So, I’m still trying to figure out my week, but the above kind of describes how I’m feeling right now. The weekend may have given me a little taste of the summer, which might end with me in a padded room. If not that then living in the sewers talking to rats who are really mice, but don’t have the heart to correct me. Here’s a few things I’m trying to get my head around.
Good-bye Training Wheels
We’re trying to teach my son how to ride his bike. At least, we took the one day that was warm to start things up and now it’s chilly again. Either way, things didn’t work out too well because he’s having trouble wrapping his head around balancing. Once he leans to one side, he’s down and he’s angry that I’m not doing most of the work. Doesn’t help that he has two adults either yelling orders at him or arguing. Too many cooks in the kitchen here and that probably made a bigger mess. One strategy that a neighbor suggested was duct taping a broom (I used a hockey stick) to the back of the bike. This means I can help my son without killing my back. It’d help if he didn’t abandon bike at the first sign of trouble. On the plus side, he’s mastered the dismount to the point where I feel comfortable if he ever has to jump off a moving bullet train.
Open Thursdays
In two weeks, I’ll be on my last character biography for War of Nytefall. This means I have nothing for Thursdays. I was considering opening it up to other authors who want to promote their books or finding another character-based thing to do. Interactive interviews never work and the Questions 3 thing lost its luster, so I’m guessing this will have to be something that’s more controlled. Way back, I tried to simply leave the day open for reblogs, but found that this killed my blog traffic in terms of comments. Not that I have much these days, but I’d like to do an ongoing that’s entertaining and gives people insight into my stories. This is probably going to be the big head scratcher.
Where Can I Find Anime?
I’m not talking online, but I tried Best Buy recently. Looked like nobody restocked the shelves and it was mostly DBZ and copies of Final Fantasy: Spirits Within that I’m sure are older than the store itself. I’m enjoying what I find on Netflix and Amazon Prime, but the pickings are fairly slim from what I can tell. Getting only one season of something kind of sucks too.
Should One Edit Before Beta Readers Return?
This one is a tough question. I don’t use beta readers a lot, but there is one person that helps me out with a read through to let me know if the story works. That way, my first editing run is a bit more focused. I’ve hit a point where I’m waiting for that info and found that they’ve been too busy to get very far. Now, they’re moving along more out of annoyance that I dared to ask about it. Anyway, I’m trying to figure out if I should start editing before they’re done. I can take this week to do more work on the Sin story, but I don’t want to lose more than that. Diving into the next first draft writing would be a problem too because then I’d finish dangerously close to the summer release date, which means I only get to do one editing run. Tough call.
That’s pretty much the life fires I’m trying to put out. Posting this is supposed to clear my head, so we’ll see what happens. All I did was stress myself out. Not a successful mission, I guess.
Legends of Windemere 
Maybe you need to move to London, your son would have a higher chance of becoming a spy like James Bond, lol, at least then he could have a reason to jump off a train.
It sounds like you had a very stressful weekend, sorry to hear that. I hope it’s not an indication of how your week is going to be.
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Kid can’t keep a secret, so I don’t think spy is in his future. Hope this week is better than it seems. Tomorrow is supposed to bad weather, so it isn’t looking good.
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Yeah, you’re getting the storm we had on Friday. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as you think.
All kids have trouble keeping secrets, I was bad at keeping them when I was his age… I’m a lot better now, lol.
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It looks and sounds bad so far. Not looking forward to driving in it. Good point on secrets. Though I still can’t see my son doing anything subtle. Unless he’s so subtle that I don’t notice.
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Too bad you can’t just stay in bed and drink hot chocolate all day, that’s what nasty days are good for.
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I wish. Worst part is that I don’t even have a raincoat.
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If he’s mastered the dismount, perhaps a career in rodeo is in his future. I’m not brave enough for a blog serial like John runs, but you could try that.
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Rodeo could work. Though I don’t trust horses. They’re up to something. I know it.
Closest I came to the serial was the October stories, but I could see if there’s an idea that will work.
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So are the bulls, but you always know what it is. They want to kill you.
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Can’t blame them. I mean, you have people poking at them with swords and clowns running around. So rude.
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Sorry for the lack of comments from me lately. I spent my Easter weekend in hospital, and the next week or so battling an infection that had me in too much pain to be able to be at the computer. I struggled through the pain to do a couple of things I absolutely had to do, and couldn’t manage on my phone, but mostly I’ve been limited to what I can do on my phone, which doesn’t include posting comments on blogs.
Anyway, good luck with the bike thing with your son. It’s frustrating for everyone when the training wheels come off, and probably more so for your son with his issues. The too many cooks thing won’t help matters. If you can, I’d maybe try making sure it’s a one on one thing with just the two of you. It might not help much, but it may at least avoid the arguments between you adults, which will take some of the stress from it at least. That’s the theory anyhow.
If you get to choose, go with the rats. Despite what people say, rats are very clean animals, and can be really sweet and friendly. Hanging out with them will be much nicer than the padded room. Plus, if you start talking to yourself and a passer by overhears, you can insist you’re still talking to the rats, which isn’t an excuse you can use in a padded room by yourself.
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Sorry about the hospital stay and I hope you recovery completely soon. Not a fun way to spend Easter. 😦
I can’t make the bike thing a one-on-one thing until summer. At least if it’s me doing it since we’re all around during the weekend. I can’t let my wife do it alone either because her wrist is still too weak to handle his weight on the bike. At least that’s what the therapist and she keeps saying. The weather got cold again, so I have a few weeks to figure it out.
What if I claim there are rats in the padded walls?
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Thanks! I’m doing better than I was, but it all started with my anxiety and anemia issues setting off an asthma attack during a stressful situation, so it’s not something that’s going to completely go away. It seems to be back under control now though.
Well, if the bike thing is still ongoing come the Summer, you’ll have to make it a one on one thing then. In the meantime, just do your best, I suppose.
Yeah… Claiming there are rats in the walls might work. Although, it might also buy you a longer stay in there.
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The bike thing might be more of a challenge now that the other kids on the block are biking. They all have their training wheels off.
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Ooohhh… That’s going to cause some frustration and tantrums!
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