Legends of Windemere

I just realized it’s April Fool’s Day, so me saying I’ll be away for a bit could be perceived as a joke.  Well, it’s not and I’ll be doing my best to respond by phone until I get back online around Monday evening.  Don’t hold your breath though considering what’s going to be going on.  I’ll probably be able to mention it directly next weekend.

As far as this week went, it can be summed up in one question:

Ever have a day where you just don’t want to bother with pants?

I mean, you still wear underwear or pajamas, but you just don’t want to go out and do anything.  This was basically me after I finished Raven’s Dawn on Monday.  I’d get stuff ready for the weekend, but I spent a lot of my time with the TV on and staring at my notebook for the next Sin book.  Probably did this for 4 days and all I did was design two characters.  5 if you count noting the changes in 3 recurring ones.  Guess I just didn’t have my mojo this week due to a stress, fatigue, chaos, and my teeth giving me trouble.  Not sure what the trouble is beyond hypersensitivity and inflammation, so I can’t do much about it.  Been flossing like a madman though.

So . . . Here we are.  All I can really talk about is where I’m going and I mean that in the writing progress sense.  I’m hoping to release Ritual of the Lost Lamb this month, but it’s not going to be easy.  Things have been crazy, so I’ve been rather slack on my prepping time.  Most of the pieces are there, but I haven’t put them together since I need the final one.  I think the fact that I go from this weekend to my birthday/Passover/start of 1.5 week Spring Break has me wondering what the point is.  Any project that I start will get a long pause unless I get a day where the kid is being watched or I maintain enough energy to function at night.  Energy seems to be lacking these days.  Not to mention I know other events are coming.

This is what wore me down last year since it felt like every third week had a holiday, birthday, or something.  It’s only rough because I’m trying to get so much done and I’m always asked what progress I’m making.  Well, I can’t really make progress if I’m battling to carve out time just to do the writing side of things.  I can’t read anything beyond graphic novels or short stories due to me having to choose between reading, writing, and resting.  Yes, I know there’s the whole ‘take care of yourself’, but I can’t spend days on my ass and let things build up.  Especially since me resting is perceived as wasting time and brings on stuff that undoes the resting.  In other words, there are penalties for sitting on my laurels even though I’m not sure I have laurels.

I’ve definitely got some thinking to do.  I won’t be contacting the Ichabod Brooks cover artist suggestion until after the Spring Break because I want to be freer to respond and give feedback.  Nothing says professional like trying to get a signal while standing next to an aardvark enclosure.  Beyond that, I have 5 possible projects to tackle and a feeling of hopelessness standing in my way.  The whole ‘think about 2018’ is maintaining my depression and the advice of just doing it isn’t helping.  Again, how do I prepare for next year if I’m going to be forced out of the game?  I seem incapable of balancing work, family, and writing, so a full-time job would mean I go buh-bye.  Not even trying to sugarcoat that level of looming misery any more.

More than likely, I’ll tackle the blog only Bedlam story since it’s the low impact one.  I can take breaks from it and churn it out to start posting it in June.  Still on the fence about making it canon or not.  I’m leaning toward sort of with them not talking about the events, but one or two survivors might show up from time to time.  Really this one crazy character that I think would be fun to bring back.  It’ll depend on responses to her.  Over all, this might be more of a Bedlam year than Windemere since I only have editing and publishing to do on that one.  It’s still weird waking up and not spending the day with the old cast of characters.  Kind of fear that I’ll forget them as I move on.  At least with the other series, I was working towards them.  Never left one behind and whole before.

So, what’s the plan for the week?

1. Recover from weekend.
2. Contact Jason about cover art.
3. Start writing Conquering Bedlam.  Might be able to get 3-4 chapters done.  Keep in mind that this is going to be a full-sized book posted 3 days a week over the course of 3 months.  Kind of like a Hail Mary to get attention to the series.
4. Decide on birthday movie and prepare for judgement over choice.
5. Cooking, biking, yadda, yadda, yadda
6. Try to get my head together.