RoW80 Check-In: What Happened to the Weekend?

”     ‘We’re paying you to care about rescuing the girl,’ Estialog stated simply. ‘What happens afterwards is categorically none of your business.’
     ‘And if we have a moral concern?’
     Tayahyla snorted again, but held back comment. ‘An odd bunch of brigands,’ Estialog murmured, ‘to be concerned with morality.’
     ‘We never claimed to be typical.’”

As I was writing the title of this Wednesday’s Round of Words in 80 Days check-in, I’m thinking to myself, “But, L, it’s Wednesday. You’re halfway to the next weekend already.” And that just really highlights how busy last weekend has felt, in the fact that my brain is still back there on Sunday or something, while time rushes on through to the next weekend.

I’m used to the weekends being busy and a little crazy; it’s par for the course when you work in retail, and it’s usually the weekdays that mean relaxation, especially the earlier, mid-week days that aren’t so hot for shopping. There’s a lot of crazy, exciting things going on where I work, so everything’s in a whirlwind, things are really crazy, and I was really looking forward to spend today getting back in touch with my writing, and then a coworker asks if I can cover for her tonight. Sigh. This means working six days this week, including one day for 9 hours in an 11 hour span (I got a 2 hour break in between, half of which was driving between locations). I want to shake my fists and just yell “ARRRGGGH,” but I know that this is just the start. There’s a good chance things will get crazier, so I’m bracing myself.

And using all the wonderful writing and reading to keep myself centered and Zen. Everyone’s been noting how I really seem in control of my shit lately, and I intend to keep in control and ride through the chaos like an unfappable breeze of serenity. And I think it’s my writing and the fact that, no matter what happens with my Day Job, things are happening with my Dream Job, too, and that’s just incredible.

The print proof for Bowlful of Bunnies arrived the other day, which is such a trip. I took it to work and showed it off to everyone, too, but I think I want a much smaller size, so today I’m reformatting and resubmitting it for review. Part of my brain wanted to just go with what I have now, but then I had to remind myself that patience is a virtue. While it would be exciting to start shilling this print version now, it’s much better to make sure it’s exactly what I want it to be before I let it out in the world. CreateSpace was incredibly fast…much quicker than they had projected…so I doubt I’d have to wait too long again. Plus, the excitement gets me in a fabulous mood, and, whenever I start to get irritated, all I have to do is think about how, in a few days, I’ll have a print proof of my potential book that people without Kindles can actually buy, whaaaaaat?

I’ve been plugging along with Serpent in a Cage, too, finally getting to the point where I think the dragging middle expositionary section gets back into the action again, which should pick things up. I played around with the idea of bringing in Tayahyla as a narrator again, but I think three is enough for now. Her story can be told better in the next book. I’m also poking at Soulless, the haunted house, and the western with dragons a little bit, too, and wondering if I should skip NaNoWriMo this year or go for it. There’s still time, I must remind myself. People are already talking about it, though, which gets me flailing slightly. I have trouble refusing a challenge when it’s presented, yet maybe I should force myself to show some restraint. We shall have to see.

I’ve still got those book reviews to do (I’ve realized that I’ve been putting them off because I don’t particularly like doing negative reviews, and these ones are not glowing, no), but, other than that, all my attention has been mostly on BoB and SiaC and this craziness that is my life lately. Next week, I might be taking what I’m going to call a brief “writer’s retreat” for a few days, and that should definitely help me anchor my center through the chaos…and allow me some uninterrupted, undistracted chunks of time for writing!

How everyone else doing? Did you get a chance to check out any other RoWers today? (If not, you can find them here!) I’m off to do more formatting and reading and scribbling.

Happy writing!