Parent?  Author?  Teaching Assistant?  Blogger?  Tired?  Mover?  I’m pretty sure I was all of these and more this week.  Couldn’t really tell you what I did last weekend either, but I think I was busy.  Feels like months ago too.

The parenting side was spending time with my son doing our usual unless he was at camp, which was the whole week.  Last week of art camp to be specific, so we’ll see how he does with the other camp on Monday.  This summer is going to be a wild rollercoaster for the little guy.  2 camps then splitting the remainder with me and his mom as well as a long road trip.  A Mets game falls into the mix too.  Oh, we also have 2 birthday parties next weekend and his own the follow weekend.  Feels like only yesterday I was getting a smash cake for his first birthday.  Time certainly flies.

I subbed at my school for 2 days, which created a good break between editing War of Nytefall: Anarchy and starting Slumberlord Chronicles: Darwin & the Fate Bracelet.  I’ll get to those in a bit, but I don’t have much to say about working since I can’t on here.  It was nice to see the students and coworkers again.  Weird seeing some in summer clothes and walking around in casual clothes too.  Almost felt like I was in the wrong place at times.  This did leave me tired by the end of the day, especially since I had to hang around and wait 2 hours until I could pick up my son down the block.  No wonder I was so sleepy by Friday.

The constant drama didn’t help . . . That’s enough about that.

Let’s get to the meat of the week.  I finished the editing of War of Nytefall: Anarchy and took some time to dive into the new series.  You can see that I switched ‘Slumberlord Tales’ for ‘Slumberlord Chronicles’, which I actually did weeks ago when I made the Word file.  I’ve only written the prologue, so Darwin won’t be debuting on paper until this morning.  It was clear that I had to get some of the War of Nytefall violence out of my system, but this creates an interesting contrast.  It’s a dark world and adventure that Darwin is walking into with his happy, optimistic, helpful nature.  Really hoping he comes out right because he’ll be such a challenge.

The thing that is worrying me a lot about Darwin is that my confidence keeps getting derailed.  People go on about not liking heroes who stumble into victory after acting like an idiot?  That’s how Darwin operates.  People don’t think main characters should double as comic relief?  Uh-oh.  People don’t think I should give him habits that hint at him having autism?  Crap.  I feel like I’m stuck only because Darwin’s charm always came from him being different.  He wasn’t a charming, brave, intuitive, risk-tasking warrior like Luke Callindor.  He wasn’t a cunning, powerful, intimidating monster like Clyde.  He was a goofball with magic who wanted to help people, had no knowledge of the world, trusted nearly everyone, and worked off a really childish sense of logic.  Darwin is actually like Fizzle, but with a more mature speech pattern and much less common sense.  Maybe I’ll post his debut on Tuesday to see how it comes off?  We’ll see how my confidence goes.

The rest of my week was spent getting small projects done.  All posts through September have been written and scheduled.  I can’t touch October until some August polls get answers. Gives me time to write, get back into school come September, and develop a topic list for November.  Beyond that, I watched ‘Leverage: Redemption’, which is a continuation of the original series.  Most of the actors came back and it was really good, so it acted as a treat at the end of the day.  With a new book in the works, I decided to start watching ‘Burn Notice’ again since I’ve seen it so often that I can use it as a mental cleanser between scenes.  I have to throw something else in there to watch between seasons, so I don’t get bored.  I’ll figure something out.

Goals of the next week?

1. Continue writing Slumberlord Chronicles: Darwin & the Fate Bracelet.  I might be able to get through 6-7 chapters.  That’s nearly half since it’s only 15 chapters.  I’ll probably only get 3-4 done.
2. Time with son when he’s not at camp.
3. Birthdays next weekend.
4. Biking now that my back is better.
5. New puzzle.
6. Burn Notice breaks.
7. Notebook work if I end writing for the day and have an hour.
8. Contact cover artist about War of Nytefall: Anarchy.