Time for another update…

Yeah, I’ve been away from the blog for a while. What’s happened is, I got called to do some editing work for the glass web site and the glass magazine. That’s still ongoing, and every time I think I’m reaching my last days with the web site, the bosses tack on another week. Not that I’m complaining, since it means I’m going to have a couple of great paychecks in the next two months. The longer they keep me on, the better that second paycheck will be. It’s unlikely that I’ll be needed much longer past next week, but if they somehow keep me on through the end of October, that will give me three paychecks. Either way, my PS4 is totally paid for now. So yeah, like I said, I’m not complaining.

Speaking of the PS4, expect my initial reviews to be mostly old games you’ve already played. I’ve got to catch up before I can look at new stuff. But hey, maybe some of you still haven’t played these games. My starting list is looking like The Last of Us Remastered, Infamous: Second Son, Journey HD, Transistor, and Resogun. Then once I’ve got caught up on those, I’ll move on to Dragon Age: Inquisition. That will take up a big chunk of my life, at which point I may stop talking to y’all, or to anyone else unless they bring food. Kidding! Oh, and lest I forget, I’m going to give Diablo III another chance because so many reviewers have said the patched up version on next-gen consoles is closer to that classic Diablo II feel, and I could do with some of that.

Getting back to the main topic, the extra editing work was initially hard for me to adjust to, so as a result, my writing time suffered for it. I’ve finally started making progress on the current WIP, which is looking like it’s going to be around 175K before revisions. And revisions will likely push it up to near 200K. It’s not like I didn’t think about cutting it short or compressing some parts. But the muse and the cast both seem pretty determined to turn this into a door stopper. But hey, Alan Moore is releasing a book with a million words. By comparison, 200K is a short read, right?

Of course, this is only book one in a series, and the muse is also pushing me to write the whole thing together so I can keep everything straight. With her attention span, I’m not real sure how that’s going to pan out.

While I’m going on about the new book, I really thought there was going to be a bunch of soccer scenes in this story. But it turns out, soccer season won’t even start until book 2. Even then, it’s likely to only be a small part of the story. I’m kinda disappointed about that. But then again, I thought the soccer was going to be this clever metaphor for packs and teams and what not. But the story’s gone in a very different direction now that I’m actually writing it, and the theme of the series is less about teamwork than I expected. The way it’s looking now, the guiding theme is more like “sometimes growing up means growing apart.”

One other thing that’s changed in the writing is how much science is creeping into this paranormal world. Like, the witch working for the werewolves is running a full medical lab in her basement. There’s a plague that’s infecting the “evil” vampires, and there’s valid reasons for the symptoms, and for the method of treatment that are rooted in modern medicine. Going forward into the series, I can see this becoming a theme, and the monster hunters will use a combination of old school methods and new science in their war with the vampires and werewolves. Even when the fae make their appearance, they’ll show that they’ve adopted science and blended it with magic. To me it just makes sense. How can we assume the human race has developed this far while our monsters are still moping about in forests and castles clinging to the past?

Anywho, moving along, the editing work and writing also gummed up my plans with putting books on Nook Press. I know I need to get back to that, since I’ve already made a few sales off the titles I have up there. But their method of uploading and formatting books takes a bit longer than KDP or Kobo, so I need to hold off just a bit longer before I get back to uploading my back catalog there.

Lastly, my scheduling issues means I took a ding in my reading time as well. I’m finally getting some time back with the books, and I expect to have reviews for Sergei Lukyanenko’s Night Watch and James Dashner’s The Maze Runner. Already, I can tell you one of these is going to be mostly positive, and the other is going to be a ranty rant cleverly disguised as a book review. Folks following me on Twitter already know which is which, but I’ll leave you to guess which one I’m hating.

This last update is kind of embarrassing, but you know I’m always a fan of TMI. Last Friday, we got invited out to go club hopping. The first place we went to was an upscale gay bar, and the price of even domestic beers was ridiculous. So we had one beer each and moved on to another bar with lower prices. Everyone ordered mixed drinks, so I went with the flow and got something called a Bin Laden that had rum, tequila, triple sec, and cherry brandy. Turns out, that was a mistake. Minutes after drinking it, I was swaying. We left to get coffee, and by the time we’d walked two blocks, I’d gone from swaying to staggering. My vision started going wonky, I was walking into stuff and making a scene without saying a word. By the time we made it home, I was completely wasted. Hubby deposited me on the couch, and I barfed all over the place. I remember hubby complaining while cleaning me up, and then I blacked out.

The next morning, hubby commented how odd it was that I got so wasted on so little alcohol, and it was only then that I realized the rum had to be Bacardi 151. I’d had a similar experience in my twenties in Austin, when I’d had a single rum and coke at a club and end up staggering and violently ill minute later. I don’t have a problem with any other rum, not even other Bacardi rums. But something about Bacardi 151 gives me a nasty reaction.

Since then I’ve had zero desire to drink anything alcoholic. Tuesday, hubby suggested splitting a beer, and I had one sip and didn’t like the way it felt, so I passed him the rest and switched back to water. This too is consistent with my experience with Bacardi 151. It’s just something I’m not meant to drink, I guess. But anyway, here it is almost a week later, and when we went out for pizza, I ordered an orange soda. Even looking at hubby’s beer made me queasy.

The incident has also left me with a smaller stomach, so I’m only able to eat about half my normal meals. But considering my expanding ass and gut, this might be a silver lining. I did need to go on a diet anyway, so this is providing some unintended motivation to cut out extra calories. If the past is any indication, I should be okay by next week. But this is serving as an important lesson for me. From now on, no mixed drinks. I’ll stick with beer, since beer loves me, and I know to quit and move back to water after two glasses.

Right, I guess that’s everything. I’m sorry for the long spans of no posts, but paid work takes precedence. Hopefully after the work is over, I can get back to a more consistent schedule. We’ll see how it goes.