Well, I went back to work for our summer Life Skills program.  I have to give up thinking it’s going to be easier than the regular school year.  We hit the ground running and don’t really stop until the end of the day.  It’s only 5 hours instead of 7, but we cram a lot of activities into that time.  I thought I could eat a decent lunch of tahini and strawberries on a pita with a few snacks.  That worked for a bit, but a schedule change means I have to eat fast.  So, it’s going to be yogurt and a sugar free muscle milk except for field trip days and Fridays.  I can survive that . . . I think.

Due to all of my energy going to the summer session and my son starting camp, I wasn’t able to touch Darwin & the Beast Collector after Sunday.  I did get a good amount done last weekend, so I only have 6 chapters to go.  That’s 3 weekends worth of work unless I get some writing done on a weekday.  This coming Thursday and Friday might give me time to whittle down the next chapter, which might be the heftiest of the entire book.  If I finish before summer school and camp end, I will probably get the September and October posts done.  Part of me is scared to start Darwin & the Joy Path until after the week with my son in August.

I’m getting more and more nervous about starting a new book after so many years of hiding behind editing.  There are so many factors.  My life is still a stressful trudge from day to day because of the custody schedule, work, living situation, health, and the list keeps going.  Only being able to write every other weekend makes me feel like the book will be terrible even with editing.  I also worry that my mindset is too battered to write a positive character like Darwin Slepsnor.  The story revolves around him helping an old friend get a legendary artifact to use as a wedding proposal item.  That could be messing with me too because marriage and love aren’t themes I jump into a lot.  Not right now anyway.  Still, it’s the next in the series and I can’t skip to the next one because I don’t know what spells Darwin will create this time.

Another issue that I’ve mentioned before is not having the money to get cover art or promote.  So, I can’t share these books.  Part of me wonders if I ever will at this rate since TA pay isn’t as high as teacher pay. 99 cent books didn’t do much beyond netting a few dollars each month.  Not enough for me to even get a payment yet.

Next week is going to be back to the grindstone, but I’m on my own for the latter half.  I already know I’m going to cook Pineapple Chicken Skewers and Sweet/Sour Meatballs for two of the nights.  Might skip the Wednesday night Pokemon Go event and dive into Darwin & the Beast Collector instead.  That or cut out early, grab dinner, and use the . . . Oh, it’s a big field tirp on Thursday, so I’m going to need as much rest as possible.  Never mind that plan.  I’ll edit on Thursday and Friday for an hour each.

This weekend is going to be somewhat relaxing.  My son and I are doing the Pokemon Go event today, which will allow us to talk a bit.  Lots of stuff to discuss.  Tomorrow will be a trip to the Bronx Zoo where they will have a ‘new’ exhibit open.  Today is the opening day, but I wanted to go on Sunday instead.  It’s the ‘World of Darkness’, which was one of my favorites as a kid, but it closed before my son was old enough to go.  Now that it’s back I really want him to see the nocturnal animals.  Don’t think we’ll be able to take any pictures because flash photography isn’t allowed and I’m not breaking that rule.  I might be more excited than him here.

Nothing else is really going on that’s worth talking about.  I made it to the weekend after a really rough week.  Still processing one thing, which revolved around something I thought was possible isn’t.  This can result in a major disaster down the road, but I’ll hope that other people involved won’t cause any trouble.  This may have triggered a story or character idea, which has me nervous.  I don’t know where to put these characters or if they have any good traction.  My thieves guild story could work for them, but that thing is a mess with tons of characters already.  There’s the monster hunter one too, but all of those heroes are supposed to be cursed and these two aren’t.  Would it make sense to have a thieves guild story that has 10-12 named thieves on the team?  Maybe I could change it to a short story series with an overarching plot like I was thinking with the Windemere superhero stuff?  Wish I had people to talk to on this side of the computer for this.

Anyway, goals of the week:

1. Enjoy the weekend with my son.
2. See nocturnal animals.
3. Catch shiny Pokemon today.
4. Type in more of Darwin & the Beast Collector.
5. Appointments!
6. Work!
7. Cook dinners to avoid starving.
8. Puzzle time to relax.
9. Iron on patch to blank hat I bought in emergency.
10. Sleep better.
11. NEVER TAKE ZZZQUIL AGAIN!  That backfired for some reason.