There’s no other way to describe it because my week ended with me feeling like my chest was stuck in a vise. Drama in every direction. This is coming off a break, so I might have had my defenses down. Still, I didn’t expect to get so wrecked that every night was a struggle to stay awake long enough to get a little me time. I wasn’t always successful, which resulted in me falling asleep and then waking up earlier. That continued the cycle, but I got to sleep in a bit this morning.
Most of what happened can’t be talked about here. Just a combination of getting back to work, my son getting back to school, interacting with people, and a sense of feeling both lost and forgotten. Beyond work, there wasn’t much in the way of socialization even last weekend because things didn’t work out that way. I couldn’t even tell you what I did beyond laundry too. Everything is a blur from the stress. Before anyone suggests relaxing, I did that and it seems to only tee me up for a blow to the head. Pretty sure this is where many people will stop reading and jump to the comments too.
Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips) is in limbo for now. I’ve been unable to find any beta readers or an artist to do both the cover and a few inserts. Tried my best, but nothing happened and I have to barrel forward with both work and getting War of Nytefall: Savagery ready for an April release. Need to do the blurb and a final editing run on that, which might start this week. Things are definitely getting more difficult since I can barely keep myself afloat on the blog and writing. Doubt the will change any decade soon. I think that realization added to the stress because I have no idea what to do with Do I Need to Use a Dragon? and I refuse to put it on the blog for free. I spent 2 . . . 3 years working on that one during lunch breaks, free periods, and whenever I had some extra time. So, it’s on the shelf until I can get beta readers and an artist. Those internal pictures are the reason why I can’t go to 99designs even though that isn’t always the best option either.
The only other thing I did was outlining, which led to the completion of a short story collection set up. Realized I had enough space in the notebook to squeeze in a 6 book spin-off series of a Windemere character that was influenced by James Bond. Not a huge amount of core characters there and I think I’m only going to do 14 chapters per book to keep things simple. Much of it depends on how he comes off in the series he debuts in since he wields a six-shooter. Every time I mention him, people start struggling to explain how the technology can be abused and why it shouldn’t exist. They bring up methods to undo it that go against the Windemere rules, so it’s almost like the appearance of a gun in fantasy triggers something in people. It’s weird and has me nervous about using him in general, but he’s a character that I’ve been tinkering with since high school. I think he’ll work out fine.
Well . . . I don’t really have anything else to talk about since last week was all work, little play, and massive stress. Think seeing politics appear from corners that I never expected them caused me to pull back too. Watched another live-action ‘Rurouni Kenshin’ movie and an anime called ‘Vandread’. First thing was fun and I learned right afterwards that they’re making two more, so watching the third doesn’t mean it’s the end. The anime was . . . eh. Really old-school and corny, so I faded in and out. Oh, and I watched ‘Murder Princess’ too, which was only 6 episodes, but fun and to the point. Haven’t picked out another series yet either. I might just go down the queued list, which means it will be ‘Scrapped Princess’ and I’ll go through the motions. Not touching any major outlining until I’m out of this funk, so there may be some anime sacrifices to my mood.
Next week is all work and maybe some play. Really need a haircut. I have my son for part of the week too, so I won’t attempt anything big while he’s here. If anything, I’ll start editing War of Nytefall: Savagery for neatness and typos. That might take me a week and a half, which puts it in perfect position for release in April. Yeah, I’m not that interesting right now.
Goals of the week:
- Work
- Parenting
- Finish scheduling April posts. Any May topics?
- Outline series
- Final edit for War of Nytefall: Savagery
- Blurb too
- TV?
- Puzzle time to help relax
- Haircut
Legends of Windemere 
I think I must have fared better, but I’m not that interesting right now either. I’m struggling to figure out something for my blog. Maybe I’ll just start writing and see where it goes.
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Good luck. Blog writing is getting tougher. Thinking of using June as a poetry month.
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Life has been kind of boring, so it doesn’t leave much to post about.
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My life isn’t boring. It’s just that the stuff happening can’t be blogged about without making situations worse.
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I understand.
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Tough when what happens to you is stuff you can vent off in the blog. Wishing you a better week. (I know I said that last week, and look what happened) Fingers crossed.
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Thanks. I’m expecting next week to be the same. That’s why I might not touch the outlines for my next series until end of March when spring break hits.
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No use hitting your head against a brick wall for sure
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Not when my face has already made plenty of impacts.
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Hahahaha.
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I wish there was a sympathetic emoji face.
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Thanks. They should really make one.
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Sorry it was one of those weeks, and you can’t even properly vent here because of the topics of the things causing you stress. Hope this week is so far going better, and you’re having better luck getting some “me time” this week.
Sorry you’re having a hard time finding a beta reader and artist. Keep looking, and hopefully you’ll find someone. There must be someone out there who can beta read the way you need it done for that kind of project, and someone who can help with the picture thing. I’ve done beta reading before, but without knowing exactly what you want the beta reader to look for, I can’t be sure if I can help… I know you said something about not wanting many of the usual issues a beta reader would be looking for pointed out, and only wanting spacific input, but I don’t recall any mention of what that spacific input was, and I don’t want to promise my assistance if I can’t be sure I can actually help.
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This week isn’t going that smooth either. I had a feeling it would be messy too because there was going to be some carryover events.
Thankfully, somebody really helped me out by offering to beta read. So, I’m happy about that. The artist issue is going to be tough to handle since I don’t know where to start with that one. As far as input, it’s more about making sure the entries make sense and get my point across.
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Sorry this week isn’t going as well as you’d hoped either. Hope it improves.
My favourite form of beta reading! If all you need is, “does this make sense, and get the point across?” type feedback, I can help you with that if you need someone else. I just need a format I can read on the computer (a word document, for example) and a long enough timeframe to get it done in that I can guarantee to give it the proper attention it deserves regardless of what kind of sleep schedule I might be on at the time.
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Honestly, it’s getting steadily worse. I give up on hoping for anything beyond reaching the weekend. I can send it to you in Word form. With the art a big mystery, I’m saying by mid or late spring? I was hoping for a summer release, but no art might mean later.
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