To follow up from a comment left recently on one of last week’s posts, the writing is now back in full swing–although I’m having to use voice-to-text right now because I’m a klutz and fell, injuring one shoulder. Not the first time it’s happened nor, knowing me, will it be the last. Besides, that’s not the important thing. What’s important is that my brain is finally working in both writing and editing mode and I am so glad I listened to my gut and did not publish anything over the last few months. I hadn’t realized just how exhaustion and stress had impacted me. The last week has served as a good reminder that I do need to listen to my gut and I need to remember the lessons I learned years ago before my father’s death following a long illness: don’t think everything’s all right just because you are functioning on what appears to be a normal level because you aren’t. Stress and worry will do things to your psyche and to your thought process you might not recognize.
Okay, enough psycho babble.
Long story short, I’ve been making progress, in proverbial leaps and bounds, on Surtr’s Fury. I found the plot holes I knew were there but couldn’t “see” them before now. So I’ve been going over everything the old-fashioned way: manuscripts printed out, red and blue pens and markers at hand as I read and make notes. That’s not to say the book was bad the way it was. But it wasn’t “good”, at least not my version of good. By the time I finish, it will be a much better book, one I can be proud of.
I’ve also spotted problems with Warbound Legacy, especially the opening scenes. Notes have been made and I’ll get to it shortly.
I think I see the issue(s) I subconsciously had with Designation: Frejya, but I’m not convinced I have a handle on it yet. So I’ll keep working on it in the evenings, trusting my gut that it isn’t ready for prime time yet.
I’ve been doodling with a new series, The Tribunal Chronicles, that will take place in the same “universe” as the Nocturnal Lives books but at a different point in time. I have three books plotted out, one of them pretty much fully drafted out. But, as with the other books, I knew there was a problem. Well, a couple of them, but the main one was how to tie it in with the Nocturnal Lives titles. I thought–thought being the operative work–I had a story already planned that would do it. But, again, my gut kept telling me I was missing something.
That something was the tie-in and making it make sense without it being a rehash of the earlier books. I finally figured that much out. I think I have figured out a way around it as well. Notes have been made and filed and will be reviewed after I deal with some of the more pressing projects.
And that include the last book in the Sword of the Gods series. That book is on track. It had been outlined before Mom’s fall. What writing I’ve done has followed the outline. (Of course, my outlines are more like plot point notes, not a chapter by chapter or even scene by scene outline). That part of the process will need editing and fleshing out, but it won’t be weeks, maybe month, of having to figure out what the heck was wrong. However, because it is so different from the other things I write, it will wait until I get Surtr’s Fury and at least one other title out of the way. My plan, barring real life interfering again, is to have it out in six months or so.
For now, I’m trying to work but technology is getting in my way. Something keeps buzzing. It doesn’t buzz for long. It does it about once every half hour. It is a grinding buzz, not something I’m used to hearing. It isn’t the hot water heater alarm. That beeps when something is wrong or if the batteries are dying. The smoke alarm, doorbell, security system are hardwired. They all appear to be operational. The last time it happened, I’d already moved into my room and was working on this post. I think I narrowed it down to the moisture sensor the HVAC techs put in a year or so ago in the crawlspace/vent area under the HAVC system–which just happens to be outside my bedroom door.
I checked. No moisture. It isn’t the battery because the sensor is hard wired into the electrical system. But, the area was dusty. So I cleaned the sensor and the area where it sat, tested it, reset it and closed the area up again. We’ll see if that did it. Of course, I forgot doing all that would also shut down the HVAC until I reset it. Fortunately, I happened to check the thermostat and realized what happened before the house started heating up.
But, now I’m behind on the daily schedule and need to get back to work.
Anyway, that’s my Monday. Hope yours is going well. Until later.
Featured image created using Midjourney AI. Enjoy the kitten!
