Legends of Windemere

I realized that it’s been a while since I did an animal post on Sunday.  Totally random thought, but things have kept coming up on that day.  Tomorrow won’t be one because I’m going to reveal the cover and blurb for Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips).  I’ll set one up for the following Sunday though since I should have the time to do so.  After all, I finished all of the scheduled posts through May and won’t tackle June for a little while.  That’s going to be all excerpts from the book leading into a July 4th release.  Now that I’ve got all the rambling out of the way, let’s get moving.

This was a week of many events.  We had something called Showdown at school, which was basically ‘Battle of the Classes’.  Every day had some fun events and contests.  My sinuses were in such bad shape on Tuesday that I had to stay home, so I missed the games assembly.  That was a bummer because I enjoy watching those events.  Sadly, if stairs are a challenge then I shouldn’t be driving.  At least I managed to stave off these issues to enjoy the rest of the week.  Albeit, a few personal life events made that a challenge.

Writing-wise, I didn’t finish 2 chapters of Darwin & the Demon Game.  If you think I’m going to announce that I did 3 then I’m sorry to disappoint.  I fell short by one chapter section because I had health issues on Saturday.  Due to a personal thing, I’ll be off from work on Monday, so I can use a little of the non-meeting/appointment time to get that last section done.  This will leave next weekend free for another attempt at writing 2 chapters as long as the weather holds.  It looks like I have a good chance of finishing this book before the end of April, which I’m fine with.  That gives me May to tackle the outline for the next Darwin book and hunker down to a few other projects.

Stepping back to Darwin & the Demon Game, I’m having confidence issues.  I love what I’m writing, but I’m doubting myself all the time.  Not sure if things are really bad or I’m questioning myself as an author.  Darwin being a difficult character to write isn’t helping, especially since his allies in this book are equally rough.  I think part of it is that situations aren’t as complicated and winding as my previous series.  Due to Darwin being rather straightforward, blunt, and easily confused, he doesn’t have the patience for the types of adventures Luke Callindor and Clyde did.  He doesn’t wait or investigate, but blurts out direct questions, accusations, or spells.  That’s part of his charm.  Yet, it makes the current story a little wonky.  I can’t put my finger on why that is since this wasn’t a problem with the last 3 adventures.  Is Darwin even the problem?  Could it be that his allies are the sources?  Could it also be that 2/3’s of the book is spent hunting for an object and the last 1/3 is the actual ‘Demon Game’?  I could just be having trouble mentally shifting myself to the third act, which is going to delve a lot more into the mentality of Darwin’s new friends.  Guess I’ll find out next weekend when I tackle the transition chapters.

That was a lot of thinking.  My mind is juggling a bunch lately.  Certain situations have led to me having my son for Easter in some fashion.  It’s also my birthday, so I was always going to get him for half the day.  Still, I realized that I needed to prepare some Easter stuff for him.  He enjoys the holiday and I know egg hunts are big.  So, I ordered a set of 6 ‘dinosaur eggs’.  These a eggs made of clay, which have a dinosaur in the middle.  You chisel into it to find the toy.  The big difference here though is that I didn’t get the kind I’m talking about.  I bought a set of 6 ‘Pokemon eggs’, which have a mystery Pokemon toy inside.  My son has no idea I got these, which means he can’t help with the painting. I found six Pokemon eggs from the anime and games that I can pull off with the paint that was included.  This is going to be another secret project done on Monday.  I’m nervous because I want to make sure I pull this off since I know my son really loves doing these kinds of things.

I don’t have much planned for this week since we’re still 2.5 weeks away from Spring Break.  With no blog posts to prepare, I might just use my evenings to relax.  Get some extra rest to enhance my chances of success for next weekend.  I haven’t done much with TV watching.  I finished ‘Sword Art Online’ and gave ‘History of the World Part 2’ on Hulu a try.  Didn’t have the same magic as the first one and I think a big reason was because it was a series instead of a movie.  Felt like a rapid-fire, disjointed skit show with some showing enough potential that I wish it was a movie with those alone.  I’m working through an anime called ‘Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?’ since the third season is dubbed.  It’s a fun series with a title that doesn’t come close to explaining what’s going on.

So, what are the goals of the week?

1. See ‘Shazam: Fury of the Gods’ in about 2 hours today.
2. Help my son with his ELA project tomorrow.
3. Rest while my son catches Arceus in Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
4. Work on puzzles
5. Biking when possible
6. Improve sleeping habits
7. Maybe tinker with ‘Phi Beta Files’
8. Paint the 6 Pokemon Eggs
9. Write 2 chapters of Darwin & the Demon Game, which is kind of a crossover goal for the next two weeks . . . Oh, finish chapter 10 should be here.
10. Maybe set up the poetry posts for June and the Sunday posts through April 9th.
11. Figure out if Tuesday posts in June will still be character highlighting teasers or something geared towards Do I Need to Use a Dragon? like a weekly Questions 3 thing  I mean, there are 4 Tuesdays and the book has 4 categories (Author, Characters, World, and Quest).
12. Finish this post and get on with my day.