Hello all! It’s been a while!…Again!
Just wanted to share a quick update, as well as invite you to an event happening this Saturday, August 14th. 😀
I had my little Baby Gremlin back in November, and am only now actually getting back into doing anything other than snuggling him and just enjoying my first months of motherhood. Lol, I also spend a great deal of time wondering in confusion where everything is in the messy, disorganized chaos that is my home right now, and desperately stealing naps whenever I can get them.
I’ve honestly never been happier in my life. ❤
Book 3 in my Dual Realms series is still in the works. Lol, you would think I’d have finished it during quarantine.
And you’d be toooooooootally wrong in believing I would’ve been all responsible like that, lol.
Nope. I have never procrastinated so hard in my life. If there were medals handed out for this kind of thing, I would get the gold, hands down. Nay – they would create a platinum medal, decide that wasn’t enough, and then invent a diamond medal, just for me. There is no competition for how focused I was on absolutely nothing.
For some odd reason, being on bed rest at the end of my pregnancy, and then still being on bed rest right after I had the universe’s cutest gremlin, both motivated me to want to re-shingle my roof (because when you’re told you’re not allowed to move you suddenly want nothing else) and de-motivated me to the point where I just Netflix’d (is that a word? It should be.) myself into oblivion.
I mean, I got all caught up on a bunch of shows and anime in my queue, sure, but Book 3 didn’t get a lot of love until recently, when Baby Gremlin started taking more structured naps.
Ordinarily, I’d give myself a narrower deadline – like, “yeah, I’ll definitely have Book 3 ready for editing by September. No problem!” However, Baby Gremlin says, “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….**cute baby coo completely at odds with the villainous undertones of this statement** Your editor will hear from you sometime around November!”
My characters weep, and consider taking up a hobby while they wait.
I sigh, unsurprised as Baby Gremlin proceeds to run amuck in my office.
My characters note the ensuing, aforementioned “amuck” with shock and awe, and contemplate a change in profession.
See you in November, dear editor.
Lol, I’m making a valiant attempt at finishing Book 3 in the near future. However, I’ll be giving myself a good deal of grace on the timeframe. We’ll just say somewhere between September and November I’ll be able to email my editor. By around the holidays, Book 3 may actually be ready to go! Woo-hoo!
On the marketing front there is small headway being made though! Being in an odd kind of quarantine limbo still, where some events are cancelled and others are not, I’m actually signed up to attend the Mid-Ohio Indie Author Book Expo, this Saturday! 😀
The husband and in-laws will be having fun with Baby Gremlin while I’m there.
If you happen to be in the area, come check it out! 😀
Other than that, I’m planning on possibly some movie or tv show reviews in the coming weeks and months, for fun. Maybe some snippets of Book 3, leading up to its release. We shall see what Baby Gremlin allows, lol.
Speaking of, Baby Gremlin is currently napping right now, so I’m going to seize my opportunity to write for the day! Wish me luck! 😀
Until next time, Take Care and Happy Writing! 😀
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paigeaddams 
Congratulations on BG and on catching up with all that Netflix has to offer.
And, yes, writing has been not Priority No. 1 here, either, other than for the Alphabet and SDS challenges. So, yes, in the past twelve months, about 26 short stories. That happened because I approached it as a job (still unsure if I liked that or not).
But, many projects I’ve been wanting to either start, continue, or finish, have languished as other stuff has taken precedence.
I’ve not even caught up with my viewing and reading goals. Frankly, I think there’s some sort of time warp that just eats most days up so that all of a sudden, it’s late and time for bed.
Good luck with your efforts. By the way, I just read a depressing article:
https://time.com/6078993/goodreads-review-bombing
As if new authors didn’t have enough obstacles.
Take care, stay safe.
Oh, I believe you about the time warp! Lol, BG is teaching me time management, but I still have no idea where my days go.
Thank you, and good luck on your writing too! 😀
It’s definitely hard to buckle down and write when life gets crazy, or you just plain don’t feel like it. Technically, it is work, but it normally doesn’t feel like it for me until I get into one of those seasons where the writing just isn’t flowing for whatever reason. When you were treating writing more like a job, did you set strict hours, or a minimum word count? How did you do it? I kinda just carve out set hours and tell my husband to throw pillows at me if he sees me browsing the web instead of writing, lol.
And that article about Goodreads is so scary. I hate that part of me isn’t surprised, considering what I’ve seen watching scam baiting on YouTube. That’s just horrible.
You take care too, and stay safe!
What I meant by job is that I had a deadline . . . and, like I did when I worked.
Meaning, I took care of more pressing things (procrastinated) until the last minute, and then — at the last moment — I would tackle what was due.
In the case of the Alphabet Stories challenge (one short story for each letter of the alphabet every two weeks), the stories were usually written the day before they were due and ranged from 3K to 6K words.
We, there are two other writers, twins, and I, were occasionally late (my brother died last year — 11 years my junior, and they, the twins, also had the occasional emergency), but even then, when we shifted deadlines for whatever reason, I would usually wait until the day before.
That’s the case with the current Seven Deadly Sins challenge; we have roughly seven weeks between stories, and the next one (Gluttony) is due Tuesday. I tell myself that I’ll start tomorrow, but it’ll probably be Monday.
That’s also how I write most of the short stories — almost all in one sitting, with little planning. The difference is that without a schedule, I just write when I feel like it.
That’s why NaNoWriMo is a good challenge; you have to keep the pace and meet the goal. Wrote three books that way . . . whereas my other books are still in various stages (no pressure to finish).
BUT . . . that doesn’t work for everyone (no one else that I know, but I’m sure there are some).
Also, that method can produce mixed results. Of the 26 stories, six are what I would call so-so. But, twenty I consider pretty good, and at least ten I would submit almost as they are. The other ten might require some editing in places, but, again, I’d submit them. Now, whether anyone would buy them, well, that’s a whole other basket of fruits.
. . . The Twins can also write fairly fast, but their editing takes much longer. My stories came out pretty much as they were published on the blog. That’s not me bragging; it’s just how I write because I do a fair amount of editing on the fly.
The downside is that, perforce, the stories are not as complex, but then, I don’t see short stories as having to mimic novels.
As for the article; yes. Between that, Writers Beware, and other horror stories, I’m not that anxious to try and self-publish . . . and I’m not working at selling novels . . . so the likelihood of anything of mine being published is . . . zero.
Take care, enjoy life and BG, stay safe, and keep writing.
Congratulations on Baby Gremlin. That’s wonderful!
Thank you! 😀