Quote of the Moment

"What's Past Is Prologue." - William Shakespeare

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Unhinged

This post might end up being a tad of a rant. Just a little. Or maybe a lot. Who knows--I'm scatterbrained lately.

Where is the next chapter in The Lavender Legacy, you ask? Well, it's kind of hard to write it when I haven't played anymore of The Sims. Oops. In fact, I've had no motivation to play any games at all. This wouldn't be a horrible thing if I filled the time with writing instead, but that's not the case.

So, my bit of a rant is actually about myself. My brain has this way of obsessing over things. It latches onto something and won't let go, then everything else gets neglected and shut out because of it. Right now, I'm obsessing over something personal, so I won't go into details. Hopefully once this weekend has passed, I can convince my brain to move on. Perhaps it's all just a reminder that I suck at multi-tasking. That is of course unless I have nice deadlines looming over me--my last term at school I had a novel to work on as well as work in two other heavy-load online courses, and the only time I missed a deadline was when I was so sick I couldn't even move off the couch. I think I need someone to be accountable to. Preferably someone scary. Nice people are nice, but don't crack the whip like I need!

There is only one thing that has been able to distract my brain. Reading. I plowed through one and a half books this past weekend. It was lovely. And I still feel like I'm learning plenty for my own writing when I read, therefore it's not wasted time. I'd be reading during the week as well to pry my brain off of the worries (stupid leech of a brain), but I can't very well read and take care of my 4-year-old at the same time. It doesn't help that she's been home from the little bit of school she has for the last two days due to it being insanely cold out (no, I will not walk my daughter a mile when the wind chill is below 0--that ends up being 4 miles for me, 3 if I spend the time at a coffee shop at the halfway point...it's a bookstore too, though, which is not nice for temptation!).

I dwell. My husband has told me on many an occasion, I dwell too much. I wish I could just shut off that part of my brain and not dwell. It's not as easy as flipping a switch, though. When my husband tells me to stop dwelling, I wonder if he realizes how hard that is for me. It's like an addiction. I may just have an addictive personality, but instead of drinking or smoking, it's dwelling, video games, and reading. Ugh.

I wish I was addicted to cleaning and writing (I LOVE writing, don't get me wrong, but it's not quite at the addiction level--it's at the "I'll wither if I don't write or revise something on a monthly basis" level).

Raise your hand if you think I'm being whiny and pathetic. That's what I thought. You can all put your hands down now. Seriously, put them down! =P

One of these days I'll get back on track and find something that is a sure thing to stop my constant dwelling over silly things. For now, I guess I'll remain unhinged.

NEXT UP: Who knows! I sure don't. I don't even know when. Let's hope next Wednesday. Any ideas what you'd like me to post about? Post or e-mail me. =D

Friday, February 08, 2013

Is Winter Over Yet?

The post title pretty much sums up my thoughts over the last month, and likely for the next month or two ahead. I HATE winter. Not only is it cold and painful to trudge through snow that people feel they shouldn't have to shovel (grrr - shovel your sidewalks!), but I have zero motivation, for anything. This unfortunately includes writing.

I have made some progress. Chapters 5 and 6 of Dead As Dreams are now revised. However, that's not a lot of progress. My to do list for writing and home grows longer and longer, and I can't keep my head above water because all I want to do is hibernate. I need spring! It has to return quickly. The stupid groundhog better be right about spring coming early, or I might make it so he can't predict anything next year.

Oy. Was that a vent? Yes, that was a vent. My apologies. *straightens head out*

But yes, I've revised a couple chapters of Dead As Dreams, but didn't do much else in January, aside from transferring all of my manuscript submissions tracking to spreadsheets (I mean, that did take a while, but it was busy work in the end). I also found out about Duotrope going to a pay model, and I'm a bit sad about that--that was the best place to search for markets to submit my short stories. I picked through a little of my study, but that just means the books I had piled in there are now cluttering the rest of the house, and the box of papers I started to chip away at has a new home on the loveseat in the living room. Sigh. It needs to warm up, so the the heat can put a fire under my behind.

This month, I hope to at least get something done, a little progress. But until it warms up, I don't think I'll move above a snail's pace, not unless I have an actual deadline that I don't assign myself (it's amazing how imposed deadlines from other people, like when I was in school, get me going even in winter--if only I could trick myself with my own deadlines).

In other news, my 4-year-old is now writing books of her own. =D She writes squiggly lines on several pieces of paper, draws some pictures along with the lines once in a while, then has her teachers staple the papers together. She then reads me the books when she gets home. Her first series is The Five Cats of Christmas. What do you think, will she have a book published before I do? Lol.

Oh, yes, don't forget to join us at Writing Quest - February, if you're interested! How is everyone else dealing with the winter weather? Having any motivation issues? Just want to pull the covers over your head and sleep until it's warmer out? If so, I sympathize!

NEXT UP: Lavender Legacy--Chapter 2 (Will likely be posted on the 20th...sorry for skipping a week!) - The Best Laid Plans....