I’ve Fallen

Off the wagon, more or less. Especially if you consider writing an addiction. I’ve been doing a lot of head work recently. Outlining the Wuxia Western novels, research, etc. And family. Oh, Lordy. Last weekend we were (as previously mentioned) in Connecticut for a thing. I managed to convince several of our smallish horde to join me at Frank Pepe’s for genuine New Haven style pizza, and we all agreed it was good freakin’ pie. (It ought to be. They’ve only been making it for nearly a century in their 14’x14’ coal-fired ovens. Highly recommended.)

The Littles traveled quite well, and bore the indignities of formal occasions with aplomb, and little obnoxiousness. They were pretty awesome, really. Trouble is, we put Mrs. Dave on a plane for overseas just a few days after we got home, so we’re going through the painful process of adjusting to her lack of presence. It’s not my favorite thing.

In addition, it’s tax season (yeah, yeah) and the school year is winding down (anybody want a couple of child laborers for the summer?) I have a house to clean (as in Spring Cleaning), a garage to organize, a motorcycle to get running, games to organize, a training regimen to start, a wedding to plan, a wife to murder, and Guilder to frame for it. I’m swamped.

And that’s not touching the novels I have to write. I intend to have the first Wuxia Western finished in time for LibertyCon at the end of June. Assuming I can find the time to write with Mrs. Dave physically absent. That’s the title, really. I’ve fallen off the wagon.

Fortunately, I can get back up. I’ve done it often enough to have confidence in that ability, at least. And the folks who’ve read my stuff keep bugging me for more, to my more or less continual surprise. But, look, life gets in the way. It has a habit of doing that. Believe me, does it.

I’ll be honest, folks: I’m purely crap at organization. I’ve off and on debated paying for assistance with that, as I can’t seem to manage the same beyond certain very basic adaptations necessary for survival. Like, “the kids do need to eat at least a couple of times each day. So do I. Have to get on that.” Or, “the dust bunnies are staging an invasion of the bath tub. Time to werf them some flammen.” See also, “I think I need to pay some bills. When did I last see one?”

Dave, you promised us more swords! Yeah. Yeah, I did. Trouble is, I picked up my old waster and swung it around a bit and realized I’m in worse shape than I thought. Also, my right shoulder hurts for some reason. I think I’m going to be approaching the HEMA training a bit more gingerly than I’d hoped.

I’m still in recovery mode, and transitioning from two adults in the house down to one tired and overworked one. In the meantime, I’ll be working at calisthenics and mace work to limber things up and get some stabilizing strength, then work in weights to get the pure strength up. I’m also looking at picking up a new training sword. Purple Heart Armory’s Meyer federshwert has some great reviews. Synthetics have come a long way in the last decade, and I’m thrilled to see it.

One last note before I sign off and get to the important work of moving forward (one step at a time): our own Amanda Green has today released the next of her Nocturnal Lives books! Nocturnal Revelations sees detective Mackenzie Santos pitted against an unknown enemy. An enemy determined to reveal the existence of shifters to the world at large, a revelation certain to doom them all. Go check it out!

16 thoughts on “I’ve Fallen”

  1. I hear ya, Dave. I wrenched some back muscles yesterday, wrestling my babe’s pram around on her appointments, and I tell you, I didn’t feel those until after I had the hot shower, and they refused to let me sleep until 4 am.

  4. Don’t feel bad, Dave. I did like three sentences today.

    But what AWESOME sentences they were! So finely crafted! ~:D

    1. I had a cool idea, and decided it is probably one of several that need removal.

    2. I…ranted to a friend about plots and how all of a sudden I had three secondary characters insisting on the same name. Y’all are ALL ahead of me.

      1. Everybody was named Bob for a while, until I started up the chainsaw. Then they all began behaving themselves.

      2. Namespace collisions. One of the fanfic types I’ve greatly enjoyed, hence want to write in, is the multiple crossover. The collision between three characters is tractable, because I can refer to one by last name, and another only shows up in the epilogue, and might even be left offscreen and unnamed there. The collision between another two, well, I haven’t integrated one of them into the plot yet. The original design statement says that they are there, but I haven’t worked out how all the possible side actions tie to a single thread. If this is finished, it will be one of very few stories, so my skill level is low, and I will probably need quite a bit of trimming to cut the design to something I can finish.

        But I have found some insights this morning into the right plot options for hitting the current goals with a continuous chain of actions and motivations.

        1. My subconscious is demanding 1) epithets and 2) worldbuilding to explain why my protagonist is suddenly dealing with Black Morya, Thin Morya and Dancing Morya. WTF, brain?

      3. Well, I finally succeeded in renaming the character whose name rhymed with another character’s.

  5. Pepe’s is usually good, but the last time I went there not so much. I’ve never tried Sally’s. Honestly, I like Modern, and Bar, as much or more than Pepe’s.

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