Update!

Blog No. 384

I have a few days left of my time off from the day job and I’m waiting to hear if I will continue to stay home (probably) and if they will keep paying me (probably not). In the mean time, Broadcast Wasteland is at the printers in the processing stage and I should be able to order copies within the next few days. I’ll probably order a few test copies before I jump in with a big order of 100 and start selling them. I may see if I can get them to Biblioasis since they have been doing deliveries, but I haven’t really thought about a distribution plan beyond that. I wanted to get all my accounts settled with Biblioasis before starting a new one, but these are strange times.

So far, I’ve spent all my time away from work finishing the novella and getting it ready for the printer. I don’t want to dive into something else until I know those books are on the way, but as soon as the sample copies are ordered, I think I’ll have to jump onto the novel as my primary writing project. This staying at home may last a while still and I want to take advantage of that. It’ll be like pretending I’m actually a writer.

That will bring real stress, I’m sure. So far, I’ve spent a fair number of hours each day on editing, layouts, and cover creation, so I feel like shifting gears into writing won’t be too hard. I suspect I won’t be able to spend the same amount of time writing as (believe it or not) it’s rather draining, but I figure starting with the same kind of word count I can expect from a writing session with my friends shouldn’t be too hard. I did that for over a month last September. Hopefully I can pump those number a bit. Thankfully, the gang has been meeting going online and working at the same time most days. It’s not the same as being at a table in a coffee shop, but it helps.

Surprisingly, as much as I complain that I don’t have enough free time to do all the things I want when I have to work, I feel like I haven’t been taking advantage of the free time I have now. Sure, I did a lot of work to get Broadcast finished and to the printer, but I’ve also spent entire days playing video games. The thing is, I should have time to work, play games, clean, read, watch TV, exercise, and so on, but I’m not getting it all done. I was worried about finishing Broadcast on time, but now that it’s all but finished, I don’t have that all consuming excuse. I suppose I should break out the day planner and get organized.

Part of the problem is that I’ve been having trouble sleeping. I got carried away the first few days and ended up staying up too late. That led to sleeping in, and it’s been a vicious cycle. I’ve been trying to get up earlier to force myself to fall asleep at night (since going to bed at a reasonable time has left me tossing and turning). It hasn’t worked so far. My will is weak and the bed is most comfortable early in the morning with the alarm going off.

Either way, I’ll figure it out somehow. The big takeaways this week is that, by the time you read this, Broadcast Wasteland, book three in the Synthetic Albatross Novella Series is at the printer and I’m shifting focus to the novel. I hope everyone is safe and comfortable and not terribly worried about the outcomes of this forced break. Hopefully next week I’ll have a cover to show off!