This was the last week of the quarter, which had Veterans Day smack in the middle.  It was a nice reprieve and I had my son, so we got to have fun.  We might even have another art post coming up next weekend if he finishes his two current projects.  Okay, I writing this last night after a glass of chianti, which is hitting me harder than I expected.  No more for me.  I’m exhausted too.  It was a really grueling week.

Work was busy because the end of the quarter meant a lot of traffic in the testing center where I spend most of my time.  This is where most of my energy went to and it got steadily more difficult as the week went on.  Handled it all though and things are ready for next to be easier.  Please let it be easier because I could use a simple week.  There are parent-teacher conferences for my son though, so we’ll see how those go.  I do hope to get a little more progress done on . . . something.  Anybody remember what I was working on again?

Writing has been weird this week.  After finishing the first drafts of War of Nytefall and having no other series to pounce on, I feel lost.  Normally, I’d take a week to relax and gather my energy.  That didn’t happen with working and parenting.  I tried to start Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips) and only got through the intro, which will be posted on Tuesday.  I took a long time to write it and it was nerve-wracking because I realized that I’m the main character.  I don’t have a skin to wear in the spotlight like Luke Callindor or Clyde.  This is me . . . and my social anxiety kicked in and I severely doubt how well it came out.  I came up with so many reasons:

• I rushed . . . Even though it took me 3 hours.
• I used contractions . . . That was the plan.
• People will think it’s too casual . . . That was the plan!
• People will hate it . . . I got nothing to counter this one.

The big thing is that people will ignore me stating that this book will be written as if they are blog posts.  They are made to be casual and easily understand with minimal jargon to help people who might be starting out.  More experienced authors may see this as me being sloppy and that worries me.  It’s happened on this blog at times where a fellow author will miss a chunk of my post and make a critical comment that doesn’t really connect.  That worries me a lot more than it should because I will have to depend a lot on other authors helping to promote this.  No idea what to do with the cover and inside art either.  First time I’ll be putting pictures into a book and I want to make sure that they look good.  Cost might be an issue too since I’m looking at cover, Legends of Windemere art, War of Nytefall art, and Ichabod Brooks art.  Maybe one more right before the end, but I don’t know what that would be.

I have my son this weekend, so I won’t be writing.  My nights have been used to set up a long line of Tuesday posts where I put 3 songs to each Legends of Windemere book.  A lot harder than I imagined and it brings me into February.  I wish I had some good February topic posts, but the well is running dry right now.  Feel free to suggest anything that isn’t Ye Olde Shoppe.  I know that one is popular, but I can only do those when lightning strikes.

I’m hoping to get back to Do I Need to Use a Dragon? after my son goes to his mom’s next week.  That will be after I see how people take to the intro.  If it’s an utter disaster then I’ll slink away and work on Ichabod Brooks or something.  I’m also contemplating dropping all of my single books to 99 cents around Thanksgiving since I haven’t had a sale in 2 months.  It’s clear I’m not going to make money on this or that I’m seen as worthy of a $2.99 price tag.  Read an article that the onslaught of non-fiction political and current state of the world books has reduced fiction sales too.  I can believe that considering how many people I meet admit that they refuse to read fiction out of fear of missing something in reality.  Guess escapism is a bad thing now?

Bought a new toy that won’t show up until around Christmas, so I’m going to keep that a secret.  Started playing ‘Mega Man X’ with my son.  It’s fun on the Nintendo Switch, but I realized that there is a response delay.  This game was originally in the Super Nintendo and my reflexes expect a certain reaction.  Buttons are smaller now, so I can’t pull off a lot of my more agile moves or dodge things.  I hit jump at what I think is the right time and X doesn’t always react accordingly.  I have to take a lot of hits to the face and hope I survive now.  Still, it’s fun to play an old series with my son.

Wish I had more to report, but that’s it.  Stress has me filled with doubt about a lot of things, so I need to chill a bit more often.  That might be the goal for the next week if things are slow enough.  I chipped a tooth and need to find a dentist, so there’s that event I guess.  I’m running out of steam here and hope that I presented the crazy of the week in some fashion.  Enjoy the weekend.

Goals of the week:

1. Parenting fun this weekend.
2. Make it to next weekend.
3. Finish the Music Video posts.
4. Get tooth fixed?
5. Training one night.
6. Parent-Teacher Conferences.
7. Possibly do some writing if I can get my confidence back.
8. Outline if I get a slow period?
9. Watch more ‘Yu Yu Hakusho’ without falling asleep.
10. Biking.
11. Remembering other things I wanted to mention here.