RoW80 Check-in: February 12th!

“Those arms were thick as trunks, corded with veins and muscles, and Locke could only assume he was the woman’s body guard. That complicated matters if he got caught, so Locke would just have to make sure he did not get caught.”

It’s a beautiful, bright (and hopefully warmer) Sunday, which means it’s time for another RoW80 check-in! It’s been an interesting week, with a lot of great progress up until the weekend, where the irritation of the cold weather paired up with my job has put a little stunt in my progress. Also, this weekend celebrates one of my favorite special events in Fandom High, so that’s been a guilt-ridden distraction. Here’s the break-down, and then I have to flee regrettably to work, where I will long for getting a chance to return home to my computer to continue being awesome.

Serpent in a Cage: I haven’t been exactly getting a page-a-day, but I have been steadily scribbling away on this one, especially now that things are starting to spark into action. That first chapter is going to need a lot of work, but, right now, I’m resolving to not even worry about it. Just keep writing; it’ll always be there to adjust later. I’ve got a great feeling about this week, so I think things are really going to pick up. Page count: 17/42.

Featured Story: Every Sunday, I intend to change the Featured Story on the blog. This week, it’s a science-fiction-esque short story involving some of the characters from The Unknown Scourge entitled “Swing.” I’d like to thank C. Michael Hubbard again for his grammatical and technical catches on the last story, and, everyone, please feel free to critique or comment as you see fit to help me make it better for the collection, and, of course, enjoy!

Bowlful of Bunnies: I’m struggling a little bit with finishing “Black Stones” for the collection; I just feel that it’s going to disappoint since the prompt that started “Black Stones” was so well received. I’m been thinking of including the flash from this week in with a bunch of other flashes, including versions of the two I had published in Temenos, since I can’t retrieve the originals until they fix their website (which they have not done in over two years. Lame, Temenos, lame!). I’m still struggling to think of what else to write to add to the story, but I still have a few weeks to get some stuff done, and then we’ll access where we’re at.

Conversation at work have also lead to a discussion about titles, and I’m not playing around with changing it from Bowlful of Bunnies to Root Beer and Cocaine Parties. Yes, I’m quite fond of non-sequiters as titles, why do you ask?

The 100 Books Project: I’m almost finished with one more book and it’s doing that thing that books do where you seem to only have 20 pages to go, and 20 pages before took, like, ten minutes, but now 20 pages seem to be taking ten days. But I suspect I’ll have a review to put up before the next ROW80 check-in and I can focus on blowing through the next one if I want to keep up with my numbers. Books read: 4/100.

750 Words: I haven’t been keeping up with 750 words since the day I decided to go back to it. Wah-waaaaah. But I’m including it here as a way to point out that I’ve been setting lots of goals, as usual, but I’ve been prioritizing a lot more lately, and some of them, like this one, have just fallen to the wayside as I focus on more important things. I like that I have this focus now, and I’m even feeling slightly less guilty about my inability to do everything in one day. I’ve been making a check-list again, and have determined that, though I usually have about 10 items on the list, I’m considering the day a success so long as three items are done, and big whoop on the other ones. Tomorrow is another day. I’m feeling much less stressed and more relaxed with this new system in place, so I’m excited to see how it works for me tomorrow when I have the day off (although there is a voyage to Ikea planned, too! WHoo!)

And that’s all for today’s check-in. I really, really don’t want to go to work today, but, alas. So hope that it goes smoothly and swiftly for me, that nothing too terrible goes wrong, and that it doesn’t get too cold. Be sure to check out the other RoWers here and have a good Sunday.

Happy Writing!