Richard Raley's Blog, page 12
August 26, 2022
Proof of Life August
Still limping around.
Working on new stuff when I can, but hurt the back again and have needed the last two weeks to recover, should be writing again next week. I suppose I should be happy we've progressed to two steps forward/one step back as opposed to step forward/step back/stuck in place I dealt with from Feb to June, but annoying that I'm getting occasionally sidelined still. Biggest annoyance is that obviously there's some things I CAN'T do, like picking up heavy objects, using a controller, etc, without hurting it and so I know to be very careful but sometimes...it just gets hurt and I'm not sure what caused it. Was it sneezing? Was it writing every other day instead of every three days? Was it that I stayed up later than usual or didn't get enough sleep to rest the muscles? Was it the hardcore bondage orgies? So frustrating...
Super miserably hot in Fresno even for Fresno.
Tried multiple times to get a quicker appointment at my doctor's but they're booked like crazy so I'm waiting another month to hopefully finally get hooked up with some specialists that can finally figure this out.
Another RR movie rec: Thirteen Lives. Fan-freaking-tastic movie making from Ron Howard. About the Thai cave rescue a few years back. Very understated and just let's the situation play itself out without any extra frills. You just don't really need the extra tension when the fear of drowning and the weight of all that rock and just how tight those spaces are does all the work for you
August 8, 2022
Tease: Guess the Speaker Edition #5
“Faced with any possible use of its newly acquired free time, the mongoloid rushes across the campus just so it can ruin my breakfast, why am I not surprised?”
July 25, 2022
Still Circling the Runway
Really starting to feel like the Universe is conspiring against me at this point. Had to wait to see my doctor to go over the MRI results as is and now she's gone for vacation for three weeks and I don't even get a reschedule call until Aug 8th at the earliest. After all the other delays and insurance bullshit it just feels cruel. Not that the woman isn't super overworked and overloaded and doesn't deserve her time off, but...feels like the office staff bungled everything yet again.
July WAS better than June which was better than May, but I'm still extremely limited writing-wise and just about anything wise. Tell me, what's it like sitting in a chair? Is it fun? I've forgotten by this point...
Instead of 1-2 hours every three days call it 2-3 hours every other day with the occasional extra break day thrown in. Tried buying a mini-keyboard controller I could just text-type slowly with and see if that was better, but pretty sure it was actually worse and I've tweaked something, so back to the normal laptop keyboard as able.
Progress wise I'm down to just 3 pages needing to be typed in and then we'll be onto new material. This should be easier since I'll just have my eyes on the screen instead of twisting back and forth to read and then type and think and edit-as-I-go and all that.
Even at 2-3 hours every other day I figure I can manage 10k words a month, not fast, quite the malaise actually, but...do that ten months in a row and you do have a novel. A normal novel. Not the ever monstrosity WAR TO END ALL WARS is turning into. So...the possibility of progress exists when it seemed very impossible just a few months ago. Consider that a bright spot.
I like what I've written, so...that's also going well. At least the scenes as they are. The novel...I've extended the estimate out to 180k and even then I'm not sure 95k is enough to wrap everything up I've set into motion. This shouldn't be this complicated...it's just a school story. But then...it's capping six novels and dozens of shorts and references on a whole timeline while introducing a whole new generation which will have active roles in our mainline, so...
I think my biggest WTF RALEY is that I'm 85k into this monster and there's an argument to make we're just getting to the real story starting. Which even for me is super slow rolling things...so I wonder if I should cut off parts of the beginning and yet they set other beats up that I need later in the novel and... well, this writing gig is hard if you want to do even a passible job of it...
And it's FRESNO SUMMER HELL, so my brain is generally just overheated mush and my laptop's fan is threatening to strike unless it gets overtime pay. I hear some of our European brethren are getting to share our misery this year, so cheers, mates!
Anyway, the ellipses are breeding rapidly at this point, so let's call this your proof of life for the next month or so.
June 28, 2022
MRI Day
Down to about 8 hw pages left to type/edit in, then new stuff for War to End All Wars. Was writing every third day pretty much before this, but the spine DOES NOT like it when I lie flat on my back and having to do it for 90 minutes on a hard slab is probably going to temporally ruin my semi-crippled ass, so might need a week or two off after this.
Car rides also aren't high on my list...so that won't help either...
But at least we'll finally know what's going on in there and hopefully develop a game-plan towards fixing the problem. Surgery of some sort, I imagine. Since I've very done with this half-life shit.
Wish me luck!
June 20, 2022
We All Deserve a Tease
First good, painless night writing/editing I've had in over six months. Progress being made again, MRI next week. Literal first draft, so everything will change and typos and yada yada, but...enjoy! Who knows how long the spine will hold out for me to keep going, but here's hoping!
***
Camping Test weekend.
Here at last.
One month down, ten more to go.
Only ten more to go…
Not a single dead body, but a few epic anima discharges along the way.
Max won the prize for the Most Embarrassing. Never seen anyone shoot piss across a bathroom like that, much less all the way to the ceiling, and sure as fuck not for almost ninety seconds straight. Like the poor kid was trying to control a fire-hose, but he only had a few inches to grab on. Damn near lifted him off the ground at one point. Not that I saw it all, took me a minute to run into the communal bathroom and…thought someone maybe tripped and busted a knee, but…even after it was over, poor Max looked like wanted to die. Now I’m worried he’s gonna shotgun a hole through someone every time he whacks off!
Most Dangerous went to the Kanes. Starting their usual sibling argument shit—so fucking happy JoJo wasn’t a mancer at this school or things would’ve gotten bloody!—over which was better and then suddenly they ain’t glaring eyeballs, they’re both glaring big spouts of flame at one another. They didn’t smolder themselves, but their colors caught on fire. Had them rolling on the ground, blasting them with an extinguisher and whatever dirt my geo-anima pool could add to the mix. Was plenty embarrassing too, being they had to walk half-naked into the Infirmary and stay the night for observation…
And yes, I noped out like a pussy before Miss Strange started blaming me for any of it!
Camping Test weekend.
The first day in a month where I get to be meagain. Think for me. Not think for thirty fucktards. And a dog. Can’t forget the dog. Or his ass.
First day where I get just a little bit of my Asylum life back.
Didn’t think I’d miss it, but I did.
Wasn’t even day yet.
Earlier.
Super fucking early.
Had-A-Coke-Binge-And-Woke-Up-In-A-Whorehouse-Bathtub kind of early.
Everyone else got to sleep in cuz…weekend…but notthe Foul Mouth.
I was in charge of the Singles.
I had duties.
I didn’t get to dream about sunshine and rainbows and…mountainsides that won’t shut up about weird anima shit.
Not everyone. Mr. Gullick is leading the test this year and Wolfgang von Welf has to run his pack out to the camp site and there’s the bus driver and…and you! King Henry Price! Special purple penis butterfly, just like you always wanted!
Technically I was only supposed to head downstairs and wake up Class 2015, but if I have to be awake and it’s a holiday and all that, why should I put a cap on my joy-o-meter?
Joy-o-meter should go all the way to the fucking moon!
Also…I might have double dosed some special dark sin death-god European style Espresso something or other coffee that I pilfered from Welf a while back and…it hadn’t fixed everything in my life—still very horny—but the rest? Felt really fucking awake right now. Like…my eyeballs had eyeballs and they were wide open too. And I might not like waking up in the pre-morning-even-roosters-still-sleeping of a holiday weekend, but…waking up otherpeople in the pre-morning-even-roosters-still-sleeping of a holiday weekend?
All those dorm doors!
All those sleeping friends just wasting the day away!
Double Sin Eater Cat Scratch Fever Coffee said: of course you should, King Henry, of course you fucking should!
Geo-anima just bubbled on up as rebellion and havoc raced through my veins right beside all that caffeine. Slammed my fist into Jesus’ door right next to mine. His fault for not moving away yet. Not that anyone would have traded , but with Athir dead and Isabel imprisoned there were open spots.
.
.
.
Yeah, that joke is a little fucked up even for me.
But…Midnight Demon Razor Blowpop Coffee said: you’re so funny, King Henry!
I slammed my fist like five more times in quick succession.
Ain’t a tall man, won’t ever be, but I inherited my father’s massive hands and knuckles. Made for some explosive raps and some solid thuds.
Door opened just a sliver.
Dark inside. Only light was from a television in the bedroom, playing static insanity. Even the LED lights in the hallway were still stuck in power-saver mode, little embers of orange uselessness. Might not trip and break your neck, but couldn’t read any graffiti painted across the walls. Got to use glow-in-the-dark stuff…if you like…wanted to write ‘Welf likes being pegged’ for any reason whatsoever…
Jesus met my eye. Just the one, rest of him hidden behind the door.
Eye promised pain.
So much pain.
Stray dogs pissing on my porch, gnawing on my ankle, eating my cat, shit like that.
Returned him something that could vaguely be described as a smile. “Mornin’, Lord and Savior, have you heard the good word?”
He took in my colors, fully dressed for my day. “You’re a pendejo, El Rey.”
“Camping Test weekend, ol’ buddy, knew you wouldn’t want to miss any minute of it. It being your first truly big Book Keeper event and all that, bets coming in from every angle, side bets on top of that, teachings wanting in on the action. Really don’t want to fuck it up…especially after all the arguments got started about whether lesbians counted for your first bet given the wording you used and then the way—like by magic more powerful than the Mancy itself—there was this totallyorganic extra argument about how it was sexist and bigoted if they didn’tcount…on some thin ice, ol’ buddy, on some very thin ice…”
Jesus’ eye got across that it might not be a stray dog doing the pissing on my porch. “How long are you going to keep punishing us, El Rey?”
“Oh, I don’t know…not that much longer…you are awake for the day, right? You ain’t gonna go back to sleep when I leave, are you? Anyone at all could stop by, banging on the door, since some totally random person might spread the word that you’re already open for business…”
Jesus’ eye got across that it would neither be a dog nor would it be piss, but from the other end. “You haven’t made a wager, I noticed.”
“Insider trading, ain’t it?” I swapped from smile to canine grin.
“Bet on Leah, didn’t you?”
“Well…given the boys in Class 2015, it was pretty obvious she was the only one ever seen someone else's vagina before.”
“Or maybe it’s harder for you to rig the Camping Test.”
“Nah, obviously about how honorable and noble I am.”
Bed squeaked behind Jesus like someone had gotten out of it.
We stared at each other for a spare moment.
“Hope she’s prettier than a goat,” I forced myself to tease.
“Pretty enough I don’t mind their being no hooves,” Jesus quipped back.
“Also hope she ain’t Hope…”
He grunted, subconsciously sliding the door ever slightly towards closing. “Least I have something to do now you woke me up.”
“You didn’t kidnap Tossy for the night, did you? I’d have to report that shit…”
“El Rey, how much caffeine did you gulp down?”
“Wasn’t the size so much as the fact it was less liquid and more coffee-flavored syrup that I'm pretty sure made my pubes vibrate Thunderstruck all the way through the first chorus.”
“El Rey…promise me you’ll never do cocaine, okay?”
“Sure. Good advice, Jesus, good advice.”
June 2, 2022
May Sucked, June Might Not
Back went crazy again to start the month, spent 2 weeks horizontal in bed and not the fun kind of horizontal. Also kept up the knife fighting with my insurance and just generally hating all of existence but bureaucracy more than anything else...
Then, about a week ago things FINALLY started turning around. I don't know if reinjuring the back kickstarted another go of the healing process or what, but the pain shifted from purely muscle and spinal and fuck-you-you-can't-sit-up to being more nerve based, especially in my arm/leg/foot. That's still very bad, obviously, and I'm still hobbling around, but...you can ignore your foot screaming and still kind of function, plus its been getting better day to day, so...getting back in the saddle writing wise seems like a possibility if nothing else goes wrong or I regress back to how the pain presented before.
Cross those fingers and toes! If you can feel your toes...
Also, the insurance has FINALLY granted approval for the lumbar and thoracic MRIs I need and looks like those could be done this month, maybe soonish, so we'll FINALLY know what's actually wrong up in that curved mess I've got going on in my spine.
So as the title says: May Sucked, June Might Not.
Author still alive.
Not promising anything because at this point tempting Fate seems like a bad idea, but...June Might Not Suck As Much.
April 27, 2022
Nothing Happening
Dealing with doctors and referral departments STILL MRI-less as the bureaucratic and administrative mistakes pile up on all sides, trying not to hurt my back so bad I have to lie in bed all day, editing for a few hours occasionally when able a couple times a week...
Playing Hearthstone again...Duels is fun...
Madrid vs City was crazy awesome...
Two thumbs up to The Batman...
50 pages left to edit + the handwritten stuff. Yeah, super slow progress. Do like what I've written. Start of the book is kind of...a mess, but I'm not sure if I want to cut or where and if I can bring myself to kill so many jokes and great character moments just for pacing...especially since the point of WTEAWs is to BE indulgent and extra jokey and extra character based and plot be damned..."This is filler!" whiners will be out in force though...
Just never been this frustrated in my entire life. I feel like my time is being stolen from me.
Sherburt's still adorable, so there's that!
Though I could do without the 3AM surprise shoulder kneading sessions...
Sorry for the blah update! Here's hoping next month we've seen some spine progress and that I can at least get those last 50 pages and the handwrittens typed in.
Take care of yourself, you only get one body!
April 7, 2022
Biggest FMing I've Ever Experienced
WTF!!! 10.0 GK!!!
Cost me Invincible BTW
Anyway...still editing a bit here or there. Down to 100 ms pages left + the hw to type in before we're on to new material with WAR TO END ALL WARS. Still in a ton of pain. Still waiting on my doctor's office to get their heads of our their collective asses on the MRI.
Doing what I can, but this is super rough. Grieving my grandfather was brutal, but at least because my head was in such a bad place I was unable to really be frustrated. I was just an overwhelmed mess that couldn't feel much of anything else. Now, frustration is all I feel...I'm so ready to write, it's all I want to do---12 hours a day, sign me up coach!---and...I just can't do it because my body can't take the strain, can't take anything beyond a few hours a day more than 2 or 3 days in a row...
Just going to keep going, limping and crawling along the marathon route this go around!
March 26, 2022
Minor Non Update + Movie/TV Blathering
MRI request is finally off to the insurance and expected to be accepted, so...more poking and prodding to come! Hoping I can sneak editing what I have of WAR TO END ALL WARS and typing in those 15 hw pages before the big date. If twisting for a couple minutes while they check how fat my liver is (no longer fat!) knocked me into bed for almost two weeks I greatly, GREATLY dread what an hour on a hard MRI slab is going to do to me.
EVERCHANGING DILEMMA is up to almost 100 reviews, 95% of them 4+ plus with the vast amount 5 star, so...I guess I still don't suck. Sales are...going. You always want more! But...delay, side-character, all that, we'll take it and use the momentum.
Mostly reading and watching tv/movies for my own entertainment. Finally got to see Spider-Man...was fun. I don't think the "world turning against the hero" thing works post Snap. Let's take the word of the guy that saved 4 billion people, okay? Didn't work when the Falcon needed a loan either in "Falcon and Winter Soldier". Stephen Strange also came off pretty stupid...just writing with a required unmovable endpoint driven by marketing and very unearned, but man, we all wanted to endpoint so you have to forgive them for it and grin like a twelve-year-old boy over your first Giant Sized Annual adventure.
French Dispatch...love Wes Anderson so loved this too. 2nd season of Demon Slayer was hype as fuck and just so beautiful, I love that whole color vs contrast style. Not a complex story with complex characters, but it does what it sets out to do at 110% and you have to appreciate that. Pam and Tommy, major 90s nostalgia but just a miserable sad story with no winners. Am surprised that Shai-Hulud isn't the biggest worm I've seen on my tv screen in the last year...and this one talks!
Rick and Morty Season 5...has there always been that many animal based episodes? Horses, crows, ferrets, etc! Reacher, never read the books, but a fun 8 episodes all around. Peacemaker...I feel like I must be related to James Gunn somehow, somewhere. That said, I liked it, but I didn't love it. Which was a surprise. You'd expect me to be all over that show and I do recommend it if you're my fan because it is very King Henry Tapes in style and humor, but...maybe it's TOO close to the point where I prefer what I do compared against Peacemaker's straight up in-your-face idiocy? Eagly is best boy though!
Reading wise working my way through Dane Jones' War of the Roses (pro tip: child kings are bad, mkay!) and started my first new writer in like five years with the Dead Djinn Series by P. Djeli Clark. Almost done with his novella then going into the first novel. Enjoying it. Wish this is what Urban Fantasy had naturally evolved into instead of the Twilight Clone Army though the 2010s.
Basically: 1920-ish alternate reality Cairo with djinns and magic and automations. Reminds me a lot of Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon books, granted 100 years later and with djinn instead of dragons, but same feel of alternate history, also Urban Fantasy mystery novel instead of fantasy war novels as well.
Anyway, consider this Proof of Life for the next month and let's hope the next time I type all that work on WAR TO END ALL WARS is done and the MRI is over with and we have a clue as to what my near future will be to fix all this pain and hobbling about!
March 6, 2022
Where We're At, March 2022
Everchanging Dilemma: Better sales than I though specific to the new book so quickly, love the fact people can just leave ratings on Amazon now so you're not struggling to get reviews like the old day. Reviews have been 90% awesome, so that's cool. Few complaints I've seen are the expected "KH not in it" "side novel" "filler" "took too long".
Amazon ads are still half shell game in what they report back to you...Kindle Unlimited downloads per click plz? Still? 3 years after I last did this? Unless I'm missing it somehow...
New book creating new readers is, however, struggling so far. We'll see if it turns around as the algorithms start doing their work and I realizes I'm alive again week by week into the coming months.
I am pretty done with the whole release phase however and moving into...
War to End All Wars: 90 pages down through the First Draft 2.0 edit I'm doing. I've been immediately reminded why I got sidetracked on a mainline story having to delve into magic high school again. I'm very ready to end the school story, ladies and gents. Truth be told I was over the school story with FM4 when I decided to cut half of them from the novels.
Don't get me wrong, KH is absolutely hilarious in this novel. Lot's of Val, Welf, Miranda, Pocket, Jesus, all the characters you love. New characters. Class 2015 is VERY important going forward and you need to meet them all. But...no dragons! No vampires! No Crazy!
There's also this realization that I'm going to get torn to pieces for putting out a whole school story novel in some circles of the fan base that aren't prepared for that and...not looking forward to it! If they thought Everchanging Dilemma was filler, what are they going to say about this?!?
That said...man, there are some choice scenes in this book. Maybe the best Welf v King Henry argument I've ever written. No hyperbole. I love some of the Class 2015 kiddies and I've got pages and pages of them (and old favorites!) to write and that's so fun.
After I'm done with this readthrough we've got about 15 hw pages still kicking around to type in and then I'm full bed-desk-thingy mode and blocking off the net and just focusing in through late March forward.
Medical Crap: HOWEVER. I do have two post-surgery procedures to get through in the next week, so 7th-15th will be very limited progress. My father is also having his lungs hot-water-power-blasted in an effort to continue keeping him breathing and living and...we're still worried. He's been better but not out of the woods yet on the whole Walking Stroke thing and this procedure requires him to be sedated 3 times over as many months, so...yikes!
Back-wise...I'm a wreck. Still. Can't sit a chair, can't lift anything. Can take a shower without wanting to lie in bed for hours afterwards, so that's better. Can sit on the edge of the bed for about 12 hours a day with only occasional break and hey, I'm typing this, aren't I? But still very iffy. Not a normal human. Can't hold a console controller...no Elden Ring for RR!!! So far I'm up to using the bed-desk-thingy for about 3 to 4 hours a day, so that's pretty much what my progress is limited to. Will try to work up to more and more as the weeks and endurance builds, hopefully.
Still no news on the MRI. It's "in progress" over two weeks since the last request. Which I suppose is better than me be immediately told to fuck off and do physio like last go around. Here's hoping for some good news next week while I'm busy with all the other doctors stuff!
