And It’s February…

…aaand I haven’t done much writing since November. Lots of revising (in my head) but getting to the keyboard to do any actual work on the manuscript? Nah.

Apparently, when one is in the process of purchasing a business, one gives up any extra time away from the regular job and home duties in order to schlep through mountains of legal crap-ola, red tape, paperwork, and don’t get me started on our yearly taxes because that was three and a half hours of my life that I’ll never see again.

The shop has taken over my life for now, which means I need to get my butt in gear (or in the chair) and really make headway if I’m going to keep my deadline of July.

As much as I love the shop and am excited at the prospect of running it full time, it is standing directly in the path of my writing. I’m exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally with all the ups and downs, which in turn leaves very little for me to work with when I write. Don’t get me wrong, I have ideas and I’ve even composed a couple of short stories, but it is all still in my head and that’s probably where it will stay until such time that I can claim a weekend for myself and make things happen. Thanks to the schedule we’ve worked out, those weekends happen alternately between three-hour car rides to run the shop on “my” weekends.

Eventually things will work out. I’m going to leave my permanent position and go back to substituting. I have no worries of being kept busy doing that, I have experience and skills that will get me in where others fear to tread. It will also allow me to work at the shop, and a little more time for writing.

Writing and living, two things I enjoy a great deal.

A Recap of NaNo Month

Another NaNoWriMo has come and gone and this year is the first that I didn’t finish with 50,000 words. I saw it coming early on, but after a day of sadness, I accepted it. I was ok with it.

And I’m still ok with it.

It took me a while, but I think I’ve figured out why I’m not weeping and wailing and gnashing my teeth. In the past, November was important to me as a writer because it was the one month where I could write with wild abandon and my family expected it. I could sequester myself at the computer, snack food piled around me, and a thermos of coffee with easy reach. With the exception of the holiday when we had to go up to my inlaws for Thanksgiving, I could write and no one would question why I was spending so much time buried in my craft. It was the only time I could honestly say I was a writer and able to do what a writer does. 

Then I get into a relationship where my partner is not only supportive of my craft, but insists that I write, encourages my art, and does everything possible to make sure I write when the mood and muse strike. That is one of the reasons I adore her, but it is also the reason I believe I’ve been able to grow as a writer and to feel more like a writer and not just some bizarre, smelly, cranky, 30 day hermit that dwells behind the monitor every November.

I like it.

I’ll continue to support NaNoWriMo, and I may even join in, but if I don’t finish, I won’t worry. I’ll have a rough draft of something that I can work on when the mood strikes, and I like that too.

Now that it’s December I’ll go back to work on the second book of The Citadel Chronicles much to my beloved’s delight.

Mine too, come to think of it.

Hello December!

WordPress deleted my post. I hate this.

Still Plugging Along

Most of the upheaval is over and the words are beginning to flow again. Slowly. Very slowly.

I have little hope of finishing with 50,000 words, but I’m still picking away at the story and I like how it’s coming along. Even though it is a very slow coming along that it’s doing.

sigh

There has been no editing to speak of, but not because I haven’t been thinking about it, more like I’ve been thinking a great deal about it while I’m in the midst of the various emotional thunderstorms brought on by drama-loving offspring.

Then there’s the job, but I’d rather not think about that. The upcoming holidays aren’t helping any, but I still have my heart set on getting the second book out by July. Sometime around the first anniversary of the first book coming out.

Happy November. If you’re NaNo-ing, yay for you and keep up the good work. If you’re not, yay for you and keep doing whatever it is you’re doing that you want to be doing this month… uh… yeah.