By now, everyone knows what happened at the end of last week.  I don’t think I have to go into it again.  All I can say is that this week will be recovery mode.  With any luck, I’ll have the files to sort through by Tuesday and the new hard drive will be installed within the same time frame.  Preferably I would want it a day later, so I can use Tuesday to put all of the ‘to keep’ files on this desktop.  Key items are the toddler videos, my writings, fan art, and Internet favorites.  I’m not sure what the data will look like when I get to go through it, but it’ll get done.

THEN my vacation will kind of start.  I can’t jump into the editing for a week or so.  Depends on scheduling.  This will give me time to do some reading and outlining.  That second part might become a slight headache.  I thought up another story for Clyde’s series and another for Darwin’s series.  The problem is that my notebook is in the middle of ‘The Elysium Saga’, so I need to finish that first.  Then I’ll partition off a section for ‘add to earlier series’.  Oh what a tangled web I weave.  Some days it looks like one of those rope snares in the cartoons.

I’ve been thinking about the action scene week at the end of July and wondering how to work it.  So, I think I’m going to take one from each book and try to showcase each of the champions.  I have Book 1 (Luke) and Book 4 (Timoran) scenes chosen. Not sure what to do about Book 2 and Book 3.  I’ve used all the Nyx vs Trinity scenes before.  From Book 5, I’m thinking of a Delvin scene and then the scene that shows the nightmare that is ‘Bob’ (real name still being withheld).  A hard part of this idea is that I always think battle when it comes to action, but there are other types that I can pick out.  Also, each one will be cut off at a suspenseful moment and come with a spoiler warning.  The entire plan could change if I get the cover art by then, but I don’t have an ETA on that.

That’s really it.  Finished first draft of Book 8 prior to the crying.  It’s Father’s Day where I’ll possibly get a card and then life goes back to normal.  I still want to get pizza, but I’m trying to behave . . . seriously, I just keep getting voted down and I can’t (shouldn’t) eat an entire pie by myself.

Time for the goals:

1. Put lost programs back on computer when new hard drive installed.
2. Put files back on and make sure everything is backed up.
3. Finish reading ‘Ranger’s Apprentice: Halt’s Peril’.  Choose next book to read during ‘break’.
4. Begin scheduling blog posts for July.  Have a short list of themes like Elements in Fiction, Senses in Fiction, a week of poetry, Books to Film, and something that I wrote as ‘Author Life’.  Not sure what that last one is.  All I know is that I’ll be tackling this on Monday to distract myself from the waiting for data recovery to finish.  Reading doesn’t distract me from fretting.
5. Get my butt back on that bike.
6. Cook penne with vodka sauce and order books to sign as a thank you for the data recovery.
7. Attend toddler’s graduation ceremony.  This is at #7 because I wouldn’t miss it and it’s more of a given than a goal.  Kind of like breathing.
8. Figure out how to get Pandora to work on the Desktop.  It’s a mess and I’ll need it until my laptop is resurrected.