So, I’m still toying with the idea of taking a solo trip to upstate New York for the few days between dropping my son off with his mom and school starting. It’s to get away and do some editing/notebook work in isolation. Sort of. I’m leaning towards a place I’ve been to before and have a few friends that I can see for a bit. Beyond that, I’ll probably stay in the hotel room or find a place in nature to get some work done. This still depends a lot on finances, time, and making sure I can find a room.
My questions for other people:
Have you ever gone on a solo trip to do writing or another craft? Was it helpful or at least relaxing?
I’m asking because I’ve never done a solo trip before. The drive is daunting to begin with, but being all alone gets to me as well. Can’t remember the last time I was ever alone somewhere. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever willingly done that. So, it’s a brand new experience. Any insight would be helpful.
Last day of the 23-24 school year was Wednesday and it was crazy to the very end. So much to do before the year ends and summer school begins. You also had goodbyes to those retiring or leaving for a variety of reasons. Honestly, it’s only been 2 days since the ‘break’ started and it feels like I’ve been away from school for months. Can’t figure out why that is.
Well, one reason could be that I had apparently been running on survival mode this entire time. After our last meeting, I hit the park for some Pokemon Go and figured that would wake me up. Instead, I nearly fell asleep on a bench. This was a bad sign, so I got back in my car and drove home ASAP. Thankfully, I wasn’t that far away. My plan was to go right into resting, but my bed had tools and other stuff on it because the cable boxes were being replaced. Probably spent about 2 hours fighting to remain conscious, which is where I made the mistake of having a glass of whiskey. I was fine for a while, but then I had to crawl into bed. Didn’t pass out, but my body definitely decided to let me know that it was being kept together by toothpicks and gum. Feel asleep at some point and felt somewhat human the next morning. Guess I just needed a good slumber.
I’m still running out of steam fairly quickly, but that’s caused by the heat too. I can’t get myself to sleep beyond 6:30 AM, but I did have an appointment on Thursday. Maybe I need a day to force the issue. I’ll try tomorrow since there’s a big Pokemon Go thing going on today that I wanted to be a part of. Figure I needed more sleep before I go into the heat and try my luck. That’ll wear me down, but I don’t think I’ll be out for the same length of time as yesterday. On the other hand, I should try to build up my stamina and heat tolerance since I’m working summer school. Yes, many teachers and TA’s work during the time people think we’re just sipping margaritas on tropical islands. In total, I get 3 weeks of break with summer school being in the middle.
Speaking of vacations, I finally took the big step and reserved a hotel room in Oswego for late August. It’ll be a solo trip where I’ll work on either editing or notebook stuff. I really just want to get away and relax before the next school year begins. Not that I’m going to fully relax. I’m really nervous about this trip because I’ve never done a solo drive for longer than 2 hours before. This will be about 6 hours without counting breaks. I figure I’ll stop a bunch of times, but I don’t know how many stamina will be without someone to talk to. There’s going to be the radio, but singing along won’t be the same. Come to think of it, I’ll be alone in the room too. That means I won’t be speaking to anyone unless I can get together with some friends.
At least I’ll have my characters to keep me company. I’m still trying to decide on if I want to edit a Darwin book or work on notebook stuff. Darwin & the Avenging Elf edits will be done before I pick my son up on Tuesday, so I just have to type those in when I have time. I might be well into Darwin & the Demon Game by that point, so I might as well bring it along. It’s 2 chapters longer, which means I might finish it right before the trip. My laptop isn’t portable, which would mean I’ll be up there working on ‘Phi Beta Files’ and maybe hop over to another idea. Best to play it by ear.
With this being summer break, I don’t have a lot of plans. There’s a big July 4th show coming up, so we’ll go to that. Happens right after a Pokemon Go event, which will make things a bit difficult. Might have to drive to the park for that, go home, and immediately walk back. Besides that event, my son and I aren’t really planning much else. Might be a zoo trip, but that’s going to be tough with the holiday. Weekends are always crazy, but we might have to risk it unless we put the trip off until after school and camp. Nothing else is really going on, which is probably a good thing because I need the down time.
Well, that’s really all I can think of. Finished all of the September posts and I’m tinkering with monster posts for October. Probably need to stop that and hunker down for more editing before Pokemon Go starts around 12. At least, it’s supposed to. This special event is apparently going off with a bunch of hitches. I might get out to the park to find nothing going on or it’s in a different location. Means I just walk around for a bit and then come home for more editing. Nothing wrong with that as long as I get some daily fresh air, sun, and exercise. I’m usually getting over 10,000 steps a day as long as the weather holds and I’m not dragged into a bunch of events. Might as well enjoy it before winter hits and the park is closed by the time I get home from work.
List time!
Finish editing Darwin & the Avenging Elf.
Print out Darwin & the Demon Game.
Pokemon Go for exercise.
Time with son once he is here.
Lego sets when I need a break at night.
Sleep longer.
Hydrate!
Contemplate society’s stance on various emotional states and how they are frowned upon when admitted to by certain groups. (I will not explain.)
I’m still recovering from the end of school year fatigue. It’s like all of the little bits of tiredness that I’d been shoving away since September decided to jump me. So, I don’t have much brain power to do much here. Trying to save it up for tomorrow when I get to make my first summer goal post. Let’s do some questions.
What is your favorite part of the summer?
Got anything exciting planned for this summer?
If you could change one thing about the summer, what would it be BESIDES the heat?
(Full transparency: I skipped a poem. Thought it was about DnD and posted it without reading. It was actually about how I met my ex-wife during a DnD game and it must have been a present to her because it was romantic. Glad I caught it at the last minute and put this one on about leaving a job. Dodged that emotional bullet. Not sure if I should delete the DnD poem or not though.)
Today I say good-bye
As I cross the threshold
Joined by others
Who will return tomorrow
While I remain at home
I have bid my desk good-bye
Cleared it of my things
My computer has shut down
The screen a blackened face
That will never light for me again
I cannot stop the sigh
A mixture of all emotions
While I get into my car
Ready to join the exodus
For a final time
The taste is bittersweet
As I feel I have to go
To search for a softer place
And regain a sense of mind
That life has washed away
I leave behind new friends
That I will not forget
Even when the stress
Has faded from my bones
Replaced by future toils
This is a short story collection staring Ichabod Brooks. He is an experienced adventurer with a wife and kid back home. The jobs put food on the table, so he keeps working hard and building his reputation. That’s pretty much it. Ichabod is the selling point since he’s older, experienced, achy, and not trying to save the world. I always enjoyed putting a sense of exasperation and tiredness on him when things would go wrong. It wasn’t frustration, but more of a ‘I’m getting too old for this’ thing. Guess I did kind of picture him as Donald Glover at times.
The creation of this series began with a fun short story I made prior to this with the same character. People liked it, but he was named Ichabod Jones. It was pointed out that there was a monster hunter with that name, so I played around with other surnames. Ichabod was staying since he’d had that for years while sitting in my ‘to be used’ pile. Came up with Brooks when I turned on the TV and saw Mel Brooks as Comicus in ‘History of the World Part I’. The rest was history.
Except for making him an archer to make him different than most of my other heroes at the time. My plan to make him a smart and strategy-based fighter had him gravitate towards a distance fighter. Ichabod could still throw down in close-combat, but only due to decades of experience instead of training. His main weapon was the bow and I gave him an arsenal of magic gear to choose from. With so many adventures under his belt, it made sense for him to have a lot of special weapons even if he couldn’t bring all of them on a job. I came up with a triple quiver too. It was a magic device he had that held three quivers with one over his shoulder, one to his left and one to his right. This way he could have more than one type of arrow.
Really wish this book sold better. People loved when I put up teasers, but that never translated to sales and reviews. Maybe I could have marketed better, but I didn’t have a lot of money to put towards it. My hope was word-of-mouth, which didn’t spread that well when compared to my main series. This is why I never made time to write up the sequel, which would have been a second collection. There are outlines for the other 11-13 stories, so maybe one day.
Let’s get right to the questions:
Have you ever felt like you’re getting too old for something?
What do you think of short stories?
What do you think of an adventurer who does it to feed their family instead of saving the world?
As the school year comes to an end, I’m left wondering what I’m going to do during the summer. After all, everyone in education gets summer off to party and relax in that awesome teaching money . . . It’s play money we use to help our students learn currency and shopping. So, what am I really going to do?
Working!
I’ve signed up for summer school, but not in the way you think. Being a life skills TA, I continue working with the students I just spent 10 months with. A more relaxed atmosphere with shorter days, trips, and a focus on skill retention. That doesn’t mean it’s easy though. Add summer heat to the other school stuff and you get a similar challenge, but with sweating. Plus side is that I can wear shorts and graphic t-shirts as long as they’re kid friendly. This is why I bought so many sassy Snoopy shirts and one lazy Garfield shirt. It should be fun.
Parenting
My son will have camp for the same amount of time I have school. So, I’ll be enjoying the usual days with him. We get July 4th together, which will be cool. Not really planning a big trip since we already went to Oswego in April. More of a laidback period after camp and school ends. Some day trips like going to the zoo. Might take an overnight trip to a place nearby. Depends on what we feel like doing. After a crazy school year, I think we both need some lazy, non-planned time.
Writing
With a lot happening in regards to work and parenting, I don’t think I’ll be tackling Darwin & the Joy Path this summer. I still have Darwin & the Angry Elf, Darwin & the Demon Game, and Darwin & the Beast Collectorto edit too. I’ll have more time for those and probably more energy. So, my writing goal will be to get all of that done and start writing a new book in September. Is it smart to tackle a new book at the beginning of a school year that is filled with changes? Probably not, but the summer isn’t much better. At least editing all of the finished books in a row will get my mind ready for the new one and maintain continuity. I’ve already found a few issues that I’ve fixed and made notes to avoid repeating the mistakes.
In regards to Darwin, I think I’m going to keep the inconsistency of his spells. Not at an extreme level, but the degree of power won’t always be the same. The visual aspect might change at times too. Almost like he subconsciously gets bored with or forgets how they look, so it looks different. This goes with the degree of power. For example, his ‘ice barrage’ spell has taken out half a building at one point and created a small pillar that can be used as a water source. Sometimes it explodes violently from the ground causing damage around it while other times it pops up almost gently. It seems to connect to Darwin’s mood, which I’m still trying to figure out. Why am I writing about this on a summer plan post and not a goal post? Oh well.
Friends
I do want to take some time to visit some friends. Need to plan that out better. Probably should get on that now.
Lego Sets
Once I clear an area and set up a display case. I have a pile of Lego sets like the Dungeons & Dragons set that I want to make, but need the space. The biggest issue is that I have this giant DVD shelving unit that I need to ditch after I sell most of my DVD collection. I don’t use it, so I should clear the space. Not easy finding a place to take them and we’re still trying to work out a garage sale time.
Conclusion
That’s really it. Hope everyone has a good summer.
Legends of Windemere 