Life’s Little Ups and Downs

I haven’t been writing much these past few weeks, as I’ve said, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been picking at the flesh of the stories already started. ��Last night, I get into bed relishing the fact that it is finally warm enough that I can sleep unencumbered by clothing. I no sooner lay my head down, and my Muse sends me a postcard from wherever it is she’s off vacationing. What is this notice about? It seems it may be the key to unlock the plot snafu of a certain short story. What do I do? What every good author does – get out of bed and head for the computer.

So there I am, happy to be possibly working out this issue, happy to be out putting words, happy I’m not freezing to death in my birthday suit. I know, an image none of you wanted in your head, but it made me happy. It’s nice to not have to put on layers just to get out of bed and do anything. There is a freedom and ability to be spontaneous.

Anyway – I only wrote 450 words or so, but I did write. At this point I’ll take every single word with joy. The bitter sweet part of this is that the story was started to be submitted to this years Xchyler’s paranormal anthology. So if I can work it out, it’s a little too late to be submitted. I feel strange about this as I first got a WDB story published in such an anthology, Shades and Shadows, and then was in the following years, Legends and Lore.

On a��down side, my drive belt slipped off the tensioner pulley and shredded. I got a new belt – ouch, that wasn’t cheap – and put it on. I only ran the truck for roughly 30 seconds, and then stopped and checked out how the belt was sitting. It was half off the tensioner pulley and the next one in the route. Not good. So a couple hours of internet searching told me that I needed to swap out my tensioner unit – not good – but it did tell me how, which is good. Whether I can actually accomplish this feat is yet to be seen. The replacement part is ordered and should come in Tuesday, so that gives me some time to fight with it (which, hopefully, won’t actually be the case).

In other news, I finished the jewelry piece I was working on, my wife’s maiden Heart, and am not entirely displeased with the outcome. Mostly, I wish that when I started it, way back when we were last playing in the SCA, that I hadn’t used epoxy to put it together. I am sort of on a kick now to do everything properly. I guess time has made me a purest. I do the same with my writing – I don’t make up monsters but work hard to find folktales and myths that have creatures that fit what I am looking for – more work, but more satisfaction.

I can now move on to one of the other projects I have in mind to do for our SCA life.��I am making a ring for myself, and there is feast gear to make period and pretty, and a toothpick pomander for my wife. All of these will be made in a manner I can proudly show off, even if it means it takes longer to finish them.

I need to start going through the next White Dragon Black novel, Bindings & Spines, once again, to make sure it it as good as I can make it. I will soon be working with my editor, McKenna Gardener, at Xchyler Publishing to get it out into the world, and the more issues I can spot and repair myself the better for us both.

Speaking of novel’s out in the world; my first, Tomorrow Wendell, just recently had a bounce up in the Amazon ratings. It shot up from 768 684 on Wednesday��to 116 252 on Friday. It is now slowly sinking again, but this is the second spike it has had since the Ad Astra Con. This makes me hope that maybe, just maybe, people actually downloaded the free version of the anthology, Blondes, Books, & Bourbon, and not only enjoyed it, but enjoyed it enough to get my novel.

So all in all, I can’t complain about where life has me situated right now. Taking each day in stride, and trying not to worry and stress about tomorrow.

Filed under: MIscellaneous, Publishing, SCA, Writing Tagged: anthology, author, Bindings & Spines, Blondes Books & Bourbon, current work in progress, editor, edits, jewelry, Jonathan Alvey, Maiden's Heart, muse, novel, paranormal, paranormal private investigator, pomander, publish, readers, recreation, SCA, short story, Tomorrow Wendell, truck, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, wife, world building, writing, Xchyler Publishing