Life Blog: Happy Holidays | Three Things Twilight Did Differently | Parental Guidance Suggested

 

Dear Reader,

The holidays are here again. I titled this post with "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" for reasons that you'll understand below. However, in case I'm not available later, I want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas (and Happy New Year and Got MLK?).

The Book Two Posts: Ep. 13, The Pop Culture Conundrum

 Okay, dear readers, I'm just going to be real here.

I have been on the outs with my writing as of late. It was going really, really great. Really. I was on about Chapter 20 of the edits and re-calibrating my trajectory as I edited my way through. There were some major plot changes, but it was still going pretty well, and I felt that what I had so far was SOLID. Like, granite solid. I was pretty certain that any other changes to those chapters would be very minor. I could see the checkered flag waving in the distance. But then, something happened in the real world. Something that sent my writing into an out-of-control spin, hurtling through the air with the grace of a broken toilet seat.

Life Update: Organizing

I've been laying pretty low this weekend. I spent about three days last week putting together furniture in the office. My second bedroom has been pretty much storage for three years. I only have one and a half closets, so I have really procrastinated working on the room. Last year, I had just started clearing the room, and I bought an L-shaped glass desk and a glass drafting table. Then, Covid and work-from-home. When I bought my desk, it wasn't with the plan that my day job would take over my creative space. It is a bit of a catch-22. I like being in my own environment, but I don't really like being invaded by work. So, I really need to find a solution where work isn't taking up so much space and casting such a dismal shadow upon my creative space.

Vintage Heart Rabbit: Antique? Painting & Antique? Frame

I will be your night in shining armor, riding across the desert
on a fine Arab charger... (The Rolling Stones "Emotional Rescue")

I'm a collector of things both old and new, from Skylanders and Sailor Moon to paintings and cameras. Some of the things may have value; some of them I just think look pretty neat.

Bunker Tour Post: Hostile Living Room Makeover

August will be my third anniversary living at this place, and I'm just now getting around to making it look like a home. It's difficult to buy big items when you don't have a truck or free labor, but I am figuring out ways around it. Hopefully, once I have everything in its place, I'll have enough white space in my head to start creating again.

Gimme Shelter

Hello, Reader.

I had begun to wonder how much the world had changed since I've been in the bunker, and I was curious about venturing out further than the mailbox or the sidewalk to make the no-touch hand-off with the DoorDash or Uber Eats delivery person when I felt like splurging for a tempura bento box or Chili's chicken enchiladas. Gotta keep those restaurants going! We're in this together!

The neighborhood sounds just as busy as it did before and even more so. Even from the first announcement concerning social distancing, people were still out and about walking dogs with a friend or relative. It had stopped raining, and the weather was pleasant. Flowers were blooming in all of the yards. One cheermeister drove around the neighborhood singing, and the next day, she was joined by a small parade of singing, cheering women, all in their own cars, keeping their social distancing.

Inspiration, Part II

On a recent YouTube video, self-published author Kristen Martin talked about falling back in love with life (+ writing). Since I had just written my blog post "Time and Inspiration" a couple of days earlier (I'm writing this on February 24, and that blog post is scheduled for February 28, so we're time-traveling here), her video struck a chord in me. In that blog post, I talked about trying to organize my office/studio and placing paintings on my brand new drafting table to inspire me to get back to painting. This blog will be a reflection and response to Kristen's video, as well as a follow-up to my previous blog post.

The Binge Review, Ep. 2: Netflix and Books

I thought I would talk about a few things I've watched on TV and read lately. In case you wonder, I'm writing this about two weeks in advance of posting.

The Witcher

It has probably been more than a month since I watched "The Witcher" on Netflix. I had been saving it to give myself something to look forward to and fill that post-Christmas void. I loved it. It's more magical and funnier than "Game of Thrones" but seems to satisfy the same need, if that makes any sense to you. Don't quote me on this, but I am thinking that the series might be inspired by a video game that was inspired by the books. I think.

Time and Inspiration

When I got to work this morning, I was actually entertaining the thought that I might have a chance to work on the book since I knew I had very little work when I left the night before. Unfortunately, that never happens. Every Friday, I get slammed. If there was no work the day before, they send me everything else all at once. So, instead of a possible relaxing afternoon where I could work on the book, I was busy looking at actual work. But that's okay. It was Friday.

The Book Two Posts, Ep. 8 and Organizing

The book is at nearly 98K now, and I'm currently in the process of rereading, editing, tightening, polishing, and moving things around in a way that makes sense.

There are still a few problem areas to be fixed before I'll think of it as anywhere near complete. I think that it flows well in most areas, and I'm still struggling with one or two plot threads. I'm hoping that moving things around will help solve some of the issues. It's like I already had a solution to the problem, but I wasn't making the most of it.

The Book Two Posts: The Rewrite Ep. 4 and Life

I'm in the process of working on the rewrite of Book Two, and I'm at least 29 Chapters into it, which is over halfway. The good news is that I've figured out how to address an issue that I've been wrestling with.

I won't really call it a block. It's one of those things that I've been asking myself how far down this rabbit trail do I go, and is this something I should do? I was trying to figure out the best way to look at the plot. Situations like this one are where I'm faced with those thoughts I had put on the back burner to deal with later. Then it's time to, as my mother would say, fish or cut bait. You have to decide which one you want to do. Nobody can help me with those decisions. They don't know enough about where I'm coming from or where I'm going to help.