Good morning, Readers!

Well, my back still hurts, and we went without water for the night, as there was a break in a pipe or water main that flooded our street.  That's great.

I also didn't write as much as I wanted yesterday.  Still, I wrote.  That was the important thing.  There will be more writing today.

As for guitar practice, the chords I'm learning (in the book they're called Basic Open Chords) are getting a little easier.  Also, I've practiced so much that the tips of my fingers are a little sensitive right now.  It's feels odd to type.  Hopefully, I'll be able to move between chords much more smoothly soon.  I'm really keen to get to the fold section of the book.

There isn't much else to report, really.  I'm hoping that I'll be back at training next week, if my back would just cooperate.  I'm annoyed that I haven't been in a while.  I haven't been lifting.  Or skipping.  Or punching things.  That's not good.  I'm just really frustrated with myself about it all.  Oh well.  We'll see how I manage over the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, it's going to be great.  I'm seeing a friend I haven't seen in ages, and I've rather missed his company.  I'm teaching Saturday, bad back or no.  And Sunday, I'm seeing my Dad, which is always really lovely.  It's busy, of course, but that's alright.  I can live with that.

So, I've twittered on about nothing for too long now.  I have work to do.  Have a great day!

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Yesterday, I sent an email to two people I know who are writers - good writers - who are not also my beta readers.  The kinds of writers I reckon I could learn a lot from.  You see, I'm writing a story.  It's something that's a little closer to my heart-space than any of the other books I've written.  I mean, I love all the books I've written, but this one is really special to me.

As much as I love this story, I'm also frustrated with it or, rather, I'm really frustrated with me.  I don't think I'm writing well enough to do the story justice.  In other words, I'm suffering from a severe case of IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

So, I sent an email, begging for help to make it better, to comb through the manuscript to identify the weak points, the plot holes, the character inconsistencies, the boring bits, and point them out to me.  I can't see these things.  I'm too close to the story, like a cop investigating the case of their daughter's murder.  Or something.  That was a weird simile.  I feel desperate to improve, and it's so strong it's feels like it's almost physically bursting out of me.  It's feels a little bit like wanderlust, that awful feeling of profound restlessness, of needed to run away somewhere for a month, or two, or several.  It's like needing to stretch, but being cramped up in a box.

Anyway, I've asked two people I respect and trust to tear apart my manuscript.

Because they're both infinitely wonderful, they both agreed.  This is something to note, because both are extremely busy, and they've got so much on their plates, and they STILL agreed to help me out.  I know wonderful people.  I really do.

Let me just toot the horn of the Ottawa SFF community.  They are such a bright, fun, supportive, helpful bunch of kind people and it's just so lovely to be around them.

That's all the gushing I have the stomach for today.

In any case, I just need to stress how important feedback is for a writer.  It's fun to receive praise, but rarely does it result in improvement.  Rarely does it make a manuscript any better.  Rarely will it make you a better writer.

I want those things for me, and I am so incredibly lucky to have people around me who are willing to help me get there.

Right, I have more writing to get done.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I would like to thank everyone who joined me on my unofficial stream last night.  I was feeling miserable when I started, and thanks to your company, and Geralt's sass, I went to bed feeling much better.  Genuinely, thank you.

Thank you also to my friends who reached out outside of the stream.  You make my heart smile.

My computer is still fucking up.  The tablet driver is just not running... meaning things I didn't actually click on get 'clicked' regardless, random zoom ins and outs, and other time-wasting, annoying things.  It also means that I can't work on my digital images, and that's a problem.  I have a commission to work on.

I think I'm going to give it a go regardless and see how I do.  I might regret everything.

I also have to get writing.  I was in a funk yesterday and couldn't do anything except be sad.  Today, however, I want to get the scenes that have been scrambling in my head for the last little while down on paper.

Right, I must go.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Look, I'm not in a good mood today.  It started off in a terrible panic, and my back is still in considerable pain, which makes every other thing, no matter how small, seem huge and unsurmountable.  I've already had one break down, which left me sobbing this morning.

I'm a wreck today.

Which sucks, because the weekend was so good.  Despite my back hurting, I taught Saturday, and it was great.  The enthusiasm my students have for learning is so wonderful, and Saturdays are once again the highlight of my week.  Saturday afternoon I went to celebrate a beloved friend's birthday.  She had a lovely low-key night in.  We ate and drank, and played Cards Against Humanity and Exploding Kittens.  It was so lovely

Sunday was brunch to celebrate another beloved friend's birthday.  I was rather worse for wear, both because of my back and because Saturday night ran well past my bedtime.  But it was wonderful to see her again.  It's been too long.

I went home after for a much-needed sleep, and practiced my guitar.  I practiced so much, the tips of my fingers hurt today.  I've definitely improved, and I'm ready now, I think, to move on to lesson 5.  I think lesson five goes through all of the basic chords.  I'm not so good with the chords, much preferring plucking the melodies, and I'm really more interested in the plucking/finger style of folk music, so that's what I'll concentrate on, but I also really want to be good at chords, so I'll be spending a lot of this week practicing them.

The pdf I'm using to learns notes that the estimated time to learn is three weeks.  Up to now, I've been taking about half the time estimated.  That's largely due, I think, to the fact that I already knew how to read music.  That, and I'm already familiar with all the musical pieces thus far in the book.

Right, I have things I need to finish catching up on.  And then I have to figure out what's going on with my tablet driver so I can finish this damned tattoo design for my commission.

Have a good day.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

It's Friday. I don't post on Fridays.

But, I didn't post on Thursday, so you get one today.  I was, as they say, indisposed.  By which I mean I was in a considerable amount of pain that kept me to my bed for the majority of yesterday.  I made light of it first thing in the morning on my social media, but I was quite literally unable to move.  My muscles on one side of my body had seized, and I couldn't do anything without considerable pain.  So, I was stuck in bed.

I feel badly for the Amazing Flatmate, who had to put up with me in pain.  For the record, I'm not great when I'm unwell.  I whinge a whole lot.  Anyway, she very kind shared some super strong painkillers, and got me a whole whack of pillows so I could sit up.

Literally all I did all day was doze, try to refrain from crying, and watch youtube.  That was it.

It was a shit day, to be honest.  There's nothing less fun than having to spend the day in bed.  I didn't even game, which honestly makes me sad.

I did, thankfully, regain most of my movement around 2:30pm or so.  There is still pain, as is evidenced by the bus ride into work this morning, but I'm able to move around and am at work, so it's a huge improvement.

The problem with taking a sick day is that I have a whole bunch of shit to catch up on.  So I'm off to do that.  Wish me luck.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Those of you who follow me on Facebook or Twitter may have noticed a post yesterday talking about my expensive taste in holidays.  No, no, it's not about staying in castles and being fed peeled grapes by shirtless slaves.  It's camping.

In Kazakhstan.

WITH HORSES.

I would love to spend 17 days in a national park, riding and camping as we visit breath-taking spots and ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES. AH!  Are you kidding me?  That sounds like my kind of heaven!

There are also other places this company does the whole, ride-and-camp holiday, and I honestly want to do them all.  Really, it was the visiting of archaeological sites that made me want to do the Kazakhstan trip the most.  Seriously.  You can check it out here.

I'm not going to be able to afford it any time soon, but I am accepting sponsorship.  You know you want to throw money at something that will get you absolutely no returns.  That's totally a great deal.  Totally not a scam.

Honestly, though, these kinds of holidays are really the kinds that I would love to go on.  I'm all up for adventure travel and exploration.  I don't want to be sitting on a beach drinking.  I want to be out exploring, learning, getting lost in places (with a guide so I don't die of exposure and know I will eventually find my way home).  That seems like a proper holiday.  No deadlines.  No phone or email.  Just the company of your fellow travellers, the horses and your guide.

UGH!  IT'S SO PERFECT!

Anyway, in other news, I managed to write two thousand words.  That's the first time I've managed that in a couple of weeks, actually, so I'm pretty thrilled.  The reshuffling of the novel seems to have worked, I guess.  I'm going to try and replicate it again today, but I'll not turn up my nose at any amount that is not my goal.  Remember, it's a game of inches.

In other other news, read this beautiful, heart-warming story of a gamer who raised funds for Trans kids.  It made my morning.

Right, I have to get to work.

Have a great day.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I forgot to mention that I painted this thing last week.  So, yeah.  I painted that.  I'm actually not all that thrilled with it.  It's not my best, but I still kinda like it.  I don't know.  I'm in two minds about it.

I also went through my current work in progress, the second book of the Great Man series and arranged all the scenes I have written thus far into their character lists.  The plan is to write each character's story within the book in full before choosing which parts of those stories actually make it into the final version of the novel.  It's quite a long, long way of doing it.  I might, for example, end up writing two or more full novels worth of events, just for one novel.  I think, though, that it'll help me in the long run.

Writing the long way around, I guess.  I'm hoping it'll help me keep everyone's stories in line, and I will be able to get the story down a little quicker.  I'll also be able to jump around from character to character without much difficulty, which is to say, if one character gets stuck, I can focus on another for a while, while the first one figures their shit out, and then move back.

I'm really hoping this method will pay off, or else I'm just doing a lot of extra work for NO REASON.  And I'm lazy.  I hate doing extra work if it's not necessary.

Actually, I stayed a bit late last night to get the reorganisation finished so that I could get started on the writing part of it today.  I did a bit of writing yesterday to fill in some of the big gaps that I noticed after the rearranging, but nothing like my usual writing sessions.  Maybe a hundred words.

Today will be spent filling in more gaps, so I'm certain I won't hit my usual 1 000 words, but I'm alright with this.  It's all for the cause.

Right, I'm off to start.  Have a great day everyone.

​Ciao!