel and twelve publishable short stories a year. I've done it before, and the uncritical part of just assumes I can do it again. Then I get frustrated and despair as I fall off that pace.

I'm just going to have to accept that things have changed.

My hands simply don't function as well as they used to and I type a lot slower than I did even a year ago. Then there is the fact the kids are occupying more of my time. And on top of that is the overrarching fact I've already plucked the low hanging fruit of the easy ideas I've carried around with me for years, and now I'm having to work harder to come up with new ones. And it seems that this is my autumn to be sick, just to add that icing of misery to my layer cake of discontent.

And, of course, as I get less done my mood goes south. So unless I just enjoy wallowing in misery I may need to downgrade my expectations  a little. That way I stay the happy cheery person I'm known for being.

Regardless, I actually do have a short story already written for November...so that takes that pressure off. It's a Christmas story, of all things. Not exactly my usual genre. I'm not even sure what I'll do with it, but at least November is covered.

My productivity is still sputtering. I still think it has more to do with promotion and time usage than anything else. I've been really good on the GFCF thing, but have been to much under the weather to enjoy any benefits. It's hard to notice any increase in mental acuity when your head and sinuses feel stuffed with cotton.

Anyways, I hope everybody out there enjoys their Thursday.

Have fun!

Structured Time

Well, I seem to be closing in on part of the problem with my recent drought of writing production. It actually is the promoting. This whole process of having Word 2007 open in one window and Chrome open in the other just isn't working. I end up checking my numbers, or making a post on the kindle boards, or even checking a review blog...and the muse just leaves me. Then there is a long while of me just staring at a screen, accomplishing nothing, before finally getting some progress and then starting the whole stupid process over again.

So something has got to give.

Now first of all, let me explain one thing right off the bat. When you're a small writer, following your sales on Amazon DTP and Novelrank can become addictive pretty damn quick. You'll find your mouse cursor easing over towards the bookmarks to those sites...seemingly of it's own will. And on a regular basis too. So lets establish something right now. If I have an internet browser open, I am in promotion mode and no writing worth mentioning is going to get done.

With that in mind, what I'm going to have to do is start dividing my time into blocs. The whole hour by hour schedule would never work with me. I would wander off it quickly, get discouraged, and then the whole idea would fail. So I'll try this "time blocs" idea instead. Basically, divide my time into multi-hour blocs of writing, promoting, kids, and if there is any left over, housework. The main thing is just committing myself to the idea that for a certain segment of my day, that I will be focusing my meager mental and physical resources in a certain area and not splitting them. Maybe that will lessen a little stress too, and let me be a little less of a grouch.

I guess we'll see. I'll give it a try today and see how it works out. Tomorrow divides best into three blocs...
1. Waking till noon.
2. The two hours while waiting for Rowan at her therapist.
3. The time between 3 until Karla gets him around 6:30. This time features children.

So basically I'll work with that, and see what I can come up with.

We'll see what happens.