and then I lost my job.

AAAAAAHAHAHA!!!! But I found something better (after many weeks of despair.) So the hard luck kid still lives and is still writing, even if it’s just the occasional peck peck peck. Today’s chore is to reconnect with all the social platforms I’ve neglected. Onward!

My scifi LIIIIVES! #AmWriting

Still here, still hating WordPress and all it’s terrible upgrades. I even tried to delete this thing and not even that worked. I deleted something, I dunno what. Anyway, summer was a broiling hot hell and I’m still in pain from The Attack of the Killer Car but I’m feeling much better now. My balance is shot but that happens when your legs, feet, and toes are barely holding together. Still it’s improving. Everything’s improving.

The scifi book is a definite GO and I’m stoked. I’ve created a master .doc and moved everything that works to it (dumping everything that doesn’t) and I’m leaving red placeholders for actions/chapters for me to come back to when it’s their time. I’ve never jumped around between chapters before. I’ve got several novels/novellas under my belt and I always tackled them from point A to point B to point C etc… in a straight line until they were done so jumping around like this is a new experience. I also downloaded Quoll Writer which is a free version of Scrivener. I’m doing the rough draft in Word and then I’ll move everything to Quoll so I can fine-tune each chapter before it’s time to publish. Then I’ll run it through Grammarly and the Hemingway app and everything else I can find to scrub it up good. ALSO a new experience.

I’m serious about this writing thing and I’m adopting everything that can help me. Meanwhile I say unto you, GET VACCINATED AND BE CAREFUL.

I saw a Dragon flying by!

The SpaceX dragon. I can’t believe I was able to see it here in NC. I’m still stoked.

Having re-RE-disposed of the monster…

I’ve finally finished the latest and, by God, greatest outline for my scifi novel. It’s very scant of detail but there’s a whole book there. Now I just have to write it. Groan.

Still hating WP’s new layout. So much.

I’m working on the Ultimate Outline for my scifi story (that’s harder to kill than a cockroach.) I counted all the other outlines last night as I was procrastinating and I have seven plus a full basket of notes and plot synopses. I’m going to pull this horrible allegorical thing out of my system or die trying. (Allegorical because it features a space colony in deadly danger but the people have split into factions too extreme to deal with the problem. Sound familiar?)

I wanted to finish the final outline this weekend but it’s hard getting the balance between humor, satire, and ONCOMING DEATH just right, y’know. Also, my plans for writing cozy mysteries keep getting in the way. And writing kids’ books. And Gothic thrillers. And I need to get a life, geez.

Also, if you cut me I will bleed jelly beans. ‘Tis the season.

• 

WAAAAH!

This has been a fallow year for myself and many, MANY other writers and creative types. Exhaustion, work, injury, and worry takes a toll but at least I made great progress playing my Simpsons Tapped Out game. I’m worth billions there! And my pretend town is arranged beautifully.

*Unexpected Kindle BOOM*

MY GAAAAAAME!

In unrelated news, WordPress has made keeping a blog here damn near impossible.

Being a writer is…(wait for it)…MURDER!

I think I’ll give Cozy Mysteries a try. My mystery template is Agatha Christie’s (the love of my life’s) books, though, so we’ll be skipping the baked goods shoppe and the kittens. NOT that there’s anything wrong with that!

Uh oh, this calls for another pen name. And glorious new covers for an entire series! And…I better actually write one before I start designing how I’m going to present it. Bah, details, details.

Still hating the new WordPress ‘block’ posts, by the way. How do I add an image? Ah, there we go…

Our heroine drags herself in…

…on her one good arm. Where have I been? Suffering!!! A week after my last post I was hit by a car. There was a long moment of hang-time before I hit the street hard. Broke my other arm, broke a few toes, sprained and re-sprained EVERYTHING, and was road rashed all to hell. The driver burned rubber out of there but a kind man stopped to call 911 for me. May he and all his progeny be blessed.

So, uh, the writing hasn’t been going that well BUT my brain still works, mostly, and I ain’t dead. Through these little setbacks I shall carry on!

Slowly.

VOTE

Half the fun of voting lies in strutting around smugly with an ‘I Voted’ sticker on my chest but I wasn’t taking any chances this year. I just gave my ballot to the mailman and I prayed to all the gods to watch over it on its journey. May it arrive intact, may it be counted. Amen.

By the way, I really and truly despise WordPress’s new layout/formatting tools. Hopefully I’ll get used to them. In other writerly news, I’d completely lost my mojo but I’m starting to come back to life now that the heavy swelter of summer is over. I aten’t dead, yet!

I underestimated this thing.

I mean I reeeeeally underestimated the toll the coronavirus was going to have on my emotional and mental health. Then it took out my physical health, too. No, I didn’t catch it. My mask obscured my vision long enough for me to fall off the curb and I sprained every joint I had! Oof.

This happened last month and my wrists esp are still sore but I’m slowly getting back into the swing of writing. I’m revisiting ‘B or How the Bogeyman Didn’t Save Christmas’ to give it some massive cuts and spiff it up for a XMas in July promo. Never say die!