The above video really rings true for me this week. I’ve been stressing about life, which might mean I had enough time to think. Not enough to do biking though and I still have another week to go before I can get to that. Maybe I’ll get to it on Friday since things might fully calm down by then.
Since this is an author blog, I’ll start with the writing. Quest of the Broken-Hearted is going well and I made a lot of progress. Barring any major events, I should have it done by next weekend. That gives me a week before my son has his Winter Break, so I might do another editing run on War of Nytefall: Loyalty. Good news on that front too since it looks like an early April release. That means I’ll be spending March doing hype. Actually, I might as well ask this because I’m curious:
What topics do you think should be covered when promoting a vampire book?
Honestly, I already have vampires in general, monstrous heroes, and immortality as topics for March. Not really sure what else to do. Maybe a casket shop. My plan is to prep the April posts during my son’s break whenever he’s asleep or at martial arts camp or just wants to do his Lego adventures throughout the living room.
Future projects are popping into my head too. I should hunker down and do more of the Ichabod Brooks outlines. That collection and the October finale for Dawn Addison will be my summer work since I won’t have much time. The former is easier to do and spread out while the latter is always a low pressure thing. I’m not confident in the Dawn Addison thing as usual, but I figure I should give it a finale. People who enjoyed it or at least put time into reading it deserve closure. This year really does feel strange since I’m ending that and putting Ichabod and Bedlam on the back burner. At least I have the next Bedlam book written and . . . maybe I should edit that one during that week break to avoid rushing War of Nytefall. I could use some Lloyd and Cassidy time since they’re not on the release list for 2018.
So, the writing is going strong and sales have been surprisingly decent. I have no idea what happened either. The big days appeared when I wasn’t doing anything. Not that I’m complaining. Think I’d rather have these unexpected big days than spend most of my time trying to figure it out. My love is always more for the writing than the business side, which might explain some things about my struggles.
Life in general has been here and there. We have the annual Super Bowl party, so a lot of cleaning and planning has been going on. I’ve volunteered to thoroughly clean the kitchen since I’m the one who cooks in there all the time. That and spot sweep the rest of the house, but I might hand the dust buster to my son and unleash him on the house. My ears are okay and don’t hurt, but they do this weird thing where they get air bubbles or something whenever I step into the cold. Did some research and couldn’t figure out what’s going on. Considering insurance is giving me trouble with the last specialist I saw, I don’t want to bother this unless it gets bad.
Speaking of bad, my car is driving me nuts. Nothing like what happened with my wife’s car, which we really hope is back on Thursday. That means only 4 more days of driving her to work and my son to school every morning. It’s an exhausting schlep that stops me from biking my 15 minutes and doesn’t help my son ease into his day. Still, that’s better than what happened with my car. It’s an old Toyota and the outer car handles can’t handle the cold. Both on the passenger side of the car have snapped off in my hand. We have the parts to replace them with, but it involves taking the entire door apart. The one day we planned to do it ended up having rain. This weekend is out because of the party. At this point, I have to wedge my fingers under what’s left of the handles and get them open. It hurts when it’s cold. This might delay the finishing of Quest of the Broken-Hearted if a weekday is taken to do this. Guess I should consider myself lucky that this is the worst that happened.
Goals of the week?
- Finish Quest of the Broken-Hearted
- Work to fix car handles.
- Super Bowl party!
- Lots of driving
- Work on March posts
- List post topics for April
- Tinker with The Longbow of Ichabod Brooks
- Possibly start editing Derailing Bedlam
- Catch up on sleep
Legends of Windemere 
Not too bad of a week for you… Glad to hear it! Hope the ear thing improves rather than getting worse, your wife’s car is back on Thursday, you get the handles sorted on your car, and the rest of your week goes to plan.
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Fingers crossed on February being better than January. I can only imagine what else could go wrong though.
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I can’t imagine door handles snapping off in the cold. I’m beginning to think you should take the Griswold name.
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My new plan is to surpass the Griswold name. All I need is a running start, some scorpions, and the Grand Canyon.
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Ha ha ha.
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Not too bad of a week. When you get the car back, that’ll be huge. I have to say that sandwiched in your post was your passing thought- a casket shop. That lit up like a beacon, because nobody writes what you write, centered in a casket shop. Just sayin’ that would be cool.
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The casket/coffin shop would be fun and it means I haven’t run out of Ye Olde Shoppe post ideas. Really looking forward to the car coming back.
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So glad Ye Olde Shoppe is swirling in your head. Car = freedom and life. 😀
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Car would also mean I can start exercising again. 😀
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Yes!!
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Glad you had a better week finally.
I like your idea for a casket shop, if you feel like doing something with puns, you could do an unrelated shoppe post selling coughs, that’s a bit odd, I know.
As for other vampire posts, since they drink blood, what about a post dealing with how a vampire avoids catching diseases when they feast?m
Enjoy the Super bowl.
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Think I’m missing the cough shop pun. Variation on cough drop? Not sure if a Losange Store would work since that’s fairly limited. A post about the risks of blood drinking could work. I’ll have to think more about that one to make sure I can get it to work.
Since it’s Patriots Vs Eagles, I’m not that invested in it.
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Sorry, guess I wasn’t really clear. I meant you could call it a coffin shop and sell coughs and flus to people, maybe as curses?
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Ouch. I did do a curse one in 2016 though.
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Did you? I guess I forgot it, I’ll have to look for it.
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It’s an old one. I nearly forgot about it and had to check.
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There seems to be an upward turn in there somewhere. It may not be much, but it’s the right direction. The coffin shoppe post sounds like fun to write. So what happens if a vampire gets a sliver? Do they avoid wooden utensils in their kitchens, hardwood floors in their homes, bare feet under the trees? Do rosebush thorns kill them if they break the skin? (Almost sounds like a discussion Lizzie and her hat would have.)
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I always thought the stake had to destroy a certain amount of the heart. Hence the need for multiple stabs and a hefty size. I would think they’d keep the wooden utensils in case they’re attacked by a fellow bloodsucker. As for thorns, they’re fine. They wouldn’t make it to the heart due to size.
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