I made it to the weekend, but my nerves are shot.  Long Island has either a 25% or 37% infection rate from what I’m reading.  Looks like the holiday season gave Covid a local boost.  So, I was really nervous about leaving the house and interacting with people even though I’m boosted.  Some people I know ended up being positive and they didn’t have symptoms.  Maybe the sniffles.  Feels like now the damn thing just pounces on you without warning.  I’ve made it this far never having to be tested or catching it, so I’d like to keep it that way.  Still, I was drained from listening to all of the stories and struggling to stay safe until I got back home.

Covid aside . . . Not much else happened.  Coming back from a break meant work was slow and I didn’t want to get into any big projects.  Next week, I start the online course that will go to the middle of February.  So, I can’t have anything distract me unless I find that it’s easier to do than I imagined.  Hoping nothing goes wrong too.  An obstacle with some of these courses is that they have a requirement where you use what you’ve learned with your students to finish the curriculum.  I don’t have specific students, so I’ve had to drop out of those.  There are signs that this might be the same, but I’ll have to find out the details on Monday.  Really hoping I can do this because it’s interesting and I’m getting tired of finding cool stuff that I’m not able to join.

With writing and editing on the backburner, I’m aiming more for ‘Phi Beta Files’ when I have time.  That’s the plan for tomorrow when it’s supposed to rain.  I’ll be happy with all of the villains done, so I can work on supporting heroes or just dive into the outlines.  I still keep bouncing around with how this will work.  Some ideas really would work as short stories while others a named chapter with 3-5 sections.  I’ll have to fine tune the whole concept and change the plot for Book 4 entirely.  It doesn’t work with how the characters are now or the fantasy setting.

I did finish scheduling everything through April 1st, so I might take some time to push the blog further to clean my head.  I’ll need some fun writing while I’m working harder than before.  Gives me time to figure out what I’ll dive into later.  It’s looking more and more like I’ll be busy through June, which hurts.  No real writing until halfway through 2022?  I feel like that’s a cosmic punishment, which I’m getting tired of.  You’d think there would be a limit or I’d catch some kind of break.

There was a snow day yesterday, but I didn’t do much.  Homework with my son, laundry, and we played a few video games.  I’m glad I got the extra day to rest since I was getting stressed, but it wasn’t that relaxing.  Didn’t get to really lie down until 9:30 PM and that wasn’t for very long since laundry is still going.  Guess Sunday will be the day that I get to somewhat relax.  I just need to forget my stress, but there are too many unknown things going on.  So much for a new year being different.  Who in the world came up with that idea?

I don’t have much to say about next week.  There isn’t much of a plan since I start that course.  I can’t print out Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips) until I know I can work on it.  Unsure if I should even bother there too.  I already had a few people read it over, so I don’t know if it’s a bad idea to edit again.  They gave me great advice and there weren’t any problems understanding what I was trying to say.  It could be that the book is done and I should jump to Darwin & the Fate Bracelet as far as editing go.  Anybody ever deal with this before?

Speaking of Darwin, I don’t know how to work the title.  The whole thing is The Slumberlord Chronicles: Darwin & the Fate Bracelet.  It’s a mouthful and nightmare for the cover and Amazon page.  I think.  What do people think about having a series title and a long book title?  Then again, I once had Legends of Windemere: The Merchant of Nevra Coil.  Maybe I’m paranoid for no reason.  That should be a sign that I should stop for now.

Oh, I really only watched an anime called ‘Log Horizon’.  Thinking of binging ‘Cobra Kai’ season 4 tomorrow.  Best to watch that one before I get distracted with other things.

Goals of the week:

1. Help son study for two tests.
2. Buy Legos for son to work on next weekend.
3. Start online class.
4. Work on ‘Phi Beta Files’.
5. Maybe print out a book to edit later.
6. Get a haircut
7. Maybe start the April posts.
8. Sleep
9. Try to destress
10. Hydrate . . . So much harder to pull off than one would think.