Richard Raley's Blog, page 7

It has Happened

THIS IS NOW OFFICIALLY MY SECOND LONGEST NOVEL, surpassing Mancy Martial Artist in size.

Somehow.

700 PAGES OF MAGIC HIGH SCHOOL BULLSHIT!!!

YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!!!

A Rather Stunning Statistic

Went through my numbers and realized that since the end of last June when I finally felt decent enough to start using the phone, I have somehow written over 100k words and counting.

When I was healthy and focused I almost always set 200k as my yearly goal, so still some to go, but it's a pretty significant amount.  I very much had "bad" years in there where I only wrote 120-140k and this isn't that far off.  Considering how much of it is from stolen days here or there...well, was a morale booster.

Is any of it good?

I hate how back and forth I go on that question.  This will be my 14th novel and STILL.

Last week was prime This Is Shit, I'm Shit, It All Must Be Shit, Why Am I Writing This High School Bullshit territory.

Last couple days...felt like I'm pretty awesome.

Writing wise I have maybe a couple more days on this chapter (three max) and then will need to tackle all the resolution...which is considerable.

Editing...I have no clue how that's going down.

We will see when we get there!  But apparently...we WILL get there!

May Seismic Semester Tease

"You hug Victoria."

"No, Vick catches me unaware and won't release until I'm properly mauled. There's a difference."

Back to Work (With Slight Speedbump)

Have to see to dentist on Friday cuz on exiting RFA-ville, mostly unconscious and starving, I chowed down on an emergency granola bar and out popped a filling and that tooth is very angry despite the copious amounts of painkillers I'm on.  But, outside of that, look free and clear until next month.

Edited the last chapter I wrote and now have 50 pages to type into the computer.  AGAIN.  Also readthrough/lightly edited the 160 pages of the Vicky novel I haven't looked at in like...probably five years at this point.  It was so jarring to read that POV, just...so different from school line King Henry I've been living and breathing for years now (for too long, SAVE ME!!!).  Vicky's very observant, so much revolves around both her political acumen and her ability to see auras, and even the prose is more complex with these multipurpose sentences and paragraphs that you don't see in Seismic Semester nearly as much.

One thing I haven't talked about, is because I'm having to write on the phone, you're going to see a much more direct prose similar to the early novels in the series than the more free flowing stream of consciousness I played with in FM5/FM6.  Some people hated it, some people loved it, but its a lot harder to maintain with my thumbs on a phone than just getting super creative with a keyboard, wandering wherever I may.

Another difference is there's so much more dialogue in Seismic Semester.  Not that KH can't be introspective, but with Vicky and the Welfs and the political focus, every sentence, every pose, every piece of clothing has multiple meanings she's trying to decipher.  In contrast, with Seismic Semester, with all the new 2015 kids introduced and the 09ers and the teachers, etc., you just have constant chaos where you do not have a moment to think about what just happened, there's always another character to talk to, another plot (major or minor) that's going to pop up and then disappear as issues go round and round the merry-go-round.

Another big one...having spent the last few years post Everchanging Dilemma focused on recovering my health and high school hijinks, then suddenly have all those very serious terms and politics from the main storyline back in play...was a very OH YEAH moment.  These stakes feel so much more serious.  We know so much more about the Mancy.  We know so much more about Divines and dragons and Realms and ya know...there's a massive rebellion with psychotic lunatics on the loose.

It also contains perhaps my favorite monologue I've ever written, courtesy of Moira von Welf.  Vicky is the main POV character, but in many ways Moira is the star of the novel.  She brings her A game time and time again.  Real God had enough of Job's shit energy.

So...jarring.

But we are on the very last legs of Seismic Semester now.  Currently editing the 7k I already wrote in this chapter.  Right on the edge of finally writing one of the scenes I'm really looking forward to in this story.  Then the wrap up and we'll be in a slightly slower than usual Edit Hell.

Getting closer and closer!

Also, summer is here.  90s all week.  Boo, Fresno!

Survived

I thought my first RFA hurt the most because it was the first I'd experienced and since I was in the most pain at that point, but apparently it was just the area they did.  Which was what they just redid.  OWWWWW.
This is officially the most typing...or sitting/standing...I can do at the moment.
Author will return in a week.

May

Almost 5k words into the latest chapter, but 3 appointments to start the month, ending with the left side T6-T9 RFA.  Means very little work getting done in the first half of the month.  Just sent an email to Deranged Doctor Designs to get a cover booked, so that'll be ongoing.  Did print out the last chapter to do some edits during my ow-ow-stuck-in-bed week.  Might also start reading through the series to start finding some random info drops I need to recall.

Why ain't you fans anal enough to have started a wiki and fill it with every little detail I can just anonymously check, huh?

You're failing me!

Also have all of the Vicky novel (I think like 150 pages?) printed up, so if I run out of things to keep occupied I suppose I can get to that as well...

Outside of that, watching things, reading things.  I'm officially an old man since I got excited yesterday when I realized Erik Larson has a new history novel out...buying a non fiction novel day one, what has happened to me?  And I'm reading things in paper again!  Not on the kindle...

Guess I'll be complaining about the newest generation next.  Stupid Zoomers.  In my day we protested with drum circles!  You're doing it wrong!

One Step Closer

All 500ish pages of edits have been typed into the laptop!!!

Made a big push the last couple weeks and I am sore and cranky because of it, but it's done!  Yay!

Have two quick scenes left to finish off in this chapter I'm working on, then its the climax chapter, and the falling action/wrap up chapter.  My back has been pretty iffy, but as long as I pace my spine and write every other day I should be able to make progress over the next couple weeks.  3 doctor appointments to start off May, including the other half of the RFA (left side), but then I only have one in June (so far).  Might finish the first draft by then...maybe?  Please kind sir?

Plan:  Mad Scientist when able and binge the crazy amount of great TV releasing at the moment.  And watch the NBA Playoffs.  And City winning the Prem...again.  And Verstappen winning...again...and again...and again.

Random Asylum History Facts with Maudette Lynch

“Oh, yes! Every few years there’s a runner traumatized by the Test.  We catch them before they leave campus thesedays.  Most head to their favorite spotfor a bit of quiet and a cry—the Mound or the Gym, even the Library—but in 1966, Nelson Jekyll made it all the way to Stockton due to a particularly generousvan of hippies.  Poor boy was stoned outof his mind and had lost his virginity thrice over before we found him…”

Ow...

 Ninth time, still surprised how much it hurts.

Mice and Men And All That Jazz

So the MRI results showed "moderate" issues in my C4 to C7 range.  Like...there's things there that are very not good, but maybe not to the cut out bone and slam in screws and rods range.
What this means is that the last RFA (Radio Frequency Ablation, AKA Burninating the Nerves) C7 to T2 missed 3 out of the 4 problem areas.  Which is bad, but also...it gave me so much relief as is, I'm very hopeful about what a correctly placed one will do.
However, because my very first T6-T9 RFA is over a year old at this point and its relief is rather quickly wearing off (basically serious mid back pain that gets worse and worse the longer I sit and stand until I have no choice but to lie down and rest) and because that new C4-C7 RFA would require me to go through the whole branch block testing procedure again (basically the whole same thing as an RFA except its just some lidocaine (I think) that lasts 24 hours as a test), docs and me decided to get the T6-T9 out of the way first.
Some other good news is that what usually takes four to six weeks to schedule is INSTANTLY happening next Thursday and then the second half at the start of May (since they do one side and then the other).
After that we'll get to the branch blocks and finally the full C4-C7 in October/November.
So that's six procedures over the rest of the year, but no crazy surgery that's got some serious recovery time and PT attached.
My plan was to go full Mad Scientist Mode after this appointment I just had and try to finish the book this month, but that's probably not in the cards now.  Will still write when able and in smaller bursts, but I need that recovery week after every RFA pretty much, so...more broken up instead of one blast!
And if any of you respond and tell me to think about my health and recovery instead of writing, I will kick you in the fucking shin 😡