I survived!

That’s all I can say with semi-certainty.  I mean, I’m here and functional to most extents, so I can say that’s a victory.  Barely have the urge to do anything more than exist and watch ‘The Witcher’ though.  Think I really need a weekend like this since I have one more week of work before the break.  It can be a rough one with a lot of testing and getting ready for the holidays.  Ended up dragging myself through this week, so I can only imagine what’s coming.

Part of the difficult of the week was a chronic health issue.  I got the Covid booster two weeks ago, which was good.  It left me drained and achy for a few days, which made work a challenge.  I made it through, but stressed myself to the point where I set off my IBS.  It didn’t help that I wasn’t drinking a lot of water except for last Saturday.  That may have been a shock to my suffering system, so I spent most of this week feeling like my lower intestines were knotted around a sharpened knife.  Muscled through it, which may have prolonged the experience, but there’s no other way to get over it.  Just have to ride it out until my body regains its composure.  Funny thing is that the Wendy’s food I got on Thursday may have been what snapped things back to normal.  Just needed a greasy burger to remind my digestive system that it’s a toxic cesspool, so it should stop complaining.

Of course, this ordeal left me with little energy for other things.  I could barely focus on doing anything for War of Nytefall: Eulogy.  It’s up to 4 sales.  I saw a big boost of 17 sales on Thursday, but that ended up being Legends of Windemere and maybe an Ichabod Brooks book.  Really hope my vampire series can get the same kind of love at times, but it’s looking like I’m being seen as a one series author.  Then again, I was able to establish tons of promos for Legends of Windemere, but lacked the money and contacts to do the same for War of Nytefall.  Possible that that’s why I can’t get any traction, but I can’t do anything about that unless I win the lottery or sell a kidney.  I doubt I’d get much for my tortured innards, so lottery it is.

As I said, I didn’t get much else done.  Never had time to touch my notebooks and I got only 2 February posts done.  I’m aiming to get more scheduled this weekend when I need a break from ‘The Witcher’.  That’s the plan for break too since I don’t want to touch any books until after the New Years.  I might take a day or two to review the outline for Darwin & the Halfling Hunt.  I’m starting to wonder if I should include ‘Slumberlord Chronicles’ in the title since all of them start with ‘Darwin &’.  It feels like it would be a lot for a cover and I think I’ve run into series where you don’t have the series title on there.  Need to investigate that a bit more.

I may try to print out Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips) and edit that come the new year.  Then again, I’ve had a few people read it over and they liked it with my point usually getting across.  It might be smarter to print out Darwin & the Fate Bracelet.  I’m still not sure I can get an artist for the writing tips book, but I have someone for Darwin.  Either way, I won’t be publishing again until April or May after I’ve had time to edit and get my head together.  That’s if I get everything else ready by then, but I’m wearing down fast.

That’s really the big thing here.  Mentally and physically, I’m reaching my breaking point and only have enough energy for work and parenting.  Once those two are done, I collapse and try to muster up the energy for another round.  I think the cold is a big reason even when it’s just chilly.  Thought it was the booster, but it’s been too long since then and I’ve had other issues.  IBS may have done more damage than I realized, so a weekend of rest could help me with the coming week.  Just running in mental circles now.

Sadly, nothing else is going on here.  No excitement while I march towards a break.  I don’t expect this coming week to be any different.  I’m trying to think of another anime to watch once I’m done with ‘The Witcher’, but my son made me promise not to touch ‘Black Clover’ without him.  That was the one I was going to start over the break, but it’s now part of the evening line up once ‘Edens Zero’ is done.  Really do want a long series that I can get into, but nothing is getting my interest.  Might re-watch ‘Merlin’ or ‘White Collar’, which is an odd combo.  ‘Cobra Kai’ comes back actually, but I might finish that quickly.  Oh well, I’ll figure something out.

Goals of the week:

1. Make it to break.
2. Parenting fun.
3. Finish the February posts.
4. Tinker with Darwin & the Halfling Hunt outline.
5. Maybe work on Phi Beta Files if I have a quiet moment.
6. Watch ‘The Witcher’ from start to finish.
7. Puzzle time!
8. Swear I’ll get tacos this time.
9. Use the bike at least once.
10. Sleep