What a week

My new job started this week. It’s been a lot of fun. We’re just doing training right now, but it’s been a blast. There are 18 people in the class, with the trainer, and a couple of people that come in and out to help depending on the needs. We do a lot of discussions, drawing graphs and pictures, and just lots of learning. Everyone is so nice, and happy. Even the couple of people who are going through some tough times right now, they are still smiles while in class.

It feels good to be somewhere with lots of people who are just friendly. I’m sure eventually I’ll come across someone who isn’t so nice, but, ya know what, I’m just going to enjoy things as they are.

The writing… that’s another story. I’ve write 1400 words since starting the new job, which isn’t a lot. The first few days were spent adjusting to schedules, and sleeping because it was so emotionally and mentally draining. (Friday was also kind of draining. It was the first time on the phones, and really scary at first.) I also have to commute a bit farther (20 miles instead of two blocks, lol) but it’s really not that bad. By end of the week I started getting to where I was looking forward to an hour of writing in the evening.

I want to have an hour before work, and at least an hour in the evening, where I write. I think I can start training myself to do that. The morning session is the harder part, I have always had trouble writing in the morning. But I’m going to need to be able to do this in order to keep up my output.

I think this is going to work. Writing and having a full time job, saving money so that I can eventually have a house… yep, I’m on my way.

Day 20…the final day

It was the final day of freedom, and I chose to spend most of it with Gregg.

For the next three months Gregg and I get to spend the weekends and late evenings together. After that I start my actual schedule, which means I will be working late into the night, and weekends. I won’t be seeing Gregg much then. Our schedules will be far off from each other. Well have the weekends in the morning, and an hour or two in the evening before he goes to bed. No days off together.

It’s going to be stressful at times, but I fully expect we’ll get through it. But today I wanted to spend my time with him.

So, I did the podcast this morning. Went for a drive with Gregg, walked around the park, had lunch with my daughters at work, then came home and took a nap. It was glorious!

Just before bed I did write 600 words, mostly because I feel wrong if I don’t write anything. It’s going to be interesting figuring out my writing schedule this next month.

Day 19…

One more day left. Tomorrow. Sunday.

Today I finished formating Witch’s Stand for the print book, and wrote a few more chapters of my Half Blood Sorceress book. I also started writing a fairy tale like short story called “Oasis”.

What did I learn today? Sleeping pills are dangerous. I took two Z-quills last night so I would stay asleep and get a full nights rest for once. Apparently they work very well on me because I wasn’t able to fully wake up for a good 12 hours.  Note to self, be careful with sleeping pills.

But even with that weirdness I still accomplished a lot. It was a good day. I love days where I can look back at the end and say “I did that.” Even if the story isn’t finished I still accomplished something significant, and that’s a lot father than I was yesterday.

Day 18- Full Time Author

Two more days.

i spent most of today reading. I had to, it was such a good story! I regret nothing! Lol.

But, seriously. Today I finished reading the last two books in the 20 sided sorceress series, books that have, in some ways, influenced my writing a little bit (mainly in that I’m writing this new series in 1st person.) It’s a good series, and I’m both happy and sad that I’ve gotten to the end of it. I did think the last three books should have been one book, but that’s a different discussion of seriels and breaking books up for the sake of it, etc. Each section had a complete story, but the main plot is in the three books.

Anyway, after I finished reading book seven I looked up and realized it was 2am again. Big surprise there. I wasn’t very tired so I decided to do some writing anyway, and did another 1500 words in just 40 minutes. And not just any words. GOOD words. At least I think they are good.

Today has been a blur. I don’t really know what I’ve done. There was sleep, and spending time with Gregg, then lots of reading, before writing and finishing a couple chapters. I should also include the social media I did today.

Tomorrow I’m going to finish another short story for the Bradbury Challenge, and get those print books taken care of.

Now, off to sleep. Good night everyone!

Day 17: Full Time Author

I’m not writing enough. I’m writing more than I did before this month, but not enough.

“Enough” is purely subjective, of course, but I feel like I’ve been wasting more time then I should have been. Watching youtube, playing games, reading… okay reading I need to do because that feeds my creativity, but the rest? Maybe not so much. Youtube, especially, distracts me from writing. I’ve had to cut back to just listening to music while writing. But it’s so tempting to just click that button and go see what else is out there!

Monday is only a couple days away and I’ll be going back to a regular job. It kind of disappoints me, which is crazy because at first I was all scared about not having a job for a month. Now I almost feel like I let myself down. Here I was with this perfect opportunity to prove to myself I was self motivated enough to write full time, and I didn’t.

Well, I wrote, and I wrote a lot more then usual, but I didn’t write enough for my taste. And I have no excuses, no one to blame except for myself. There might have been a couple of days where other things took priority, but the vast majority were days that I could have written double, or triple what I did.

So, looking back on that, I wrote double what I had planned to write tonight. I’m still going to bed earlier than usual because… well… I start work in a couple days. But I do feel more accomplished today than I have in a week. And I’ve got another chapter close to finished.

I also worked on getting the print version of Witch’s Curse and Witch’s Stand up…and then realized I had messed up a few things in the last version so I have to edit them, and redo it. Thankfully it was just little things, like putting “kindle edition” instead of “print edition” in the copyright notice, and a miss spelling in the authors note. Small things, but they annoy me anyway.

On the plus side, I got the cover fixed, and at the correct dimensions. Now on to Witch’s Stand.

Day 16: Full time Author

Last night I went to sleep instead of writing my daily blog post. I wrote until I couldn’t think anymore, then burned through a bunch of youtube videos trying to exhaust myself enough to actually fall asleep. Probably not that healthy for a person.

I did, however, write. I started a short story for the Bradbury Challenge, and it’s going pretty well. I also worked on revamping the print cover for Witch’s Curse.

I start work on Monday… That means less time to work on writing because I will be leaving at 9am and getting home at 8pm. Fudge. 11 hours of my day… gone. I hope I can find time at the new job where I can write. Lunch or something? I’ll make it work.

My To Do List For June:
Finish re-edit “Witch’s Sacrifice” – Half done
Format print books, WC –  Done
Format print books WS – half done
Format witches trilogy – Half done
Reformat small bites with pictures
Edit/format “Mirror”
Cover for the trilogy – DONE!
Finish “Magi” short story
Finish “The Deep” short story
Finish Minotaur short story
DONE
Write “Half Blood Sorceress” novels – Half done book 1, quarter done book 2.

Four days left, and how much of this can I get finished? Let’s find out, shall we?

Day 15 : Full time Author

2016-06-21 20.07.46Today I got the print proof for Witch’s Curse back. The inside looks awesome. The map is set right, the author note at the back is right. All the numbers in the table of contents are right.

The cover…is off. I had to go in today and adjust it a bit. Add more color to the girl so she wasn’t a green lady, and move the words so they are (hopefully) centered on the page.

What really struck me about this book is the sheer size of it. It’s thick, 360 pages, and feels like an honest to goodness BOOK to me. The first print book I put out only had about 150 pages, so this feels a lot more substantial. It’s kind of awesome, and I still can’t believe I did it. Now I can’t wait to get the third one done and have the trilogy sitting on my shelf.

Gregg and I also got our glass back from the glass blowing session the other day. It’s BEAUTIFUL! I’ll have to take some pictures tomorrow with the sun streaming in through the window.

A little more writing done. A lot more planning. I have to go through book one in my Half Blood Sorceress series to see what I need to fix. Round one of edits, I suppose. However, I am also 7k words into the next book so… there’s that. But I am hoping to have book 1 finished before I start work on monday. It would be a nice accomplishment. Then off to the editors while I figure out covers, and other things. Then released a month later.

Sounds good to me.

Alright, time to stop procrastinating. Time for sleep. Goodnight all!

Day 14 – Full Time Author

I’ve been getting my sleeping schedule back to normal. That means yesterday and today I’ve been kind of tired. I’m going to bed earlier tonight, so I’m hoping that means I’ll be awake tomorrow.

Today I started a new short story for The Bradbury Challenge, and worked a little bit on the “Half Blood Sorceress.” I also spent a few hours doing admin things, like news letters and updating files. Yay, admin!

Not a very eventful day. I spent a few hours cleaning house and getting my phone fixed. Tomorrow I have to take my son up to the DMV to get his ID so he can get a summer job. But hopefully that doesn’t take too much of my day. I need to get back to the writing.

Alright, tomorrow is writing day. Tonight is sleeping.

Goodnight.

Day 13: Full time author (sort of)

Today was fathers day, and podcast day. It was also a day where I was incredibly sleepy.

 

I did some writing, after taking a long nap and having a nice dinner with Gregg’s parents, but it wasn’t a lot. Now it’s 3:30am and I’m realizing that I need to start going to bed by midnight again or I will never get my schedule back on track.

I also wrote a bunch of new reviews for my other blog (a place where I review mobile games, which I started for fun.) I generally take a day every month, write a bunch of reviews, then schedule them to go out over the month.

And I wrote a tiny bit in Half Blood Sorceress. Not much though.

Yep, not a very productive day, but a fun one.

Goodnight, everyone.

Day 12 – Full Time author

Another day, another chapter done. Well, another few chapters with a bunch of words in them at least.

2016-06-18 19.22.17Today was date night, so that took up a large portion of the night. Gregg and I went to a glass blowing shop and had a session with a glass blower where we helped him make a few items. I asked for jellyfish paperweight, and he said “sure, why not.” It was awesome. He clamped a piece of the molten glass and had me stretch it out across the workshop, drawing out a long thin filament of white glass. We stretched it a good 20-30 feet and it still didn’t want to snap.

We also made a beer glass, and Gregg made a couple of really beautiful, and creative items. The “paperweight” he came up with even had the instructors mind going with new ideas for glass art. That’s my Gregg though, incredibly talented in designing things. Just look at his armor.

Even with all the excitement I still got a lot done on the new book series, and I sent out the newsletter that I was suppose to send out yesterday with “Immortal Knot” in it.

Now it’s just time to go to sleep. I really need to start going to bed before 1am. But I’m looking forward to tomorrow and finishing another short story. things are really starting to feel right with the writing.