Murderbot

Blog No. 393

I’ve recently finished reading the first four books of the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. There are two more books in the series, one out now and the other announced, but they are both novels. The ones I’ve finished are novellas, and seeing as the new ones are novels, they seemed to be the end of an arc. I was quite taken with the first book when I read it. I got it as an ebook since it was on sale (and may still be). I read it quickly and generally had a good time with it. I was eager to get to the next book (it was already out, and I think the other two were either forthcoming or just newly released at the time). I didn’t, though, because it was so expensive. I have an issue with the current price of ebooks ever since the publishers managed to take control of the pricing. I only buy ebooks on sale now, since the prices can be way too high. (When I can get a paperback for ten dollars, I’m not spending the same or more for a digital copy).

Another Milestone

Blog No. 392

I’m nowhere near finished the first draft of the Invasion Novel and a lot of that has to do with my lack of effort over the last few days. My sleep is still all over the place and after a few bad nights I failed to reach my minimums. It’s not uncommon for me to have one or two completely sleepless nights in a month, but seeing as I haven’t had a particularly good sleep in a while, I felt like a zombie the last few days. That’s my excuse at least. With that in mind, I have reached a new personal best. The Invasion Novel is now the largest story I’ve written (and I’m not finished, yet).

Stories that Stay with Me – One

Blog No. 391

Since I don’t have much in the way of writing news and I doubt many people would be interested in a weekly word count update on the Invasion Novel (85 000 at the writing of this post) I’ve come up with something else to write about. Look up at the title (assuming you either ignored it or forgot what it sad like I always do). That’s right, I’m going to somehow (I haven’t worked out the details even thought I’m writing it right now) do posts about some of the stories that have stuck with me over the years. Some of them are from books, or television, or movies, and some may be from real life. That’s not to say they are all excellent, but there was something about them that took up residence in my subconscious and come back to me when something triggers the memory. I figured talking about how I first experienced those stories, guessing at what about them impacted me, and how the memories come back would be something interesting I could play around with while there isn’t much news to share.

Minimums

Blog No. 390

Here we are again, dear reader. It’s a new week and if I’ve been able to continue as well as I started, I’ll be feeling good about my progress (remember I write these on Tuesday even now that I’m at home and really I have all the time in the world to write posts on Thursday or even Wednesday night, but I don’t want to break my habit). Not just with the writing, either. After a less than productive weekend, I had a bit of a reset. It happens from time to time. I’ll do well, keeping on top of things, then I’ll hit a wall or get worn out and then things fall apart for a few days. Then I pick myself back up and try again. Sometimes it’s a matter of days and weeks, sometimes months. It’s the same kind of thing I’ve been struggling with over the years with the summer slump.

Update!

Blog No. 389

The majority of the work I’ve been doing over the last few weeks (basically since copies of Broadcast Wasteland were delivered to my house) has been working on the Invasion Novel. I’ve had good days and bad. I’ve had stretches of daily writing and days when I got caught up in other things or just watched youtube with the word document open, waiting for me to add to it. I had started the book either at the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019. My recollection is fuzzy and my record keeping (this blog) is not very organized. I know I started it when the first draft of The Neon Heart was done and I was giving it some time before starting the edits. But that was a false start. I have a document with a couple of chapters that started in the wrong place and didn’t work out the way I wanted.

Scratching out a Day

Blog No. 388

The last thing I wanted to do on this blog was to write a post (or several posts) about the quarantine. I’ve mentioned it in a couple of my previous posts, but my attempt was to do so only in regards to other topics (ie a book release, writing a novel, and being laid off). Now I’m in what feels like simultaneously a weekend and ten a year of being at home. My book is still out (and I’ve done a few deliveries to people in the city) I’m still writing the Invasion novel, and I’m still laid off. I’m also still having trouble sleeping, but magically, getting into a habit of reading before bed has helped a little there. Two birds, one stone. The problem is, that’s it. I watch too much TV and play too many video games (same as always but more) I spend more time making food, and, I go to bed and wake up and do it again.

Home Delivery

Blog No. 387

I’ve now been home for more than a month and officially off of the day job for fifteen days. Since then, the third book in my Synthetic Albatross series, Broadcast Wasteland, came out. I’ve been doing other writing and layout since the release, but I wrote about that last week. You don’t need to read about it again, especially since there really is nothing new to say. What is new, is that copies of Broadcast came in, I let them sit for the requited number of days to quarantine them, and I’ve spent two days driving around the city, dropping them in people’s mailboxes. I should say, parts of days. Really, no more than three hours, but long enough that I could convince myself that I’ve done enough work for the day and I can slack off for the rest of it.