What's Happening in the Angry Sheep World

Greetings to my patient readers!

I know it's been two weeks since I posted. Things have been super busy. 

Genius Kid flew out to his next assignment last week. We spent last week getting the things he needed and seeing family since he'll be overseas for a year. Unfortunately, the Grandpuppy misses his hoomun terribly, so he needs extra love and attention.

Which, of course, made Princess Pup jealous. That has meant extra carpet cleaning with her displeasure.

I had the opportunity to be the announcer for our town's semi-pro football team for a couple of games over the summer. So, Darling Husband volunteered me to do some announcing for the high school soccer teams this fall. The school's regular announcer had to drop a few sports because of some health issues. However, the jobs are being split among several people, so I"m not saddled with everything. I don't mind helping out, but I get the most writing done when DH running the time for the lacrosse teams in the spring and the soccer teams in the fall.

I also need to make some changes to my business in preparation for opening an online store and update my estate plan since I now have a lot of IP. So there's been a lot of phone calls, e-mails, and meetings with my new attorney.

Is any writing getting done? Yes, but just not at my usual pace. The new plan is to leave the house in the morning and turn off my phone. There's a new French-style cafe that just opened near our house I want to try. Sounds like a perfect hidey-hole for the rest of August and September.

To everyone out there, new books are coming.

And school has started in a lot of places already, so please watch out for buses and kids!

Writing More than Showing On the Stats

Over on the side ribbon (if you're looking at the fullscreen version of this blog, I keep a list of stats on current and future writing projects. Right now, it doesn't look like I'm doing much of anything. My NaNo project is an Alter Ego book, the first in three(?) years. 

Also, I'm double-checking for typos in Magick and Murder after finding a few I missed in Fae and Felonies while proofing the paperback. Also, there's the annual Christmas short to write. I need to have everything done before DH and I set out on our first real vacation since GK was born. (The treks to Ohio to visit family do not count as vacations because they definitely weren't relaxing. Neither were the staycations to fix house stuff.)

After we return from our trip, I've got two eye surgeries scheduled in December to fix the cataracts I have thanks to the tamoxifen. Like I told my oncologist, if there's a weird side effect to a drug, I'll have it. Merry Christmas to me.

But that also means, my writing may be limited until my body processes the new bionic lenses, as my buddy Jo would say, and we figure out if I need glasses or just reading glasses or *fingers crossed* I don't need anything at all. By January, I should be able to drive al night again.

Can I now? Technically yes, but I don't feel comfortable doing it.

This is just one of many things a person deals with on the way the big 6-0. Yet, I still want Barbies for my birthday, and I plan on hitting my favorite comic book shop when I'm in Houston. I feel very paradoxical at the moment.

However, I will be taking Baby Blue with me on vacation. DH no longer flies so the drive to our destination will allow me to only write. While technically a laptop, Baby Blue isn't much more than a glorified tablet with a keyboard. She only has WORD and EXCEL loaded, and the wi-fi remains turned off unless there's a dire emergency that my phone can't handle. And there isn't much a smart phone can't handle these days. However, I only have my personal e-mail on the phone.

If all goes to plan, I should have a few giant updates on stats at the beginning of December. Then, things will be quiet until the beginning of January.

P.S. The entire Justice series is currently on sale at all retailers (or it should be) until December 10th. Pestilence in Pumpkin Spice (Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse #1) is $0.99 until Deember 31st!

Time to Get Back to Business

Even though there are some additional winter celebrations to be had, the holidays are done for our family. Genius Kid left in the wee hours of the morning to spend the rest of his leave with his girlfriend. Darling Husband and I are facing a tower of boxes in the newly acquired house. And yet, we both need to get back to work today.

For me, that means setting up spreadsheets and attempting to plan out the year. I've got things I need to finish from last year, including paperbacks that didn't get released. I'm excited about the new Soccer Moms series, and I think I might write all the books before releasing any of them. I bought a few pre-made covers for an idea that got placed to the wayside years ago and is now resurrected by the pretties.

But most of all, I need to take a step back and breath instead of spinning around on the hamster wheel and not doing anything to my satisfaction.

Because if I'm not happy, the readers are generally not happy either!

Next week, I'll start posting sample chapters for A Virtue of Child. 'Til then, stay warm and stay safe!

A Brand New Start

Last night was quietest New Year's Eve we spent in a long time. No parties. No fancy foods. DH, GK, and I spent the day cleaning out the apartment. It's hard to believe we spent six years there.

So we picked up fast food on the way home. Arby's classic cheddar and beef with Horsey sauce and an Andes mint chocolate milkshake for me if you're curious. I was exhausted and planted my ass on my recliner and tried to write. Despite doing a couple of sprints with some friends also trying to get words in, I gave up and watched TBBT reruns until the news and Stephen Colbert came on. DH and I toasted with diet soda and water at midnight. He limped back to his office to place computer games while I did some formatting during the rest of Colbert and James Corden.

So yeah. It was fairly uneventful.

I'd gone into 2020 with so much excitement. I was writing on a regular basis again. I was healthy enough to travel. I had a couple of writing workshops lined up to attend.

I had a lovely time at the first workshop in February. I planned to take my best friend to a Cher concert in Vegas, only to have it cancelled at the last minute because Cher got sick. We made up for it with an awesome Drag Brunch at Senor Frog's.

But during my layover in St. Louis on the way home, the newscast said COVID-19 was devastating Seattle and New York. The first known death from the disease was announced. I self-quarantined when I got home.

Just in case.

But I'm entering 2021 cautiously optimistic. Vaccines are being produced. A stand-alone Starbucks is about to open in town. I surprisingly made a few more bucks than last year. And I can't wait to get started on a new series.

I hope all of you have a peaceful and healthy new year!

The October Status Report

 I tried to do the publish-something-every-month for 2020. It didn't work very well.

Part of it was due to the COVID-19 crisis. Part of it was due to a bunch of personal things. No, the cancer is not back, but I did end up in a West Virginia ER last week because of the stress from the bunch of personal things.

What does this all mean?

It means I'm going to take a couple of steps back and rethink my goals for 2021. I still plan to rewrite the Millersburg Magick series because it didn't meet the fun Scooby-Doo-esque feeling I wanted. I'd hoped to get this done over the summer, but I didn't succeed. I want to continue the Justice and 888-555-HERO series because they are so much fun. And I really would like to get the Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse series past the first couple of chapters I've written because I think they will be hilarious.

And right there is eleven novels.

 

So much for taking a step back. 

The publishing challenge did tell me my strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the experiment was not a total failure. But it may mean some rearrangement of the 2021 release schedule.

2020 wasn't all bad. If I can stay out of the ER, I'll have a lovely new office to work in for 2021.